5 Best Tools for Startups

1. Communication Tools

Decision-making and customer service are the cornerstone of startups. Communication tools allow startups to:

• Organize
• Create
• Update

Communication, especially in a collaborative environment, is the key to a startup’s success. The tools you use to communicate can be as simple as email or Slack, or they can be robust tools that are designed around collaboration and include:

• Calendars
• Notes
• Messaging
• Document creation
• Email
• Etc.

Communication tools of today go beyond PBX systems and can now include UCaaS, or unified communication systems, that provide a variety of communication tools: video, VoIP, instant messaging, and others.

Both internal and external tools can help internal teams work together fluidly and allow for customers to communicate with teams with greater efficiency.

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2. CRM Tools

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a tool that needs to be in every startup toolkit. These tools enable you to make sense of your business’ customers in a way that improves customer experience and satisfaction.

When customers have a positive experience, they’re more likely to spend more money with a company.

CRM tools encourage this experience by doing a few things:

• Organization. Employees and teams can better organize all of the data that they receive leading to great efficiency. Information organization can include customer information that allows every employee to know what the past customer conversation involved.
• Communication. Access customer information using one main access point. The communication between customers and employees can be detailed and easily accessed by all team members.
• Automate. Tasks can be automated, such as sending forms or documents to a customer.

These are one of the key tools startups need if they want to amplify their customer service from the moment they begin offering a product or service.

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3. Marketing Tools

Marketing and getting your business’ name out to potential customers is the only way your business will generate revenue. The marketing tools you choose can vary greatly and may include:

• Social media management tools
• Advertising tools
• SEO tools

SaaS tools are most common because they eliminate the need for businesses to invest in equipment and infrastructure. These tools will be operated, updated, and maintained by the SaaS provider to greatly reduce your overhead.

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4. Project Management Tools

Project management is one of the tools that help you make sense of your business. From Trello to AirTable and dozens of others, project management deserves a place in every startup toolkit.

These tools can be as simple or complex as you like.

On the simple side of things, you may have:

• Cards or to-do lists
• Schedules and due dates

Advanced project management tools are available for more complex projects that allow you to assign:

• Managers
• Teams
• Employees
• Milestones
• Budgets
• Goals

You’ll also find tools that include the ability to have an overview of the project and how much money has been spent. Reports can keep projects on budget and within the company’s respective deadline.

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5. Sales Tools

The early stages of a company rely on the best tools for startups to go from idea to profitability. Sales pipelines need to fill up so that you can have fresh, active deals waiting. The start of a lot of businesses once relied on cold calling and jotting down appointments in notebooks.

Today, sales tools are digital with the ability to nurture, and capture leads rapidly.

Sales tools can include CRMs, but they can also include:

• Email marketing tools that generate sales
• Call management tools
• Lead generation tools from SaaS companies

A lot of SaaS companies have large databases of potential companies that may purchase your product or service. Leads may also be placed in these tools and fields will be populated automatically with customer information.

Many of these tools connect to LinkedIn and will find potential leads and allow you to send messages or message sequences to leads.

These sales tools will include a central location that allows sales teams to work on pipelines together. Members of the team can enter the project, pursue leads, and even use templates to improve the chances of making a sale.

Incorporating the best startup tools is only a small part of a business’s success, but it’s a great way to automate tasks, improve efficiency, and increase productivity.

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