5 Must Have Tools For Small Business Owners

Running a small business is extremely rewarding but also comes with its fair share of challenges. Between managing employees, tracking finances, dealing with customers, and actually growing the business, it‘s easy for small business owners to become overwhelmed. This is where leveraging the right technology can make a major difference.

The top priority for any small business owner should be finding tools that boost productivity and organization. With less time spent on manual tasks and paperwork, you can focus on high-level strategy and connecting with customers. Collaboration tools that facilitate seamless communication can greatly improve transparency across your entire organization. File sharing ensures key information is available to the right people when they need it.

To help simplify your technology selection process, we‘ve compiled the five essential tools that all small business owners need:

Basecamp
Evernote
Dropbox
G Suite
Skype

These solutions check all the boxes in terms of features, reliability, and affordability. They cover project management, note taking, file storage, office software, and communication. Let‘s explore the key capabilities of each tool and how they can benefit your small business.

1. Basecamp

Basecamp is one of the most popular project management tools on the market. It excels at helping teams collaborate by providing a centralized place to store documents, manage tasks, track progress, and have discussions.

The message board is the core of Basecamp. This is where you can post status updates, ideas, questions, or announcements. Employees and project stakeholders can easily stay up-to-date and align around priorities. You can also use Basecamp to:

Create master to-do lists and assign tasks to specific individuals
Set reminders so that important deadlines are not missed
Give employees a channel to provide feedback and suggestions
Share files instead of emailing documents back and forth

With Basecamp, there’s never any question around who is responsible for certain projects or what needs to get done. The transparency enables you to spot potential bottlenecks early and course correct when necessary.

Basecamp offers a free 30-day trial followed by paid plans starting at $99 per month. It‘s available via web browser or mobile apps for iOS and Android.

2. Evernote

Evernote is like having an external brain to store all of your ideas, notes, files, and more. It allows you to quickly capture thoughts on-the-go using any device. You can write short text notes, clip web content, attach Office documents, draw sketches, or record voice reminders.

Powerful search functionality ensures you can easily find anything in your Evernote, even text inside images or handwriting from sketches. Notebooks provide a way to organize notes by project, client, event, or personal.

Here are some great ways Evernote can help any small business owner:

Jot down notes during meetings so nothing falls through the cracks
Gather inspiration online by clipping articles to review later
Share notebooks with employees so everyone has access to the latest information
Create checklists for repeatable processes like client onboarding
Capture receipts and mileage to streamline expense reporting

Evernote offers a free plan with 60 MB of monthly uploads. Paid subscriptions provide additional monthly upload allowances (1 GB for Plus and 10 GB for Premium) along with advanced features like searching inside Office docs and PDFs.

3. Dropbox

Dropbox makes it simple for teams to store, access, and share files from any location. It acts as a central file storage hub that keeps everything updated across all connected devices. Employees can collaborate on documents without attaching files to emails or losing track of the latest version.

Some key features include:

Access files from any device, even when offline
View document history to see previous versions
Restore deleted files from the last 30 days
Set file/folder permissions at a granular level
Comment directly within documents
Seamlessly work across Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

For individuals, Dropbox offers a free Basic plan with 2 GB of space along with a Pro plan for $9.99 per month (1 TB of space). Business teams can qualify for customizable storage allotments to match needs.

The business-focused plans enable centralized billing/management along with extended version history and advanced identity controls. With reliable file syncing and sharing powered by Dropbox, you’ll waste less time tracking down documents and can instead focus on moving projects forward.

4. G Suite

G Suite delivers a set of popular Google products tailored for business use. This includes Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Meet, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, and more. The tools are tightly integrated to enable seamless collaboration across your organization.

Switching from generic @gmail.com email addresses to professional @yourcompany.com accounts is a great starting point to establish credibility with customers. From there, Drive provides secure cloud storage for all files while Docs/Sheets/Slides makes it easy for multiple people to work together on documents concurrently.

Calendar/Meet integration ensures efficient scheduling for meetings and appointments. Forms allows you to create surveys to solicit customer feedback. Sites gives your business a professional-looking website where you can share documents publicly or with specific individuals.

G Suite pricing starts at $6 per user monthly for access to robust business capabilities not found in the free, consumer-focused Google offerings. Take advantage of a 14-day free trial to experience it firsthand.

5. Skype

When it comes to affordable and reliable business communication, Skype checks all the boxes. It lets you make free Skype-to-Skype voice/video calls along with very low-cost calls to traditional landline and mobile numbers.

Group video calling supports up to 50 participants with screen sharing. This makes Skype a versatile tool for meetings, interviews, presentations, training sessions and more. It can also facilitate webinars when integrated with meeting solutions like Zoom, GoToMeeting and Microsoft Teams.

Here are some of the key benefits Skype delivers for small business owners:

Excellent call quality rivaling landlines
Ability to view share screens during video meetings
Reliable performance across devices as long as internet connection is stable
Cost savings compared to traditional conference/long distance calling
Flexibility to take calls from anywhere instead of just at your desk

With powerful communication features, broad platform support, and generous free calling allowances, Skype empowers small businesses to connect with customers, partners, and remote employees while keeping costs low.

While Skype lacks some of the advanced features found in premium web conferencing solutions, it hits the sweet spot for the majority of small business use cases. And integration with tools like Zoom or GoToMeeting provides a smooth upgrade path as needs evolve.

Get More Done with These 5 Essential Tools

By leveraging Basecamp, Evernote, Dropbox, G Suite, and Skype – small business owners gain technology capabilities previously only accessible to large enterprises. You can now collaborate across teams, access files from anywhere, securely back up important data, leverage professional-grade office tools, and cut calling costs.

While the range of solutions targeting small business continues expanding, these five remain at the top when it comes to core productivity, organization, and communication. Evaluate free trials to get hands-on with the features and determine how best to deploy them within your company.

With the right technology now more affordable than ever, small businesses have an unprecedented opportunity to punch above their weight class. These tools help you save time on manual tasks, reduce errors caused by fragmented information, and facilitate transparency across your entire organization. Investing in solutions that connect your employees and customers is one of the wisest decisions any entrepreneur can make.