The life of a small business owner is one of constant
decisions. Some are split second and others require more time and
information. But in the end game, it all
affects the business. Many of these
decisions are made without any tools to help make an educated choice. So below are a few tools to help the business
owner’s decisions easier to make.
With social, online and email marketing becoming more and
more necessary for small businesses to get the word out, here are a few vendors
to consider. AWeber provides customizable templates for emails along with list
management, tracking and delivery counts. Another one is Campaigner that offers
templates, tracking, customization, ability to manage opt-in and opt-out email
requests, and delivery counts. SurveyMonkey builds free surveys to help the
business owner better understand the customer’s needs, wants, desires and
levels of satisfaction. SpyFu is a service allowing for a keyword comparison of
competitor’s SEM tactics. Constant Contact is a leading email service provider
that helps businesses stay in touch with their customers and prospects. They
provide a discount to clients of a SBTDC.
Google offers many services in this category like Ad Words, Apps for
Business, Business Online and others to help small businesses and many have
discounts to SBTDC clients.
Customer relation tools are also essential for a small
business owner to create a stronger relationship between the business and
clients. TimetoNote is a free basic service that creates an interface for Google
products and ties client interactions to a trackable method. PipeJump is a
project/client tracking software that alerts the user to tasks and upcoming
deadlines. Solve360 is also a client/project software tool that helps teams
work together, meet deadlines and improves internal communication while tying
it to customer purchase behavior. In addition, there is ZenDesk where the user
can streamline customer service interfaces so it is easier to talk to each
other while tracking each interaction. GetSatisfaction is another one that does
similar work for the owner.
Many small business owners struggle with the finances of the
business – is this entry a credit or a debit.
So with accounting, one source to look at is Freshbooks – an accounting
package done online to include invoicing, time tracking and expense reporting.
Wave Accounting allows the user to manage payroll and business expenses at no
charge. Expensify software concentrates all the business expenses and invoices
into one place so it is easier to work on them. Intuit QuickBooks is a leading
provider of small business accounting software.
Go to
https://quickbooks.intuit.com/
to learn more details on the software and the SBTDC discount. It allows expense
shoot and file for your books and easy online training on how to implement. It
is estimated users save up to eleven hours a month on accounting tasks with
QuickBooks. Intuit Payroll is another
service in the accounting field that can help business owners make sure they
are paying correctly, avoid tax penalties plus it works with or without
QuickBooks. Square is another Intuit service that automatically synchronizes
with QuickBooks and avoids the needs for credit card machines.
The point of sale system is another area many owners cannot
decide when to make the jump from paper to computer or upgrade. Intuit Point of Sale software makes the
process easy by integrating into QuickBooks, processing credit cards, and run
reports showing sales, inventory levels, and customer sales tracking.
Hiring and firing is often a landmine for the small business
owner. So making informed decisions in
this area is important. ZipRecruiter and help the owner find better talent by
managing the job posting system and provides a candidate scoring system.
Intelius is a software
that will run background checks of many types on potential
employees. A business owner should also consider the local Missouri job center
also for potential new employees by going to https://jobs.mo.gov/career-centers
to find the one closest. CareerOneStop is a resource for finding tools and
information to recruit and train employees.
If a business owner would like assistance in buying or
selling a business, there is BizBuySell that offers many free resources and
helps in the actual transactions of buying or selling a business. There is also
a local resource called Murphey Business of Cape Girardeau that offers the same
services.
Microsoft has opened the doors for the business users to be
able to work anywhere anytime. They
offer a SBTDC 30 day free trail before you buy and offer training to SBTDC
clients on their products ranging from beginning, intermediate and advanced
regarding Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Access and One Note.
As the business grows, the need for additional financing
becomes apparent and a business plan is required. PaloAltoSoftware offers small business owners
an online method of writing a business called Live Plan. This software helps in
planning, creating the budget, doing projections and helps the writer know
where he is at by looking at a dashboard. Your local SBTDC has a 30-day free
service to help in writing the business plan.
If there are questions about any of these products or how
your local SBTDC can help, please contact Richard Proffer, business development
specialist at 573-243-3581 or email him at profferrd@missouri.edu.
