The rate of registering a start-up is preceding the expectations of risk and as the bubble is getting larger, staying on top with all the right tools can hugely make a difference. The utilization of small tools can not only contribute to your organization’s success but could also reflect a visible difference in your operational activity and its output chronologically.
Staying atop does not necessarily mean acquiring funding for any entrepreneurs but utilizing the best available tools in the market so that their competitors could be left behind the quarter comparison goal every time you sit in the roundtable. After all, you need to make sure that you do not only compete with overall hard work but balanced smart work and to drive the capacity of efficiency, it is prime to focus on tools that make your operational efficiency drive smarter than your brain itself.
With technological advancements surfacing across the globe for diversified domains, it becomes difficult to choose and filter the best business-oriented tool that can derive the expectations you intend to achieve. Choosing the right tool may be a gamble but adopting it can fulfill your business needs and save you a fortune from high-paid tools. With the key to finding the relevant tool as per your business intentions, we have saved you the hassle of tedious research and have compiled the 5 must-have free business tools that you can utilize when your business needs it most.
Google Docs:
It would be cumbersome to not mention the biggest giant tool that the organization in any domain uses heavily. Google Docs is a free online word processing service by Google used as a text collaboration tool. With Google Docs, the collaboration and sharing of documents and files are easy and time-saving. These documents created are saved directly in Google Drive which eliminates the concern of storage of data files and outdated technique of sending e-mails to self or peers for file recording or data storage purposes.
With the functionality of smart editing and styling tools present in the taskbar, it eases you to frame your texts and paragraphs online and auto-save it the moment you open it if you are connected to the internet. With hundreds of fonts to choose from, you can insert headings, sub-headings, links, images and can download them in various text readability extensions.
Google Docs is also utilized by the organization for Live content collaboration between peers and can allow the editing or viewing of such documents with authorizing access permission by the owner of the file.
Key characteristics of Google Docs are:
- Viewing/Editing
- Comments by Editor
- Styling & Fonts
- Hyperlinking websites/sources
- Images
- Pre-built templates
- Add-Ons
Canva:
In a small business or a start-up, it is very expensive to hire a graphic designer in the early stage as it will be a costly affair. To curb this concern, Canva plays an important role during the initial stage of low-income start-ups till they can expand to hire a professional graphic artist.
Canva is a multimedia design platform with pre-formatted templates for everything related to web or print media. With Canva, one can create social media posts, banners, flyers, presentations, letterheads, reports, brochures, and many more other appealing visual content.
This online tool not only is easy to use but has a very engaging pre-built customized library of templates that can cater to any business designing needs in a premium quality manner with customized resolutions. Its set of inbuilt tools and features not only saves money but also offers to import pre-built templates to be later customized with a throng of powerful features already tabbed in Canva.
Key Characteristics of Canva are:
- Customized font to graphics
- Image transparency and enhancer tool
- Pre-built templates with customized resolution
- Filters
- Eye grids
- Photo frames
- Stickers
HubSpot:
HubSpot is one of the most promising CRM tools leveraged by enterprises no matter what their strength or capacity is. Its CRM offers directory automation to keep track of customer engagement while also providing a transparent overview of the sales funnel in a single dashboard.
It is a reliable solution for all the small and medium enterprises that intend to understand the value and usage of the CRM platform to create a determined workflow for the sales team without much effort so that their engagement with clients is visible and updated.
HubSpot offers to create professional company profiles, contact directory for separate profiles, and act as a recorder for any form of communication with the clients for later follow-up. It offers a holistic dashboard wherein all the organizational activities related to client’s engagement and communication can be tracked, assignment of deals can be assessed, the performance of communications can be monitored, and also allows the organization to analyze their next plan of actions with detailed metrics.
Key Characteristics of HubSpot are:
- Customized monitoring
- Assignment tracking and task dashboard
- Email Integration
- Phone Integration
- Website Integration
- Social Media Integration
- Company Database
- Website Visitors metrics
- Email Connections
Freshdesk:
Freshdesk is a quality customer support tool that is catering to cloud-hosted help desk solutions with its prime and adaptable features.
It can be utilized by any domain of industry without giving heed to its strength. It could be utilized to outreach the branding through their pre-integrated multi-channel support, automation tools to monitor the operational efficiency and the point of actions, gamification to enhance the productivity of the end-users, and shower endless customer support through self-service portals.
Freshdesk is currently functional in over thirty countries, and they aim to allow their customers to utilize their mission through build-in call center operations at nil investment rather than going for a full-fledged paid software package. They have built a phone system built tool which can accommodate calls directly from the clients to the organization attendee.
Key Characteristics of Freshdesk are:
- Customer Feedback recording mechanism
- Helpdesk and customer inputs monitor
- Real-time customer analytics
- Customized customer communication reports
- Custom Ticketing
- Customer Segmentation
- Custom SSL Certificates
- IP and Network Restrictions
- Identity and Access Management
Slack:
Slack is a free communication tool that allows the organization to exchange texts, share media files, archive them, and search them whenever the need arises. This communication platform caters to the need of departments wherein all the communication procedures can be streamlined online, and the media files are stored to be re-accessed as and whenever the needs arise when connected to a device through the internet.
Slack is a package of integration that can be affixed with more than 1500 external apps and services offering a flexible platform for real-time communication needs for any form of business. It offers the segmentation of files sharing functionality into internal and external categories wherein a user can receive or send any files online to any device with pre-determined sharing standards.
Key Characteristics of Slack are:
- Private groups
- Messaging
- File sharing
- File browsing
- Voice/video calls
- Feedback
- Progress archive
- Notifications
- Integrations
- iOS & Android apps
- Data security
- Data encryption
- Single Sign-On
- Two-factor authentication
A better alternative:
However, with a free team communication app or tools comes a limitation that can only be yielded with a paid communication tool. One can streamline the monitoring, productivity, and communication of the field workers and also the peers within the organization with NuovoTeam. This is an all-in-one employee app that can be leveraged for ease of use and can amplify the efficiency of workers with team collaboration.
Streamline the ease of communication between employees with NuovoTeam and enhance your day-to-day business communication with a fleet of instant messaging, VoIP calling, video calling, and secure media transfer.
Check also: Titandxp is an app for forms integrated with salesforce without any code.
Closing lines…
There is a package of free tools and software available in the digitally connected universe which can boost your start-up business needs to a yielding parameter. With constraints in the financial segments and in the seeking metrics of raising funds, the small business and enterprises can utilize the usage of free cloud platforms that can provide them with a hub of free professional business tools and customizations with the attachment of the latest technology. With the adaptation, the streamlining of business operations can allow them to forecast themselves ahead of their competitors and make them way ahead of achieving their financial as well as expansion growth.