48 Essential Tools for Small Business
As per 2023 data from the Small Business Administration (SBA), the U.S. is home to over 33.3 million small businesses. Approximately 81% of these businesses are operated solely by their founders, while another 16% employ fewer than 19 employees.
Managing a small business with limited personnel and resources poses multiple operational challenges. Business owners often find themselves juggling multiple roles—from marketing to operations and customer service—increasing the risk of oversight and inefficiencies. Consequently, about 20% of small businesses do not survive beyond their first year due to poor resource management and inability to connect with the right customers.
In response to these challenges, multiple tools have emerged – most utilize machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms (AI) to automate routine tasks. These digital tools offer support across various domains, including branding, marketing, accounting, sales, and even order fulfillment and tracking. Their use not only improves operational efficiency but also enhances productivity, enabling owners to concentrate on strategic growth rather than daily operational tasks.
In This Article
- Branding Tools
- Productivity Tools
- Marketing Tools for Small Business
- Accounting & Finance
- Communication & Collabration
- Inventory Management
- Order Fulfillment
Branding Tools
Branding is the blueprint of an organization; it’s how it presents itself to the audience. The business name and logo should be simplistic and should reflect the product.
A small business may not have the luxury to set up a graphic design team to craft a logo or a creative team to suggest a business name. However, they can use the free generation tools online to make such decisions.
Logo Maker by Shopify is one of the simplest tools to generate ideas for a logo within a few seconds. The site asks you to select a template (from hundreds available), a category for your business, a style, a business name, and places where you plan to use the logo (website, social media, etc.).
Within a few clicks, a professional logo is generated. A simplistic logo is what a small business needs; stats reveal that over 95% of top brands use just one or two colors in their logo.
Business Name Generator is another free AI tool by Shopify. The user enters brief information about the business they plan to start, or the business category (health, education, fashion, fitness, etc.). Then, the tool automatically generates names within 10 seconds.
Productivity Tools
In a small business with already few employees, the productivity of each individual is important. Creating engaging graphic and textual content can be time-consuming, leading to occasional creative blocks. Thankfully, there are quick-generation tools available to boost productivity.
Digital Creative Tool
For small businesses, crafting unique products, packaging, and prototypes can be a challenge. xTool offers a compelling solution with their line of compact desktop laser cutting and engraving machines. These machines allow you to bring your creative visions to life right in your own workshop.
Fast and Precise Designs: xTool machines are known for their speed and precision, letting you create intricate cuts and engravings on a variety of materials like wood, acrylic, leather, and even some fabrics. This makes them perfect for tasks like:
- Product Personalization: Add custom logos, text, or designs to your products for a unique touch.
- Special Packaging: Create high-quality, custom packaging that elevates your brand identity.
- Rapid Prototyping: Quickly iterate on prototype designs for new products, saving time and money.
Seamless Design with xTool Creative Space (XCS) Software: xTool's accompanying software, XCS, provides a user-friendly platform for designing your laser projects.
- Intuitive Interface: Even those new to design software will find XCS easy to navigate.
- Powerful Design Tools: XCS offers a library of shapes, vector editing capabilities, and the ability to import various file formats.
- AI-powered Design Assistant (xArt): For an extra boost, consider the XCS's built-in AI tool, xArt. xArt can generate unique images based on your keyword prompts, helping you create original designs or jumpstart your creative process.
Setup A Shop In Just 5 Steps: Customthings, launched by xTool, is a platform tailored for small businesses. It allows merchants to easily set up their stores with just a few AI-guided questions and complete the store setup in seconds. More and more xTool machine owners are trying Customthings for their businesses.
A standout feature of Customthings is its product customization feature. Merchants can set up custom areas in the designer where customers can scan and place custom orders. This eliminates the need for frequent communication between merchants and customers.
Whether online or offline, Customthings helps merchants respond quickly to customer needs and improve sales efficiency. Customers can place orders anytime, anywhere, while Customthings seamlessly bridges the online and offline experience. This not only improves the shopping experience, but also creates more sales opportunities for merchants.
Design
Canva is another quick-generation tool for social media, brochures, and graphical documents. The free version features thousands of pre-made templates that can be edited and reused for your specific purposes.
Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark) is similar to Canva for creating all types of digital content be it flyers, TikTok, brochures, and social media posts. Its generative AI capabilities aid in image creation from text and alter visual elements and textual styles within an existing image.
Content Creation
ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is a versatile tool for generating text content, whether for social media posts, professional reports, or brainstorming marketing campaign ideas. It can be integrated with multiple platforms to automate responses, for instance, creating a chatbot.
Gemini (formerly Bard) is another Generative AI tool by Google, aimed at similar functionalities as ChatGPT. It is relatively new but shows promise for future developments.
All generative AI tools including ChatGPT and Gemini excel in generating quick textual information, but they may lack accuracy with exact facts and figures. To fully utilize each tool, comprehensive prompts with detailed background information and specific requirements are necessary.
Marketing Tools for Small Business
Finding the right customer is critical for new small businesses. Small businesses don’t have the capital and resources to run campaigns on electronic media. The only leverage they have is social media and the web. Fortunately, they have multiple tools to market themselves.
Shopify’s Domain Name Generator is a quick resource to get domain name ideas and see if a particular domain name (website address) is available for a business. If available, one can even see its annual pricing and reserve the name on Shopify.
Businesses can lead their consumers back to their stores by adding a QR code to their products. Shopify’s online QR Code generator is one resource to turn URLs, phone numbers, and text messages into a phone-scannable QR code.
E-commerce Platforms
For building an online store, Shopify and bigCommerce are popular independent e-commerce platforms.
Shopify is best for starters and B2C businesses. Plus, it offers a lot of free tools for new businesses.
BigCommerce is a similar platform, but largely aimed at big merchants and B2B businesses. Most of the features are built-in but it lacks mobile app support.
A WordPress plugin, WooCommerce is also present, which adds e-commerce functionality to existing WordPress sites.
Social Media Tools for Small Business
According to Forbes, approximately 106.8 million people made purchases through social media platforms in 2023, with a projected 10.7% increase by 2027. Recognizing this substantial market opportunity, small businesses should not overlook this proven sales channel.
Individualized posting across various social media platforms is no longer practical. Platforms like Hootsuite and Buffer offer comprehensive solutions for planning, scheduling, and posting content simultaneously across multiple platforms. Beyond scheduling, they provide access to post engagement metrics and conversions, with AI integration for hashtag and post generation.
Buffer is a user-friendly social media management tool suitable for small businesses. The free plan supports up to 3 social media accounts and 10 posts per channel. It is best for solopreneurs just starting SMM.
Hootsuite is better suited for managing social media accounts for larger businesses or organizations with a team. Although it requires a paid plan, Hootsuite offers more comprehensive content scheduling features and advanced engagement analytics.
Linkpop is another handy tool in Shopify’s toolkit. It generates a clickable link that can be used in an Instagram bio to direct the audience to your page and drive sales.
SEO Tools for Small Business
Merely creating a profile isn’t sufficient; optimizing it for search engines is equally important. Your product or service should appear prominently when users search for it on Google.
SEO is an ongoing endeavor; continuous optimization is necessary to adhere to search engine guidelines and stand out among competitors.
Ahrefs is a comprehensive tool for analyzing a website's performance against keywords, its ranking on specific search terms, search metrics, competitor sites, and backlink profiles. It also facilitates keyword research, a critical aspect of SEO strategy.
SEMrush is a marketing with SEO features for both web and social media platforms. Its functionalities, including keyword research, rank tracking, and technical SEO analysis, are similar to Ahrefs. However, SEMrush has a larger dataset to provide more accurate results.
Email Marketing Automation
Adoric reveals that over 80% of small businesses use email marketing to acquire. The same percentage of users use emails to retain their customers. Currently, multiple automation tools such as Klaviyo, Mailchimp, and Omnisend, are available which let the business run their marketing campaigns through the mail.
Klaviyo comes with multiple built-in automation flows, which is why it’s considered the best for email automation. It also integrates well with almost all e-commerce platforms. Users can leverage customer insights and behavior-tracking features to create highly personalized email campaigns.
Omnisend is another popular email marketing automation platform catering to e-commerce businesses. Its omnichannel approach which integrates email, SMS, and push notifications, aids in achieving comprehensive customer engagement strategies.
Mailchimp is a user-friendly email automation platform, that allows users to create customized emails with drag-n-drog functionality. It’s a beginner-friendly option that lacks advanced automation workflows as in Klaviyo and Omni.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Personalized engagement with consumers is very important for customer acquisition and retention. According to a study by McKinsey, 76% of consumers are more likely to purchase a brand that provides personalized experiences.
To effectively manage customer interactions and responses, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software such as HubSpot, Zoho, and Freshworks play a vital role.
Zoho CRM helps businesses maintain high standards of customer relations with its feature-rich software. Its multichannel support feature enables communication via phone, live chat, email, and social media.
HubSpot CRM automates tasks for sales teams, tracks interactions automatically, and provides a visual dashboard for deal visibility. Businesses can handle up to 1,000,000 contacts, users, and storage without expiration, and send personalized email sequences with scheduled delivery.
Freshworks CRM is designed for sales and marketing teams to generate qualified leads and accelerate deal closure. It creates landing pages, tracks visitor actions, and offers AI-powered chatbots for personalized interactions.
Accounting & Finance
Taking care of finances and evaluating the cash flows from time to time is extremely important for a small business. Forbes reports that 38% of small businesses fail due to exhaustion of their capital – precisely due to poor financial planning.
Accounting Software
QuickBooks Online is a subscription-based online accounting software that is also available as a standalone desktop app. It has excellent payroll and inventory management features.
Xero is a full-package online accounting software with a low learning curve. It excels in multiple financial segments but inventory management features stand out among others.
Freshbooks is another cloud-based accounting software that is known for its user-friendly features. It’s ideal for small businesses and freelancers.
Invoicing and Payment Processing
Paypal is the earliest and most secure payment processing platform for in-person payments, invoicing, and payments at e-commerce sites.
Stripe, similar to Paypal, is a payment service that lets businesses and individuals accept and send payments online. It fits businesses of all sizes and categories.
Square is for businesses with a proper POS system in place. Brick-and-mortar businesses, especially restaurants and retail stores are the ideal fit.
Expense Tracking
Zoho Expense is an online solution that effectively manages business travel and spending. It automates expense reporting from receipt to the balance sheet, saving organizations time and effort.
Mint offers a complete financial picture in minutes by automatically pulling all your financial information into one place. It consolidates balances, transactions, and spending patterns to provide a comprehensive overview of finances.
Expensify categorizes and codes each receipt, automating the submission of business expenses for approval and reimbursement. It can also sync information with major accounting software.
Shopify’s Profit Margin Calculator is a quick and easy tool for starters, looking to find a reasonable price point for their product at profit. The user enters the cost of the item and markup; the tool calculates the sale price, gross profit, and gross margin.
Invoice Generator is another gift by Shopify for freelancers. For small businesses/freelancers without any software solution, this generator offers the best way to create professional invoice clients with a digital receipt. You can enter your organization and service details, the website generates a receipt accordingly.
Communication & Collabration
Post-COVID-19, most companies have shifted to remote working. Forbes Advisor stats reveal that 16% of the companies are already operating remotely without any physical office. To properly communicate with one another, delegate tasks, and share resources, there are multiple online options.
Task Management
Trello is task management software, famous for its intuitive Kanban interface –users can create boards to represent a project, and cards to indicate tasks. Cards can be moved between lists to denote progress. This interface gives users a comprehensive project overview at a glance.
Asana is usually the traditional method of managing tasks. Users can create tasks and organize them into projects, and then add different details (completion date and sub-tasks). It provides a kind of hierarchical view.
Monday.com surpasses Trello and Asana in flexibility. It lets users establish boards for projects and incorporate items (formerly known as pulses) to denote tasks or workflow components. The visual representation supports diverse formats including Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and timelines.
Communication
For online communication among teams, slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom are great options.
Slack is messaging software, primarily introduced to replace emails. Within the platform, individuals can communicate within groups or channels and share resources. Video calling among individuals and groups is also supported.
Zoom is a video conferencing software that gained popularity post-COVID-19. It lets users do voice/video calls, exchange messages and share their desktop screens within calls. Third-party integration is also supported.
Microsoft Teams is a multi-functional platform with all the features of Zoom and Slack combined and even more. The software has chats, video calls, and note-sharing options. Since Teams is a Microsoft product, sharing Office Suite resources (Word doc or Excel sheet) is seamless.
Document Sharing and Storage
Google Drive is a well-known cloud storage and document-sharing platform that works well with Google Workspace apps like Google Docs and Google Sheets. It is best for businesses that use Gmail for communication as attachment sharing becomes seamless. Multiple third-party apps are also available, which enhance the Drive’s functionality.
Microsoft OneDrive also natively integrates with Microsoft apps such as Office 365 and Windows. You can directly save email attachments from Outlook to OneDrive folders. However, it doesn’t support third-party apps.
Dropbox lacks its own office suite or email client but offers additional features like note-taking, document signing, and file transfer. It facilitates collaboration with files from Microsoft and Google. It does offer an app store for downloading third-party app extensions which expand functionality.
Inventory Management
Small businesses have a limited inventory – which is also critical as they want to get it on the market quickly. Effective inventory tracking helps in managing stock levels, ensuring timely replenishment, and optimizing storage space.
Zoho Inventory is a powerful inventory and order management software suitable for businesses of all sizes. It enables users to track inventory, manage orders, track shipments, and control warehouses from a single interface.
Shopventory, similar to Zoho is a cloud-based inventory management solution that integrates well with POS systems and eCommerce platforms. Key features include customizable alerts, barcode scanning, purchase orders, vendor management, and detailed reporting. Users can also create bundles from existing inventory and manage partial quantities efficiently.
Shopify Bar Code Generator is a free tool to turn your product’s identification or price into the form of a machine-readable line pattern. You can integrate with your Shopify store and even print codes in PNG format to paste on products.
Order Fulfillment
The company's job doesn’t end with just selling; it has to ensure the product reaches the consumers safe and sound. It needs to securely pack and track the package, and oversee how the consumer perceives it. Fortunately, tools like ShipBob and Shipstations are available to streamline the process for business owners.
ShipBob offers a comprehensive fulfillment solution for businesses, whether outsourcing logistics or managing operations in-house. It is suitable for small to medium e-commerce businesses facing high order volumes.
ShipStation is a shipping management tool focused on cost-effectiveness, rate comparison, and label printing. It simplifies shipping processes for those operating from home or rented facilities.
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