Launching a startup, and then making sure that fledgling company grows is no easy task. Startup teams must work together to manage customer relationships, create and execute marketing plans, deal with finances and contracts, coordinate complex projects, and stay in constant contact with one another. That’s a lot to keep up with at one time.
Fortunately, there are a variety of tools that startup teams can use to accomplish their goals, and get the results that they want. Here are 7 tools that your startup team needs to have, that you may not have heard of until now.
Agile CRM: For Managing Important Relationships With Customers And Prospects
This is an amazingly simple CRM solution, which is just what most startup teams need. It is in essence, a connected rolodex that you can use to track customers as they make their way through your sales funnel, and keep detailed notes on deals and prospective deals.
On the other hand, don’t let the simplicity fool you. There is deep functionality in this tool, including marketing automation and tracking. Agile CRM offers up a free trial. This free trial comes with awesome customer support, and ability to use the tool for an entire marketing campaign with up to 10 users.
Wave: An All-in-One Financial Management Solution For Small Business
If you are looking for a cloud based, financial management system for your business, Wave is all that you need. Their suite of tools includes payroll, invoicing, accounting, and payment processing. There is no monthly fee for using their services, and the company is intensely focused on serving small businesses.
Once you start using Wave, you can use it to connect with and monitor all of your bank accounts and your PayPal. You will be able to reconcile accounts, send invoices, write estimates, track accounts payable, and even scan and organize your receipts.
ShopIntegrator: A Truly Integrated Shopping Cart For eCommerce Businesses
You’ve your small business website to offer visitors an amazing user experience. Don’t coax them to your checkout page, only to serve them up with a clunky shopping cart solution that doesn’t fit the rest of your site. ShopIntegrator is a shopping cart solution that you can customize so that it matches the look and feel of the rest of your website.
This consistency isn’t just about visual appeal. It’s about maintaining your branding and messaging throughout the entire buying experience. This builds trust, and makes it more likely that a one-time customer will become a loyal customer.
PitchEngine: Get Your Marketing Messages Out
If you are planning to use a mixture of traditional PR and advertising along with digital marketing, PitchEngine is definitely worth taking a second look. You can use the tool to reach out to media outlets, post content on social media, and even reach important prospects via mobile and email.
If you have a media pitch that you want to get out there, you can publish that pitch for free on PitchEngine. How does it work? You create a free page on the PitchEngine website. Then, you can upload content including articles, videos, images, and announcements. The result is a one stop shop where your media contacts can find all they need to know about your brand, and where they can find fodder to write stories that gets your business out to a wider audience.
TaskQue: Ensure That Your Team is on Top of Their Tasks
TaskQue combines several functionalities that are important for new startups. Users can use TaskQue to create and track lists of tasks. They can integrate those tasks with larger projects. They can assign resources to these tasks. Finally, they can use the product to communicate with one another, track tasks using a calendar, and manage complex workflows.
This solution is easy to use and offers users a great dashboard without frustrating distractions. The product is nicely priced for small startups with a monthly fee of just 50 dollars for up to ten users and 5 dollars more per user after that. This includes use of all of the products features, and free cloud storage. If data security is a concern, it is important to note that TaskQue contracts it’s data storage and security out to Stripe, a company world-renowned for its security track record.
TractFile: Manage Your Contracts in One Place
Navigating the legal side of launching and growing a business is a daunting task. A big part of this is organizing, managing, and keeping track of your legal contracts. Tractfile is an online solution that can make this much easier for you.
This contract management app is fully customizable and comes with storage solutions, alerts, tracking, and much more. You will be able to access your contacts using any device, and use the reporting tool to get an overview of the status of all of your contracts along with the ability to drill down the most granular detail. Finally, there is no limit to the amount of data that you can store using Tractfile.
Marketizator: Make Sure Your Marketing Efforts Are a Hit
Marketizator is a WordPress plugin that has three distinct yet related functions. First, it is an A/B testing tool. This allows you to test and track changes that you make to your WordPress pages. It is also a survey tool. This means that you can reach out to your audience, and get their feedback by posting surveys. Finally, there is a function that allows you to display pop-up banners to send relevant messages to your visitors. These banners can be triggered upon entering or exiting your site, by scrolling, or you can display different banners as part of your split testing efforts.
Take some time to check these tools out. You may find that at least a few of them will help you get the results that you need as your business grows. They were specifically selected because each one focuses on a distinct business area where startups often struggle. As a result, using these tools to help your startup will give your team more time to focus on important tasks such as research and development, and creating growth.
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