Running a business can feel like trying to keep several plates spinning at once; take your eye off one, and it might smash.
Thankfully with the right tools at your disposal, you can automate or outsource common admin tasks so that you can make better use of your time and avoid the temptation to micromanage. Here are just a few of the top-rated solutions for those who are helming online businesses.
Paystub generator
Creating employee paystubs can be a taxing task, but with a paystub generator, it becomes child’s play and will make wrangling payroll responsibilities a breeze in comparison with having to do this manually every week or month.
The latest paystub creation tools let you add the unique details of each team member, ensure that calculations of salary, tax deductions, expenses, and benefits are calculated correctly, and send digital copies securely, as well as print paper versions as well if needed.
Cloud storage
If your business primarily operates online, then there is a good chance that you are also responsible for running a team of remote workers, as well as interacting with contractors and clients that are not geographically close to your location.
In the case of such a dispersed setup, it is essential to be able to share data seamlessly and collaborate on projects collectively without being limited by a reliance on in-house hardware or software.
This is where cloud-powered storage services are an excellent investment, giving you a repository for mission-critical information and also allowing you to share it speedily with others no matter where they are based.
Big hitters like Google Drive and Dropbox are a good starting point, and most offer free versions or no-commitment trials that will let you see how they perform before you decide to sign up for the fully-fledged premium packages.
CRMs
Establishing and maintaining relationships with customers is essential for businesses, and yet in the past, it was also one of the most labor-intensive aspects for owners and employees alike.
The rise of CRMs has drastically reduced the effort involved in everything from generating leads and making sales to tracking relationships over time and keeping people loyal to your brand. And once again automation comes into play every step of the way, meaning that team members can dedicate more time to other aspects of their role and be increasingly productive as a result.
Highly rated CRMs like Zendesk and Zoho are both comprehensively featured and also benefit from a shallow learning curve, meaning that they do not take long to get to grips with. And soon you will be able to overload some of your biggest administrative headaches to software like this after you adopt it.
Communication
Following on from the discussion of how working with remote teams means making the most of cloud-based tools, it is not just storage and collaboration platforms that feature in this realm, but also communication solutions.
Once again you really are spoilt for choice here, and it is up to you to decide which of the myriad tools is right according to your needs and of course how much you want to spend.
For messaging, Slack is one of the most popular services around at the moment, although there are respected alternatives like Flock to consider.
For virtual meetings, Zoom is the current king of the hill and has enjoyed a rapid ascent in the last year. And of course, there are email solutions that are still relevant to this day; Gmail’s dominance is noteworthy, although it is far from the only choice you have.
No business owner can excuse themselves from using these tools to build and grow their organization, and the internet makes accessing such services affordably a cakewalk.
