5 Small Business Tools That Help You Leverage Your Services to Your Customers

Frustrating, isn’t it?

You have bills to pay, employees to manage, and somehow you can’t seem to manage it all. Why does everything have to be so complicated? Facebook updates, tweet this, make sure payroll goes out on time, don’t forget to write down billable hours.

Great. Phone tag — again.

Every day, the clock resets and you do it all over again. Here’s how to solve 80% of your problems so you can focus on the 20% that matters in your business.

Job Logic

If you own a service-based business, this service app might be just what you need. Not every business needs to worry about strict compliance issues, or invoicing, or complex billing systems. But, service-based businesses do, and a simple mistake is all it takes to put a company out of business.

This is why Job Logic exists. Think of it like a “service management app.”  The company caters to service and management companies. Their app lets you communicate with your workforce directly, even when they’re out in the field. Which means you don’t need to worry about bringing them into the office or wasting time playing phone tag.

If that’s all it did, it would be worth it. But, it can do so much more. For example, you can use the GPS feature to find employees out in the field and then prioritize location-based work based on this information. Send the closest person to a job site and make everyone on your team more efficient.

You can read about it at Job Logic if you want more info.

Zenefits

This service bills itself as an “all-in-one” cloud-based software platform that helps you manage all your HR needs. It includes benefits and compliance, payroll, and pretty much any other HR task. Keep your existing insurance policies and pricing, carriers, and agents. Or, if you like, you can switch up your benefits plan and set up new ones, including an HRA and FSA. You can even establish commuter options if you want.

Need to manage compliance issues for COBRA health benefits and stay compliant with 401(k) rules? No problem. They will even help you keep track of and manage matching contributions for retirement plans. Zenefits is a great automated solution for SMBs who don’t have the time, or expertise to manage all the boring HR and paperwork stuff, but who still need to.

Toggl

Admit it: tracking billable hours is a pain in the butt. When you hop from one project to the next, it’s almost impossible. Maybe you even have little scraps of paper laying around, reminding you where were left off. This is nonsense. You need a solution that takes the hassle out of record-keeping and time management. And, Toggl is that app.

Toggl was made for project teams, where time management is critical. Specifically, where you need to be able to track multiple different users on the same project for billable hours. The app integrates with other productivity apps like Asana and Trello.

Wrike

This service goes way beyond the traditional task and project management app. It’s a suite of features that makes team collaboration very easy. It’s ideal for businesses that work in an environment where collaboration is an inherent part of the job.

For example, if you work in an engineering, construction, web development, or some other technical field, this service could be invaluable.

Hootsuite

This is something that a lot of businesses are discovering and rediscovering for social media management. It lets you manage social media networks, schedule messages and interact with followers. Because many small businesses find social media management difficult and inherently time-consuming, this app is almost a necessity — especially if you’re on social media and using it to advertise your business.

The way Hootsuite sets things up, you can manage everything from a central dashboard. The Pro version is made specifically for small and medium-sized businesses. It lets you manage up to 100 social profiles and keep tabs on everything. It even comes with 10 analytics reports so you know what’s working, what’s not, and what to change.

Conclusion

Small businesses are inundated with applications and software that, at best, doesn’t fulfill the promise of the marketer. At worse, it’s completely useless. But, every so often, something comes along that is truly epic. And, those apps need to be used by every small business owners, both to save your sanity and to make you more productive.

Emily Wallis has been working as a business consultant for many years. She is like a breath of fresh air with her new ideas and way of looking at things which greatly improve all the businesses she works with. Her articles appear on a selection of business sites every few months.