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5 Pieces of Software You Need to Have

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Michael Deane
5 Pieces of Software You Need to Have

Running a business is challenging and time-consuming, and you need all the help you can get to stay on top of your immense workload.

One of the problems is that there are too many repetitive, mundane, and menial tasks to complete every day, and they take up too much time that you could otherwise use for more creative work that actually requires your entrepreneurial skills.

After some time, you’ll grow tired of all that tough grind, and it will take its toll on your productivity. Luckily, the tech industry comes to your rescue by picking up some slack, thus leaving you enough time and energy to grow your business.

Here are five must-have pieces of software which will make your life much easier.

Finance and Accounting

Every entrepreneur should have at least basic financial literacy to run a business properly.

It’s very easy to slip into poor financial decision-making and ruin your company. Unfortunately, that’s not an uncommon scenario as 82% of small businesses fail due to cash flow problems.

In addition to that, managing your taxes can also be pretty complex, not to mention that not complying with government regulations can lead to legal problems. That’s why having reliable software which gives you an overall perspective on these things can be a true lifesaver.

It’s best to look for an app that can streamline your company’s payroll, tax, and benefits processes while helping you stay compliant with government regulations.

Gusto, for example, can do all that, as well as automatically report new hires to the government, handle your tax filings, and even send digital pay stubs to your employees.

There are other useful features that you should look for in accounting software such as tracking your business’ profits and expenses, making payments to your employees and contractors, monitoring invoices, and generally speaking being in the know regarding the overall financial health of your business.

Time Management

Did you know that the average person spends 56 minutes per day using their mobile phone at work on non-work related activities?

Besides talking their way through the workweek, employees also spend 3.5 hours a day dealing with their personal stuff.

Those minutes and hours add up, and in the end, it turns out that the said employee wastes a whole workday, that is, 8 hours a week.  

Needless to say, this routine heavily affects productivity, and the worst thing is that we’re not aware of our bad time-management habits.

That’s where time-management apps come in handy as they can help you and your employees:

  • Understand how you spend time at work and identify the most common distractions;
  • Manage projects and give you an idea how much time you put into each phase of a project, thus allowing to you to make accurate estimations of future projects;
  • Improve your productivity and efficiency by keeping track of how much you actually work, as well as give you an insight into the amount of time you spend dealing with different distractions;
  • Track invisible tasks. Doing business emails or calls with clients also counts as working, and an app can help you capture those tasks and prevent your work-related activities from staying off the radar.

Communication

Communication between coworkers is essential in any business.

But, sending emails back and forth isn’t the best and most efficient way of staying in touch and on the same page. It’s also a nightmare when you have to find an email with an important attachment sent months ago.

So, instead of flooding each other’s inboxes, you should switch to a convenient communication or even better, a collaboration tool, such as Slack.

It allows you to exchange messages in a group or 1-on-1, share documents and keep them in the same place, make calls, share your screen, and collaborate with your coworkers.

Unlike email correspondence which can be described as pretty fragmented, this kind of instant communication tool is great because it won’t disrupt anybody’s workflow – people won’t have to stop what they’re doing to come to the conference room.

That’s what makes communication software essential if you’re managing a remote team.

Regular meetings are huge time wasters, meaning that execs spend approximately 23 hours a week in them. Instead of that, you can simply talk to your team via a communication/collaboration tool and improve this statistic. 

Security

Keeping your business safe from cybercriminals and malicious software is something that should be your top priority.

If we bear in mind that apart from your own business data, you also have to think about the security of your customers’ sensitive information, it’s clear that you need to fortify your system as much as possible and prevent hackers from ruining your business and reputation.

The it-won’t-happen-to-me approach is particularly dangerous and inaccurate as 43% of cyberattacks target small businesses.

Having reliable and regularly updated anti-virus software is a must, but it’s not enough. Sometimes you need to access your business documents from a public internet connection which is exactly how a hacker can break into your system and compromise sensitive information.

At other times you might be on a business trip to a location which has some geographical restrictions – China, for example, doesn’t allow Facebook access.

Among many other things, a virtual private network (VPN) can override these limitations and allow you to access the open internet as if you were in the US or UK.

To implement an additional layer of security, erase your company’s digital footprint, and create an encrypted connection, make sure to use only the best VPN service which will fend off potential cybercriminals and keep your business and customer data safe.

Project Management

Most businesses juggle multiple projects and tasks at the same time, and sometimes you can lose track of your deadlines, to whom a particular task has been assigned, or what exactly should be done.

All this can turn your work into a hot mess, that is, if you don’t use a project management tool.

Software like Basecamp or Asana can help you keep everything under control.

Some of the benefits of this type of apps are:

  • Monitoring the progress of every project and task;
  • Making sure that the right people are working on the right tasks;
  • Identifying and preventing potential bottlenecks;
  • Delegating tasks;
  • Tracking time and costs for every individual project.

Generally speaking, project management software can do wonders for your team’s productivity and organization.

These five pieces of software should definitely be the part of your business management arsenal as they have the power to transform your company from a rusty, sluggish clunker into a well-oiled machine.  

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