However, just like running any business, it isn’t always peaches and cream. There are many things you have to do and worry about. It can take a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get an online business off the ground. Thankfully, there are a few tools that can be absolute lifesavers. They should be used by anyone starting an online business. With that in mind, this article is going to look at some of the best tools for online business owners.
Log Monitoring or Management Tool
When you use any piece of software, thousands and thousands of “logs” are created. These are time-stamped documentation of events that are relevant to a system. They can tell you a lot about the health and status of the software. However, manually searching through them is very difficult and time-consuming. Performing logging analysis is incredibly important for your business as these tools can easily search through your logs. They can also automatically alert you when an issue arises, so you can go fix it before it gets to your end-user and becomes a real issue.
A Project Management Tool
If you run an online business but still hire staff to do things like marketing, content creation, and other things, a project management tool is a must. These tools will ensure that everyone is on the same page and know what they have to do, without having to endure long and potentially costly and wasteful in-person meetings. Even if you operate a standard brick and mortar business, an online project management tool can be hugely important. This is because over 70% of people work remotely at least once a week, and thus it is important to keep everyone on the same page, even when they are not in the office.
A Piece of Accounting Software
One thing that you definitely don’t want to mess around with when starting a business of any kind is finances and taxes. It can be a nightmare to handle your accounting on your own, so an accounting software (or hiring an accountant) is necessary. Many pieces of accounting software can do a wide range of things from tracking sales, helping you with taxes, keeping up to date statements, and more. Without using this kind of software, it can be easy to miss or forget certain tax-related things, which can end up costing you a lot in the future. Also, this software makes it easy to send and track invoices, which can be super important to ensure your cash flow is always acceptable.
A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Tool
CRM tools are instrumental when it comes to keeping track of all customer-related events, and this can be huge for online businesses. There are many different types of tools in this space, and each has different features. However, most of them automate marketing processes, manage emails, keep and update customer information, and more. Also, the metrics and analytics used inside these tools are incredibly helpful as they cannot only help you manage the relationships with your customers but also help you learn more about who your customers actually are. If you utilize the tools mentioned in this post, it could potentially save your company a lot of time, money, and lost efficiency. Of course, these aren’t the only tools your online business should use, but they are among the best.
