Running a small business in today’s competitive world is very challenging. People who are new to the business industry find it hard to manage all the tasks alone. Due to which many companies use business software to manage and handle their business tasks. From recruitment to payroll everything is now software dependent.
If you have started a new small business, then knowing about Small Business Software can help you grow your business.
What is Small Business Software?
A small business is a non-government, privately-owned company. The small business company is the legal form of corporation or partnership having a smaller number of employees. According to the Small Business Administration (SMA), Small Businesses make a maximum of $750,000 – $38.5 million per annum. Moreover, small business employees range in 100-1,500 depending on the industry.
Small Business Software has become the talk of the town in recent times. It surely has a bright future in Digital Marketing. In general, Small Business Software is a programmed application which when installed manages your business tasks. It is easier to use and fast to manage several tasks without human error.
Small Business Software is proved to be beneficial for any business that is struggling to get success.
Following are some reasons why you should get small business software if you have just started a business as a sole proprietor.
Affordability:
Small businesses generally have a low investment budget. Tasks that require hundreds of employees can be done by using Small Business Software. It saves a lot of time and money. Due to this reason, Small Business Companies prefer small business software rather than recruiting resources.
Performs Multiple Tasks:
The small business software is capable of performing several big tasks, some of which are as follows:
- Word Processing
- Project Management
- Human Resources
- Payroll
- Inventory Control
- Accounting
Ease of Use:
Small business software is designed in such a way that no technical background is required to operate it. Anyone can use the application with great ease. For first time users, a little training would be sufficient to operate the application.
Quick Deployment:
Small business software does not require complicated installations. You can use this software in no time, and you can use it organization-wide in short period. Another fantastic benefit is that you don’t need to worry about the patches and updates because this can be done automatically.
How to Get Best Small Business Software:
Getting the Best Small Business Software for your business depends upon the business requirements and scale.
Although small business software has countless benefits but which software you should get for your business depends upon the following things:
- The size of your company
- Particular needs of your business
- The tasks that need automation
There are many Business Software available but some are suitable for large scale business, and some are for small business.
The common types of small business software are:
- Collaboration Software: The online collaboration software let business owners capture and transfer files and other data. It also helps teams of the company to collaborate via chat messages. By this, it keeps the team in the same loop.
- Accounting Software: The essential task in any business is to manage the accounts. Accounting software helps you to keep your financials in order by automated financial management. It reduces expenses and produces an accurate report on your financial activities.
- Project Management Software: The projects you deal can be quite complicated. You need a roadmap for every project of your business. For this, the right project management solution can help you with complicated steps in every stage of the project’s lifecycle.
- Communication Software: Communication is the backbone of every project. Lack or absence of communication can destroy a whole project. Technology has introduced cloud communication software to make communication better. This cloud communication software offers fantastic tools that help you connect, work, and link with your employees, clients, suppliers, stakeholders. You can connect with anyone at any time with any device with this outstanding technology.
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CRM Software:
The customer relationship management software includes apps and tools which helps to make stronger relationships with clients. It also boosts the conversations and improves revenue rates by using the client’s data coming from multiple interaction networks.
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E-Commerce Software:
If you are an online seller or retailer then E-Commerce Software helps you with all your online tasks. E-commerce software assists in all aspects of online business including addition or removal of a product, managing inventory, calculating taxes and other details needed to fulfill orders of an e-commerce website.
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Document Management Software:
Handling business can be messy, and if you are new and started a small business it can be complicated to deal and manage the paperwork. A dedicated document management software utilizes digital technologies and helps you go entirely paperless. You can create, process, publish, share, fill, organize, and assess documents digitally.
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Website Builder Software:
A website makes your business more authentic because people can get information about your service and product just by visiting your website. The website builder software solutions help you to Create Your Brand Website. You can manage your website content also. This software also offers a variety of publishing options, built-in text editors, indexing and filtering features, and SEO plus metadata functionality.
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Appointment Scheduling Software:
When managing a small business, appointments with clients and supplier is necessary. The appointment scheduling software helps to automate the scheduling of your appointments and help in online booking. It syncs your scheduling according to your preferred device or calendar. It provides reminders and notifications for essential activities and schedules everything for a week, month and even year.
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Social Media Monitoring Software:
You can endorse your brand with the help of social media marketing. Social media is an excellent platform for marketing because of the significant presence of traffic. Social media marketing software offers tools which are used by marketers to get information about the client’s preferences. This software also helps you to get information about the client’s feedback on social networks. You can apply marketing and content enhancement strategies with this software to respond and engage with the customers.
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Marketing Software:
Despite social media marketing software, there is other marketing software which helps you to market your brand at different platforms. The marketing networks include a channel of web systems and apps. These web systems and apps are specially designed for campaign management and resource optimization. Other features like data collection, branding, even scheduling, content distribution, and lead management.
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Email Marketing Software:
The email marketing software can scale across diverse audience by automating email tracking and newsletter delivery. Email marketing software also manages the design and sharing of the newsletter, generation of the email-based mailing list and inbound lead generation.
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Helpdesk Software:
One business tactic that affects your business positively is the excellent responsiveness to the client. You should provide more robust customer support. Dedicated helpdesk software can help you to manage and provide customer support. You can address and resolve customer issues more efficiently with the help of helpdesk software.
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Payroll Software:
In case you have more than 10 employees, a Payroll Software would be ideal for you to manage salary payment system. Payroll software ensures accurate payment and taxes. It also ensures compliance with benefits and other regulations. Most of the payroll systems integrate with HR or Accounting solutions.
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HR Software:
Managing the workforce is a messy task and the HR department deals with it. HR software streamlines human resource management. HR tasks include recruitment, evaluation, onboarding, training, and education. Moreover, HR software ensures that employees follow HR and labor laws.
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Sales Automation Software:
The sales automation solutions allow you to standardize sales processes and activities, speeds up the tracking of your sales lifecycles. Moreover, it also helps you accomplish your goals on schedule.
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Learning Management System:
The learning management software helps you to orient, train, and educate your employees. This software also helps to keep your workers engaged, knowledgeable. Also, it makes them efficient company policies, work responsibilities, and business activities.
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Field Service Management Software:
Companies use different software to supervise their businesses. Field service management software keeps a tab of the activities and work schedules of remote operators and field service staff. Moreover, it allows you to access customer data, and manage service orders for more competence at less cost.
Best Small Business Software 2019:
Concluding which is the best product for you depends on your business’s unique needs and requirements. Perhaps it also depends on identifying what business-related tasks you have zero leniencies. After that, you can select software to lighten your load.
Do you want some help with this? Read further to see which programs are best-suited to your business requirements.
Best Multitasking Software:
The finance industry powers QuickBooks. The QuickBooks software has widened its scope to address small business needs. Also, it is trendy among digital merchants.
QuickBooks provides its customers with hundreds of templates for almost any report that is conceivably needed. It manages invoicing, accounts, inventory, and time tracking. It also manages your contacts, efficiently handles the tax issues, and forms and returns. QuickBooks helps you to create a budget and do your payroll.
Best Document Sharing Software:
Microsoft Office 2016 is an upgrade from Office 2013. It offers a few more administrative features. Many of its features are similar to other software, but the document sharing feature is efficient than others.
If you sign up for Microsoft’s Office 365 which is a subscription service, you can store your documents in the cloud. Also, you can invite others to access these shared documents. The people with whom you share the document can view, add or edit the document Moreover, you can have a business meeting with people by sharing the documents at any time anywhere all over the globe.
Best Accounting Software:
TurboTax is the guru of tax and accounting software. It won several awards and has received excellent reviews. The TurboTax software has recently modified its Home & Business version, and renamed it as “Self-Employed.”
Although TurboTax doesn’t do everything as QuickBooks does, it can be exceptionally helpful in managing your business’s tax returns.
It also offers a few other features such as expense tracking. Moreover, TurboTax can help you out by making tax time that much easier. Furthermore, if you are facing trouble in managing taxes, its “SmartLook” feature enables you to talk to a tax expert.
Best Marketing Assistance Software:
Infusionsoft is the invention of entrepreneur/author Clate Mask. The software is famous for offering great marketing tools. Infusionsoft Complete can help you to track up to 10,000 contacts, but it also offers fewer complex programs. You can live-record interactions with customers.
Infusionsoft Complete also manages email campaigns with its “Custom Campaign Builder” feature. With the help of this feature, you can target recipients based on your contacts list.
Infusionsoft also monitors your website, records number of visitors, manages sales, and track time of the web visitor engagement.
Best Software for Mac:
There are plenty of software that is compatible with Windows, but Mac users sometimes face difficulty in tasks due to lack of Mac compatible software
Xero is an excellent cloud-based software that is well-suited with both Mac and Windows. This software has command on accounting. One best thing is that the program is capable of integrating with 500-plus third-party apps. Xero offers reasonably strong customer support. You can get help clients via email or live chat.
Best Software for Micro-Businesses:
The sole proprietors, freelancers, and microbusiness owners prefer software that fulfills basic needs. If you are a micro business owner, then you do not have to buy the software with mega-features.
Zoho Books is a solution for microbusinesses. It is a subscription-based accounting software having enough features that meet all your small business needs. This software can help you in creating and sending invoices by syncing with your bank accounts.
It also offers time- and expense-tracking features. The Zoho Books basic plan keep a record of your billable hours and accommodates up to 50 contacts. Whereas, the standard plan supports 2 users and holds up to 500 contacts. Moreover, if you upgrade to professional plan, that supports up to 10 users and accommodates unlimited contacts, then you can track inventory too.
Best Accounting Software:
Wave Accounting is cloud-based accounting software. It is free but to some extent. The Wave Accounting offers some paid features too. It has all the necessary accounting features and tools. This software syncs you with your bank and credit card companies. It also handles sales tax reports, balance sheets, and profit/loss statements.
Similar to Zoho Books, Wave Accounting is suitable for smaller businesses, those with a maximum of 10 employees. Wave Accounting is more appropriate for service industries than in retail industries. It can’t handle multiple tasks like inventory and payroll features.
FreshBooks is also an accounting software. It is also cloud-based. The fantastic thing about FreshBooks is its Integration With IOS and Android devices. You can track your time by project, manage customers invoice and expenses. With FreshBooks, you can generate custom-designed invoices. FreshBooks also lets you receive credit card payments online. Customer support is also offered by it. FreshBooks is free for 30 days trial.
Conclusion:
So, all the software mentioned above is helpful in many aspects and many companies use small business software. These are easy to use and support small and micro businesses.
Have you started a small business company? Do you think that your company wants Small Business Software for your Business?