A small business needs to stay on top of tools that can help it scale its business and increase productivity. Tools help you work smarter in your business and free up time to focus on tasks and duties that are important to building your business.
Look for ways you can streamline your business and make it a more efficient and productive work environment. What do you spend most of your time on during the day? Is your focus on growing your business and managing staff, or are you buried under piles of paperwork? If your productivity is failing in the office, because you are business with human resource issues, such as payroll, worker’s compensation, or onboarding employees, it might be time to consider the help of a PEO company.
What is a PEO?
A PEO company stands for a Professional Employer Organization and helps with administrative and HR tasks, such as payroll, risk mitigation, compliance, and access to benefits for employees. It works by entering into a co-employment agreement, where the PEO company is the employer on record, and you’re the employer of day to day operations. A PEO company will look after HR administration, which frees up your time to focus on generating revenue and growth, while the PEO service looks after human resource services, payroll, benefits administration, safety, and risk mitigation, recruiting, and employee onboarding. You can find PEO companies on Retire at 21.
Besides, a PEO company, there are other business-oriented tools, services, and technologies that can be implemented into your work environment to scale your business, create a more productive and happy team. Here are ten tools that can help scale your business.
1. Slack
Slack offers efficient team communication. You can easily find messages directed at you in the groups all on the same platform. Slack offers more than functionality, though, with Slack channels can share files, make phone calls, message search, and it has fun features such as giving someone a “taco” for a good job well done. It’s an effective communication platform to keep your staff all on the same page.
2. Trello
With Trello, employees can work collaboratively and get more done. It will allow individuals or teams (at other locations) to manage and prioritize projects and lists easily. The basic version is free for Trello, but Trello Gold or Trello Business Class are paid and have many more unique features to help your employees work more productively.
3. GSuite
GSuite is built with Google and has a lot of functionality for businesses. With GSuite, you can purchase your domain, set-up email, track analytics for your website, and launch and manage ad campaigns. Gsuite lets you keep all your business needs centered on the Google platform.
4. OnTheClock
OnTheClock is used online and is a time-tracking tool where employees can keep track of time and employee punch locations. This web or cloud-based application allows supervisors to see which employees are punched in or out. The tool also has other smart features, including payroll reporting integration, a mobile time clock app for employees, time-off tracking, and the option for a free trial. OnTheClock can be easily integrated into your process in three minutes.
5. Zoho
Zoho covers a range of business apps that include tools for office productivity, lead generation, email marketing, and customer relationship management (CRM). Zoho has a high rated CRM service that provides sales management capabilities and comes with a free version to try.
6. Asana
Asana is a work management tool that will help organize your team and manage their work, such as small projects to strategic initiatives. Asana keeps the team up to date with what projects everyone is doing and how it works towards the business’s goals. Asana adds more organization to your day and keeps your team on track and focused on what needs to happen.
7. BaseCamp
Another software tool you can use for project management is BaseCamp. This tool helps with increasing accountability, more effective communication, and keeping everyone on the team on the same page. BaseCamp gives supervisors the ability to assign tasks to specific employees and to participate in discussions that will help with increasing the team’s focus, time, and work towards improving employee productivity.
8. UpWork
If you’re a business that prefers working with independent contractors, then use Upwork. Upwork allows business owners to search and hire freelancers for all sorts of jobs from graphic designers, social media managers, or web development managers. Upwork has a strong review and reference system, which eases you of vetting anyone you hire.
9. Intercom
Lack of communication with customers can be a frustration for businesses. Not being able to understand consumer leads is a problem to your business interface, especially a website-based company. Intercom offers the ability to have a live chat, education, and more available on your website for customers, which makes it easier to interact, engage, and communicate with customers.
10. Telzio
With Telzio, you can set-up an office phone system through the internet. This allows your team to manage calls and messages from their devices at any location. Telzio is a simple way to run and maintain a phone system for your business.