As an entrepreneur you’ll constantly be looking for tools to help elevate your startup to the next level. These tools can play a pivotal role in brand development, business development, and even company efficiency. The list below (in no particular order) shows some of the services I use on a daily basis and with great results. Most of these services are inexpensive, if not free, and add a great amount of value to your startup.
1. Hootsuite – Social Media Management
Through Hootsuite’s unique social media dashboard, you can collaboratively schedule updates to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Wordpress and other social networks. Hootsuite helps organizations launch marketing campaigns, identify and grow audience, and distribute targeted messages across multiple channels.
Price: Free
Other notables: TweetDeck, CoTweet, Ping.fm
2. Google Voice – Phone Service
One phone number for all your phone numbers is basically what Google Voice (formerly Grand Central) is about. With Google Voice you can give out one number which will have all of your other phones redirected to it (home, office, cell phone).
Price: Free, but currently you must be invited by another user.
Other notables: RingCentral, Jaxtr
3. Basecamp – Project Management
Basecamp is a project management and group collaboration tool that features to-do lists, milestones for important due-dates, file sharing, blog-style messaging, wiki-style writeboards, time tracking, and integration with the excellent group chat product Campfire. For startups with a lot going on, this is a great tool to help keep you on top of your projects and open loops.
Price: Starts at free for a one time project and then tier up depending on what features you need.
Other notables: CentralDesktop
4. MailChimp – Email Marketing
Email marketing is an important component of any business. MailChimp allows you to customize email marketing campaigns from an easy-to-use interface. They offer list management, tracking and analysis, and custom HTML templates.
Price: Free up to 500 subscribers and 3,000 emails a month, and pricing increases depending on the amount of subscribers.
Other notables: FanBridge, StreamSend, AWeber
5. Get Satisfaction – Customer Support Forum
Get Satisfaction aims to help by leveraging your user community to handle most customer support issues. Get Satisfaction provides a forum where your customers can get answers to questions, solutions to problems, and submit feature and new product requests. Those answers and solutions are stored and searchable over time, cutting down on support costs and building trust with your userbase.
Price: Starts at $19/month
Other notables: SuggestionBox, UserVoice
6. Pitch Engine – Public Relations Application
PitchEngine is a social platform that makes it possible for PR pros, brands, and agencies to build and share digital, social media releases with their contacts for free.
Price: Free
Other notables: PRweb
7. Google Alerts – Brand Management
As an entrepreneur, it is important to know what people are saying about your brand and your competitors. Google Alerts is a great free tool that provides you with daily emails that display all the new results from the internet that include the designated search terms.
Price: Free
Other notables: Monitter
8. Skype – Web Conferencing
Skype is a peer-to-peer Internet telephone service that is free for Skype-to-Skype calls. The service allows Skype users to call mobiles and landlines, and vice-versa. This service is excellent for having meetings over the internet where you can build a rapport.
Price: Free
Other notables: MightyMeeting, GoToMeeting, Freebinar
There are lots of services out there that I may have overlooked, and if you know of some please post it in the comment section.
Navid Zolfaghari is an Internet entrepreneur and visionary. CEO/Founder of TriFame and blogger at NavidZolfaghari.com. Read more about Navid here.
Google Apps is a service i’ve been using a lot recently. It’s free for up to 50 users. You get a central admin console for managing user access to email, calendars, docs, and other Google services. Email is gmail but users get an email address with your domain name, not Google’s. Looks much more professional than just vanilla gmail addresses. Docs, calendars, and contacts can be share and you can create groups with different access characteristics, e.g. Can share docs with other group users but cannot share with anyone outside the organization.
Dropbox is another great service for file sharing, although you will want to pay to share folders with other people.
Thanks Navid for the information. Excellent tool compilation for entrepreneurs.
Very good list. We use BaseCamp and Skype frequently in our company. Another very valuable tool we have been using frequently is The Encyclopedia of Associations. It lists thousands of trade associations, offering contact information and vital stats. This is crucial to all entrepreneurs seeking information about a particular industry.
@Nigel I agree. Google Apps and Dropbox are both outstanding tools. One nice thing about Dropbox is that it automatically syncs across all your devices – PC, Mac, iPhone, Blackberry, etc. so all your files are available wherever you are.
This is a great compilation! But I wonder, do you have any recommendations for tools that can help in managing finance involved in a start up?
Solid list here of excellent tools to use! I currently use Hootsuite and have Google Alerts set-up but have been looking for other helpful alternatives. Very glad to have read this article and taken away a few new ideas and must haves for business success! Thanks Navid.
@SocialChadder
@Nigel: Yes, Google apps and Dropbox are definitely worthy of being added to the list! Thanks for the comment.
@Ajaero: Thanks for the comment and glad you enjoyed Navid’s post!
@Scott: Thanks for the note. I’ll check out The Encyclopedia of Associations. I had not heard about this until now. Thanks!
I would add;
DropBox
xMind
Pivotal Tracker
Highrise
KISSInsights/Survey.io
Hi Navid,
For web conferencing I would suggest you dimdim @ http://www.dimdim.com it is free for up to 20 users and you can have webinars too it is web based and it allows you to share presentations, share your screen, share a web page and many other things you need for web conferencing. Prices are very good compared to GoToMeeting
@Helio I had forgotten about dimdim, but I’ve used it before and really liked it. Good call. Thanks for the comment!
Great list here Navid! Thanks for sharing. I use several of these invaluable applications and they really help me run my business a lot more smoothly.
I also a agree with Nigel…Dropbox is awesome! I came across this little jewel a couple of months ago and absolutely love it!
Thanks again!
P.S. Check out Google Labs also, a few nuggets in there also like Follow Finder
This is just great. I am planning to make business online and I think most areas that I need to know about are here. I did not know about these sites until now. This will surely be helpful to me.
You left out my favorite tool: Timebridge.
Unless you have an executive assistant (and if you do, you’ve likely outgrown the ‘entrepreneur’ stage), Timebridge is unbelievably useful for setting up meetings, especially with 3+ people.
It also comes with a free teleconference line, syncs with Outlook, Google Calendar, iCal…
Oh yeah, and it’s free.
-rsh
Other notable: Copper Project Management Software
Great list & couldn’t agree more, well with most of it but we’re a bit biased over here at Copper Project
I use almost all of these tools every day!
Keep up the good work guys.
Cheers
Dan
Nice list, my top 5:
1. Skype
2. Google docs
3. Dropbox
4. Campaignmonitor.com (e-mail campaigns)
5. Highrise
Ok two more:
6. Things (to do manager = desktop app)
7. Hasoffers.com (affiliate app)
It’s amazing how many online apps you use to run an online app:)
A
@Alrik More great tools! I love it when the comments of a post help as much as the post itself. Thanks to all for sharing your picks!
For web conferencing, check out Mingleverse (www.mingleverse.com). You can have free group calls while sharing your presentations, pictures or video. Upgraded package is less than $5/month.
Great overview of entrepreneurial tools Navid! We know virtual PBX systems are definitely important as they give your company a more centalized and professional image I use Google Alerts every day too to keep up with what people are talking about!
Thank you for the suggestions! Here it is another application that has helped me organizing my chaotic tasks. It’s called Doolphy http://www.doolphy.com. I hope you find it handy
Good luck!
@Nigel Definitely agree, Google Apps is among my favorites.
@Ajaero I am very glad you found it useful.
@Scott I will check out Encyclopedia of Associations, seems like a great idea.
@Elisha Take a look at mint.com
@SocialChadder My pleasure. I am also now following you on Twitter.
@Justyn Great adds – especially DropBox and KISSInsights.
@Helio I will check out DimDim, I hadn’t heard of them before.
@Michele Google always has more to offer
@Martin Glad to hear!
@Rob I’ll look into TimeBridge, sounds promising.
@Dan Maybe just a little biased
but I will surely check out Copper Project Management
Software.
@Alrik Thanks for sharing your list, some of those I didn’t know about.
@Mike I had heard of them before but have yet to use them
@Corinne Thank you!
Sorry for the late responses, but I appreciate everyone weighing in. Many of you had great alternatives I had not heard of or used.
Great post! And as of yesterday, you no longer need an invite to join Google Voice.
Google Docs!!!
Thank you a hundred times. I am fairly new in business and I am going crazy trying to catch up with everything that involves a biz. These are great tools and I am going to play with them from now on.
Thanks a lot. Just signed up with mailchimp as my contact with e-mail list has suffered since discovering facebook/twitter etc.
great list.
Google voice is only applicable to USA and Canada.
Robert