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.
