Behind every successful business, there are tons of failures, hard-learned lessons, financial challenges, and a determined workforce. Today’s large enterprise was once a small business. People kick off their business with a small setup and then extend it to a bigger level with the passage of time, while some surrender in the midway. That’s just how it works.
However, when done right, a small business can be managed well. Compiled here are some free software that can manage many of your business functions without making much of a difference, eventually enhancing the efficiency of your business. So read along!
Google Docs/LibreOffice
Office suite has multiple choices and sections to choose from. If you only need Microsoft Word and Excel, then go for the LibreOffice. It exhibits similar interphase like its paid-for packages. Furthermore, it includes a presentation package that can be used as an alternative to PowerPoint, a drawing package ideal for the flowcharts.
Every business has to deal with document collaboration. LibreOffice is the best option for this. If you are looking for something that enables multi-users, there areGoogle’s web apps, including Google Docs and Sheets your teams can work on simultaneously.
These apps make all the changes visible, and there is also an option to revert all the alterations along with in-document chat for team collaboration. There are further benefits of using a web application, like cross-platform compatibility, no installation hassles, zero IT expenses and no upgrades. All you need to do is to just hop online and get access to your documents from the comfort of your couch.
Thunderbird – Emailing Software
Microsoft and Apple users can use their built-in email software, but both of them lack the additional features thatThunderbird (Mozilla – Firefox’s parent company) offers its users.
Furthermore, you can get all emails managed with online platforms such as Gmail that can be really effective for a distributed team, without needing to worry about any hardware ownership. You can also incorporate the web mailboxes with Thunderbird through IMAP, and get all the changes synchronized.
Redundancy is the main reason why a business should be using an email program, as at times email alone serves as that critical piece of business where important information lurks. Thunderbird allows its users to easily search and manage messages, therefore all small business should have it.
TIP: Interested in learning business management? Try KanBan today.
Trello For Effective Project Management
Good project management is important for a company and staying aware of who is doing what, what is required to be done, and what’s needed to be completed in a certain amount of time is necessary for good project management. Trello is a project management software based on the Kanban technique. Consider it more like a whiteboard packed with sticky notes, all within your reach. Create your tasks, and your users will be able to move them into the right column determining their status and the user in charge.
Trello is easy to use, each task card on the platform can contain all the valuable information about all the tasks, and it’s an effective way to keep your projects organized.
Slack – Tool For Effective Communication
No office can run successfully without coordination and communication. Slack does just that! The software hosts millions of users across the world. It is an extremely effective platform and can be assessed on smartphones and other handheld devices. It enables the users to send direct messages (DMs) and other files individually or a whole group of employees, and there is a dedicated feature for organizing conversations into different channels.
To round things off, the software is also available in its free version, but it has some limitations (as in the number of saved messages, total memory, and so on).
Wave Invoicing – invoicing tool
As obvious by the name, proper invoices are essential. When demanding payment from clients, while exhibiting utter professionalism, being quick, and making it feasible for the payees to get you payment, wave invoicing is a blessing. It deals with all of such tasks while offering a free, cross-platform compatibility so that the users can issue invoices straight from their mobile phone.
Wave Invoicing also accepts credit card payments. However, it is free, but the software compensates it by billing small fees on the payments done.
TIP: Best free document management systems? See here!
Adminsoft Accounts
The software provides a great number of functionalities that can manage numerous aspects of your businesses financial processes. Created specifically for small businesses, it is an ideal tool for maintaining an ever-increasing customer base. It enables the users to control entire stock, manage purchase orders, handle multiple HR functions, maintain your cash flow and budgets – in short all essential tasks.
Duplicati – Data Backup Software
Be it a small business or large enterprise, data is important. Get a backup of your data means a lot to the business security. Things can be exceedingly catastrophic. It is more like losing a hard drive. To do it right, you’ll need to have three copies of your data that has to be saved in at least two places as a minimum.
The tool is free, open source, and quickly encrypts the data before creating its backup, and you can set your backups to store at numerous locations. That could mean fileserver, local drive, or cloud server.
HMRC Basic PAYE Tools
The tool provides all the features and functionalities required for different taxes concerning your employees. Some features like calculators for ill as well as maternity pay, and make suggestions when you’re approaching important dates such as expenses and benefits. The software lags behind in just a single way—that is, it has nothing to offer for office pensions. The user will have to manage them before the salaries are disbursed through payroll.
To wrap up
Running a small business can actually be tough sometimes, but with working smart, it can be a bit less challenging. Moreover, if you want different enterprise software integrated into one unified tool— like many businesses prefer to use have Enterprise resource planning (ERP), Customer relationship management (CRM), and Supply chain management (SCM) together— and you can afford to approach a software development company then go for it. Or else, you can also hire a freelancer for the task.
