The Best Online Tools and Resources For Small Business Owners

Small business development can be challenging, and even small teams may feel overwhelmed at times. Luckily, there are numerous tools and resources online available that can assist.

These online tools and resources for small business owners provide assistance in areas like project management, marketing and sales strategies, financial administration, collaboration and communication among others. Here are a few of the top tools and resources.

Gmail

Business tools are essential components of a thriving small business, enabling owners to automate processes and increase efficiency and productivity while simultaneously cutting overhead costs and growing revenues.

Gmail is an advanced email service tailored for businesses, offering robust team collaboration tools. With its ample storage capacity, robust search features and built-in organization tools – as well as integrations with various apps such as Drive, Chat and Meet – Gmail has all of these essential capabilities and more!

Close is an all-in-one CRM designed for sales that takes all the hard work out of data entry, helping save you time by organizing emails and phone calls into an easy-to-read interface. Meanwhile, Lighthouse helps customer support agents manage multiple collaborative projects at once with document attachments directly in support emails – meaning no missed or late requests! You can even set reminders and notifications so as to avoid missing deadlines!

SocialOomph

SocialOomph simplifies social media management with tools that manage posts, hashtags and more. Combining automation, scheduling and analytics to increase marketing team efficiency.

SocialOomph’s diverse features include the ability to schedule and post to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and LinkedIn; create visually appealing URL shortener links which take up less space in posts; comprehensive analytics and reporting tools provide marketers with data-driven decisions to optimize strategies; as well as visual URL shortener for visually appealing shortened links that reduce space consumption in posts.

MIT’s Open Courseware provides free online courses that can help small business owners understand the fundamentals of finance and managerial accounting, saving both money and time while providing essential skills that help expand their companies.

Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is a free tool that offers valuable data about which search terms people are using to find what they’re searching for. Although its main use case is Ads, SEO professionals also find its use invaluable. With it’s help they can identify how popular a term is as well as competition level and monthly searches performed against it.

Use the “searches for” filter to narrow your results and find keywords most pertinent to your product or service. Furthermore, “average monthly searches” can help identify long-tail keywords which might prove more successful. Furthermore, filter out terms which mention brands, products or services you don’t provide if possible.

Google Keyword Planner alone cannot give a full picture of your business, which is why for maximum effectiveness it should be combined with additional tools that provide a more holistic perspective of online marketing efforts – for instance SpyFu can assist with competitor analysis while Answer the Public provides an online library with frequently searched for questions that people are searching for.

HubSpot

Hubspot provides an all-in-one suite of marketing, sales and customer service tools. Additionally, they maintain an expansive library of online resources designed to support your marketing initiatives – no matter if you are an experienced marketer or just starting out. At the Hubspot University program you will learn valuable marketing tactics that will help grow your business!

Analytics and tracking features provided by Hubspot for small businesses can provide powerful insight into key metrics such as website traffic, lead generation, campaign performance and optimization of marketing strategies. You’ll be empowered with data-driven decisions to optimize marketing efforts effectively.

Your team can use its centralized database to track customer interactions and gain clear visibility into sales and marketing operations, which helps ensure everyone in the organization works towards common goals and objectives, thus improving communication and helping close more deals.

Hubspot makes content creation simple with their user-friendly CMS, enabling non-technical employees to edit websites without the need for agency or web design background employees. They also offer many free marketing tools designed specifically for small business owners to get them going with their campaigns.

ZenPayroll

ZenPayroll was previously known as Gusto when first launched and provides an online payroll solutions platform that integrates seamlessly with third-party accounting software such as Xero. Your bookkeeper or accountant can send wages and hours directly to ZenPayroll while the company handles everything else, such as deductions for health insurance policies or retirement policies such as 401K plans.

Service also features an employee self-onboarding process, which allows employees to directly add their information directly into the system, making it simpler for businesses to process paychecks on time and assist with W-2 and 1099 forms as necessary.

This company offers various plan tiers to accommodate businesses of varying structures. No matter which tier you select, however, their service automatically calculates and files local, state, and federal payroll taxes on your behalf – saving the business owner hours of paperwork by eliminating forms, payments, mailing and postage hassle. They also provide helpful prompts as well as phone, email and live chat support if needed.