Running a startup profitably is no small feat. Traditionally, running a startup comes with a bouquet of challenges. From lean budget to workforce and website maintenance, you may wear many hats to keep your startup thriving.
Fortunately, we live in the golden era where you will find hundreds of tech tools that can help in managing the most common startup problems.
With 30% of startups failing in the second year and 50% in the fifth year, investment in online tools could differ between success and failure.
Choosing a tool is like selecting a dress you wore on your prom night – it takes time, you need to learn about the features and buy one that fits your needs. There is no one-size-fits-all tool.
That’s why it becomes an uphill battle to choose tools that can help your startup thrive.
To make your life easier, we’ve listed some tools to include in your tech stack.
5 TOOLS TO CONSIDER USING TO HELP YOUR STARTUP THRIVE
While getting your business off to a good start requires no magic wand, many things can help ensure your startup thrives, and one way is using SaaS tools. Here are the top five tools to consider:
1) DESIGN TOOLS
Depending upon the niche and industry your startup works, you might require tools that can help in bringing your designs to life. If you’re an interior designing consultancy, investing in a house design software like Foyr can be great for building new houses and remodeling existing ones.
Foyr helps you conceptualize every thought of your client in reality and lets you paint your imagination onto a canvas.
Interestingly, explaining the concept verbally may not stir your client’s excitement when showing a home or office design. But Foyr makes it easy for a startup to present their concepts using a visual presentation.
Showing your client the 3D model of their house helps in avoiding rework. This is beneficial when dealing with clients who are indecisive about the interior design of their house. Without spending a dime on reconstruction, you can tweak and change things.
Having design software helps you complete projects on a budget. Using design SaaS software, you can brainstorm new ideas and improve the aesthetic look of your brand.
Reason for using design software: With people remembering 80% of what they see, compared to 20% of what they read and 10% of what they hear, design software could be a game-changer for your startup.
2) INFOGRAPHIC MAKER
Around 2012, every business was busy making infographics, but thanks to link builders, this trend soon diminished? Why? Every other person was making an infographic just because it was a trend.
As a result, many infographics were lost in the vast realm of the internet. But well-designed infographics will always be popular, and startups are widely using them as a part of their content marketing strategy.
But the effort needed to design an infographic can make you drop the idea. That’s when an infographic maker like Piktochart comes in.
If you have a long blog post full of interesting statistics and figures, convert it into an infographic – it’s great for SEO.
It’s more about helping the reader make sense of your content. When website visitors connect with your content, they’re more likely to come back and make a purchase. Infographics can turn your website into a lead-generating magnet.
The infographic maker from Piktochart provides in-built infographic editable templates that help you create eye-popping visuals. With the free library of graphics and design components, you can create infographics that customers cannot overlook.
Having the ability to customize graphics to your brand can help you create awareness and recognition. Using Piktochart’s brand asset, ensure all your graphics align to your brand. From magically extracting brand colors to using company fonts, it’s a great tool designed to answer all your infographic needs.
Reason for using an infographic maker: With 44% of marketers ranking creating an infographic creation seven or higher in terms of difficulty, use Piktochart to bring down this ranking to 2 or 3.
3) EMAIL MARKETING TOOLS
With stringent budgets and limited funding, startups often find themselves in deep waters when it comes to investing their marketing dollars. Why?
They don’t have the financial cushion to make a mistake! They need to attract new clients while ensuring that the existing ones keep coming back. That’s why email marketing is the backbone for startups looking to thrive in a competitive world. From growing your customer base to reaching out to new customers to building a reputation – email marketing has your startup covered.
Email marketing tools like MailChimp are your best bet because of their user-friendly interface and excellent ROI. With their free plan, you can create and schedule emails. What makes this a must-have tool in your tech arsenal is the recommendation feature that provides valuable audience insights and helps you optimize your marketing efforts.
Designing and creating emails on this platform is a breeze because MailChimp allows you to store your images and files. This email platform lets you automate your emails based on the buyer’s journey, increasing customer satisfaction.
Reason for using an email marketing tool: Email drives an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent – making it an affordable option for startups.
4) SOCIAL MEDIA AUTOMATION TOOLS
What’s better than reaching out to your audience on platforms where they already spend too much time? Yes, we’re talking about social media platforms. With some of the top social media platforms boasting millions of active users, not using these platforms to create brand awareness is like stepping on fire – you know you will get hurt!
But, it’s pointless to spend hours performing mundane tasks like posting content daily, answering customer queries, and curating content. Instead, use a social media automation tool to automate your mundane tasks while you keep on growing your startup.
Tools like SocialPilot can make your life easier. With SocialPilot, you enjoy tons of features like calendar management, social media scheduling, client management, and much more. As the tool allows integration with all social media platforms, it could help to increase your online presence.
From providing helpful analytics on your automated social media posts to monitoring your campaigns, it shifts your focus on brainstorming ideas instead of wasting time scheduling and rescheduling posts on social media.
Reason for using a social media automation tool: Automation for your social media posts and ads can save businesses six hours a week.
5) PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS
Startups differ from small businesses in many aspects. In a startup, team members across many areas rely on business transparency and easy access to updates for success. Also, a startup requires agility to tackle problems when they crop up. Otherwise, it could risk its existence.
That’s where project management comes to your rescue. As project management is an art orchestrating all the moving pieces of your startup into a concrete plan, using a to-do list or sticky notes no longer yields desirable results.
Enter project management tools like Asana.
With Asana, you can create and manage different tasks and assign them to a project. A Kanban-style user interface, use, and simplicity are three features that distinguish Asana from the other project management tools floating in the market.
You and your team can view projects and tasks in different views, including lists, Kanban, workloads, timelines, calendars, and portfolios. Interestingly, each team member can manage tasks in a way it works best for them.
Easy switching between views provides project managers or business owners with a real-time overview of the project’s status. Due to its user-friendly interface, you will not spend too much time navigating through the software. From attaching files, adding a category to each task, and defining each task, Asana helps ensure your team stays productive and organized.
It’s a tool that makes project management for complex tasks a breeze without spending too much money.
Reason for using a project management tool: According to research, 77% of high-performing business projects use a project management tool.
CHOOSING THE BEST TOOL FOR YOUR STARTUP
The road to a thriving startup is filled with prickly thorns, and you’re likely to face roadblocks with every step you take.
With the latest technology, you can transform your startup into a creative and growth-hacking landscape. The five tools listed above are crown jewels for startups because they help make a positive impact on your business’s bottom line.
When shopping for the best tool for your startup, look for ones that can scale up and grow with your business. These tools are just a means of ensuring productivity to focus on business growth rather than worrying about what infographic your team is building.
Many of the tools above offer a free subscription or a free trial. Use the free trial to get hands-on experience and choose based on your business requirement.
