24 hours…
Everyone has the same amount of time to achieve their business goals each day.
But are you using your allotted time as well as your competitors?
It’s easy to get lost in “busy work” rather than genuinely shifting the needle on the growth and progress of your business.
Working in the business rather than on it.
So how do you optimize your day? What productivity tools and tactics are you using to create space and opportunity for strategic work?
Here are the 9 best business productivity tools for growing companies.
#1. VEA
VEA is the most qualified virtual assistant you’ll ever hire.
It’s business management software on steroids… You’ll get more than tax reports and profitability statements but genuine insights on business growth opportunities.
Check out some of VEA’s most interesting productivity features:
- Strategic Insights – VEA’s algorithms use real-time data to tell you things like who your most profitable employees are, or which customers are worth keeping, and which you should run from.
- Customer Data – Keep track of your customers all in one place with linked assets, work orders, quotes, invoices, geo-location for marketing, and reports to show the quality of your customers.
- Smart Ticketing – Stay on top of every customer request with a robust ticketing system that allows you to prioritize tickets based on rules you create and collaborate with employees on customer tickets.
- Task Management – Assign and track tasks for employees. Similar to tickets but used internally and not linked to customers. This will help you get the most out of your team.
#2. Slack
Slack is positioned as an alternative to email for communicating with your team.
Basically, it’s an instant messaging application that you and your team can access from anywhere and at any time. It’s fast to deliver messages, well organized, and extremely user-friendly.
There is also a range of add-ons for Slack that allow you to share documents, make video calls, and integrate with the other apps you and your team use to get things done.
Find out more about Slack here.
#3. Trello
Trello is a project management tool that is built with an easy-to-understand and visually intuitive interface.
This tool helps you and your team collaborate, organize, and prioritize projects and the tasks that fall within them. You can assign jobs to team members, monitor their progress, add comments, create visual workflows, automate recurring tasks, and much more.
Find out more about Trello here.
#4. Google Workspace
Google Workspace was formerly referred to as G Suite.
It’s the perfect hub for businesses to manage, share, collaborate, and secure files and documents.
Workspace brings together a range of tools that you are probably already using and integrates with other apps to significantly increase your team’s efficiency when working on projects.
With Google Workspace you’ll have access to Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Gmail, Chat, Calendar, Drive, Meet, and more.
Find out more about Google Workspace here.
#5. Evernote
It may not make it onto everyone’s productivity tools list, but Evernote is the ultimate note-taking app for those that like to capture ideas on the run.
Rather than jotting down your ideas on a notepad, use the Evernote app and have access to those notes across multiple devices whenever you need them. Evernote also helps you tag your notes and find them quickly with a robust search functionality.
The cool features don’t stop there… With Evernote you can upload files, clip screenshots from the web, scan documents, and share everything with those that matter in your team.
Find out more about Evernote here.
#6. RescueTime
RescueTime is an application that allows you to track your time, block distractions, and access reports so you can optimize your day. It’s all about focussing you (and your team’s) energy on the right things at the right time.
With this tool, you get a rating based on your daily productivity and how much time you’ve spent on important tasks, compared to time-wasting. In short, it gamifies the day-to-day productivity of your team!
Find out more about RescueTime here.
#7. LastPass
LastPass is a password management tool that allows you to create a master password and then stores all of your passwords in an encrypted database so you can log in to everything with ease.
As I’m sure you can relate, forgetting your password for an app you use every day is frustrating. It can take minutes, sometimes longer, to reset the password and continue on with your day. A massive productivity killer! LastPass solves that problem.
LastPass also allows you to generate strong passwords automatically, share passwords with team members without showing the details, and numerous other valuable security features.
Find out more about LastPass here.
#8. Zapier
Zapier is an app connector. It enables you to automate workflows between the apps you use on a daily basis by creating workflows, so you can focus on other important tasks on your to-do list.
Always manually entering data into a Google Sheet from another source? Zapier can do it for you. And that’s just one very simple use-case. Zapier works with over 2,000 apps including Trello, Gmail, Slack, DocuSign, and many many more!
You can get started with a pre-designed workflow automation or you can create a new one yourself, it’s really simple to use. Zapier eliminates an enormous amount of “busy work” from your day.
Find out more about Zapier here.
#9. FollowUpThen
FollowUpThen is a secret little productivity tool that could be a gamechanger for your sales team or anyone looking to build relationships over email.
It’s extremely simple to use. All you need to do is put one of their time-based emails in the BCC field, such as “3days@followupthen.com” and the app will do the rest for you. You’ll receive an automated email in 3 days’ time reminding you to follow up with that recipient. It really is the simplest way to schedule an email reminder.
The coolest thing about this tool? You don’t need to install anything in your inbox. Simply type one of their emails into that BCC field and they’ll prompt you with a follow up when the time is right.
Find out more about FollowUpThen here.
Wrapping up
What could you and your team do with an extra hour or two each day?
Of course, it’s impossible to create more hours in the day. But what you can do is optimize your tasks and interactions so that they take less time and free you up to focus on business-critical jobs.
Consider auditing all of the things you do in a week, from accounting to communication and follow-ups – could any of that be outsourced, automated, or optimized?
The post The 9 Best Business Productivity Software Tools For Growing Companies appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.
source https://www.jeffbullas.com/business-productivity-software-tools/
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