When it comes to running a business, you need all the help you can get. Even if you’ve got years of experience under your belt, businesses require a lot of time, attention, and different skill sets which makes it difficult for just one or a few people to manage on their own. In fact, 66 percent of small businesses outsource projects and services to other small businesses. Additionally, thanks to the web, there are plenty of tools and resources available to business owners that can help you keep operations running smoothly while reducing the requirement and pressure that is placed on you, yet still, 46 percent of businesses will fail because the owner or executive staff are incompetent.
Even if you don’t know all of the ins and outs of business, though, or don’t even know all of the ins and outs of your industry, your business is not doomed to fail. Whether you’re one of the 543,000 businesses that just started up this month or have been at it for a while, if you know and are using the many tools and resources that are available to you on the web, you can help keep your business moving forward and growing as you want. Here are 10 of the top business resources that you should be using to ensure success:
- Oberlo
Oberlo is a website that focuses on serving ecommerce entrepreneurs by helping connect them with products and suppliers; however, they have many different resources that all types of businesses can benefit from using. For example, their free video editing software roundup helps all types of businesses get access to a video editor to create professional videos without having to spend a small fortune.
- Fundera
Fundera is a website that helps small businesses learn about and find the best financing options for them. Did you know that 82 percent of businesses fail because of cash flow problems? The website can help you avoid failing due to funding issues and, in addition, they offer plenty of other resources and articles that can help you get your business running more smoothly.
- Moz
If you’re doing your marketing yourself—or even if you’re not—Moz is a website you need to keep bookmarked. Between their products that help you improve your SEO and their blog and other resources including a community Q&A and SEO trainings, the website can help you boost your SEO knowledge and make the changes you need to start seeing better results from your online marketing efforts.
- Entrepreneur
Nearly everyone is familiar with Entrepreneur between the original magazine and today’s increasingly popular website. And, just as the name suggests, it’s geared toward entrepreneurs who are looking for advice and insight that will help them start and run their businesses. If you’re not following it already, you should be since it covers every topic you can imagine from how to start a business to how to choose the best employees.
- Quickbooks
As a small business, you don’t always have a big budget for certain positions and certain tools, that’s why Quickbooks is one of the top resources that made the list. If you don’t have an accounting department and have been struggling to manage it all yourself, then look no further—Quickbooks can handle everything for you from tracking income and organizing receipts to tracking sales and invoicing. It even has options to help you with payroll, all for a price that can fit within your budget. On top of that, it can grow with you as your business gets growing.
Google as a search tool is very useful, but Google offers many more resources than just the ability to search and get answers to questions. Between the cloud storage services they offer, the Google Analytics tool, the Google My Business resource, Gmail for business, and the ability to conduct searches, you can use Google to run and manage your business, more or less. And what’s great is that a lot of the tools that Google offers are free.
- BPlans.com
Whether you’re starting a business or starting a new chapter in your business, you need a plan, and one of the best resources for creating and executing a plan is BPlans.com. With articles that cover everything from business ideas and plan templates to tools you can use to manage your business, it’s one of the top business resources on the web that you’ll wish you had started using sooner if you haven’t been using it already.
- Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a tool that you definitely need if you’re using social media as one of your marketing mediums, (and you should be). It lets you manage all of your social media accounts in one place, schedule posts in advance, and get useful analytics that will help you continually improve your social media marketing efforts. It can become really tedious to have to get on and post each day, and the analytics that are available through different platforms aren’t always as useful as you might like, so Hootsuite is a tool you can definitely benefit from using.
- Pixaby
A picture’s worth a thousand words but paying for stock photos isn’t always an option—especially if you can’t find the perfect photo and don’t want to pay for one that’s just mediocre. Pixaby solves all that, though. Pixaby is a website with free stock photos available for you to search, choose from, and download with no strings attached. You can then use the image in your blog post, social media ad, or on your website to help enhance the text you have written and improve the aesthetic of your brand.
LinkedIn is a great resource for businesses between the helpful articles that get shared around and the many possible connections you can make. Even if you’re not actively using it as a social media platform, it’s still a great resource for finding job candidates or connecting with potential partners, suppliers, etc. It makes it easy to see someone’s experience and qualifications at a glance, cutting down on the time you spend looking for someone to fill a position.
In Conclusion
Running a business is hard work, but with the right tools and resources like those named above, some of that work can be made easier and you can get things running more smoothly. Whether you’ve just started your first business or are a seasoned entrepreneur, using the right tools and resources really can make all the difference. What are some of the other top business resources you like to use?
