Apps That Will Help Your Startup Be Successful
90% of tech startups don’t succeed, according to recent data from Forbes. As for other small-scale businesses, the news is not exactly encouraging either. Only around 66% of those in the U.S. will continue to operate past their first two years. There’s no magic formula to making your own startup beat those odds. The following apps, however, will give you the tools that will be necessary to continue business past those first two years.
Zoho
Zoho is a customer relationship management software (CRM) that enables you to store pertinent information about your existing clients as well as those whose business you’re pursuing. It’s free to use, which should be music to the ears of startups operating on shoestring budgets. It’s not some clunky software that will use up tons of memory. It’s web-based and has proven success at speeding up the rate at which businesses close sales. It can also be used to track the cycle of a sale from the moment it enters the pipeline to the point at which it’s closed.
When I Work
Scheduling teams that work remotely is a challenge. Freelance schedules can be particularly difficult to manage. Then business have to manage employees who take time off or call in sick. Tracking their schedules is tough. When I Work has 20,000 users, which is proof that it’s a tool that businesses find helpful to their bottom line. It’s available for Android and Mac both, so it enables the constant communication necessary to manage ever shifting schedules. Its 2-way text messaging system allows members of your team to take slots on open shifts. Schedule planning is possible in real time.
Periscope
A growing number of companies have some, if not all of their staff, working off-site. Statistics from Gallup show that approximately 37% of the U.S. workforce works remotely. Organizing meetings can be complicated, consequently. Conference calls are known for being awkward and lack the dynamic Kafka on AWS features of live streaming. Periscope allows you to broadcast live, which is proving to be the most stimulating way for colleagues who are not all in the same room to interact with each other. Best yet, they can talk face to face. No one’s shouting into a phone speaker. it’s completely interactive and, unlike video chat applications, Periscope broadcasts can be recorded and shared later.
Basecamp
Group projects have a lot of moving parts. There’s always the risk that there’s no agreement on what direction should be taken to complete them. That’s why teams collaborating on complex projects should use software. Using Basecamp ensures that you meet completion deadlines and are able to track progress along the way. It can also be deployed to ensure that you stay within budget. Log in to this highly fluid project management tool and review what milestones have been achieved. it facilitates collaboration and enables changes in direction with just a few clicks.
Shoeboxed
The name says it all. The days of collecting important paperwork in a shoebox are over. Shoeboxed can be used to scan and digitize documents quickly. Those documents can then be integrated into the desired application. It’s the ultimate answer to making the best of the many business cards your sales reps collect at conferences. Shoebox will enable you to turn them into leads you can follow up on quickly. It also can be used to track their expense accounts by putting apache kafka to use. It also works great as a tax preparation tool and offers a variety of plans and prices.
While having an effective infrastructure was once something expensive limited to large companies, it’s now possible for small ventures. There’s no magic bullet when it comes to being successful, but if you’re a startup trying to succeed, using these apps will certainly improve the odds.
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