The life of an online female entrepreneur often feels like a hamster wheel. From accounting to project management, you wear multiple hats. If you feel like you are losing control, do not worry. Many cloud-based business tools can help you optimize business operations. Here are some of them.
Hubstaff Tasks: Project Management
Using Excel or paper documents for managing multiple projects and remote employees can often feel like catching the wind. That is where project management software can help.
Hubstaff Tasks provides numerous task tracking and employee collaboration features. You can create checklists, set deadlines, and track project progress.
Your remote workers can communicate in real-time, share links, and attach files. That way, it improves employee collaboration and increases productivity.
Shared Contacts for Gmail: Contact Management and Synchronization
As an online entrepreneur, your goal is to eliminate the silo mentality from your team. That is where software solutions like Shared Contacts for Gmail shines. With it, you can increase contact transparency without having to pay for complex CRM software.
Shared Contacts for Gmail is available as a mobile app, web app, and Chrome extension. It turns your Gmail inbox into a mini-CRM solution, letting you create, manage, and share Google Contacts in real-time.
Most importantly, you do not need to switch between apps to find contact information. Whether they use WhatsApp, Google Contacts, or Outlook, you have immediate access to the contact list.
Shared Contacts for Gmail provides greater data control, allowing you to assign permissions and restore deleted data. With its logging system, you can track who added, updated, or shared contacts.
FreshBooks: Cloud-Based Accounting
When starting an online business, tracking your finances with spreadsheets may be a good starting point. However, as your company grows, manually logging your transactions can be frustrating. Apart from taking lots of time, the process is also prone to error.
That is where accounting software like Freshbooks steps in. Whether you are a self-employed professional or hire remote employees, tracking your cash flow has never been simpler. Since Freshbooks is cloud-based, it allows you to manage your finances and track your cash flow anywhere.
With tools like Freshbooks, you can:
- Create invoices.
- Log and organize your expenses.
- Accept online payments and boost client relationships.
- Generate easy-to-understand financial reports.
- Leverage automated checks and balances to increase their accuracy.
The tool even has the time-tracking option. That feature is perfect for freelancers and online solopreneurs who charge clients per hour or project. It allows you to track how much time you spent on projects, allowing you to generate more accurate invoices.
LinkedIn: Online Brand Reputation
Being a female entrepreneur in a male-dominated business world can be tedious. You may need to fight against gender bias when building your reputation, seeking funding, etc.
As the largest professional network, LinkedIn goes far beyond staying on top of the hottest news in the business world.
It can help you build a recognizable personal brand. The platform allows you to connect with professionals across various industries. For you, that is the opportunity to create relevant and fresh content that will engage your connections. By promoting your blog content and creating insightful LinkedIn posts, you prove your industry value and credibility.
LinkedIn also benefits your recruitment strategy. It allows you to search for industry professionals based on their qualifications, industry, experience, skills, and location.
Slack: Team Collaboration
Managing and engaging a distributed team can be challenging. That is why the number of businesses investing in team collaboration tools has grown since the Coronavirus outbreak. According to a recent Gartner survey, 80% of employees have been using collaboration tools in 2021.
Team collaboration tools enable you to streamline employee communications irrespective of their locations. Unsurprisingly, Slack is many entrepreneurs’ first choice.
With this slick IM tool, you will spend less time searching through your email list or shuffling Google Sheets tabs. It keeps all of your team collaboration in a central location. Employees can create countless channels for various projects, clients, or topics. Apart from instant messaging, Slack also enables voice and video calls. Your staff members can share files in real-time, as well as connect with teams at other companies.
Over to You
The digital marketplace delivers numerous benefits to female entrepreneurs. However, to harness its power, you need to equip yourself with the right tools.
Sure, that is not a comprehensive list of all applications you should use. However, it may help you get your online business off the ground.
Article by Sophia Smith
