By now, everybody knows the statistics about start-ups. New businesses face long odds of success. However, with the right approach and mindset any startup can beat those odds and go on to become the next Facebook or Google. Technology plays a critical role especially for startups because they do not have large resources available at their disposal. Today’s best apps can reduce your costs, improve your efficiency, and enhance productivity. Here are six essential tech tools for start-ups.
1. Rocket Ranking
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the end-all, be-all of website traffic. This is the methodology through which you persuade Google and other search engines to rank the pages of your websites higher than those of your competitors. Without SEO, you’ll effectively be shouting into the darkness every time you post something on the company website.
Businesses that employ SEO properly stand to gain dramatically. Simply by ranking above others in your industry, you’ll become the most popular site with the best chance of sales conversions. How important is SEO? One out of every three customers visits the top site in Google results. Rocket Ranking will build the backlinks you need to become highly listed on search engines. It’s an imperative for your organization.
2. Moz
If you plan to take your SEO seriously, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with Moz. It offers some of the most powerful SEO tools available in the marketplace. They use their own products for website optimization. Not coincidentally, they’re ranked in the top three for most major SEO keywords on Google. By using Moz, you’ll learn all your strengths and weaknesses with web page optimization. Plus, if you subscribe to their service, you’ll receive an even better set of SEO tools.
3. Buffer
Viral social media publishing is more important than ever. Buffer understands that your SEO grading includes a social component. This software provides you with the ability to schedule future postings on web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. That way, you can plan an entire week’s worth of program content in one sitting thanks to this robust app.
4. Powerful Computers
Some companies cut corners in the worst possible ways. They purchase cheap systems without enough memory or processor speed. The result is that employees wind up sitting idly while they wait for the hourglass to go away from their screen. It’s a rookie mistake that ignores an obvious aspect of running a business. Your employee payroll is your biggest expense as a small business owner.
Providing underpowered computers lessens the productivity of your staff. Plus, the savings is only in the hundreds of dollars per system. Each member of your staff makes hundreds of dollars every day. Make them spend their time in a more valuable way. To do that, you’ll want to purchase one of the best 2-in-1 laptops available, such as a Lenovo Yoga. Such hybrid systems deliver the power of a laptop combined with the portability of a tablet.
5. Expensify
Nobody enjoys running expense reports. It is dreary work, and making a mistake has crippling consequences for one’s business. Your employees don’t want that pressure, and you don’t want the future of your business depending on other people keeping their receipts.
Expensify removes the guesswork from the process. No matter the type of accounting software you use, it will integrate with Expensify to verify and collate all financial transactions performed by yourself as well as your employees. It’s the ultimate safeguard against irregular accounting practices.
6. Google Drive
No matter the industry you’re in, odds are good that you work outside the office on a regular basis. As a dedicated business owner, you likely take your job home with you at night. There’s also a lot of travel during the early years of a company’s growth pattern.
You don’t want to discover while you’re on the road that the file you need is on your work computer. That’s where cloud software such as Google Drive comes into play. By using this product, you’ll effectively create a hard drive shared across all your computers and smart devices. Every file you upload to the cloud will be visible to these devices. It’s a robust solution to the problem of business travel.
Sustaining your business through the shaky days of its start-up requires some forward thinking. Download and master the software above to ensure your chances of future growth.
Image via Flickr by IntelFreePress
