15 Online Business Tools All Entrepreneurs Should Use

The internet has revolutionized the way we do business – from its impact and cost-effectiveness as a communication medium and vehicle for gathering a swathe of information to the way in which it innovates payments and enables collaboration.

In this hyperconnected age, online tools are vital to any business’s success. Once you consider the impact COVID-19 has on ways of work and the widespread adoption of technological tools to enable remote work¹, we can double down on this assertion.

Whether you’re a workplace veteran interested in starting a business, a small business entrepreneur keen to reshape the way you work and grow your business, or a fresh-faced entrepreneur with a flourishing side gig, your business will have to cover several bases.

Thankfully, there’s a large selection of online business tools and courses available, most of which are intuitive to use and not prohibitive in terms of subscription costs. Whether you’re offering a product or service, it’s critical to know that online business tools can make your business more productive and competitive.

Let’s take a look at a selection of online tools that can help you achieve success.

The best business tools for entrepreneurs running businesses from home

How will your customers find you online? A website designed with its audience front of mind will establish rapport with its visitors and encourage users to take action. It can convey your particular message while simultaneously engaging your visitors. To ensure you’ve created a great user experience, you need to focus on enhancing your website’s usability (its look and feel, and appearance) and navigation (its functionality).²

Here are three options to get you started:

1. WordPress

Forty-three percent of the web is built on WordPress.³ WordPress is open source and comes with thousands of pre-built website designs, extensions, themes, and plugins. In addition, it’s extremely flexible and works with almost every third-party tool and service available to website owners.⁴

2. Shopify

Shopify is a complete e-commerce platform that lets you start, grow, and manage a business with extremely low start-up costs.⁵ The subscription-based software allows anyone to set up an online store and sell their products with an easy-to-understand interface. Shopify store owners can also trade in physical locations using Shopify POS – its point-of-sale app and accompanying hardware. In addition, if you want to build an online shop with an e-commerce website builder, Shopify lets you customize your store, accept credit cards, and seek support 24/7.

3. Webflow

As an alumnus of startup accelerator Y Combinator, this San Francisco-based company is backed by serious funding. While other platforms tend to be marketed to less technical users, Webflow is in the unique position of offering a product that targets designers. They do this with a solution that’s powerful enough to convert high-spec designs into a fully functional website – with no coding required.⁶

The best online business tools to streamline operations

If you need tools to manage all areas of your business, including communication, finance management, storage, and distribution – you’re in luck. There are many powerful products out there.

4. Google Chat and Google Workspace

Google’s recently released Google Chat for Gmail and Google Workspace is the technology company’s answer to collaboration. Google Chat is a complete overhaul of the old Google Hangouts product, and is distinctly different and far better than its predecessor.⁷

If these communication tools aren’t for you, you may want to consider:

• Slack
• Zoom
• Loom

5. FreshBooks

Their homepage says it all: “Small Business Accounting Software Designed for You.” 

Originally created in 2003, FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting program used by millions of small business owners worldwide. FreshBooks fulfills multiple requirements for businesses that require an accounting software that manages invoicing, recurring billing, accounting, and payroll. If you’re looking for a digital tool to enable you with your accounting and invoicing requirements, FreshBooks is a sound solution that will help you keep track of cash flow and expenses, create expense reports, and receive online payments more efficiently.⁸

6. Zoho Invoice

This software is specific to invoicing and helps you create invoices, automatically send payment reminders, manage your expenses, and run reports – all online. For small and medium business owners, Zoho Invoice offers an adaptable and agile service that allows for bespoke synthesis of different data sets through automation. It is a comprehensive billing and invoicing website suitable for many types of businesses, especially startups and sole proprietors. This tool, designed to work as a stand-alone solution, stands out for its versatility and tightly focused feature set.⁹

You may also want to consider:

• Xero
• Monzo
• Waveapp

7. Dropbox, iCloud, and Google Drive

These tools provide a platform or space for clients to store and manage their files and data, and seamlessly integrate with each client’s internal software systems. Both offer subscription services for accounts beyond small-scale. Google Drive and Dropbox also allow for real-time document editing by multiple users.

8. Salesforce

This is a globally-recognized Customer Relations Management (CRM) system with services translated into various languages. The tool is used by over 150,000 customers worldwide.

What initially began as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company in the CRM space grew to become a full-scale cloud-based platform that users know as the Salesforce of today. It was founded in 1999 to make software purchases easier. Salesforce allows for companies to cherry pick the CRM products they require, rather than compelling them to buy a one-size-fits-all product.

Salesforce made it even easier for businesses to use its software with its cloud-based platform. Cloud-based platforms offer a solution that is almost always cheaper, faster, more secure, and can grow exponentially in a short space of time. In addition, Salesforce’s suite of services have kept pace with the platform’s growth, with products continually added to its CRM platform, as well as various third-party apps also regularly included.¹⁰

You may also want to consider Microsoft 365.

The best online business tools for use in sales and marketing

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

– Peter Drucker

9. Unbounce

This is a handy tool that allows you to create, publish, and test responsive and focused landing pages without the need for IT support. There are plenty of landing page builders on the market today, but one of the standout things about Unbounce is that it’s a purely conversion-driven platform. Landing pages have several purposes, but their primary objective is to provide content that urges visitors to convert into potential and paying customers. Unbounce is one such platform specifically built to do this. Unbounce comes with unlimited A/B testing, which is crucial for optimizing for conversions. It also comes with built-in tools designed to capture more leads, including pop-ups, and sticky bars and AI optimization features.¹¹

10. Google AdWords

AdWords offers Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, Cost-Per-Thousand (CPM) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for text, banner, and rich-media ads, including local, national, and international distribution. Google AdWords are critical for optimizing a business’s online presence as they generally offer faster results than SEO. Both SEO and Google AdWords are search engine marketing strategies aimed at generating more traffic and leads. When it comes to search traffic and reaching that desired top spot, a well-planned AdWords campaign will yield faster lead volumes for a business.¹²

11. Facebook ads

Facebook ads are similar to PPC advertising, but there’s one key difference: instead of paying for sponsored links, you advertise to members within a social network whose profiles contain keywords you’ve identified. Facebook ads can help a business increase its online profile with targeted audiences and drive increased traffic to the flagship website content – whether site content, simple adverts, or blog articles. You can set up Facebook ads to target greater site traffic, more impressions, and your desired Click-Through-Rate (CTR). ¹³

12. LinkedIn Advertising

The latest LinkedIn statistics show that as of January 2020, 663.3 million people can be targeted with LinkedIn ads; this demonstrates growth of 1.6 percent every quarter for LinkedIn. The U.S. makes up the lion’s share of LinkedIn advertising audiences, reaching 160 million users. A significant proportion of these are small business entrepreneurs and business professionals.¹⁴

The best online business tools to help you build your digital community

In the age of the powerful consumer, how will you keep promises and maintain trust? Let’s take a look at your options for building a loyal online community:

13. Email

Email marketing is as essential in the digital space as a sound social media strategy. Bulk email software tools like MailChimp and GraphicMail help you create, send, and analyze email and ad campaigns. The software offers complete campaign transparency, email tracking, view success and CTRs, custom reports, and the ability to manage subscribers and un-subscribers. These features allow you to provide relevant, valuable information to your users in a friendly and visually appealing format that attracts more opt-ins than opt-outs.

You may also want to consider:

• Microsoft 365 Dynamics
• Active Campaign

The best online business tools to drive collaboration

As your team expands, how will you manage collaboration? These tools could make all the difference:

14. Asana

This online project management system allows you to create projects and tasks, inspire conversation, get only the notifications you need, and monitor your team’s progress. Asana’s automation features are more powerful than the features offered by its competitors. In addition, it comes with a modest price tag and is flexible enough to match how you do business rather than the other way around. Plus, its free plan is second to none.¹⁵

15. Basecamp

This is another popular web-based project management tool offering to-do lists, milestone management, file sharing, time tracking, and messaging. Basecamp is an online app that empowers collaboration, simultaneously empowering more efficient communication between colleagues and a means to manage work collectively. The app covers all aspects of project management from tracking tasks, deadlines, files, discussions, and team announcements. But this is still too simplistic a description – it’s actually more of a collaboration app thanks to its flexible structure, lack of Gantt charts, and other differentiators. Basecamp is more like a virtual hub for teams and organizations, and is very affordable for large teams.¹⁶ 

You may also want to consider: 

• Monday.com
• Trello

With these business tools, you’ll be primed for elevating your business and leveraging your current expertise.

Thinking about starting a business?

First, it would be helpful to understand the four principles of dynamic work design. A quick read of our article on how employees and systems function together to best achieve business goals will help deepen your comprehension of these principles. Then, register for the University of Cape Town (UCT) Small Business: Growth and Management online short course. In just eight weeks, the course will guide you in nurturing your existing business knowledge to become a successful business owner.

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Become a successful entrepreneur with this online business course