Essential Online Tools for Startups
Launching a startup is so much fun—but it can also be a huge challenge.
Before you know it, you need to complete this task, that task and then another task.
The great news is that you don’t need to do anything alone. As well as working alongside a partner, you can also utilize online tools, such as an answering service for small businesses, that are designed to help startups complete specific tasks and grow their business with ease.
In this article, we’ll be taking a look at the best startup tools that are on the market today. We’ll be looking at tools to help you generate startup ideas, tools to help you market your business, tools to help you find funding, and so on.
Best Idea Generation Tools
If you’re still stuck at the beginning stages and need an idea for startup tools, or if perhaps you’re looking to tweak your idea and make it better, there are a handful of excellent startup ideation tools that can help you take that first step.
Clarity
Clarity bills itself as a tool that gives you “on-demand business advice.”
It works like this: If you’ve got the germ of an idea in your head but can’t seem to fully flesh it out, you can get on the phone with an industry expert who’ll help to bring your ideas to life.
Calls are charged based on the expert's per-minute rate, and you can talk to experts who are well-versed in areas such as social media marketing, email marketing, business strategy, business development and marketplaces.
Indeed, it may even be the case that you’ve already got an idea but you’re just not sure which platforms are the right ones for you. Clarity can help with these types of questions and more.
Squadhelp
Squadhelp is on hand to help entrepreneurs who’ve ground out their business idea—but simply can’t think of an appropriate name.
If you’ve exhausted all ideas already and asked your friends and family, as well as friends of friends and uncle’s of uncle’s but still can’t come up with a suitable name, Squadhelp lets you create a “naming contest” that puts your startup idea in the hands of experts who generate ideas.
You can also pick one of Squadhelp’s already-existing startup names, and purchase it on the spot.
Best Marketing Tools
Once you’ve launched your startup, it’s time to work on your marketing campaign.
A solid marketing strategy is important for any business, but it’s doubly important for fresh startups that need to put their products and services in front of the right customers. It doesn’t require a huge initial investment, but it always helps if you’re using a small business marketing tool that will help guide you through the process.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media marketing tool that helps you build a buzz around your startup on the likes of Facebook and Instagram, as well as boost your sales.
“Going it alone” on social media can be a time-consuming, costly endeavor. While your customers are out there among the millions of social media users, finding them, directing them and engaging them is so difficult to do when there are thousands of brands all vying for their attention.
Hootsuite makes your life so much easier by giving you a personalized dashboard from which you can schedule all your posts, keep track of your feeds, engage with your followers, and gain access to analytics that show you what’s working and what needs changing. Understanding the dynamics to grow on social media can significantly amplify your startup's visibility and engagement, driving valuable traffic and potential customers to your platforms.
One of the most useful aspects about Hootsuite is that it shows you each time someone has replied to your post, or mentioned you in a post. This is especially useful for when your startup is beginning to grow on social media.
As well as managing social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, you can also use Hootsuite to manage the likes of WordPress and GooglePlus.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics has for many years been many a startup’s go-to tool for marketing data. It’s totally free to use, and yet it’s also so powerful that you’re able to see exactly where your website traffic is coming from, as well as track website visitors and how they are behaving.
In other words, what pages are they engaging with, what pages are they quickly exiting—and are they converting?
And if not, why not?
Essentially, Google Analytics helps you understand your customers and your traffic better, which in turn helps you build better SEO marketing campaigns to drive qualified traffic that, once on your website, starts to convert at a better rate.
For instance, it might be the case that your PPC campaigns are driving traffic to a specific landing page, but that the landing page in question isn’t delivering on the promises made in the PPC ad.
Best Graphic Design Tool
Graphic design tools are essential for creating visually stunning content that captivates your audience. These tools provide various features, such as pre-designed templates, customization options, and user-friendly interfaces, enabling anyone to design professional-grade graphics. By using an advanced graphic design tool, you can save time, maintain brand consistency, and produce impactful designs for your business or personal projects.
DesignWiz
DesignWiz stands out as a top graphic design tool, specializing in creating eye-catching flyers with ease. It offers an extensive library of customizable templates, making it simple to design promotional materials that align with your brand. With its intuitive drag-and-drop editor, DesignWiz requires no prior design experience, allowing anyone to create professional flyers in minutes. Perfect for businesses, events, or personal projects, DesignWiz is a time-saving solution that delivers high-quality results effortlessly.
Best Startup Funding Tools
Checks and balances might sound like a dull subject, but it’s so important that you understand your financial situation. If you don’t, you’ll struggle to attract investors and grow your business.
Naturally, no startup will survive for more than a few weeks if it hasn’t got the right funding behind it. And while you can try to do everything yourself, it’s a much better idea to use both tools and investors to help you out.
Uncapped
Uncapped is a financial technology company that provides a type of financing called revenue-based finance.
Revenue-based finance is becoming increasingly popular among companies who are swerving the more traditional route of going to a bank and asking for start up loans.
In a nutshell, revenue-based financing is when you offer a percentage of your future revenue to investors in exchange for capital right now. This allows you to grow your startup in the immediate present, and if you have an excellent few months later down the line, you can slash your repayment term.
Uncapped acts quickly and with flexibility to get you your funding within 24 hours, and the team is open to working with super creative and diverse startups who are on a mission.
Crunchbase
Looking to find investors, investment opportunities and prospects?
Or maybe you just want to carry out more market research.
Crunchbase lets you do all of this and more via its powerful solution that’s designed to connect you with the people that can help to fund your business, or otherwise just help it grow.
Once you’ve created an account, you get access to Crunchbase’s database that’s rich with funding, investor and startup data. You can create custom lists, personalize your alerts, and the tool is used by both startups and investors.
In other words, just as you can use Crunchbase to find funding opportunities, investors can use it to find you first.
Best MVP Tools
A minimum value product (MVP) might not be fundamental for all startups, but it helps you test your idea before you launch it fully. It can save you time and money, and gives you a chance to generate market feedback that can help you make the necessary half-time adjustments.
Google Forms
Like the aforementioned Google Analytics, Google Forms is completely free to use. It helps you to create quick and easy surveys that you can share with your team members and customers to ask them what they like about your product and what they don’t like.
You can create information sheets and questionnaires, and the survey tool is backed up by high-level security so that all your info is in safe hands.
To create a survey for customer feedback through WP Survey Plugin, you just need to enter the software, click the “customer feedback” template, name your survey and pop in some questions. As long as you ask open-ended questions that will help you achieve your goal, Google Forms is one of the best, most cost-effective ways to learn more about how the market feels about your products.
Depending on what type of startup you have, there’s a chance you’ll be able to find your core customers on LinkedIn.
You can find them, introduce your brand and product, before politely asking if they wouldn’t mind testing and reviewing your product (and giving you feedback).
LinkedIn is used by 810,000,000 people around the world, and is recognised as the biggest networking hub for professionals who are eager to share ideas, hire recruits—and learn more about new brands and services.
Best Project Management Tools
Once your startup is up and running, you’ll have a team, tasks and projects that all need managing—and keeping track can be hard.
To make your operations more efficient so that everyone knows what they’re doing (and when they need to do it by), as well as improve communications, project management tools come in super handy.
Trello
Widely regarded as the OG of project management tools, Trello acts as a centralized hub where your team can work together, collaborate together—and grow together.
The tool lets you create customisable boards for better workflows, and there are multiple integrations you can take advantage of to get even more out of the app and your team.
More recently, Trello added a Timeline view so that you can see at a glance where your entire project is at.
Asana
Asana is an alternative option to Trello. It might be that your team works better on Trello, or it might be that they work better on Asana.
Like Trello, Asana is a project management-come-collaboration tool that brings your team together in one place. With a modern design, the software is designed to enhance creativity, boost productivity, and make it easy for your team to upload documents, swap files—and ultimately meet deadlines and get things done.
Best Business Management Tools
Lastly, business management tools help you understand and improve your processes. They show you any areas of your business that are perhaps slowing you down, such as mundane tasks, and introduce you to ways that you can streamline your operations and make your business more efficient.
ZoomShift
ZoomShift is a piece of scheduling software that’s designed to help you create schedules that work for everyone. Your team members get to have more autonomy over when they work, while you get to see at a glance when your employees are working, and when they’re not working.
This allows you as a startup to get the most out of your team, and your work weeks.
ZoomShift comes with a simple drag-and-drop builder so that no one is spending needless amounts of time creating schedules, and once you’ve created a schedule you can quickly save it as a template—and use it again at a later date.
Overall, a great piece of software to add to your list off business management tools.
Uniqode
Uniqode is a simple yet powerful tool that helps businesses run more smoothly. With smart QR Code features, you can easily manage tasks like interacting with customers, updating inventory, and running marketing campaigns. It also gives you real-time data to track sales and customer activity, helping you see how your business is doing at any moment.
Uniqode works well with other business tools, letting you handle everything—whether it’s sales, marketing, or customer support—all in one place. It’s designed to save small businesses time, keep things organized, and make better decisions with less effort.
Best Membership Tools
Membership tools are essential for managing and growing a successful subscription-based business. These tools help you control access to exclusive content, handle payments, and enhance user experience. With the right membership plugin, you can streamline operations, boost member engagement, and improve retention rates, making your membership site more efficient and profitable.
SureMembers
SureMembers is a powerful WordPress membership plugin that simplifies the creation and management of membership sites. It offers customizable access control, multiple membership levels, and integrated payment handling.
With its intuitive interface, SureMembers enables you to provide a seamless and engaging experience for your members, boosting retention and satisfaction.
Whether you're running an educational site, a subscription service, or a private community, SureMembers makes managing memberships straightforward and efficient.
Best Video Player Tools
Video player tools are crucial for delivering high-quality video content to your audience. These tools offer various features, including customization options, analytics, and seamless integration with other platforms. By using an advanced video player plugin, you can enhance viewer engagement, track user interactions, and optimize your video content strategy for better results.
Presto Player
Presto Player is an advanced WordPress video player plugin designed to enhance video content delivery and performance on your website. It supports various hosting platforms, provides extensive customization options, and integrates seamlessly with major marketing and learning management systems.
With features like video analytics, user interaction tracking, and powerful playback controls, Presto Player helps you understand your audience better and optimize your video strategy.
This tool is perfect for content creators looking to engage viewers and improve the overall video experience on their WordPress sites.
Conclusion
These are the 11 essential online tools for startups that are available right now. The right tools can help a startup grow, whether by helping you nail your finances or helping you clarify your idea and take it to market. Before diving deep into the development or execution of any startup idea, it's crucial to undergo the discovery phase of project planning. This phase helps in understanding the market needs, potential challenges, and the viability of the idea, ensuring a more structured and successful launch."
And while lots of entrepreneurs think of analytics and data when it comes to online tools, there’s pretty much a tool for anything you need help with.
And if you’re not sure if a tool is right for your company or not, you can always test it out for free to get a feel for it, and take things from there.