11 online tools for creative entrepreneurs
A successful company is built by hard-working entrepreneurs that know their business inside and out — and it always helps to have a little creativity on your side. When it comes to online tools, there are some incredibly useful options to get the job done — whether those are used for sales prospecting, project management, email scheduling, social media, video production, photo selection or time management.
Here are 11 helpful resources designed for entrepreneurs — all recommended by experts in business training and entrepreneurship.
Wistia
Every business can become video production experts using Wistia. Short form video has skyrocketed to the top of shareable content, and you may get a lot more use out of this content creation tool, with both free and paid options available that can help get your message across to your customers.
Buffer
Find the perfect time of day to send out social messages — and learn when your target audience will engage with you the most. Buffer will even schedule messages for you, so you’ll save time and still stay connected.
Pexels
Pexels is a powerful (and free) stock image site that lets you easily discover and use new photos and illustrations for your website or blog — all without having to pay for royalties or license fees. Their ever-expanding library of 25,000+ images is a bonus for any online entrepreneur.
Google Analytics
This tool makes the cut for many lists of helpful tools, and for good reason. Google Analytics (GA) is a free tool that is easily added to any website, giving you instant feedback on who is visiting your site, what pages they’re visiting and for how long. Get even more insights by exploring all the rich data within this easy-to-learn platform, then make use of the reporting features to reveal your key metrics.
Square
Online and offline payments just got easier. Use the Square point-of-sale app and hardware (including a contactless payment pad) to accept credit card and Interac payments from anywhere, anytime and right from your phone. Have different employees login with personalized codes, then track your profits with less paperwork or manual processing. You can even view a variety of useful reports on itemized sales.
More tools: Get more suggestions from Host Gator’s list of 15 essential tools for Internet entrepreneurs.
Boomerang
A Gmail add-on, this tool’s most important feature lets you schedule emails to be sent at a later date and time. This is perfect for when you’re working late into the evening or on weekends when you don’t want to risk your message going unnoticed. Pick a day and time, and Boomerang will send those messages automatically in the future.
Voila Norbert
Any sales pro knows the challenge of contacting the right person with the right email address. With Voila Norbert, you can find any contact’s corporate email address with this tool. Just enter their name and company, and Voila Norbert shows you their address.
Momentum
This Chrome browser extension is a brilliantly simple way to keep you focused. By reminding you of your main task to complete each day, Momentum limits your distractions when opening new tabs on your browser — plus it includes stunning photos to make your browser extra stylish.
Wepik
Ever search for the perfect photo but just can’t find it? Now create your own for free with a combination of royalty-free images, well-designed icons and stylish fonts using the free site, Wepik. Download the images and voila — you’ve got the perfect image to share on social media, your website or blog.
Asana
Asana is “the ultimate tool for managing your projects more effectively.” Consider this a simplified project management app that syncs across all your devices and can be used with all your team members. Never lose track of tasks to complete a project, timelines, feedback and ideas. You’ll be able to see all the progress you’ve made at a glance, and what needs to happen on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
Typeform
Ask your clients and prospects what they really think of a product, solution or service using Typeform, which lets you easily design beautiful forms, surveys and quizzes. Using interactive answer modules, they are designed to be fun to use and quick to complete — getting you valuable answers to improve your business.
If you’re craving even more tools for your online toolkit, Entrepreneur also compiled their list of 17 must-know tools for budding business owners. They include several of our selections plus some classic favorites such as Google Docs and Dropbox — helping to make sure your files are always safe and synced.
No matter which tools you use, make sure you explore your options but keep your toolkit lean. There’s no use adding a new tool if you won’t have time to use it, so the first consideration should how much value it will add to your business. Will it save you time, improve operations, connect you with new customers or improve sales? If so, it may be worth adding to the mix.
