Picking the right tools is as much about what fits your work-style and budget today, as it is about selecting options that will allow you to scale. Regardless of your products, services, or even industry, these tools will lay the foundation for long-term success. Once we have laid the foundation of implementing the right tools in Part 1, then we will dive deeper into more tools to help you meet your goals and automate your operations in Part 2 and Part 3.

Decision Making Criteria

The following digital tools are picked with a few important factors in mind:

1. They must be scalable.

2. They must play well with others – i.e. have robust APIs and/or do not insist on the walled garden or an overly proprietary approach.

3. They are either free or very cost effective at their base tier.

4. Their second tier or first paid tier has features and a price point that makes sense for micro-enterprises, nonprofits, and small businesses.

5. They must be easy to learn and use; must be easy to find training and support.

Core Systems

EMAIL, CALENDARS, ETC.

Let’s start with the foundational work of having the right email services, documents to manage all materials and a calendar to plan your time. Google takes the lead well beyond any other solution largely because it is web-based and therefore platform independent. You can use their services on any device and their uptime is essentially 100%. Beyond the core tools you’ll likely use every day, your professional account lets you use your company’s URL, comes with Google Drive, Analytics, YouTube, Forms, and more. And, migrating from Office 365 isn’t generally too difficult. 

• Gmail has a lot of extensions (beyond Chrome-specific extensions) that allow you to turn email communication into action through applications like Slack, Asana, and Calendly.

• Sheets is a great tool for connecting to other data-driven applications as you grow over time and allows you to collaborate and share in real-time.

• GCal has all the features you should expect from a modern calendar for teams of any size.

FILE STORAGE

Deciding between Drive and Dropbox will depend on your specific situation.

• Drive is plenty for lite users or people who generally are not accumulating a lot of large files, and it comes with your G Suite account.

• Dropbox’s system-level syncing and sharing is unparalleled, and their app includes the ability to “scan” documents. If you are working in or adjacent to designers, video/film producers, developers, or any heavier workloads, then use Dropbox as your primary storage solution.

While Dropbox excels particularly at sharing files anywhere, security on both platforms is excellent and permissions are generally straightforward.

WORK AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT

When it comes to managing your work as it grows over time, look no further than Slack and Asana.

• Slack let’s you communicate as a team (internally and externally) across platforms and devices, without the need to manage or lose track of those conversations. This speeds up work more than you’d think. Moving out of the “freemium” tier, you have the ability to add single-channel and multi-channel guests, share channels across Slack groups, and integrate even more apps. Google’s tools, Dropbox, and Asana work particularly great inside of Slack.

• Asana operationalizes everything you’ll need to do. It’s fast, easy to use, scaleable, incredibly customizable, and has great integrations. Tasks can be created from other sources – from an email, a slack message, and through automation tools as you grow (such as Zapier). Their mobile app is very good, too. And, their vision for the future of work is one of the most ambitious and thoughtful I’ve seen from a tech company in years.

COMMUNICATIONS & SALES

With the proper tools to communicate your products and services, it becomes much easier for your customer to make a transaction as soon as they’re ready.

• Squarespace is a great web platform especially for when you’re just starting out, or if your venture is pretty straightforward. I tend to think of these sites as elaborate digital business cards or brochures. Squarespace will allow you to build, edit, and evolve your site as you need. Other platforms, such as Wix or Wordpress, are good but often require more expertise and a degree of technical implementation that most founders or teams would be better off putting toward their business.

• Stay in touch with your fans using MailChimp. It’s especially great for when you’re starting out and building your list. Most CMS’ have the same essential features at this point, but MailChimp remains fairly easy to use and build over time. As you grow, you can reevaluate your email marketing needs against other features — like segmentation, automation, chat, customer relationship management, support ticketing, etc. Exporting your list and metadata into other tools is relatively easy, so you’re never stuck.

• Schedule things, book time, and even collect payment with Calendly. This tool simply lets someone pick a time that works for them, while considering your calendar(s), and in doing so completely negates time consuming back-and-forths via email. You can schedule group calls, round robins, and more.

• Zoom has emerged a clear winner in the conferencing space. Their free version is great for one-on-one meetings of any length. You also have hangouts with your G Suite account and conferencing with paid Slack accounts. Zoom integrates well with Calendly, Slack, and plenty more, making it easy to integrate with your workflow.

FINANCE & PAYMENT PROCESSING

Unfortunately for all of us, financial tools (and FinTech generally) are consistently behind the curve in usability and cost effectiveness. 

• If you are needing to pay or request money on the go, Stripe tends to have less fees than PayPal, and they don’t insist on hoarding your money as much – which is nice. There are other tools available in this space, but it’s often best to go where people already have accounts so they’re more likely to feel comfortable paying digitally. 

• If your business is a bit more complex and you have unique accounting needs, Quickbooks and Xero are pretty much the same thing at this point. Each has a few features over the other. It’s most important to check which works with your banking institutions and go from there. If you do go with QBO, don’t get sold on features like inventory management or even invoicing. There are often better tools for that aspect of your business. Bookkeeping is generally not the best way to manage those types of needs and should be distinguished from them. 

Core Systems Map

The systems I’ve outlined are better represented by how actions and information flow from one to another. From this vantage point, we can begin to consider customer journey, user flow, data governance, and automation.

Budgeting

All together, you can build the core functionality of a small business for roughly $695/yr. Some of the upgraded features will likely run you $1,500/yr. The good news is that for each user you add from that point forward will reduce the cost per user. Hurrah for economies of scale.

Let’s go!

Now that you’ve got the essential tools for building your business or organization, we can talk about which tools to layer upon this foundation for specific industries and services. Check out:

Picking the Right Tools Pt. 2: Advancing Your Operations

Picking the Right Tools Pt. 3: Automation and Scale

If you are ready to get started and want consultation on which tools work best for your business, then Schedule a Free Consultation for a custom solution.

Hire The Collaborative to plan, implement, and improve your systems and workflows ☀️

Our team loves systems and process challenges. We help refine workflows, train you on best practices, and implement new apps. Connect with us to learn more!