The short answer is yes. Let’s be honest, for most small business owners the highlight of their day isn’t poring over their sales stats or checking their emails. Setting up a calendar to confirm meetings and remembering to make those crucial calls can be a real challenge. These activities are all essential to the smooth running of your business, but they can get in the way of your core business which is why you started out in the first place.
This is where productivity tools can help as they can streamline these processes for smoother collaboration and to maximize efficiency. There are multiple tools to save time, manage projects, analyze data and more. When these tools are used to their full potential they can make your business more competitive and boost your bottom line.
Why are Productivity Tools Essential for a Modern Small Business?
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce around 93% of small business owners currently use at least one technological platform for business management. This same study revealed that 85% of business owners said that these platforms helped them to start their business and 94% reported a boost in efficiency. A key component of many platforms are AI-powered productivity tools that use automation. This can automate many routine tasks, such as: invoicing, inventory management, email marketing and more. This can free up employees to focus on tasks that can drive sales and improve strategy.
The reporting tools and data analytics features may provide useful insights about how your business performs. This can help you to understand your customers, track your financial progress and identify key performance indicators (KPIs). This all occurs in real time, there is no need to wait for analysis, all the data is right at your fingertips. Some of the best productivity tools are focused on instant messaging and video conferencing to ensure that you can communicate instantly with clients, customers and team members. This can work in an onsite, remote or hybrid capacity and it reduces the delays caused by traditional email use.
The sales and service teams may use customer relationship management (CRM) software. This keeps track of customer interactions and data to give you a single point of reference for personalized engagement. This can give you excellent feedback on how your customers view your company which is invaluable when it comes to planning and strategic decision-making.
9 Key Productivity Tool Features
There are many productivity tools that can be used to improve your small business. But, before you decide to use them, it is important to understand how they function and any terms and conditions associated with their use. Certain platforms can access the user content via automated or manual methods which may be a concern if you regularly deal with sensitive data, proprietary products and/or NDA agreements. Choosing the right tool to improve efficiency, security, functionality and scalability can be a real challenge. The best way to narrow your choices is to consider available features.
A User-Friendly Interface
Many people do not handle change well, human beings enjoy familiarity and stability and something new can be a source of stress. Learning a brand new platform and promoting its use in your organization can be a real challenge. This is especially true if the interface is messy and hard to decipher.
Certain tools can have a very sharp learning curve that can be hard to overcome and hours of training may be required. The best productivity tools are built to be user-friendly, they are intuitive and they can be learned in a few hours or less. If you want to minimize disruption as you move onto a new platform, it makes good sense to choose tools that are easy to learn and use.
Comprehensive Reporting Capabilities
Analytics are vital for any modern business, to make data-driven decisions you will need tools that can track key metrics. There should be specialized tools that can process significant volumes of data to identify patterns, trends and anomalies.
Customization Options
There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to productivity tools. Sure, they may share certain features, but how they are presented and implemented can make all the difference. It is a great idea to choose tools with flexible workflow processes, customizable dashboards, reports and more. When the tools can be tailored to meet the specific needs of your business, it’s easier to complete tasks quickly and efficiently.
Collaboration Features
The best productivity tools should offer real time collaboration using chat, video conferencing and shared workspaces. This can be a real game changer for small businesses that outsource talent or have a remote/hybrid team.
Automation Capability
Everyone has been stunned by the rapid development and uptake of AI-powered tools in many aspects of our lives. This is especially true in business and automation is an excellent way to reduce the risk of human error and save valuable time. Repetitive tasks can be assigned to a productivity tool leaving a human to focus on more important work.
Integration Capability
Please do your due diligence and ensure that you purchase productivity tools that are compatible with your existing system if you want to minimize disruption. Seamless integration should be your goal, the tools need to work with the other software you rely on. If you’re already happy with your accounting, email, e-commerce and CRM software make sure you’re not rocking the boat when you add a new productivity tool.
Scalability
The productivity tools that you choose should grow with your business to handle an increase in users, data and complexity. There should be no significant degradation in performance and efficiency.
Customer Support
The tool that you select for customer support should be accessible and offer resources that your customers can take full advantage of, including: chatbots, phone support, email, live chat, self-service, FAQs and more.
Security
Every business no matter how large or small should be concerned with data breaches. It’s imperative to keep your company and customer information safe and secure. To meet this need, ensure that your productivity tools have enhanced security measures. Some of the best features to look for, include automated backup, data encryption and secure access controls.
Our Favorite Productivity Apps
To take some of the guesswork out of finding good productivity tools here is a list of our favorite apps that could be a great fit for small business owners.
Inbox When Ready
Email can be a distraction, everyone can relate to opening an email only to become sidetracked into reading other messages that are not important. The Inbox When Ready browser extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox hides the inbox to keep you focused on the task at hand. It’s easy to search for what you need without becoming distracted with new messages that pop up in your inbox. Simple, but very effective.
Todoist
This is a digital to-do list to set tasks and stay on track to complete them. A task can be quickly added at any time, substacks may be created and this is useful to break large tasks into more manageable chunks. Todoist can send a reminder to ensure that a set task isn’t overlooked. The app is user-friendly, it keeps you accountable and you spend more of your valuable time getting the important things done on time.
Monday.com
This app can be used to create custom boards that can help you to visualize what you’re working on. This can be a calendar, table, kanban board or other customized option as needed. A task on one board can be moved to another board and notifications can be generated for notifications on movements and due dates. These processes can be automated to create a customized workflow. Many users have praised this app for its ease of use and collaboration features that help a team to focus on the work that matters.
Fantastical
This is a central calendar app that collates all calendars in a single location to avoid scheduling conflicts and track what’s coming up for team members. An event can be scheduled quickly, times can be suggested for meetings and the availability of personnel can be tracked automatically. A task can be created automatically from emails and messages. The UI is intuitive and Fantastical integrates perfectly with Microsoft Exchange/Outlook.
Notion
This is a comprehensive workspace that facilitates fast information access and improved collaboration. There is a “Wiki” feature where documentation can be organized and stored to ensure that every team member is working from the same information. Notion has AI-powered tools to manage timelines, tasks, bandwidth and project management. This is an excellent productivity tool for businesses that generate a lot of documentation and content for clients.
Headspace
This is a popular meditation app that’s used by many notable people, including Ryan Reynolds, Sheryl Sandberg, Jessica Alba and others. The mindful practices including in the app are designed to promote mental and physical health benefits. When team members feel fit, healthy and energized productivity is increased and stress is reduced.
Fellow
This is the top meeting management solution on G2 that uses AI-powered agendas and automated transcriptions. Everything that’s meeting-related is kept on a central platform for easy access and archiving. Productivity is promoted after the meeting has concluded with action times and automated meeting minutes to ensure that essential tasks are not forgotten.
Habitica
This is a great productivity app for those that enjoy games and challenges to keep them on track. The app is available for both Android and iOS devices and it improves life and work habits by gamifying the process. Users earn gold and level up when they complete tasks they have set on their lists. Custom rewards and in-game purchases can be made to enhance the experience for dedicated users. Habitica really stands out from many other habit and task management apps that can feel like a chore to use.
Harvest
This is a productivity tool that removes manual work tasks such as logging hours. It includes analytics and reporting tools that tell you at a glance how your team spends their time. This is an excellent way to track both billable and non-billable hours to find ways to improve efficiency and save time. The friendly user-interface and reliability make this a must for employers that need to task-switch and log hours with multiple team members at the same time.
Forest
This is another Android and iOS app that lets the user plant a virtual tree to improve focus. The time you want to invest can be specified and while Forest is active the tree will continue to grow. If the app is abandoned before the timer is finished the tree dies and this gamified process can help with focus and productivity. People are less likely to look at TikTok, Facebook and Instagram because they don’t want to “kill” the virtual tree they’ve grown. A strange concept, but surprisingly effective.
4 Tips to Choose Productivity Tools
Aside from the list of our current favorites above, there are numerous productivity tools on the market and it can be challenging to find the right tools to meet your requirements. To simplify the process, here are four tips to help you make the right choice for your enterprise.
Understand Your Needs
Understanding your pain points where your team is struggling is key. Perhaps they fail to communicate efficiently? Maybe they fail to track assigned tasks? Every team will have their own issues to deal with and if you can identify the causes it’s much easier to find the right productivity tools. Once you understand where you need to improve, write down your thoughts and share them with your team. This can spark some lively debate and help everyone to understand the need for a specific productivity tool.
Check the App
At first glance, the productivity tool may look like the solution to all your problems. But, implementing an app that is not up to the task can create more problems than it solves. Perhaps the app is hard to learn? Maybe the interface is difficult to use? Does the app integrate well with the other productivity tools that you regularly use? Take some time to test the app with a smaller portion of your team before you choose to go ahead.
Check the Reviews
It is true that there is no one-size-fits-all solution that matches the needs of every business. But, there are common features that every organization needs and customizable apps can smooth out a lot of potential problems. Make sure to check the reviews for the apps that you’re researching to see if they’ve had a positive impact for the user.
Don’t Assume That an App is the Solution
If bad habits have crept into your company It may not matter how good a productivity tool is. The app may not be the solution to the problem, there are times when it’s time to go back to basics and additional training may be needed to fix core issues.
How Can Productivity Tools Help?
Productivity tools can be broken down into six broad categories and then can be used to solve specific problems in your business. Let’s take a look at these categories in a little more detail to show what’s possible.
- Project Management: These tools can track when projects are due and who’s working on them at any given moment. Tasks can be assigned, deadlines can be set and the progress can be tracked.
- Communication: These are required to create channels of communication for questions, team chats, video calls and file sharing. A comprehensive project management tool may include communication features and you may not need a dedicated app.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM): The CRM system will help you to track client interactions, sales and store that data in a single location. This is a great way to personalize interactions, handle customer problems and follow up on leads.
- Productivity and Time Tracking: It’s all too easy to become distracted and lose valuable time. These apps track how long a task takes to improve efficiency and save money.
- Collaboration and Document Management: The purpose of these platforms is to create, share and collaborate on files in real-time. An on-site, remote or hybrid team can work together efficiently on reports, proposals, meeting notes and other tasks.
- Marketing Automation: These apps can automate the management of social media, and email campaigns to help you connect with your audience efficiently.
Let’s Get Productive
When you’re evaluating a new productivity tool, focus on your objectives and what you want to achieve. Many tools will perform similar tasks, you may even have team members that have used specific tools that they can recommend. Make sure that the tools are customizable, scalable and that they integrate with your existing software. Automation and AI-powered tools can simplify many repetitive tasks and you may need a professional to help you get up and running quickly. This will ensure that you get the most out of your productivity tools to grow your business.