As mumpreneurs and business owners with large workloads and limited time, we need all the help we can get!
Fortunately for us, there are a number of great tools and resources that can help us leverage our time so we can work more effectively and efficiently. So here are 10 online business tools and resources that will help you develop, manage and grow your business quickly and easily.
Dropbox gives you a safe and secure place ‘in the clouds’ to store your documents and files. With Dropbox you can have 2GB of storage space free, though you can also opt for one of their paid business plans if you need more.
In addition to being able to access all of your files on the go via the internet or smartphone and tablet apps, it also gives you the ability to share files, which is great for those that are too large to email or when you are working collaboratively with an alliance or outsourced team member.
Set Google Alerts for your industry, your business name, your name and any topics that are relevant to your area of expertise so you can see who is talking about your business, respond to any criticisms or thank someone for a mention or endorsement.
Google Alerts will also help you stay up to date with what is going on in your industry, identify any news stories you could piggyback off and alert you to any blogs you may be able to guest post on.
With free calls and video conferences to other users, Skype is a great alternative to face-to-face meetings and makes it easy to stay in touch with interstate or international clients and outsourced team members. It can also help you keep high phone bills under control.
One of your most valuable business assets is your database – providing it is up to date and you are in regular contact with them. This is where MailChimp comes in, it can help you design email newsletters and campaigns, share them on social networks and track your results.
If you have fewer than 2,000 subscribers, you can send up to 12,000 emails per month absolutely free.
Use Google Analytics to gain valuable information on the people who are interacting with your website to determine what online marketing campaigns are working best, what keywords they are using and what content is working.
You can then make more targeted marketing decisions as well as smart design improvements and content adjustments to drive more traffic to your site and turn browsers into buyers.
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Amanda is the founder of Velocity Media and Communications.
