Christina Scannapiego
Director, Content Marketing
Let’s talk about the importance of technology for entrepreneurs and small business owners. It’s no secret that you have to manage a lot as an entrepreneur running a new business. Often, you’re juggling the jobs of many people to keep things moving — wearing all the hats, as they say.
Being agile and finding ways to work smarter – not harder — are essential for long-term success. That’s where entrepreneur technology comes into play.
Technology can help you save time and lay a strong foundation for growth. It also makes scaling over time less painful. When you already have effective small business technologies in place, it’s easy to grow without too many roadblocks.
Tech tools for entrepreneurs aren’t a novel concept. In fact, 99% of small businesses use at least one digital tool, and technologically savvy companies are not only two times more likely to create jobs, but they’re also three times more likely to have revenue growth. So, it’s no wonder why 70% of SMBs plan to increase the amount of technology they’re using.
But, as with anything in business, be wary of too much of a good thing. You can easily overwhelm yourself with entrepreneur technology, which doesn’t help anyone.
It comes down to finding the small business technologies that make sense for you and leaving the overly complex ones behind. Some simple, easy-to-use tools don’t require an expert to master and can help set you up for a healthy business with staying power.
9 must-have tech tools for entrepreneurs and small businesses
So, what entrepreneur technology is worth your time? Let’s take a look.
1. Communication basics
You can’t run a successful business without communication tools. Make sure the communication tools you choose meet your business’ needs, including a dedicated business phone line, a video conferencing tool, an email provider and more.
RingCentral is a terrific VOIP phone option that also allows you to send SMS — a must-have for many of today’s businesses. When it comes to video conferencing, we love Google Meet. And you can’t beat Gmail for email communication.
2. A productivity suite
When you’re looking for tech that boosts productivity and facilitates collaboration, look no further than a productivity suite, like Google Workspace. Workspace provides solutions for email, video calls, chat, presentations, collaborative documents, file storage and more. It makes it easy to run your entire business and collaborate in one place, with all your tools syncing seamlessly together.
(Check out 10 tips for getting the most out of Workspace here.)
3. Accounting software
Automate your accounting processes from the start (because no entrepreneur has time to do that manually). Trust us, you’ll be glad you did a year from now when it comes tax time. If you’re looking for something comprehensive, we love QuickBooks as an all-in-one accounting technology for entrepreneurs. On the other hand, if you want something simpler and more intuitive, then Xero is an excellent accounting option. And don’t forget about Square if you do any online payment processing.
4. A meeting scheduler
Today’s business world runs on meetings — and mostly virtual ones at that. That’s why no small biz owner can function without a meeting scheduler and calendar. We love Google Calendar for B2B businesses because it’s easy to schedule meetings with your colleagues and clients. Calendly is a great option if you want your customers to be able to schedule appointments with you based on your available times.
5. An e-signature platform
If you do a lot of contracts or document signing, save yourself (and your clients) the hassle of scanning or signing with their PDF software, and sign up for DocuSign. DocuSign makes it quick and easy to share and sign documents securely.
6. Copper CRM
A customer relationship management platform, like Copper, makes it simple to automate and scale your customer relationships. From creating pipelines to help you close deals to scheduling follow-up tasks with clients, Copper serves as the central hub for your customer relationships, helping you streamline and automate sales, marketing and customer outreach efforts. We’ve designed it to be extremely simple and fast to set up (we’re talking a few minutes for the initial setup), and flexible enough to grow with you as your business scales.
7. Email automation software
Emails are critical for most businesses, but they require a lot of bandwidth if you don’t automate them. Thankfully, MailChimp and PersistIQ make it easy to create and automate newsletters and marketing emails. ActivePipe is a great email marketing tool designed specifically for real estate professionals.
8. Automation tools
The more technology for entrepreneurs that you have, the more technology integrations you’ll need. Zapier makes it possible to make all your technology communicate with each other. It helps automate manual processes and streamline all your tech tools together.
9. A social media scheduler
As an entrepreneur, you almost have to be on social media these days — even if you’d rather hide in the couch cushions. Thankfully, with a scheduler like Later, you can pre-plan and schedule all your posts in one place. In other words, you don’t have to log into seven different social media accounts every day and try to figure out what to post. Just schedule everything in advance and Later will post it for you.
Maximize your revenue with perfect-fit technology for your small biz
You have a lot of responsibilities as an entrepreneur. Save yourself a bundle of hassles and future headaches by taking advantage of the tech tools for entrepreneurs that are the best fit for you and your biz. Don’t feel bad about being choosy — take your time to test out different tools (hello, free trials) and choose the one that meets your specific needs and budget best.
Here at Copper, we’re all about empowering entrepreneurs to thrive with our CRM built to work seamlessly with Google Workspace. It’s extremely simple to use and only takes a few minutes to set up.
