By: Pedro Perdenales
The environment for entrepreneurship has changed considerably in the past several years. The rise of the Internet has given birth to a new generation of marketing techniques and methods of reaching and serving customers. Entrepreneurs now have access to multiple ways of generating both interest and profits. Every new and small business needs the right tools to succeed in this constantly evolving setting. When the Internet first began to penetrate the broader public consciousness, it led to a catastrophic stock market bubble. Now that the Internet has become solidly entrenched in the economy, the opportunities are more plentiful and stable.
Business Tools
Success is the result of effectively managing a variety of resources in just the right way. Time is perhaps the most precious resource for any business, especially for a small one. The key question is how to save the most time in exchange for the most productivity? Put another way, how does a business manage time in conjunction with its other resources? Business tools have metamorphosed from factory equipment and office space into computer equipment and bandwidth. Here are some business tools a company can use to increase productivity and succeed.
Market Research
Conducting the appropriate research on current and potential markets is, unfortunately, financially difficult for many small businesses. A company called SurveyMonkey offers a free service that circumvents this problem. SurveyMonkey bills itself as the "world's leading provider of web-survey solutions". The Basic service allows a customer to create unlimited surveys with up to 10 questions. The customer can only collect 100 responses; to collect and view more, they must upgrade to a paid plan. SurveyMonkey's Basic service allows a small business to conduct market research without spending any money. As the business grows, the owner can decide to upgrade to one of SurveyMonkey's paid services at a later date.
Staying in Touch with Customers
A small business often faces problems with maintaining communication with customers. A business in a faced-paced industry like finance or journalism must make sure customers can reach them. Phone service, an email address and voicemail only go so far. Grasshopper, started in 2003 by two entrepreneurs, seeks to meet the need for fast, effective and constant contact between a business and its customers. Grasshopper lets their customers receive voicemails, faxes and phone calls anywhere, even if they are traveling. Faxes can be turned into emails and sent to their inbox as can voicemails.
Accounting
Keeping track of the financial situation is critical to the success of a small business. The accounting and recording of sales, revenues and expenses is the fork in the road that points towards success or failure. A small business's finances are usually relatively uncomplicated. Outright is a company that offers free, secure and comprehensive accounting services. The service automatically keeps track of all income and expenses, prepares and displays graphs or charts and even prepares tax information in advance including estimated quarterly taxes. Since Outright is completely online and secure, businesses can log in and check their finances anywhere, anytime.
Protecting Data
All businesses that conduct even a portion of their activities online must take steps to protect their files and prevent data loss. Small businesses using social media websites like Twitter and Facebook are very frustrated when a service goes down and their important data is lost. Backupify creates archives of a business's online data. Backupify uses the public API for each service to copy data and set up the archive. The service backs up the data either daily or weekly depending on which option the customer chooses. Data is safe, secure and, most importantly, permanent.
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Author Resource:-> The author is a writer and specialist of small business software and options on topics such as business tools. Please visit http://www.choosewhat.com/ for more info on 2011 tax software and products.
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