If you are running a startup, you know that one of the major concerns is cash flow. The second must be hiring and managing a quality team.
Needless to say, regular cash flows allow your business to have all due expenses covered and if the flows are enough, they allow your startup to literally sit on cash and invest it back in the company. Investments will bring more cash flows and consequently further growth.
The second usual major concern of a startup, hiring and managing a quality team, is fundamental to the consolidation of the company’s structure. Just like markets and the economy in general are based primarily on people, so are businesses. A quality team is crucial to the company’s development and growth. The team will be the ultimate startup identity presented to customers in every kind of interaction.
However, sometimes cash flows run a little low and are not enough for big investments. That may be because of the economy or because a product was not so well received in the market, or for some other reason. And that may affect the hiring capacity of the startup as well as other fronts. Good people are often expensive and a dream team would be full of them, but that’s not always a possibility.
So here is a list of 9 tools that will help you save money and time while growing your startup, without having to hire a large team:
1. SITE123 - the easiest free website builder tool
SITE123 allows you to build promo websites, landing pages, blogs, small-medium online stores and more... You will design a website out of modules.
It may sound difficult but is really simple actually – you just add each module with a specific function (texts, reviews, contacts, sales, restaurant, blog, music, gallery, promo etc.) on each part of the website that you would like. You can add as many of them as needed in the places you feel they would fit better.
And it doesn’t stop there. On top of the modules, you have the option of adding plugins and apps to increment your website. You have to be sure that your site can “TALK” to other necessary apps. That can be easily done using the app market available.
There are many options to be added using SITE123 and some examples are in the rest of this list.
2. Hotjar - analytics
This app allows you to track what your website visitors do on your website and what important actions they take or have hesitated to take over time.
Hotjar provides you the full analytics on how they browse through your website, where they click, where they have hovered over but not clicked, and so on… This is very important data when you are looking to improve the functionalities of your website and increase conversions.
By analysing the data this app provides, you will be able to understand your visitors’ behaviours and deliver to them just what they are looking for. From startups to Fortune 500 companies, over 200,000 businesses from 184 countries have used it to improve conversions. Incredible, huh?
3. Intercom - live chat tool
As the short description says, Intercom offers live chat for websites. Easy as can be, you simply add the widget to your website in the form of a chat box.
Users then enter your website and can chat with a representative right on the spot. Or even better, you can start a conversation with them when they open important pages or when they take some kind of action.
This is very interesting when there are usual concerns visitors have when they browse some specific page or are on the place to make a decision. A quick conversation and some clarifying can push them one step closer to buying.
4. Privy - marketing tool
This is a great app if you are looking to grow your email list. By adding it to your website, a pop up window will open right when someone reaches your website. The pop up will contain a subscription box.
You can customize this pop up with your own compelling text to make sure that people subscribe to your newsletter. Then, it’s just a matter of developing the relationship with them, killing their concerns, understanding their needs and catering to them accordingly. It sounds simple and it actually is.
The first step is the simplest of all: adding it to your website using an app market or widget placer.
5. 123 Form Builder - form builder tool
If you are looking to place special form on your website, 123 Form Builder should be on your top priority list. This tool allows you to build special forms and place them on your website without much hassle.
The way it allows you to add questions, answer options, boxes and more is very straightforward. As you know, a form can have many functions such as market research, subscriptions, sign ups, applications and so on.
They all come down to data gathering in the end and 123 Form Builder gets you steps ahead in this direction by facilitating the hardest part: gathering the data.
6. Cincopa – image and video galleries
These kind of galleries are now present on most companies’ websites. Sometimes they are used to display the company’s work, services or products and sometimes they are used to display pictures of the company’s structure, operations or internal/external events.
If the startup works with art, photography or other visual crafts this is a perfect tool. If not, this will help a lot as well. In both cases, they will be able to put together eye-catching galleries that stand out from the regular looks of galleries present on most websites.
With Cincopa, you will be able to put together memorable sets of images that will impress all your visitors.
7. Simplybook.me – booking
Tired of seeing you representatives exhausted from calls and emails to schedule appointments? Give them (and yourself) a break from that by using Simplybook.me.
What this tool does is it allows you to add a schedule to your website so potential and existing customers can see the open spots in the calendar and schedule an appointment from there. This is a great tool for doctors, dentists, consultants, photographers and many other practitioners.
Your company/office has more than one professional? Create a set of pages, one for each of them, and add a calendar to each page. Lots of time, efforts and patience can be saved with the use of Simplybook.me and you can now see why.
8. Donately – donation box
Perfect tool for NGOs (non-governmental organization or not-for-profit organization), social projects, houses that provide care to people in need and so on… It can also be used for other types of fundraising.
What Donately allows you to do is to fully customize a donation box and add it to a strategic place of your website. This way, visitors can browse through your website, see the kind of work that is done, get to know more and if comfortable, donate to your project.
We all know that social enterprises need rivers of funds to reach as many people as possible and this is a tool to get some streams flowing into those rivers.
9. Ecwid – ecommerce booster
If you have an online store you are already ahead of all your competitors that don’t. The online world is full of selling opportunities and you already take part on it. And by being here, you know that there is always a way to improve and get more people into your company and therefore, more people buying from you.
Ecwid comes in handy in this direction. It has many interesting features that it adds to your online store, such as integrated inventory management (online and offline), language adaptations (adapts the storefront to the users language – more than 40 available) and the most mind boggling of all: it calculates shipping fees based on your customer’s IP address. Isn’t that awesome?
They just have to make little adjustments and add any references needed. Really worth the try.
The world is full of opportunities for those who keep an open eye (or both, if you are smart – and you probably are, since you came here for growth). And the online world is even broader when it comes to opportunities. Here we presented just a few that can help your startup to leap forward.
With a few clicks, you can have very professional features on your company’s website. These will impress your customers right upfront and then, when they see how these tools provide them better user experience, they will almost fall in love with your startup. And that’s a recipe not only for sales, but for long term success too. If you are looking to head in that direction, all that is needed is a little effort and an open mind to try the possibilities on your hand.
Considering the ease of use and functionalities, which of the above tools would you try out today and why?
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