We’re more than familiar with Startup Culture here at Kdan. We were in the same situation just 10 short years ago! Startups are often seen as risky ventures. They require lots of capital, time, and energy. The good thing is that they also offer great opportunities for growth.
Our passion is helping you and your growing team unleash your creativity while maximizing productivity. If you want to start your own company, you’ll need some basic tools to get things rolling. We’re sharing our picks for the top 14 kinds of tools your business can use to build, grow, and flourish.
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1. Reliable Cloud Storage
As a startup, some of, if not your most precious asset(s), are your ideas. Taking your business idea from the initial spark to a fully-operational enterprise means hundreds, if not thousands, of brainstorming documents, business plans, product designs, etc. Whether you’ve recently started your LLC or are in its initial phase, a reliable spot to keep all the paperwork in should also be a concern. You’ll also have formation documents, NDAs, contracts with vendors, and more! You and your team need a reliable place to keep everything organized for your sanity.
One of the most common options is Google Drive. Google Drive is straightforward to navigate and well-integrated with other Google Workspaces, such as Google Calendar, Google Meet, and so on.
Dropbox can also be a good option for startups, as it provides multiple plans for teams of 3 to 6 people. They can also customize for enterprise-size clients, so even if your team grows bigger, Dropbox can still cater to your needs.
Last but not least, our Kdan Cloud is the solution. Your team can upload, store, and access documents, designs, photos, videos–you name it–on 1TB of Cloud storage anytime, from any device, anywhere.
2. Communication Tools
Since more and more startups are fully remote, it is crucial to implement a business communication software or tool. Many startups might be tempted to use personal and free communication apps such as Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp for work. However, having a business-exclusive communication channel is very important for privacy and security reasons.
Slack is one of the most common communication tools. Using Slack, you can create channels to grow discussions on different topics. Slack offers an extensive SlackAppDirectory where you can easily connect Slack with tools that your startup looks like it uses in its daily workflow or adds extra functions to help you use Slack in a more productive way.
If you want to try some new tools, more and more companies are also switching to Discord for its interactive and all-encompassing features. Discord is not only a communication software, it also allows you to do voice and video calls with it. Plus, it is available on most platforms.
3. Project Management Tools
As remote working becomes a new norm for startups and big enterprises, having reliable project management software for remote team collaboration makes a huge difference in terms of productivity. That’s why we suggest working with an information management platform that allows for easy collaboration and the sharing of information.
Collaboration tools like Trello and Asana have a great collection of free features that can satisfy most online collaboration scenarios. You can easily add new tasks, assign tasks, track progresses, and organize the workspace with Trello and Asana. We have written an in-depth SWOT analysis of project management tools, read more to find the tools for you.
4. Effective Document Management
It’s considered a best practice in business to send all of your important files out in the always-reliable PDF format. There must be many apps you use to stay productive. PDF Reader will be the one to make it easy to convert files to PDF format, scan documents with its OCR (optical character recognition), and allows you to add e-signatures, watermarks, and make other edits.
You can effortlessly switch between mobile to PC or Mac, annotate and edit your PDFs, and export them to any cloud solution or device.
PDF Reader
- Empower your mobile workforce
- Edit, convert, and read PDF documents
- Available on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows
Enhance your productivity now!
Download5. E-Signature Tool
More and more companies, including ours, are moving away from physical documents and digitizing their workflow in an effort to expedite the signature process. E-signature software is a great sales tool. It can not only save you tons of paper and storage space, but most importantly, it also speeds up the contract signing process. So your potential customer won’t give it a second thought!
That’s why you need to try our e-signature service, DottedSign. DottedSign has a mobile app for iOS, and Android, it also has a web version. It is designed for on-the-go entrepreneurs like yourself! DottedSign simplifies the process, and allows you to easily create, sign, and send contracts and POs (purchase orders) right from your mobile device, replacing the need for a printer or scanner.
7. Password Security
Have you ever spent time sorting out endless sticky notes or spreadsheets looking for where you wrote down the latest password? A lot of people like to write them all down in one physical place like a notebook…a lot of people would be wrong. Keeping your passwords somewhere that they can be easily lost or stolen is way too risky! Instead, why not try LastPass? LastPass is the perfect solution to store your sensitive information in a central and secure location online. It also saves information that you enter into online forms to help you save time.
8. Visual Content Generator
Social media is incredibly important for small businesses to increase their exposure online, and to ace the algorithm, you have to keep a regular social media post schedule. Luckily, there are many online tools that can help you quickly create flyers, infographics, posters, blogs, presentations, and promotional material for social media.
Online graphic design tools like Canva can make your social media marketing go a long way without proper design training. In Canva, you can find many beautiful design templates for social media, email marketing, etc. You can even make your business logo with it!
If you are a SaaS startup, SmartMockups is a great tool that we highly recommend. It offers you various mockups, all you need to do is to upload the interface image, then you instantly get the social media-ready image.
9. Video–Editing Tools
Communicating your dream vision is one of the most important things for a startup. With Write-on Video, you can create amazing videos for your website and social media. You can create promotional material and videos and share them directly on various websites such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitter. This software is great for beginners to create and share professional videos.
Write-on Video
- Turn ideas into action plan!
- Create and edit videos
- Share your video stories with ease
The Video editor for storytellers.
Learn More10. Social Media Management
It’s common knowledge that social media is an effective way to grow your new brand. But did you know that certain times of day can be more effective than others? Buffer lets you schedule posts on multiple social media platforms in advance, so you can post your content at optimal times even if you’re not available to post at the moment.
Effective, concise copy is one of the most important tools in a startup’s arsenal. Whenever a website visitor, email recipient, or someone else reads your writing, you’re making a first impression. Make it a good one by eliminating typos, grammatical errors, and other mistakes with Grammarly.
11. Time Management
As you start to gain traction, the number of people competing for your time is going to increase tenfold. That’s a good thing! But it also requires that you find an effective way to keep track of things. Calendly easily integrates with your other calendar solutions, like Google, Outlook, Office 365, or iCloud calendar, and will know what times you are occupied. It also helps you manage meetings with people in different time zones to help you communicate better.
12. Meeting Software
Once you have figured out your availability, you need a one-stop solution for your conference calls. We highly recommend Google Meet because of its functionality and how it is widely used by both individuals and businesses. So you can almost be sure that all your employees and clients can onboard and use Google Meet immediately.
Zoom is also the video-conferencing tool of choice because it meets your team’s online meeting and group messaging needs. It also has It’s available for both desktop and mobile devices, meaning you won’t be tied to your desk if you want to meet with someone!
13. Meeting Software
Once you have figured out your availability, you need a one-stop solution for your conference calls. Zoom is our video-conferencing tool of choice because it meets your team’s online meeting and group messaging needs. It’s available for both desktop and mobile devices, meaning you won’t be tied to your desk if you want to meet with someone!
14. Remote Access Tools
Often times you’ll have valuable information stored on your office computer. You may also have certain programs that can only be accessed with your internal network. Teamviewer is one of the most reliable remote control software for remote desktop access to workstations or mobile devices. This allows you to access information from the internal system remotely, and configure software installation when working with teams overseas.
To Sum Up
Building a company is tough…but finding the right tools makes all critical business processes from project management to expense management easier. We love sharing our favorite tools from our startup days but want to know what else is out there too. Tell us what apps you use to stay productive in the comments!