Lean Tech Upgrades for Growing Your Startup
You’re in the beginning stages of setting up your startup business, and you know you need the best technology to succeed. But sometimes it seems like that technology comes with too high of a price tag. You have a limited budget and you need to stay lean and efficient. Lucky for you, there are plenty of tech tools you can use that can scale with your business.
The Basics
You can’t do anything without a laptop, smartphone and internet connection. These are the tools where all of your business will be conducted, from writing up your business plan to executing your marketing campaign.
You want to get a computer and smartphone that’s going to last without costing you a fortune.
First, decide if you want a Mac or a PC and then get a smartphone that is compatible with that device, such as an iPhone or Android phone.
Determine what qualities are most important to your business, such as storage space, processing power or battery life. If you run a photography studio, for example, you need to have enough space on your hard drive to load all of your pictures.
Or if you’re a travel blogger, you need your laptop to last your entire plane ride while you write. Same rules apply to your smartphone. Get one that runs quickly, has enough room for all of your apps and can take high-quality photos and be sure to get enough data from your provider.
For Internal Communication
You need to have a way for everyone on your team to stay informed about their tasks and projects as well as everyone else’s.
While you can use basic chat programs like Gchat or Facebook Messenger to keep in contact with people one-on-one or in small groups, this can get messy fast.
Slack is a great alternative because it lives in a space between email and messaging. You can create separate channels for all of your clients, departments and other categories and add the team members who need to stay informed.
You also have individual and group channels where your employees can talk to each other. It works similar to an email program because you can attach documents and work with other apps so everything can stay in one place.
For Project Management
It’s not enough to have written down a to-do list and email your employees about your priorities for the day or week.
You need to have real project management tools so everyone on your team knows what needs to get done at any point in time. You can start by housing all of your documents, spreadsheets and presentations in Google Drive.
This way everyone on your team can see the latest version (no digging through email threads for the latest update) and do their part. Then, set up a software system like Asana or Trello to track to-do lists, projects, and tasks for each department.
Don’t let things slip through the cracks. Use these tech tools to help you see what needs to be done and when.
For Marketing
Once you have your operations sorted out, you need to get people talking about your startup with marketing campaigns. Use free social media sites to get the buzz started.
While you could use a spreadsheet or blank document to write out your tweets and posts, it’s much easier and more organized with a tech tool like Hootsuite. With this software program, you can organize and schedule all of your social media posts in one place so you’ll never forget when you’re in the middle of a meeting or driving to meet a client.
Plus, you can see how certain posts did with your target audience and adjust your tactics based on analytics.
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