Now that we’ve been doing our Toolkit Tuesday series for awhile, we thought it would be helpful to share a roundup of what we consider to be the most essential tools for startups and small businesses. Whether you are an entrepreneur just getting started with launching your business or a seasoned pro that is transitioning to a more digitized workflow, these solutions for project management, file storage, and content organization will streamline your processes and make your life that much easier.
5 Essential Digital Tools for Startups
- Dropbox
Store all of your files in the cloud and access them instantly from any of your devices. Dropbox makes it easy to share large files with anyone, collaborate on projects with a team, and securely store all your documents and media files. Our list of 7 ways to use Dropbox for business covers the most common functions of this tool, as well as some uses you may not have known about. Cost: Free up to 2 GB of space, or you can upgrade to the Pro or Business version - Evernote
This cloud-based, virtual notebook allows you to save and organize content from around the web, as well as create your own. Each “note” you create can contain text or media, and you can organize your notes into notebooks as well as search all of your saved content by keyword. The list of things your can do with this tool is practically unlimited, but our list of 23 ways to use Evernote can help you get started. Cost: Free, or upgrade to Evernote Business for $10/month - Hootsuite
Manage all of your social media accounts from one central hub. Hootsuite is one of the most popular tools for scheduling and sharing posts across the major social media networks, but you can also use it to keep track of all your newsfeeds and social media activity. If you’re new to this time-saving management platform, our Hootsuite 101 post offers a helpful guide for beginners. Easily create tabs for each network, with different content streams to view things like scheduled posts, sent posts, direct messages, or Twitter mentions. Cost: Free for individuals (up to 5 social profiles), upgrade to Hootsuite Pro starting from $8.99/month - Basecamp
We have written openly about our love for Basecamp, our project management solution of choice. It is a wonderful tool for helping to keep all of your communication and files in one place, organized according to client or project. You can add team members to projects, assign tasks, create to-do lists, and upload files. It’s a cloud-based solution and they have a mobile app, so any changes you make automatically sync on your other devices. Cost: $20/month for up to 10 projects - Feedly
Feedly is a news reader app that you can use via a web browser or mobile device to compile all your favorite websites and blogs (even podcasts and Youtube channels) into one streamlined format. This is a really useful way to keep up with the latest news and developments in your industry, and you can share the articles on social media from right within your Feedly dashboard. Our Feedly Quick Start Guide shows you how easy it is to add, organize, and share content. Cost: Free, or upgrade to Feedly Pro for $5/month
All right, your turn … what are your most essential digital tools? Comment below or tweet us with your favorites and they may end up in a future Toolkit Tuesday post.
