The technology you need to start your business is just a few scrolls away. In this blog, you’ll learn the complete software suite for starting your company, with pricing!

There are lots of different technologies out there, all proclaiming that you can’t grow your business without them. Parsing through the marketing language to find the tool you really need is a pain - not to mention a time-waster. (And if I know anything about small business owners and startups, the one thing you never have enough of is time.)

In this blog, you’ll learn the 13 essential technologies you need to start your company or enhance the one you already have.

From email marketing software to an accounting solution, an overview of all the tools you need to start a company are here.

Get all of my personal, researched recommendations for the best tools on the market - with pricing - here!

Finally, some types of companies may need different tools. For example, a restaurant would want to consider an online reservation tool. I’ve included those types of considerations at the end.

In general, the tools you’ll need will fall into four categories:

• Relationship Management

• Marketing

• Sales

• Operations

Remember, the core of your business is your relationships with your leads, prospects, and customers, and more broadly, your market. 

This concept was covered extensively in yesterday’s blog (read it here). Now that you know the four key categories of software tools, you’re probably seeking more detail.

Here are the 13 specific types of software tools you need to create a great foundation for your business, with a few recommendations:

• Relationship Management

  • Contact Relationship Manager, or CRM

  • Email Marketing Software

  • Phone System

• Marketing

  • Domain Manager

  • Website Hosting and/or Design Tool

  • Content Management System (CMS)

  • Marketing Analytics Tool(s)

  • Landing Pages

  • Social Media Scheduler

  • Advertising Manager and/or Analytics Tool(s)

  • Graphic Design Tool(s)

• Sales

  • Sales Efforts Tracker

• Operations

  • Accounting/Bookkeeping Software

You may have questions about what these 13 types of tools for starting a business are all about. If so, the next section is for you.

Read on to learn the basics of each of those 13 types of technologies outlined in the list above:

Relationship Management

Contact Relationship Manager, or CRM

You need a central database that will contain all of your contact records, their engagement with your brand, and any communication between your brand and the contact.

You can’t have a successful business in 2020 without prioritizing your relationships with leads, prospects, and customers. To do that, you need a CRM. That’s why a CRM is central to your business.

As you evaluate CRM tools, make sure yours can integrate with all of the other tools in your toolkit.

Email Marketing Software

Email remains one of the most affordable and effective ways of communicating with your leads and customers. Beyond a simple Gmail account, you’ll probably want to consider a more advanced email software. Here’s why: they make it easy to send bigger email blasts, analyze the results of your email efforts, and more.

Phone System

Having a phone number helps build trust and prove to new visitors that your business is legitimate. Luckily, you don’t need a million dollars to have a phone system anymore. There are lots of options when it comes to phone or voiceover IP (VOIP) tools for business, the most affordable of which is Google Voice.

Marketing

Domain Manager

In 2020, your business needs a website. That means you need a domain, and a tool to manage it. One of the biggest and most reliable players in this space is GoDaddy.

Website Hosting Tool and/or Website Design Tool

If you’re not a designer, you’ll probably want to consider a website builder like Squarespace or Wordpress to design your site. Many of these tools include web hosting in the design tool. However, if you’re building your website from scratch, you may need a separate web hosting tool. (A web hosting tool is essentially a parking space online; learn more here.) If so, consider BlueHost and Wordpress. 

Content Management System (CMS)*

A content management system is basically a shared digital filing system. If you’re a team-of-one, you can probably get away with just having the files saved somewhere safe like Google Drive or Dropbox. However, if your business is larger, you’ll probably want a slightly more advanced option so that you can create shareable links, collaborate with colleagues, and track engagement.

*Some people may refer to a Contact Relationship Manager (CRM) as a Contact Relationship System (CMS). This is just a heads’ up, because the acronyms can be a bit confusing.

Marketing Analytics Tool(s)

A good marketing strategy should rely heavily on tracking key metrics; this approach ensures that you’re basing your decisions on real data, not just opinions. Many marketing tools in 2020 offer some kind of built-in analytics. In the early or bootstrapped stages, even a spreadsheet is a valuable tool.

Landing Pages

Landing pages are simply forms where a lead trades you their information for access to a piece of valuable content. If you’re working with a web designer, make sure they create a few landing page templates. If you’re using a website design tool, landing page templates may already exist. If not, consider a tool like Leadpages to build and analyze your conversions.

Social Media Scheduler

There are a lot of different social media tools, and let me start by saying that you don’t need to use all of them. That said, you’ll probably want to use more than one. In that case, it’s a good idea to use a social media management tool. This will  help you keep all of your social media content in one place, not to mention it will save you a ton of time.

Read the blog with recommendations for the best social media scheduler for a team of one here!

Advertising Tracking and/or Management Tool(s)

If advertising is a part of your marketing strategy, it’s essential that you track your performance and actively manage those ads. There are lots of different tools, depending on the type of advertising you’re doing. 

Graphic Design Tool

Every business in 2020 will probably need to design something professional-looking. That might be a brochure, or a quote, or an infographic, or even a social media post. Unfortunately, most small businesses and startups don’t have a budget for a graphic designer. If that sounds like you, I’d highly recommend an online graphic design tool like Canva. 

Sales

Sales Efforts Tracking Tool

Whether you have a sales team, or you are the sales team, you’ll want to track the efficacy of your sales efforts. You’ll also want to track the performance of different sales-related materials, like proposals or demo videos. Your tracking tool can be as simple as a funnel metrics spreadsheet, or as advanced as a full-blown sales management software. The important thing is to begin tracking your work, so that you can figure out what’s working - and what isn’t.

Operations

Accounting or Bookkeeping Tool

Few business owners love managing their books and doing their taxes. However, those tasks are a lot less painful if you have a good bookkeeping or accounting software. I use Quickbooks, but have heard great things about other tools like Bench and Sage.

Additional Tools

Based on your industry and budget, you may also want to consider additional tools. Here are a few additional options to consider:

• General Startup

  • Live Chat Tool

  • Social Listening Software

• General Business

  • Local Marketing Tool

  • Project Management Software

  • Proposal and Invoicing Software

  • Customer Support Software

  • Legal Tool

  • Direct Mail Software

• Restaurants

  • Online Ordering & Delivery

  • Online Reservations

• Tech Startup

  • Video Meeting or Demo Platform

  • Video Walkthrough Tool

  • Knowledge Base

• eCommerce

  • eCommerce-focused sales tool

So that’s it! If you’re launching a company, you’ll need these 13 basic business tools to be successful.

Want all of my recommendations for the best technologies in each of these categories?

You’re in luck. Get them all here!