Truly great entrepreneurs are also well organized and know which tools will help them see their startup ideas to fruition.
That can be key for getting a startup business off the ground or picked back up after a global pandemic (ahem). Good ideas and a strong entrepreneurial spirit aren’t always enough on their own. Sometimes you need the right mix of technology and tools to keep the more mundane and tedious tasks from bogging down your efforts.
Here are five tools almost any entrepreneur can use to help keep productivity high:
1. Lawtrades: For legal help
For most entrepreneurs, it’s not the most exciting thing in the world, but making sure you have your legal ducks in a row is important for any startup. Lawtrades helps with that while trying to keep costs down — music to the ears of any startup business owner.
The service is a legal marketplace of sorts designed specifically for startups and entrepreneurs. It connects business owners with legal professionals that it claims don’t charge “bloated law firm hourly rates.”
Lawtrades offers a number of services, including business formation, employment and labor, contracts and agreements, and intellectual property.
2. 1Password: For easy password management
Starting a new business likely means starting and managing lots of online accounts. The 1Password app from AgileBits helps you save time by remembering passwords and other information for you.
The app helps you generate strong and unique passwords for your many accounts, and secures them behind one safe password known only by you. The app doesn’t only work for passwords — it can also help remember other information such as credit card numbers, safe combinations, or street addresses.
3. Kanbanize: For product development
If your startup involves a specific product or set of products, Kanbanize helps you develop them with your team without bogging down the process. The software allows you to post and share boards that include product information and progress, and you can choose which people see which information.
For example, if you want to update investors on the status of your product development, you can share certain boards with stakeholders and no one else.
4. Evernote: For organization
There are many applications available that aim to help team productivity, but Evernote is one of the best.
The software allows you to collaborate with your team all within one workplace, keeping projects and other work together. You can also give feedback on ideas and share notes while syncing the data across computers and phones.
There are many other features as well, including in-app chat functionality and integration with Google Drive.
5. TaskHusky: For web development
Almost any new business will want some sort of business, but a staff of web designers and developers isn’t always an option for startups. That’s where TaskHusky comes in.
TaskHusky is an on-demand service for small businesses that need help with one-off tasks with the Shopify, Bigcommerce or WordPress platforms.
The company has a simple three-step process: You create a task and pre-pay, a TaskHusky team member is assigned the task and gets to work and the task is completed and is sent back for your approval.
The takeaway:
Smart entrepreneurs understand they can’t get everything done on their own when it comes to starting a new business. These five tools may not be everything you need to launch and maintain a business, but they will go a long way to helping you keep productivity at a high level.