The Entrepreneur’s toolkit – tools to enable your enterprise

Starting a new business is challenging. However, with the right tools in your entrepreneur’s toolkit. it can be a whole lot less challenging. We are counting down 5 tools that would make a difference in your life as an entrepreneur.

A tool to capture your expenses and accounting

This will help you to track spending and measure the performance of your fledgling business. The available options include;

• • Xero – Born in the cloud, Xero has solid iOS  and Android apps. It covers expense recording, invoicing, bill payments. It is has capacity for project planning, payroll and inventory management. Xero does this in collaboration with other app developers. In addition, it has built an ecosystem of applications to support the needs of entrepreneurs.
  • Quickbooks – Quickbooks has both online and desktop versions available. Also, It has apps on the iOS and Android platforms. It is the long standing dominant force for SME accounting prior to the cloud. The cloud version (Quickbooks online) competes well in today’s market.
  • Other tools to consider in this category are;
    • Wave Accounting – This is free and cloud-based but also have sub-optimal app.
    • Sage Accounting – This is a cloud based accounting system and scaled back version of the storied SAGE ERP
    • Zoho Accounting – This is a free cloud based software to support accountants and small business. It is part of a large suite of tools.

A tool to record mileage

A record of business mileage on a personal car allows an entrepreneur to get credit for such mileage in their tax returns .

• • MileIQ –  This is an automatic mileage tracking tool that calculates mileage while driving for business purposes. It can then be used to report for reimbursement and potentially a tax deduction with the CRA. Its apps are available on the iOS and Android platforms. After a one-time download and profile set-up, it works like an activity tracker and begins to log drives automatically. In addition, it allows for manual entry of travel. You swipe left or right at the end of each trip to indicate if the trip was for personal or business.
  • Other applications that solve this problem include;
    • TripLog Mileage
    • Everlance – This app can help track expenses as well.
    • Hurdlr – This app also helps with tracking expenses

READ ALSO: RESOURCES FOR STARTING A BUSINESS

A tool to manage social media and marketing

• • Hootsuite – Hootsuite is a social media management platform, that allows a user to organize their many social media accounts and networks. It supports social network integrations for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. Also, it provides a periodical report on engagement, likes, interactions and measurable results for social media usage. By the way, platform is currently giving a 90 day free trial period to all new users.
  • Other tools for your entrepreneur’s toolkit that can achieve this same result include;
    • Buffer
    • Sprout Social
    • Agora Pulse
    • Sendible

A tool to manage customer information

• • Insightly – This is a customer relationship platform that integrates marketing, sales, ad campaigns and projects with daily operational activities like email, billing and collection. It allows you to set up profiles, reach out to your clients, set up and operate automated mailing campaigns which can grow your business.
  • Other tools that can achieve this same result include;
    • Zoho CRM – This is a part of the Zoho suite of tools for business owners
    • Nimble

A tool to manage your projects

• • Asana – This is a web and mobile application designed to help teams organize, track, and manage their work. It simplifies team-based work management. Also, it supports project planning. task allocation, monitoring, project status monitoring and delivery.
  • Other similar tools include;
    • Monday
    • Trello

Tools are great because they make work easier. Sometimes, they make work more fun, However, the work still needs to get done . Select the tools for your entrepreneur’s toolkit and go to work because the future waits. Also, you can read our article on 5 pillars for a successful business.