5 Types of Software to Consider when Beginning your Start-up
When it comes to creating a start-up, there are many challenges that you’ll face as you enter the first few months of being available to new clients and customers. It’s important that you have all of the necessary tools and software to ensure that your business is successful. Many start-ups in the US “have an 18% chance of success”, so the odds are certainly not in your favor.
With that being said, here are five software to consider when beginning your start-up.
1. Foyr for design software
Depending on your start-up, you might need software that can help bring your designs to life. As an example, if you have an interior design business, then investing in an interior design software like Foyr can be great for building your creations.
When it comes to showing clients your ideas, it can certainly be difficult for some clients to grasp the concept without a visual representation. With a 3D floor planner, it can be helpful to showcase your work before you’ve even got started. This has its benefits when it comes to liaising with trickier clients that might be indecisive or need to tweak and change things.
Having a design software readily available for your start-up can help prioritize any budgets that you have when it comes to designing for clients or for your own marketing and advertising needs. Being able to have access to this can be really helpful to brainstorm new ideas and to further improve the look of your brand.
Design is a really important element of your start-up and so it’s good to have any form of design software available for you to utilize. It saves having to get it outsourced and it’s something that can be used by everyone within the company. With design, it’s always good to train up your staff within a start-up. It’s useful to have staff members who can do a mixture of tasks.
2. MailChimp for email marketing
Being able to promote your start-up is important because you and your team are putting in all this effort and it deserves to be seen. When it comes to the creation of your marketing strategy, you want to cover a wide range of areas and email marketing is a great place to connect with customers and those who are interested in what services or products you provide.
There are lots of different email marketing platforms and one popular piece of software that reigns supreme is MailChimp. It helps to generate fresh leads and to monitor where those leads are when it comes to your sales funnel. Email campaigns are also a great way to promote new products and services.
With MailChimp it’s a platform that’s really easy to use and now has more online marketing features including website creations and social media advertising. It’s an all-in-one software that’s crucial for your start-up.
Especially, when you’re probably limited with resources, having something that does a multitude of things can be very helpful. Building the right website can be difficult with little experience but services like MailChimp make this easy to do.
MailChimp has some great options too when it comes to paying for the platform. A lot of it is free to use, with premium options available that start from $9 all the way up to $299. As a free option is available, this can be really helpful for start-ups who might have a limited budget available.
3. Trello for team communications
Trello is a great platform for aiding team communications. A lot of start-ups and businesses in general nowadays are remote working due to the pandemic. So having a communications platform that can be accessed from anywhere with a WIFI connection is very useful in these current times.
With Trello, it provides collaboration and that’s something that’s really crucial for start-ups that are only just starting out. It’s simple and easy to use, which makes it useful for all employees that are working for your business. It can help with all aspects of business and when you may have multiple departments, it keeps everyone connected.
Some of the main benefits include:
- The ability to track your own work and the work of others.
- Helps to keep track of the company calendar and when staff members might be off on vacation or out of the office.
- Organizes daily activities and meetings, whether it be in-person or via Zoom.
- Manage a project or team remotely or when in the office.
Being able to have everything in one place when it comes to communications is helpful. Communication within any business is essential because it avoids mistakes being made and when you have a new business, the last thing you want is for things to go wrong.
Again, Trello offers a free plan for most but there are also further features that may be useful for start-ups with more than just one employee. It’s useful to keep everything in check and to successfully monitor everyone in the business, regardless of your location.
The future of remote working is very much something that will continue beyond the pandemic and so it’s good to have tools like this in place for your business going forward. There are plenty of other task management platforms out there but Trello is one of the best ones when it comes to offering virtually everything possible to manage your business and its staff.
4. Searchmetrics for content research
One of the biggest influences in businesses nowadays is content and how much we consume every day whether it’s on our phones or laptops. There is so much that can be done online to gain success and more customers through your doors. With that being said, you want to think about how you can go about creating more viral-worthy content.
From the advertising campaigns you do for your products or services via social media to your blog content on the website, everything needs to be well thought out. It’s certainly worth having a content planner to help staff remember when things need to be going out and deadlines, etc.
There is also software out there that can help you target and create the right type of content for your audience. One example is Searchmetrics, which can help you consider what is popular and what is doing well online right now.
Searchmetrics is a great way of discovering how well your content performs when it comes to search engine optimization and many will know how important SEO is for businesses online nowadays. This software can help you target the right keywords and to help with your SEO strategy in general.
If you’ve not already got an SEO strategy, then now is the time to get one. It’s a critical element that can help your content get more exposure and reach where possible. Content research is definitely something that’s worth taking full advantage of to make sure that your hard work towards your content is seen by all those who will value it.
One piece of great quality content is better than several low-quality ones, so remember that quality is always essential when you’re creating any form of advertising or content.
5. Zendesk for customer service support
Customer support and service is one of the things that you should prioritize the most when it comes to the beginning of a business. You’re establishing relationships, sharing your products or services with customers that are going to be the first people to try it out. Therefore, you want them to have the best customer experience possible.
By having the best customer experience with your business, they will likely become your cheerleaders and the ones that pass your business onto others. Having been the ones to discover you as a new brand, it’s good to go above and beyond for all your customers moving forward.
One software that can be helpful in providing this customer service support is Zendesk. Managing the demands of customers can be difficult, especially with limited resources. What Zendesk can provide is a dashboard interface that you can navigate any and all existing issues that a customer or client might have flagged.
Having it all in one place is certainly going to help ensure everyone is seen to in a timely manner. There are also similar software platforms that do this but for social media content, whether that’s replying to comments or direct messages. You want to make sure every customer is feeling valued and heard, even past the point of sale.
Starting up a business like a start-up is never easy and many of them do fail within the first few months or years. With that being said, you want to try and do everything possible to make your start-up a success. Make sure that you’re taking full advantage of what technology can give you when it comes to this software. Take note of all the software mentioned and if you haven’t got it already, then start investing in it where it’s needed.
