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Discover the must-have tools recommended by Launch Kit for small business owners.
As a Small business owner or operator, knowing what tools to use can often be a cloudy problem to solve. How do you know which one is the right fit for your business? Long story short - unfortunately, you’re not going to know for sure until you try (like most aspects of being an entrepreneur.)
However, we can help you get started in a potentially correct direction. Below are five essential tools in our business that we feel everyone should have.
Use Cases: email, files, and communication.
If you’re going to start somewhere, start here. Google Workspace is central to your business operation. Within it are Gmail, Google Drive, Sheets, Slides, and Chat. You’ve probably heard of these apps before. With Google Workspace, you get the “commercial” version of each. The main difference is your email account utilizes your domain, so for example, my email is kevin@launchkitdesign.com. Google workspace is what allows me to have the Launch Kit domain utilized. The actual email interface is very similar to the gmail we all know and love.
Building upon this, having your work emails set up allows your team members to function within the same organization. This is where Google Drive comes in. Google Drive is your cloud file storage for the business. All files live here, which can be accessed by your team members from anywhere. (You can still set permissions to control who has access to what.)
We pay $12/month per employee for the Business Standard plan. This is a perfect first step for those looking to properly setup their business.
Uses Cases: categorizing bank transactions, payroll, taxes, and financial reporting.
Now that you have your emails and files set up, it’s time to make some money (or pay taxes). To keep track of things like bank transactions, revenue, expenses, payroll, and taxes, we use and recommend QuickBooks Online.
Anyone who’s gone through setting up proper accounting systems can tell you that it is a bit intimidating at first. You’re going to encounter a lot of unknown terms. We promise that once the plane is built, QuickBooks will make it smooth sailing.
For example, setting it up to autopay your monthly/quarterly taxes can be a bit confusing, but once it’s set, it runs perfectly, and you never miss a payment. Takes a deep breath.
We pay $726 a year for QuickBooks and use it for categorizing bank transactions, reviewing P&Ls, running payroll, and paying taxes.
If you haven’t connected with a local CPA yet, we strongly recommend doing so. If you’re in Grand Rapids, Michigan, message me. I have a great recommendation. With QuickBooks, you can invite your CPA into your QuickBooks space so that they can assist you.
Alright, now that we’ve set up our emails and have a way to get paid, it’s time we built a system for managing our projects. There are plenty of great tools out there for this, including Monday.com, Asana, Trello. We have tried all of these and landed on ClickUp. We use ClickUp to manage our active projects and build a database of past projects.
Essentially, every project has a task; team members are assigned to the task, and due dates are set.
We take this one step further and bring our clients into ClickUp as guests. We do this to create a hands-on user experience. Clients feel connected to the project by having a seat at the table and communicating with us via quick messages.
We understand it’s not lucrative for all businesses to interact with clients this way. The key takeaway here is that you have a system in place for keeping track of your projects.
We pay $2,400 a year for ClickUp. This amount is based on the number of members and guest seats we need. They have a free plan for getting started.
Side Note: if you work in the home services industry, we’ve heard Jobber is excellent. A lot of our clients use it and are really happy with its capabilities.
Another Side Note: For anyone who uses ClickUp but is curious how we have it set up, our hierarchy is as follows:
- Workspace = Launch Kit
- Space = Each department
- List = Client
- Task = Individual project.
At this point, you have emails set up, money going through QuickBooks, and projects being managed in ClickUp. To help tie things together and scale the business, we’re going to need a CRM.
Anything can be a CRM, to be honest. You could have a table full of sticky notes, a spreadsheet, or a high-powered tool like HubSpot, Zoho, or Salesforce.
We’ve tried all these options and landed on HubSpot being our favorite.
We use HubSpot to create three things. HubSpot calls these “objects”.
We currently use HubSpot’s Sales Hub and pay $30/month for the Starter package. Odds are within the next year, we’ll upgrade to Professional so that we get access to enhanced reporting. One step at a time.
There you have it - five essential tools for properly setting up and running your business. If you have any questions about these tools, feel free to email me. We use these daily, and I can answer any specific questions you may have.
Each year, we take a fresh look at the various marketing efforts a small business can make. We've built this framework to get started optimizing your business's online presence.
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