Prepare for everything to be far from perfect when starting your own business. The beauty of entrepreneurship is knowing success is entirely up to you. Begin by solving a problem that you are passionate about, then find someone willing to pay you for it. Seth Godin said, “ Charge less than it’s worth and more than it costs you. Repeat.” Let’s dive in together.
Would you prefer the good or bad news first? We are fans of Practical Pessimism at Data Nerds so let’s start with the bad news.
Bad News
- A corporation fails every 3 minutes.
- 96% of all companies fail within 10 years.
- 16%-30% of customers will change brand loyalty in one evening of watching television.
- 74% of customers will buy outside their favour brands.
Good News
- There are 28 Million Small Businesses in the US.
- 22 Million are self employed with no additional employees.
- Over 50% of the working population works in a small business.
- 543,000 new businesses are started each month.
Now that you know the inner workings of Small Businesses in North America, here are a few suggestions of tools you can use to ensure your future success.
1. Evernote
Evernote is the workspace for your life’s work. Enough said. With Evernote you can organize everything from your business life to your home life and see it on all your devices. You can even share lists with friends or family when you don’t feel like picking up the groceries.
- 8 tips for running your business with Evernote.
- Why Evernote is actually Amazing.
- Evernote like a Pro.
2. WordPress
74,652,825 sites on the INTERWEB depend on WordPress. It receives even more unique visitors per month than Amazon.com, and that’s big. Around the globe, 17 new WordPress posts are published every second. While these stats can go on and on and on… let’s start with some useful beginner guides to WordPress.
- Learn WordPress from WordPress. Who woulda thought!?
- Lynda Online Learning.
- 200+ WordPress Tutorials.
3. Payment Processors
This market is bound to be heavily disrupted with Apple pay and various other methods of smart phone payments. But in the mean time,here are my suggestions of which payment processor to use depending on your scenario.
If you are using a store front or physical location, try Square Payments.
For online payment processing, sign up with Stripe.
4. Customer Service
Zendesk is the leading customer service platform in our eyes as we have used it for various projects. Zopim live chat is easily integrated with Zendesk and will allow you to immediately communicate with customers when they have questions.
Phone support should be handled in-house for as long as possible. Skype is a great tool and inexpensive when starting out.
5. Outsourcing
Ensure you do your research before hiring and trusting someone from any of these networks. Make sure you are protected as outsourcing is a live and learn experience. Here are 3 outsourcing networks we have used and a few articles on best practices.
Best Practices:
- 3 Best Practises for working with freelancers.
- Hiring on Elance (or Upwork).
- Hiring freelance talent: Tips for Success.
6. Competitor Research
Personally my favourite part of starting a new project is seeing what our new competitors are up to. These tools are all saved as bookmarks in our browsers for easy access everyday.
7. Advertising Networks
You should hire Data Nerds for this (our only plug in this WHOLE article.) How else are you going to attract a larger audience other than advertising? Here’s a list of the biggest advertising networks and all of our personal favourites. Oh, and feel free to email me personally at josh@datanerds.com for any inquiries.
8. Social Media
Here is a list of mandatory networks you should be a part of: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google +, Linked In, Reddit, Youtube, Vimeo. We’re sure you can think of a bunch more off the top of your head but focus on the top 5 when starting out. The best management tool for all of these is Hootsuite. There are also various tools to track viral content but we prefer Buzz Sumo.
9. Crowdfunding
This is a great way to gain initial traction and prove your business idea. If you are looking for an international audience use Indiegogo. If you’re planning on strictly being in North America, use KickStarter. Here a couple of our favourite projects from each platform.
10. Team Management Tools
This industry is constantly evolving. Steward Butterfield recently launched Slack which has changed the internal communication of our team for the better. Asana is a task management tool which is also taking the industry by storm. Our personal favourite productivity tracker to see how much time is wasted during the day is Toggl. Another one of our favorite time management tools is Time Doctor. This is an excellent resource to track employee productivity with screenshot monitoring. You can see how much time your team members spend on actual work.
11. Business Meetings and Events
Conferences have opened our eyes to a broader world of marketing and successful companies. Expanding your network and meeting like minded people will always help your business. Here are a few of our favourites conferences in North America:
12. Scheduling
Become best friends with your calendar. This will allow you to avoid distraction and stay focused.
Here is a list of apps you can use to schedule meetings and keep your day on track.
13. CRM Solutions
Triangle has been helping us for years. What they do is help automate marketing campaigns, order management, payment processing, fulfillment, contact centre, and data services. There are 3 companies that I will recommend for beginners and two additional companies if you’re a bit more experienced with CRM.
It’s pretty safe to say that things are constantly evolving in the business world. For that reason, we are going to update this article every 2-3 months with the latest tools and apps to help you start and run your new business.
Feel free to comment below with your tips & tricks and share any awesome new tools that you use to help keep your business on track!
I think that Workflowy is a lot more powerful than evernote. Also, I find Trello to be way more powerful than Asana.
In terms of scheduling, I’d suggest you consider also trying https://calendar.sunrise.am. Integrates with googlecal to truly be powerful.
Thanks for letting us know about these other options, Emilie we actually hadn’t heard of them! We’re glad you’ve already found a couple apps that work great for you!
These are awesome tips. It’s going to help all the newbies out there.
That’s the goal Robin! Thanks for reading 🙂
I think there’s a lot of useful stuff in here for everyone!
Thank you Heidi, glad you enjoyed it!
These are great tools for starting a Business and staying on track number 2, 4, 5 and 8 is one of my favorites. I need to be more organized and a calendar helps. Customer support and Outsourcing two necessary tools we should not forget. Social media networking is a daily process.
As a newcomer with limited funds advertising and hiring others is out of the questions at present I have to find creative ways to get the word out about my blog like any other small businessperson. Like you said preparing for anything and having the right tools can make or break your business.
You hit the nail right on the head Patrice! It’s all about creativity in the first few years of starting a business – trying to get as much as you can for as little money! Thanks for reading 🙂
Great tips for newbies. We all need help when we start up.
Absolutely Tara! Thanks for reading 🙂
this is a great resource for people starting business
Thank you Michelle!
These are definitely effective. Ever note is such a lovely app, I’ve been using it for the longest time!
Us too Elizabeth! It’s incredibly handy and keeps us on task.
I use IFTT like crazy. There’s a recipe for everything in there!
That’s another great application Liz! It definitely makes it easy to set up social media accounts.
This is a great way to grab an opportunity to make a successful business! Thank you so much for sharing us your knowledge
Thank you Lexie! Glad you enjoyed it.
These are a great tips. thanks for sharing
Thank you Victoria and thanks for reading!
it’s really not easy to do business but if you love what you do, everything will follow into it’s place
With a little bit of hard work, anything is possible Melandria 😉
Thanks for this great resource! It is such a challenge staying with it when you are a start up and this tips will most certainly help!
Thank you Claudette! It can be a struggle for sure.
You are most welcome! Keep up the good work with your informative posts.
These are all truly great tips for those who want to stay on track. I would think those meetings are a great way to network for sure.
They absolutely are Amanda! Thanks for commenting 🙂
Starting a business is hard work. Having a plan helps.
Definitely Tara! You can’t start without a plan 🙂
I would be totally off track without my calendar and my daily reminders. Thanks for the great post!
That’s great that you use these to keep you organized! Thanks for commenting Kristi!
This is a great resource for those who are thinking of starting a business. Having a plan always helps.
Thank you! And yes absolutely, a plan is essential!
What a comprehensive list! I adore WordPress and I see quite a few items I need to get going on.
Thank you Tina, and yes you should definitely check out some of our other suggestions 🙂
Great tips and services for even established business or blogger to learn from!
Thank you Heidi and absolutely, this can apply to anyone from bloggers to CEO’s 🙂
tips can be used when you are new or been around a bit. I love how you don’t hold back but come right on out and share the bad news as well as the good and then ways that you can do the best
Thank you Angie! We believe in learning from our mistakes and being realistic when it comes to business.
What a great tips. we all need this i’m so glad you shared this with us
Thank you Victoria, we’re glad you enjoyed them!
A lot of great resources in here, and some new ones to me too. Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you Angie, and Happy Thanksgiving to you as well!
Great tool recommendations!! These are all so important! I’ll have to check out the ones I haven’t heard of before 🙂
We’re glad we could introduce you to some new ideas Keating! Good luck!
This is really great. Such wonderful tips, I’ll have to pass along to my BIL and SIL with their new business!
That’s great Jeanine! We hope they enjoy it and find it useful 🙂
I really need to get better about using an electronic calendar – I’m still using paper and pencil and that works really well for me. Whenever I switch for a bit – I always ten to forget things
It can definitely be hard to make the switch! Once you start using something like Google Calendar though, you’ll wonder how you went without it!
Another pinnable article. I love this site. Such great content.
Thank you Chanelle! That means a lot to us 🙂
Lots of fun tools for us – great resource list – thank you! I’ll be sharing this info with my own clients – Look forward to coming back to your site 🙂
Thank you so much Donna, that means a lot to us and the fact that you’re willing to share it with your clients is wonderful!
Social media is really important when working on your business it can really help propel it into publicity.
Absolutely Ana, it’s one of the quickest and cheapest ways to gain exposure!
Social media influence is a huge thing in putting up a business. Everyone rely on what they see and they care share in just one click .
That’s exactly it! Even if you can just get a few people to grab hold of your idea and business, it can skyrocket within days!
So many great resources here that I haven’t tried of considered. Thanks for adding these all to one place for me.
You’re very welcome Sophie, and we’re glad you enjoyed the new tips!
I have Evernote but don’t really use it 🙁 I still love my Google drive
Rika, we love Google Drive as well! We should have included that in this list since it’s so easy to use and makes it simple to share files. Good call!
I would agree with all except Evernote.. I just switched to something better (Google Drive!) and love it.
We use Google Drive as well but for different reasons 🙂 It’s an awesome application too!
Evernote and WordPress are key to any business. I love all of these great tips!
Thank you Jonathan!
There is so much great information for starting your own business. I’m hoping to someday incorporate some type of product, so I’m glad I’m already on WordPress, and know a few other tools.
That’s great Shann! Hopefully we helped you with a few other steps as well.
Super informative post! Thanks so much for the tips 🙂
Thank you Jenn, we’re glad you enjoyed it 🙂
What a great list!!!! I just love Evernote!!! One of my favs!
That’s great to hear Courtney!
This is a great list of things that are actually doable. Thanks for sharing!
That’s what we were aiming for Mardene! Thanks for reading 🙂
Starting new business is not easy task but good preparation and experienced tips can help a lot to do so….
You got it Jasmine!
These are very helpful tips to start and be a success ful in doing a business.
Thank you Jessica 🙂
I am still trying to figure out how to use Evernote to my advantage. Great list of tools.
It can take a while to get the hang of Ashleigh and you’re not the only one that feels this way…Maybe we should write a post about that next 🙂
Great read thanks for sharing! These tools are a great help especially for freelancers online businesses. Time tracking tools are also important as it helps you and your employees keep track of your time and productivity. By using web-based time tracking tool from sites like https://www.clockspot.com/ you can micro manage your projects and be more effective with completing your tasks.