By Julie Morris, Life and Career Coach
Entrepreneurship can be a wonderful gateway to freedom, flexibility and financial success, but it also comes with its fair share of challenges. This is especially true for women, who often have to juggle their businesses with a host of other responsibilities, whether it’s child-rearing, domestic upkeep or simply another career. Of course, the ability to manage all these things at once is one of the reasons why women are starting more businesses.
However, it doesn’t have to be so hard. These days, there are dozens of incredible online services designed to make life as an entrepreneur easier — finding the right ones can not only boost business, but also help you maintain a healthier work-life balance.
Here are the key categories you should be looking at.
Marketing Automation
Marketing automation cuts down on hours of repetitive admin time, such as sending emails, updating social media or analyzing data from previous campaigns to better target customers. It makes life easier for a business owner who may be overwhelmed by the amount of marketing that entrepreneurship involves, and can lead to better outcomes and growth. You can read about the best marketing automation tools on the market in this guide by Venture Harbor.
Customer Relationship Management
A customer relationship management (CRM) tool can help smooth out the process of communicating with your customer base. It manages everything from newsletters to email campaigns to social media interactions, and allows you to better leverage data for increased sales. If this sounds similar to marketing automation, that’s because it is. However, there are key differences that make each one uniquely valuable.
Email Finders
One of the hardest and most frustrating parts of marketing is the act of actually finding the right email addresses to use. Email Hunter is a great tool that helps you find exactly the right email you need, and it also verifies emails to make sure they are still valid.
Invoicing
Invoicing is not only time-consuming, but it has to be one of the most boring aspects of the job. However, you can make everything easier by investing in an invoicing tool that automates the process and helps you keep track of payments and expenses without all the admin. There are a few popular options on the market, some of which are free or inexpensive.
Lead Generation
You don’t have to find leads by yourself. Some tools offer comprehensive databases of useful leads, and you can select the best ones without having to sift through huge lists. Leadfeeder has an excellent and extensive list of the best lead generation software available in 2019.
Logo Maker
A good logo is essential if you want your customers to remember you and your business. However, not everyone has the creative chops to come up with one (or the budget to pay a designer). Oberlo offers a free logo maker that works as a great alternative solution.
Website Builder
Constructing a website can seem like an intimidating task if you don’t know the first thing about design or coding. However, today’s web builders are designed to be used by anyone, with easy drag-and-drop interfaces that make creating a unique website a breeze. There are many great options available, so think about how to choose the best one for you.
What all these tools have in common is that they free up time you could be spending on other tasks that require your attention. They take the manual work out of the things that every entrepreneur has to do but few actively enjoy or are confident in. By investing in these tools, you can clear many, many hours of tedious admin to focus on the stuff that matters, whether it’s your business, your family or a part-time career.
Julie Morris is a life and career coach. More information can be found on her website at juliemorris.org.
Beyond the Bite 