Digital tools for business

Perhaps you are now thinking of how to start an online business from home and you are wondering the digital tools for the business you will need?

You see the online business world is a bit different from the offline business world.

.While they share some basic similarities, there are differences that you will need to take into account when starting a small business online.

The difference, of course, has to do with knowing the digital tools for business and also knowing how to use them in your business.

Not knowing some digital tools may lead to mistakes which may take time to correct.

For example, when I started my blogging business I had no idea how to track my stats and how to measure what I was doing online.

I did not even know who liked what I was writing and who did not. This means I was not clearly targeting my audience and hence not making any progress.

It did not matter the number of hours I put int trying to write on my blog if I was not writing what my audience wanted I was clearly wasting time.

So before we go on to starting this article I want to ask you, do you want to start an online business?

If your answer is yes, then you need to read my 101 small business ideas for stay at home moms.

You will get ideas on types of businesses that you can do.

 Now lets get to the main post.

I am going to divide these tools according to the different parts that make up your online business.

Disclosure: There are affiliate links and sponsored links associated with this post, please see my disclaimer policy

12 Business Tools to Start an Online Business

1. Planning

The first tool you need for any business that you want to do is a business planner.

This is the part that people often overlook, they imagine that just because a thought is in their head, it immediately equals a full business.

A business without a plan is like trying to get from point A to point Z without a proper plan on how to get there.

If you do not have a business plan that you have created for your business, you will waste a lot of time and go through a lot of confusion before you even begin to make headway.

So to help you ensure that you do not go through the same issue, the first place you need to start your business is to have a well-created plan for that business.

My job here as your encourager is to make it easy for you to start your business.

So I have created two products that you can use to quickly create your business plan.

These products are my

• Homebusiness planner
• Homebusiness planner checklist

These two products are great resources that will aid you to start a business online.

This is because I have taken the time to go back to what I needed to know when I started my online business.

I recreated what I wish I had when I started out, this will help you to keep in tabs what you should be doing per time in your bid to start an online business.

To make it easy for you, I have packaged both planners and I am selling it at bundle price is less than total price.

In these two planners you will find the following

• Idea brainstorm worksheet and Idea selection sheet
• Business Visio and mission
• Niche selection worksheet
• Income streams selection
• Strategy plan for your business
• Revenue generation plan
• Business organization plan
• Marketing plan
• Sales plan
• Profitability plan
• Business startup checklists
• Goal setting worksheet
• Business goal trackers
• Pre-made excel sheets financial projection plan
• Content creation plan

These and many more are in the combination of this two in one pack.

To get this pack, simple click the button below.

2. Online presence

When you are done with creating your business plan, the next tool you will need is a tool that enables you to create your online presence.

Your online presence is like your business office online.

This is what tells people that you are in business and willing to deal.

So what tools do you need to create an online presence?

The digital business tools you need to create an online presence come in various formats but one thing is basic, it must be online.

A website is what enables people to find your business online.

Having a website is not an option it is a must especially in this post COVID world where people need to deal online and not physically.

To build a website you need the following

• A hosting company to help you keep all your online information online
• A domain name to help you create a business name online

These two option are often taken care of by the bosting company.

Some hosting companies will ask you if you have purchased a domain name elsewhere, if you have not, do not bother purchasing anywhere.

It is simpler to just purchase a domain name from the hosting companies.

Some hosting companies even offer your free domain name and free domain emails to start your online presence.

If you are ready to purchase your hosting and domain name here is the hosting company that I will suggest that you use

Ipage

This hosting company offers you free domain name, free unlimited domain emails, free SSL, and to top it off they are cheap as you can get.

For 37 dollars a year you can get your site up and running.

To sign up for Ipage, simply tap the button below to purchase it

Now that you have purchased your hosting company and domain name, these companies do not build a website for you, they only provide your with the necessary details to help you start building your website.

If you are a newbie who wants to start a business but you do not want to build a website, here is what I can do for you.

You can hire me to build your website for you. Here are sample websites that I have built before.

Or you can buy my course and build the website yourself.

The course that I designed to teach newbies how to build a website is basically built to take you by the hand and move step by step until you have built a  complete website for your small business.

You can even build for others if you want.

Why is my course special, because it is simplified and made easy such that if you have never built a website before, you can actually build one without having headaches?

It is called WordPress Without Tears for this reason. It stops you from doing months and months of research trying to find out how to install your WordPress site.

I took my 3years knowledge and compressed it into this course to shorten the time you would have wasted trying to learn it on your own.

To take the course, click this button

Other avenues for creating an online presence is to have an online shop in case you want to sell online.

To create an online shop, you can use these methods

Shopify ecommerce platform

WordPress site + Woocommerce

You can build a WordPress site and add an ecommerce shop using Woocommerce- This is covered in my course WordPress Without Tears.

Woocommerce is free so you do not have to buy anything else.

3. Content creation

As long as you are going to be doing business online, you will need to create some form of content.

This is because online business is all about creating content no matter what you are selling.

Be it products or services. You will need to write, create graphics, or create a video to tell others what your business is all about.

Some of the content you may create include blog posts, business description pages, email content, video content.

To create content for your business you will need the following tools

Graphics creation- Canva

Video creation– Screencastomatic. Youtube, Facebook, Smartphone

Email creation- Email automation software

Course creation software-If you are doing a business that requires you to create courses, you will need a platform to host and sell your courses.

I share with you a course platform that I use for my courses, they are about the best in the market, beating others hands-on

Zenler course platform. With Zenler all your course creation needs are taken care of from sales pages to landing pages to opt-in pages to email campaigns.

 All can be done within the confines of Zenler.

If all you want to do is to create courses you may not need a website anymore because Zenler takes care of all those needs and provides you with instant feedback once you make a sale.

Sign up for Zenler by tapping this button

If you are just starting your business and need a content creator for your business, I offer content creation services for small businesses.

You can go here to see what services that have to offer.

4 Advertisement & Marketing

When you have finished setting up your business, you may be wondering what about advertisement what digital business tools do I need for marketing and advertising my business?

I will share with you here some tools that you will need

Social media scheduler– For scheduling posts to all your social media pages

• Hootsuite
• Postfitty
• Postplanner

Email marketing– For creating email marketing and sales campaigns targeted at selling your products.

• Sendpulse
• Sendlane
• Mailchimp

Landing Pages– For sales page creation and persuading customers to buy from you.

• LeadPages
• Your own website page
• Hubspot

5. Content storage and sharing

There are digital business tools that are needed for storing your business information and also sharing your business information.

These tools can be used to help others learn about your business when you are not actively involved in it.

Having content storage and sharing facility promotes automation in business and helps to ensure that you can share information that you have set up at particular times.

These storage tools helps you to both store and share files to other people that are interested in your business

Tools

Google Drive

I don’t know what I could have done without Google drive. I use my Google Drive to share files and documents that I want people to have access to when they have signed up to my email list.

The Google drive enables me to grant access to files I want them to have without me doing anything extra.

This means that my business is automated. Your google drive is part of your G-suite.

With Google drive you can create links and share files you have created to other users.

Drobbox

Dropbox is also exactly like Google drive, you can share links and files to others using their services.

A combination of these two has been a tone of help to my business and I believe to other online business owners.

6. Tracking and Analysis.

I love the online business world because of the many digital business tools you can use to ensure that you are on track with what you are doing.

When you have a website online, you want to know where your customers are coming from.

You want to know which of your products are really doing well.

While you can get that from sales, you also want to know which of your marketing platforms are doing well and referring you the most customers.

This is where your tracking and analysis comes in when doing business online

What tools do you need to track and analyze your website

If you are taking my WordPress without Tears course, I covered this aspect very well and showed you how to install all the necessary tools you need for tracking and analyzing your website.

I also share what you need to do per SEO wise to enable you to get the results you want.

If you want to learn in-depth how to track and analyze your business

Then take my WordPress Without Tears course

Tools

Jetpack- Monitoring your WordPress site- this works for only WordPress sites alone

Google analytics- Curates data from your site and tells you what content people spend the most time on.

Google search console– Tells you what pages are the most popular and what how well your website pages are doing on the internet.

Keyword tools

These tools tell you what keywords are ranking on your website

• Keyword everywhere
• Ubersuggest- Helps you to analyze your website.

7.Payment collection

Now that you have created your business, you need tools to collect payment on your website otherwise what is the use of selling on your website

To collect payment on your website you will need the following tools

Paypal payment buttons: These are the most popular and easy to use, they usually come embedded with most ecommerce shop platforms

Stripe- same with Paypal

8.Book keeping

After all is said and done, you need tools to keep records of your business sales and track all your expenses to ensure that you can see what you have done during a month or a year.

This means you need tools for your book keeping services. There are lots of simple book keeping tools that are available but the most simple and easy ones to use are as follows

• Waveapps- Free
• Freshbooks
• Zohobooks

9. Online collaboration tools

If you are a small business person who needs to collaborate with others online either in creating and managing projects or in executing some jobs online.

To carry out these you will need some digital business tools to aid you.

What are they?

Trello: For sharing files, creating project tasks and creating timelines for projects you are working on

Slack: A virtual coworking space that enables you keep all the members of your team on one page as pertaining a project. Conversations can be tracked, files can be shared and messages can be sent.

10.Appointment booking software

Where your business has to do with offering services that require advance booking or scheduling.

You may need tools that will enable your customer’s books and schedule for your services.

These tools work for those who offer consultation online or coaching services

The tools to use are

• Setmore : I use Setmore to set up my consultation booking services, their user interface is quite simple to use and very friendly. After setting up your account, you get a shareable link that you can send to your potential customers. You also get a booking widget that your customers can use to book your services at any time via your website. To sign up for Setmore, tap the picture below.

Setmore has a payment gateway integrated into it so your customers can pay for your services before seeing you.

11 Seo Tools

So you have your business online but you do not know much about SEO. SEO is search engine optimization.

It is the series of activities you need to do to your website to ensure that your website is showing up in searches

Otherwise, why would you be online? SEO is a long term plan and not a hit and miss activity.

To learn more about SEO you will need to know where to start from.

The best way to start is to read about it from those who have masters the art of SEO and are continuously teaching other what to do.

So this aspect is not a tool but websites you should follow to learn more about SEO

They are

neilpatel.com

moz.com

Backlinko.com

12. Live Chat

Businesses online are now mimicking physical businesses and offering tools that will enable you to engage with customers once they walk into your online business.

Live chat service is one digital tool that makes a huge difference in how you service your customers,

Having a live chat widget tool installed in your online business website leads to more conversion as consumers value immediate help when they need it.

If you are looking for where to get a live chat widget tool that your business can use, consider using 13chats.

13chats has one of the best live chat widgets that stores live chat data for further analysis after the chat may have taken place, Tap the button below to learn more.

Starting an online business requires that you have the necessary digital tools that will help you to succeed.

Knowing what they are and where to apply them in your online business will ensure that you succeed faster as a small business owner.

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