Startups are fast-paced and exciting places to work. From ideas to research, and finding your product-market fit, through to creation, organization, and growth, small business owners need tools that streamline the organization, and solve the ever-increasing growing pains.
Just like your business, our team at Metigy use tools for the different pillars of our business – that’s project management, communication, creativity, customer support, and product management.
Here’s a list of our five favorite tools perfect for startups to help your business along on its journey – and we’ve thrown in a bonus tool we know you’ll love:
Tool #1
AirTable
“Connect everything. Achieve anything.”
Airtable, simply put, is a database for tracking progress. Now before you scroll because you saw the word database, keep reading for a moment. Airtable can provide your small business with the organization and track its needs for projects and team to-do lists. We often hear in the world of entrepreneurship we should base our decisions on data and reality. Airtable helps you have insight and oversight into what your team is working on. Think of it as the boat and each team member has an oar – Airtable enables you to ensure everyone is rowing in the same direction.
Pros:
- Automation and tracking
- Free version
- Great customer support
The pricing is per seat, per month which can add up quickly for a growing organization, but the free option works well.
A good alternative:
Another project tracking tool that would be helpful for your business is Asana. This tool would be great if your small business shows growth and requires a more extensive management system.
Tool #2
Slack
“Slack is where the future works.”
Slack is a messaging platform that connects your team across the office or across timezones. With different channels (think of channels as conversion topics), you can separate communications between teams and projects. As your small business grows, communication will be essential in solving challenges.
Pros:
- Easy to sign up and use – just like texting
- Great mobile app design for work on the go
- Integrations with countless apps – Google Drive integration is one of the most valuable
Slack does offer a free version that is limited. It is also billed per user per month.
A good alternative:
Microsoft Teams has a pretty robust chat option. However, it is an extension of Office 365 so comes as part of the package.
Tool #3
Miro
“Where teams get work done.”
Think of Miro as a living, breathing whiteboard for teams to brainstorm and collaborate on together. With options like drafting a marketing plan, user flow, relationship chart, Miro is a great solution to display something visually. And with the added power of seeing changes and users’ work in real-time, Miro offers you and your team a place to get creative.
Pros:
- Infinite whiteboard – let your ideas run with unlimited space to draft ideas
- Miro is a remote whiteboard to show over an online call
- Real-time interactions and edits
The free version offers unlimited members and three whiteboards to get started. Billing is per user per month.
Mural is the same whiteboard tool with easier admin organization but is a little more expensive.
Tool #4
Intercom – “The best way to connect with your customers.”
Intercom is a very robust customer support offering and is a great tool for your service team with features like chatbots, app integrations, and workflow or ticketing management. Its wide array of features can be meticulously crafted to create a wonderful customer support user journey.
Pros:
- House all your support content including videos and articles
- Push notifications – your team won’t miss a chat
- Know what your customers are saying with reports and tags
Intercom offers more of an á la carte pricing which can add up quickly for a small business or startup. They do claim to provide a plan for (in their words) a ‘very small business’, so it’s worth checking out if that’s suitable for your needs.
A good alternative:
ZenDesk offers a lot of the same features and integrations as Intercom. It does have a different user interface with a bit more affordable pricing and offersplans for sales and support teams.
Tool #5
ClickUp – “One app for work, all of your work in one place: tasks, docs, chat, goals, and more.”
ClickUp is a great tool for product management. It is very developer-friendly, as well as easy to learn for non-developers. Its ability to track progress on bugs/tickets, progress toward new product features, and organize your team wherever they are in the world is why both Airtable and ClickUp made our list. There’s a special benefit too – ClickUp easily integrates with Intercom. This solidifies a direct line of communication between the product team and the customer success team. Giving any business the ability to listen and act on the feedback you receive from your users in real time.
Pros:
- Integration with Intercom
- Connect tasks and bugs that are related, minimizing duplication of efforts
- Assign due dates and responsibility of tasks with notifications
ClickUp offers a free version that looks great at first, but is limited by the storage at 100Mb. It is free forever, but you will use that storage with attachments in no time. For a small team, it is reasonably priced per user per month.
A good alternative:
GitHub is at a slightly lower price point and has more limited features and it is more geared towards web developers.
Bonus tool!
Metigy – “The ultimate SME marketing platform.”
We have to mention Metigy of course! Marketing is a BIG aspect of your small business. Without marketing, who is going to know about the amazing work you are doing? Metigy is a platform built for non-marketers. With easy onboarding, ads workflow, social media posting, and AI recommendations personalized for your brand, Metigy is changing the game for small businesses to revolutionize their marketing.
Pros:
- Artificial intelligence recommendations bring answers to the marketing questions you ask every day
- The only platform that offers social media posting and ads management in one place
- Real humans behind the customer support team
Metigy does offer a free plan to get started and is billed per month.
A good alternative:
There is none! Metigy is the only product of its kind on the market to offer social media posting and paid digital marketing with AI recommendations and insights baked in to help you make better marketing decisions.
Try Metigy today and start scaling your marketing with just a few clicks.
