Starting your own business takes a lot of hard work. After all, there’s a reason that Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, famously said, “About half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” That being said, it can be hard to maintain your passion for your cause and persevere amidst seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
Especially if you have a small team with limited time and resources, it’s important to optimize everyone’s time with tools that make their jobs easier. If your team is working with maximum productivity, you will be more able to scale your business and attract new, exciting clients and customers. Here are some of the best tools to get your business up and running.
Secure funding
While not always considered a tool in the traditional sense of the word, money is a powerful resource to leverage as you lay the foundation of your startup. If you’re interested in finding money to assist with a build-out of your offices or production facilities, it may be worth looking for a hard money loan since these types of loans are backed by assets like property. Going with a local company and finding a reputable provider of hard money loans in Texas if you’re launching a tech startup in Austin, can help you leverage what assets your business already has as you look towards further expansion. Another strategy to use when looking for a bank to give you a line of credit to fund startup supplies is to research local credit unions. It may be worth speaking directly with a credit union marketing agency to see which of their clients are trying to attract businesses like yours. From there, you can approach the credit union with the knowledge that you are an ideal candidate for their banking services and are thus likely to get competitive interest rates and promotional offers when you work with them.
Project management tools
Project management is another crucial aspect of starting and running any business. Communication problems can spell disaster for companies of all sizes, and especially at the onset of your business, it’s best to avoid these sorts of problems. Project management tools like Slack are a great solution for keeping communication all in one easily searchable place. With separate groups based on teams and threads to track specific projects or even just water cooler talk, you and your employees will be able to stay on top of your digital conversations. Project management software can also be beneficial when it comes to keeping track of to-do lists and collaborating on documents and other larger tasks. In these situations, a platform like Basecamp can be a great system for providing order to your workforce. Rather than using multiple platforms like Google Drive, Dropbox, email, and in-person meetings, Basecamp helps to unify everything into one, singular repository.
Talk to the owners of other startups
Another valuable resource for you as you approach the launch date of your startup is to discuss your goals and progress with other startups. Many business owners are happy to give advice and chat with other entrepreneurs, especially if there’s a mutually beneficial way that your companies could collaborate in the future. One way to reach out to other owners is to use LinkedIn to target similarly-sized businesses and find entrepreneurs in the same industry as you. From there, you can chat in person or through LinkedIn to pick others’ brains and avoid any rookie mistakes as you start your company.
The launch of any business is one of the trickiest parts of starting your own company. There are many factors to juggle and perfect in order to build confidence in your team and product. This is why having the right tools can be instrumental in finding your feet. Thankfully, project management systems, words of advice from other entrepreneurs, and the right amount of funding can make all the difference as you work to launch your new company.