Choosing Tech Tools for a Start-up
Setting up a business as a Marketer, is fascinating. It’s a bit like an architect building their own house – everyone expects it to be (and look) amazing so the pressure is on!
The reality is that when you start a business, you aren’t just doing the thing you have trained to do. You are taking on a whole host of new job roles ranging from finance and legal to sales and IT. In particular if you are used to working in medium or large sized organisations the tools that you have there are very different to the tools that will help you get your new business up and running. For one, not having an IT specialist or team can cause a few headaches!
Here’s a quick run-down of the tech tools that we’ve chosen to use for @seebluemktg and why.
#1 Domain and hosting – there are many sites out there which sell both. One thing to watch out for is that you may not get the best deal if you purchase the domain first and the email hosting later, so try to buy them in one deal. We used 1&1 Ionos because it was recommended as a reliable and great value hosting service and so far, they’ve been excellent. Once you’ve set up the email addresses you can easily map them into your Outlook or Gmail accounts.
#2 Website – there are some amazing free tools out there which have so many great templates it is something you can do yourself - if you have the time. Established businesses probably won’t! We used WordPress - check out You Tube for ‘how to’ videos (give yourself at least an hour to watch properly). Creds to @orlamurphy who built our website www.see-blue.co.uk - let us know what you think!
#3 CRM tools. We reviewed Hubspot, Zoho and Sugar CRM. All have free options for small businesses, in the end we chose Hubspot because we felt it integrated with more apps and because it remains free (the basic version at least) no matter how large your business grows.
#4 File sharing is another important thing to get organised. Of course, there is We Transfer which is probably the most basic and simple to access as no account is needed. However, if you need more collaboration options (one location to securely manage and share content from) then Box was recommended to us. I’ll let you know how we get on with it!
#5 Partnership agreement. We were interested in using an ‘as a service’ business who have re-shaped the traditional business model into something more cost-effective and flexible. I came across Rocket Lawyer who provide access to legal documents and advice online (they have received funding from Google amongst other investors.) As long as you don’t have a complex structure you can get a basic agreement written and signed in a day.
It’s only when you start looking that you realise just how many cool technology solutions for businesses there are. Next time I find something I love I’ll let you know!