A recent study found that the typical entrepreneur devotes only 32% of their time to long-term goals, strategic planning, and other activities that can help their firm expand and spends 68% of their time dealing with day-to-day work. Small firms typically cannot afford the tools and processes that will help them streamline their everyday operations due to their constrained operating budgets and small staff.

We examined hundreds of software programmes designed especially to assist small firms in managing the duties essential to their success. Based on typical company requirements, platform quality, usability, and price, we selected the best. Here are some of our favorites.

Wave Accounting

Co-founders Kirk Simpson and James Lochrie founded Wave Accounting in 2010 after becoming dissatisfied with the paucity of free, user-friendly financial software for small enterprises. More than 250 people work with Wave now, which provides services to small businesses worldwide. Since it allows small businesses to issue invoices, scan receipts, manage sales taxes, and more all without cost, we selected it as the finest accounting software.

In order to keep track of income and expenses, Wave enables users to connect different bank accounts, credit cards, and set up profiles for various enterprises. To make tax time simpler, the programme organized accounts, payments, and invoices. It also provides comprehensive reports that may be used to spot trends in cash flow.

Wix

Three businessmen who were dissatisfied with the hassle and cost of building a website established Wix in 2006. The company currently employs 5,000 people worldwide and serves 200 million users across 190 nations. Since it enables users to construct professional-looking websites for a low cost and without coding experience, it won our award for best website builder.

A professional business website may be easily created using Wix's drag-and-drop editor and selection from hundreds of industry-specific themes. Every website has compelling elements like animation, video backdrops, and scrolling that look excellent on mobile devices.

Mailchimp

Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius, owners of web development companies, created Mailchimp in 2001 with the goal of creating an affordable email marketing solution for small businesses. With websites, landing pages, postcards, and more, it has grown into an overflowing marketing platform. We chose it as the email marketing software because it offers small businesses greater email marketing through both free and inexpensive subscription plans.

The free email software from Mailchimp makes getting underway with email campaigns straightforward for business owners that are new to it. The platform provides audience segmentation, rudimentary personalisation, opt-in popups and signup forms, predefined email templates, and other features. Users also receive a mobile app that enables them to send emails and view campaign performance with just a few clicks.

Trello

A company called Fog Creek Software unveiled a prototype project management solution in 2011 to handle challenging planning issues. The program's user base expanded from 50,000 in just one year to 4.75 million by 2014. It was subsequently renamed Trello. We chose it as the top project management software because it offers a free, flexible, and visible approach to handle assignments. 

Trello makes it simple to manage both one-off projects and continuous workflows by using Kanban-style boards for task and project management. Users may construct unique boards and lists with cards that can contain images, files, links, checklists, due dates, and more thanks to its user-friendly and easy design.

Slack

Slack was initially developed as an internal communication tool for a game development business founded in 2009 by Stewart Butterfield, a co-founder of Flickr. It was made accessible to the world in 2013 and now spans 150 countries with more than 12 million followers. Because it provides real-time messaging, feedback, and collaboration on a free web platform, we selected it as the top team communication tool.

Slack was created to do away with email communication's inefficiencies and delays. Users of the software can construct channels that are based on a subject, group, undertaking, or even a client. A Slack account's channels might be private and accessible exclusively by invitation or public and accessible to all users.

Freshteam

Freshworks, a company that has been creating communication, sales, and marketing technologies since 2010, created Freshteam in 2017. Businesses can use the programme to handle employee information, onboarding, time off, and hiring. Because it enables small firms to hire new staff on an accessible and cost-effective online platform, we selected it as the best hiring software.

Small businesses can easily post jobs, review resumes, track candidates, and even send offer letters thanks to Freshteam's applicant tracking system (ATS). Users can post openings on free job platforms like LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor, and Adzuna and have access to sample job descriptions.

Users of Freshteam can follow candidates from application to interview to hire by establishing customized procedures.

Google Workspace

Google Workplace, formerly known as Google Suite, is a bundle of web-based office applications that includes email, calendars, chat, document creation and management, cloud storage, and more. Because it provides safe, branded, cloud-based document creation, storage, collaboration, and sharing, we selected it as the finest document management software.

For small organizations looking to establish an effective, collaborative, cloud-based working environment without having to shell out for pricey software or worry about everyone having the same computer, Google Workspace is a fantastic alternative. Users may switch between apps with ease because every tool on the Google Workspace platform is a Google product.

For organizations, the first step is to set up a branded email account using Gmail, one of the most prominent mail apps on the market.