Research indicates that the key pain points for small-medium enterprises in 2018 will include increasing site traffic, cash flow management and productivity. In MYOB’s Annual Survey of small -medium enterprises MYOB’s Annual Survey of small – medium enterprises. 27% of respondents indicated that they struggled with new customer acquisition and 26% struggled with the cash flow demands of their businesses. At LawPath, we understand that the need for cost-effective solutions to meet your business needs. For your convenience, we have compiled a list of the most effective free tools to help your business grow.
Increasing Site Traffic
In an increasingly competitive market, you can add value to your product or service by using online tools to create good visual content which can increase your site traffic. Remember, content is king and you will need impressive graphics to support the great content you will be generating. Some of the free tools we recommend are below for you:
Canva
Canva is Australia’s newest unicorn, securing a $1 billion dollar valuation earlier this month. Canva aims to make graphic design accessible to everyone and helps its users in creating beautifully designed templates for free. They offering a range of quality products such as Social Media post graphics, marketing materials, documents, blogging and e-blogs. These templates will allow you to engage with your customers in new and exciting ways. You do have to pay for some templates, however, it does offer an extensive range of free to use features.
Mail Chimp
Email marketing is an effective tool to reach your customer and to keep them informed about your business. Not convinced? A recent study from Forrestor Research indicated that 42% of emails from retailers were opened on their phones in 2017. Accordingly, email marketing remains a cheap and effective way of reaching your customer. A great tool to start your email marketing campaign is Mail Chimp which offers a free account under the Forever Free program. This allows you to send a maximum of 12,000 emails to up to 2,000 subscribers, which is a great starting point for building your business database.
Cash Flow Management
Cash flow management is one of the major pain points for the small – medium enterprises. Fortunately, there are a number of free resources to help you navigate this tricky minefield. At business.gov.au you can find Financial Templates such as: Start- up Costing, Cash Flow Statements, Profit and Loss Statement, Balance Sheet and Financial Calculators.
Productivity
Most small business owners indicate that they find their time stretched too thin. There are a number of free productive applications which will assist you in analysing where your time is spent and use this to reduce inefficiencies.
Top Tracker
Top Tracker is a productivity tool aimed at developers and freelancers but can you be used by everyone. This application allows you to create projects, monitors your activities and invite team members to participate in different projects. It also offers reports and analyses your activities which you can use a guide to reduce inefficiencies.
Rescue Time
As the name indicates, Rescue Time wants to help you understand where you spend your time. Under the Rescue Time Lite model , you can track time in website and applications you use and set your own goals. You also will get a weekly and quarterly report which will show you how you spend your time.
Lawpath
At Lawpath, we understand the importance of cost-effective solutions for your business. The above tools can assist your business in meeting its future goals and increase engagement with your customers. Furthermore, at Lawpath we offer affordable and efficient legal solutions which will assist you in meeting your legal obligations for your business.
Sign up to LawPath today! Contact a LawPath consultant on 1800 529 728 to learn more about customising legal documents, obtaining a fixed-fee quote from Australia’s largest legal marketplace or to get answers to your legal questions.
