Starting a new business has never been easier since Cloud services were introduced to the world. With the Cloud you can run a business from anywhere, and you don’t have to be tied down to a desk in order to make a profit. There are all kinds of new tools which make collaborating with others a breeze, and you can seamlessly access all of your work, both administrative and creative, from any device and from any location in the world.
If you are looking to start your own business, or you already have a business and you want to take advantage of Cloud services, here are the top 13 tools to start out with.
#1. CANDDi
This is a web analytics platform, and a whole lot more. Rather than gathering web stats, this tool gathers real stats about real people. When you sign up for this service, you will add your CANDDi code to your own website. Then, the CANDDi team will be extremely hands-on to ensure that you get the information you need about your customers in order to give them what they want, and help you profit. You will learn a lot about the behavior of the people who visit your site, and also learn such things as their names, phone numbers, locations, companies, and more.
#2. Rackspace
If you are looking for a service that will host both your website and your email domains, check out what Rackspace has to offer. It is a reliable service, and you have all of the security you need.
#3. Cabertel
Are you looking to change your telephone system to a Cloud based service? If so, Cabertel has everything that your business needs to communicate with associates and customers from all over the world. You can go online to request a quote for a package that will suite all of your business communication needs.
#4. Freshbooks
Make all of your accounting and bookkeeping a lot easier with Freshbooks. You can track time, create invoices, create estimates, and more. You can alsouse it to keep track of your expenses, with the ability to download right from your credit card. This lets you create all of your profit and loss statements, which your accountant is going to need.
#5. Nimble
If you are looking for the best CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool, Nimble is the one to check out. You can use this tool to import contacts from all kinds of platforms to create one complete list, including your local address book, cloud based contacts lists, social network contacts, social groups, Twitter lists, and more.
#6. MadMimi
Email marketing is important in order to keep your customers informed about upcoming specials, and to keep your business fresh in their minds. You can use MadMimi to make email marketing a lot easier, and there are all kinds of newsletter templates and list management features for you to use. They also provide automatic unsubscribes, so you won’t be accused of violating CAN-SPAM laws.
#7. SupplierCompete
Find the best suppliers of business software solutions at SupplierCompete. You can choose from more than 40 categories of products and services, check out reviews of these services, compare pricing, read articles and buying guides, and even see company listings. It is easy to use, and it will help you save a lot of money in the long run by ensuring that you find the right suppliers for your business.
#8. LastPass
This tool lets you remember all of your passwords, share passwords for shared accounts, use unbreakable passwords, fill in login details for all Internet accounts, and more. It works with all browsers, and you can use LastPass both online and offline. There is an awesome security policy, and all staff will have to comply with specific password regulations.
#9. SpiderOak
No matter how many Cloud backup tools you are using, it is highly likely that you are still using your computer to store files as well, just so you have an additional backup. The only problem with this is that if your computer crashes and burns, so will your files. SpiderOak is an awesome backup and sync tool, and it lets you back up data to the Cloud and synchronize them on folders on any computer.
#10. edocr
You will have content for your business, such as articles on your website, blogs, customer documents, white papers, manuals, tips lists, guides, and a whole lot more. So, you need to have a way to give this content as much exposure as possible. This is where edocr comes in. This tool will host documents and get them out to a much larger audience by showcasing them on the edocr website under very specific types of categories.
#11. Toggl
Toggl is a cloud based time tracking tool that will allow your team to log in their time from anywhere, just as they would if they were physically in the office. This tool is free, and your employees can track their time as well as their tasks. They will be able to send you a visual report of their finished tasks. Keep in mind that this app only works for teams with up to five members.
#12. Asana
Asana is a project management system that is free to use, and it will help you to keep projects and tasks organized, as well as organize members who keep up your blog. You can use it to create projects, assign tasks to specific team members, and a whole lot more.
#13. ClickMeeting
Hold meetings without needing to have everyone in the same room. ClickMeeting lets you have audio and video conferencing, so you can discuss blogging plans with your team from anywhere in the world. Hold moderated question and answer sessions, presentations, and more.
You need to get into the Cloud in order to stay ahead in business these days. These tools, as well as many others that are available at little to no cost, are just what you need to be able to take full advantage of everything that the Cloud has to offer.
________________________________________________________________________________
Tweak Your Biz is a thought leader global publication and online business community. Today, it is part of the Small Biz Trends stable of websites and receives over 300,000 unique views per month. Would you like to write for us?
An outstanding title can increase tweets, Facebook Likes, and visitor traffic by 50% or more. Generate great titles for your articles and blog posts with the Tweak Your Biz Title Generator.
