TOOLS OF THE TRADE During my stint at entrepreneurship all I had was a borrowed Palm Pilot and a shared laptop that I used to create a very complicated Excel spreadsheet. The shortcoming of this ‘excellent’ spreadsheet was that only I understood it and could operate it. But the good thing about it was that any information regarding the project could be retrieved within a couple of minutes. Looking at the startups today, I have always wondered how the entrepreneurs manage all the variety of activities, which I gather are more complex than at my time. With the technological advances that have happened over the past decade, I guess a lot of support can be obtained from technology. Tools have mushroomed in different areas enabling people to perform various tasks very easily and speedily. Which tools are most commonly used by entrepreneurs today? You will find it convenient if they are discussed according to what they can do for you.
“Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success”. Paul J. Meyer. There are tools that will help in your communication with customers. Starting from chats and help widgets for your web site to newsletters, signup widgets and tools to run your Twitter and Facebook accounts. The list of tools includes Intercom, Drip, Mailchimp, Buffer etc. “Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved”. Mattie Stepanek. Another area where you will look for support is in team collaboration. You can get services such as chat, messaging, task list, file repository and sharing, simple CRM plug-in, project management support etc. The list of tools includes Slack, Github, Dropbox, Streak and Trello to name a few. 1