As an entrepreneur, if there is something I have come to appreciate in the evolving SaaS industry, it is how they make our lives easier. Software as a Service, also known as SaaS, is a cloud-based delivery software model that provides users access to software through the internet. Our world currently boasts over 30,000 SaaS tools for different industries. In the article, I will discuss 15 essential SaaS tools that can help you boost your productivity as an entrepreneur.
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Table of Contents
Calendly
As an entrepreneur, you will constantly have people who need to book appointments for speaking engagements, interviews, business talks, etc. Calendly is a scheduling tool that allows you to plan your client engagements based on your available time. This tool allows you to specify your working hours and share them with others so that clients won’t have to book an appointment when you are busy.
As an entrepreneur, you can also configure your Calendly based on the interval you want the person to book an appointment before you head down. And the lovely thing about this SaaS tool is it ensures you don’t have a clashing schedule.
Alternative tools to Calendly: Vocus.io, Sprintful, MixMax, Meetingbird, etc.
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Slack
Slack has made business communication super easy and arranged. Slack is an instant messaging tool explicitly made for the office. As an entrepreneur, you can leverage Slack to create a different channel for different departments of your firm.
This makes teamwork more hyper-flexible and easy. You can also integrate other work apps into this tool, which implies that you can have all your work processes in one place. Other alternatives to Slack are Microsoft Teams, Blink, Google Chat, Discord, Mattermost, etc.
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Canva
Canva is easy-to-use design software that helps you create fast yet beautiful designs for your business. As an entrepreneur, you may occasionally need to design some fast creatives for your business, like a Twitter header, LinkedIn banner, or even a simple custom ebook cover for your kindle eBook. You don’t need a trained designer to use Canva; some templates will ease your work.
Similar options: Crello, Adobe Spark, Design Wizard, Stencil, etc.
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Zoom
Zoom is another essential SaaS tool that has become indispensable for entrepreneurs in this digital age. For example, you can leverage Zoom for video meetings requiring presentations, live document walk-throughs, and real-time work progress updates.
Alternatives to Zoom are Google Meet, Skype, Microsoft Teams, GoToMeeting, etc.
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Zendesk
Zendesk is a customer support SaaS product that helps you create a live chat interaction with your website visitors. You can customize the Zendesk chatbot to lead prospects to an existing resource you have created for their inquiry. It also allows you to follow up with clients through the contact details they drop in their conversation with the bot.
Similar tools: ServiceNow, Freshdesk, Zoho Desk. HappyFox etc.
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Freshbook
Freshbook is an invoicing SaaS product that helps you create professional invoices for customers with multiple payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal. It also helps you efficiently manage your business accounting and bookkeeping. Freshbook helps you keep track of your reports, expenditure, and sales timeline. It is handy for businesses with 50 or fewer employees. Alternatives to Freshbook are QuickBooks, Wave, Xero, NetSuite, etc.
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Hubspot
Hubspot is a multidimensional software with all you need to develop your digital business from the ground up to closing leads. Hubspot is a CRM with built-in sales and marketing tools, a content management system for blogging and hosting your website, and email marketing.
The CRM has tools that help you build and keep track of your leads, automate your tasks, and keep a proper organization of all the activities in your business. It is essential for entrepreneurs willing to achieve more with one tool.
Similar Software as Service tools are Ontraport, EngageBay, Keap, ActiveCampaign, etc.
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Google Workspace
Google launched Google Workspace in 2020 to bridge the gap created by social distancing caused by the pandemic. Google Workspace is a productivity tool that contains all of Google’s essential apps or features for office use. You can call it an upgrade of the G-Suite tools. Google Workspace contains apps like Gmail, Google docs, Google Chat, Google Meet, Google Calendar, etc.
All these apps have been brought together and work with each other. For example, you can collaborate with your teammate on Google Docs out of your Google Chat. As an entrepreneur, this SaaS tool proves to be effective for your productivity. However, you can still check out tools like Microsoft 365, Jira, Slack, RackSpace, etc.
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Grammarly
Grammarly is a writing assistant that helps you improve your writing skills with AI-suggested phrases, sentence reconstruction, spelling errors, tone, and accurate readability. And as an entrepreneur, you will always need to write some business messages like emails.
You sure don’t want to make a wrong impression of your writing. Grammarly helps you appear smart with your writing. Other writing assistants that perform similar functions as Grammarly are Quill Bot, ProWritingAid, Ginger, HemmingwayApp, etc.
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Zapier
You will agree that repeating a process as an entrepreneur repeating a process can become boring for you. Thus, an automation tool will be a good idea for you.
Zapier is an automation tool that helps you connect all your apps and automate your processes instead of integrating each app into your website from scratch.
You can do this by creating “zaps.” Zaps are automatic workflows that perform multiple actions when triggered. All you need to do is to create a zap and set your actions. Each time the zap is triggered, your automation runs. Zapier alternatives are Power Automate, PieSync, ActionDesk, Pabbly Connect, etc.
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Buffer
An organic audience you can sell to is precious to an entrepreneur. This is why you need Buffer as an entrepreneur. Buffer helps you schedule posts to all your social media accounts. You don’t need to post on each platform separately. A post on the buffer app goes to all your social media accounts. However, you can check similar tools for comparison. Some of them are Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Social Pilot, etc.
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SurveyMonkey
Surveys are essential for you as an entrepreneur. You need to get data from your customers. You need to know their problems, their wants, and the solutions that fit them. Surveymonkey is a SaaS platform that makes conducting your surveys easier. On the platform, you have access to up to 17 templates of surveys you can use freely. It also helps you connect with your respondents and keep track of them. You can also check similar tools like Typeform, Qualtrics, Google Forms, SurveySparrow, etc.
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Shopify
If you are not selling something, I’ll struggle to call you an entrepreneur. And when it comes to selling, everyone needs a place to sell, even on the internet. Shopify is an eCommerce platform that provides a “marketspace” for your services.
It also allows you to integrate multiple applications to help you scale your business. Other tools that perform similar functions to Shopify are WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, Weebly, shift4Shop, etc.
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Clarizen
Being organized is key to being an entrepreneur. As you know, there will be projects to monitor. Sometimes, you lose sight of detail because you have other things you are doing. You have to do it all alone; Clarizen has made it easy. Clarizen was built to help you with all your project management activities. Clarizen helps you track your projects with up-to-date notifications.
Once you add your stakeholders to a project on Clarizen, they receive instant notifications of any changes made with live insights on how the change affects the project. Alternatives to Clarizen are Smartsheet, Microsoft Project & Portfolio Management, Workfront, etc.
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Monday.com
One of the most frustrating things as an entrepreneur is to need a custom tool for a business, and you need to hire a developer, to build one from scratch. If that happens often, you will spend a large chunk of your money on building tools. What if you can find a place where you can build the tools yourself? Monday.com is the place you seek.
Monday.com is a SaaS platform that helps you create the tool you need for a specific business according to the features you need in the tool. You can also create workflow apps, create projects, automate repetitive tasks, and track all your engagements. It is a “nice-to-have” tool for an entrepreneur. Tools that are similar to Moday.com are Basecamp, Asana, ClickUp, Wrike, Trello, etc.
Conclusion
As an entrepreneur, you cannot afford to tow the entrepreneurship route without having innovative SaaS tools to simplify your work. There are many activities to keep up with, and these tools make the work easy for you without having to work yourself out.
About Author
- Taiwo Sotikare is passionate about helping small businesses grow through the power of effective content marketing. Via SEO, Taiwo helps small businesses generate more monthly income. He creates content that hit Google front page, where thousands of targeted customers can access your business swiftly.
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