In the fast-paced world of business, optimising your time by staying organised, productive, and efficient is key, and with a plethora of digital tools now available to help you do just that, it’s simpler than ever to streamline your daily operations.
Entrepreneurs and business professionals now have a raft of resources at their disposal to make life easier, whether it’s supporting time management, enhancing communication or just helping you to get things done that little bit faster. Here, we take a look at some of the best online tools to leverage and stay ahead of the curve in 2024.
Trello: Task and project management
Large, complex tasks can quickly become overwhelming without an organised approach, and intuitive project management tool Trello helps you to maintain a clear picture of where you are, where you’re going, and when each step towards your overarching goal needs to be completed. It’s particularly handy for entrepreneurs managing multiple projects or small teams who need a simple yet effective way to collaborate.
Using boards, lists, and cards to help you organise and prioritise in a fun and flexible way, its visual, user-friendly interface makes managing tasks and assigning responsibilities simple, and you can set deadlines and monitor progress to ensure that everyone involved stays on track. As an added bonus, it can also be integrated easily with other apps like Slack, Google Drive, and Evernote and can be controlled via your smartphone for on-the-go management.
Smallpdf: Easy document conversion
Converting files into different formats for document sharing is often part and parcel of working collaboratively and there are now a number of free online tools that allow you to do it in seconds. Smallpdf offers a suite of PDF tools that simplify working with PDF files. Whether you need to convert documents in Word to PDF, merge multiple PDFs, compress large files, or edit PDFs, it couldn’t be quicker or easier, and means you can get on with the big stuff without being tripped up by the small stuff. The tool also allows you to edit PDFs and add annotations and signatures, as well as integrating seamlessly with Dropbox and Google drive.
Slack: Communication and collaboration
Effective communication is the backbone of any successful business, and adding Slack to your arsenal of tools is a wise move. This robust messaging platform is designed for teams and allows participants to exchange messages in real time so that they can ask questions and keep one another updated on their progress, as well as sharing files seamlessly as and when needed. Again, it offers extensive integrations with other tools, and you can create channels for different teams or projects to keep everything cleanly organised so that everyone knows where to go for the information they need, any time.
Canva: Design and branding
Gone are the days when there was no choice but to splurge on a skilled graphic designer to create your branding and marketing materials, with Canva bridging the gap and making it easy for anyone to create stunning visuals with impact. This user-friendly platform has become an indispensable tool for entrepreneurs and business professionals for the creation of logos, presentations, e-books and more, with a library of fonts, graphics, stock photos, icons and available to choose from to get you started. Its drag-and-drop interface and thousands of customisable templates mean you can make something that looks professional yourself, no help needed, and nobody will ever know the difference.
