Being a successful business owner is easier when you have the right tools. If you haven’t updated your tech tools in years, you may be missing out on some major time savers and making things much more difficult than they have to be.
Which Business Tools Do You Need?
Many business processes can be simplified or even automated with modern tools. These tools can handle everything from marketing to accounting.
Although it’s often possible to handle these processes without dedicated tools, doing so can take significantly more time – and that means you have less time to spend nurturing leads or taking care of your clients. As an insurance agent and small business owner, you already have too many tasks competing for your attention. Technology can take a little off your plate.
How do you spend your time each week? Are there any tasks that eat up a lot of time, like email marketing, that you’d like to make more efficient? Look for a tool that can help you.
What do you never have time for? Maybe you want to post more on social media, but you never have time, so you don’t. Or maybe you always tell yourself that you’ll do a better job of keeping track of your expenses, but you never get around to it, so you’re always scrambling come tax season. Look for tools that can help with these tasks so you won’t put them off anymore.
Are Tech Tools Worth the Investment?
The right tech tool can absolutely be worth the investment. When calculating the ROI, consider the time you save. As they say, time is money. If a tool saves you an hour every week, and you use that hour to find new clients, you stand to gain a lot more than you lose.
There are also many free and low-cost tools, and some of the more expensive ones offer free trial periods so you can see if you like them. Simply put, don’t let cost be a barrier to progress.
Tools for Small Business Owners
To make things easier for you, we’ve put together a list of popular tools to consider. Western Asset Protection is not endorsing these tools, so you’ll need to do your own research, but this list should help you get started.
Design Tools
Have you ever wanted to create a social media graphic or website header but didn’t have the design skills to make it look professional? There are modern design tools with templates, graphics and other features that make it easy to create high-quality graphics in a snap.
- Canva lets you create social posts, videos, slides and more.
- Snappa describes itself as a fast and easy-to-use alternative to Canva.
- Vengage is a great tool for creating email headers, social post graphics and infographics.
Email Marketing Tools
An email marketing platform can automate your marketing emails and fine-tune your strategy.
- MailChimp is an email marketing and automation platform that now also supports SMS marketing.
- Constant Contact automates email marketing, social media, and text marketing.
- Click Funnels goes beyond email, enabling you to set up landing pages and payment options.
Social Media Scheduling Tools
Social media marketing success requires consistency, but it can be hard to find time to post content every day, especially if you’re trying to time your posts for the greatest reach. Social media scheduling tools let you plan everything in advance.
- Hootsuite lets you schedule posts across multiple platforms and provides insights to analyze your performance.
- Sprout Social is another social media management tool that can streamline workflows and also provide insights.
- OnlySocial also offers social scheduling and analytics, making it a cost-effective option.
AI Chatbots
AI chatbots can be used to brainstorm ideas and draft content. These tools can make mistakes, so you always need to check the outputs carefully, but they can still help you with everything from creating a marketing plan to producing catchy email headlines.
Let’s be clear about security. When you share information with external AI tools, that data is usually stored on third-party servers. It might be used to train future models, be reviewed by developers, or even be exposed in a data breach. Once you submit your data, you generally lose some control over it. Remember, the best practice is to avoid entering confidential, proprietary, or highly personal information, like social security numbers, names of clients, passwords, or proprietary information, into publicly accessible AI tools.
- ChatGPT from OpenAI is the chatbot that kicked off the AI trend.
- Gemini is an AI assistant from Google.
- Copilot is an AI assistant from Microsoft.
Accounting Tools
Accounting tools can keep your finances organized throughout the year.
- Odoo provides a suite of open source business apps, including accounting tools, as well as CRM, project management, and other tools for businesses.
- QuickBooks is a recognized source for accounting tools, with options to help you track expenses and more.
- FreshBooks is an alternative to QuickBooks that touts ease of use.
Don’t Forget About WAP Tools
The tools listed above can help business owners in pretty much any industry, including insurance. However, please note that WAP does not endorse any of these tools.
For insurance-specific functions, Western Asset Protection has you covered. As an Integrity partner, we offer a suite of quoting and enrollment tools, plus much more, to make your job easier. Learn more.