In today's digital age, small business owners have a large number of business applications at their disposal to streamline operations, improve productivity, and enhance customer experiences. These apps offer immense potential for growth and success, but they can have a steep learning curve so in this article we’ll look at how you can get the most from three of the most popular: FreeAgent, HubSpot and MileIQ.
Getting the most from FreeAgent
FreeAgent’s cloud-based accounting software is a powerful tool for managing your business finances. Here are some tips to help you get even more value from this award-winning app.
Set up properly
Invest some time in configuring FreeAgent to reflect your business set up, including inputting relevant financial data and connecting bank accounts. This will lay a solid foundation for smooth operations and accurate financial insights.
Use bank feeds:
FreeAgent simplifies the arduous task of manual transaction entry through automated bank feeds. By seamlessly integrating with bank accounts, transactions are imported in real-time, reducing the need for manual data entry and ensuring up-to-date financial records.
Track your expenses:
Gain valuable insights into your spending habits by tracking and categorising expenses within FreeAgent. Categorizing expenses accurately allows for a granular understanding of where funds are allocated, which could help you identify potential cost efficiencies.
Invoice management:
Take advantage of FreeAgent's invoicing features to create and send professional-looking invoices effortlessly. Streamline your invoicing process by setting up recurring invoices for regular clients, and tracking payment status.
Control your cash flow:
With FreeAgent's intuitive dashboard and reporting tools, you can monitor your cash flow in real-time. Use the resulting insights to make informed decisions regarding expenditure and identify opportunities for growth.
Keep your app updated:
FreeAgent continually evolves by introducing new features and improvements. SMEs should stay informed about these updates and leverage new functionalities to optimize their financial management processes continually.
Integration with other apps:
FreeAgent integrates with various apps, including HubSpot. Explore these integrations to further streamline your business processes.
Getting the best from HubSpot
From marketing automation to sales pipeline management and customer service solutions, HubSpot provides small business owners with resources to help them thrive in a competitive marketplace. Depending on the size and needs of your business it could represent a significant cost, though, and it’s vital to ensure you’re getting as much value from it as possible. Here are some tips for getting the most out of HubSpot.
Consolidate your customer data:
HubSpot allows you to consolidate information from various sources, including website interactions, email communications, social media engagement, and sales interactions, into a single platform. By having a unified view of customer interactions, you can gain valuable insights into customer behaviour and preferences, allowing you to personalise marketing efforts and improve customer satisfaction.
Use marketing automation:
Automating your email marketing campaigns, lead nurturing, and social media posting saves time and resources while maintaining consistent communication with your target audience. You can also segment your audience based on various criteria, such as demographics, behaviour, and interests, to deliver targeted and relevant content to different groups of customers.
Optimise your sales pipeline:
By centralizing customer interactions and tracking sales activities in one platform, you can take better control of your sales pipeline, identify bottlenecks, and prioritise leads more effectively.
Use analytics and reporting:
HubSpot offers robust analytics and reporting capabilities to measure the effectiveness of your marketing, sales, and customer service efforts. By tracking key metrics such as website traffic, email engagement, lead conversion rates, and customer satisfaction scores, you can gain actionable insights into performance and make data-driven business decisions.
Integrate with other tools:
HubSpot integrates seamlessly with a wide range of third-party tools and platforms, including email marketing software, e-commerce platforms, and productivity tools. By integrating HubSpot with other business systems, you can improve data accuracy and streamline your business operations.
How to get the best from MileIQ
MileIQ is a smart-phone app that automates your mileage tracking, saving you time and helping you accurately track your business miles. Here are some tips for getting the most out of it:
Stay up to date with categorising your drives
Once MileIQ has recorded a drive, you will need to designate it as either a business or personal journey. This is a simple task, but it’s best to do it regularly, so you categorise your journeys accurately, while you remember what they were for.
Set your working hours
If you set up your normal working hours, MileIQ can be set to automatically designate journeys outside these times are personal, leaving you just the ones you completed during working hours. This can save you a lot of time, particularly if you do a lot of non-business driving.
Name locations you frequently visit
MileIQ's Named Locations feature makes it easy to remember trips and sort drives by the places you visit most often. For example, label your 'Home', 'Office', or main clients to make it easier to recognise your business journeys.
If you have questions or if we can help in any way, please call our expert team on 01296 46843 or email info@orangegenie.com.