"Best of" Small Business Tools

By J. Gary McDaniel, TCV Growth Partner -

Running a small business is as complex as ever. As an entrepreneur, you have to find a way to effectively deal with these complexities in order to efficiently build and grow a successful business. Fortunately, there have never been more business tools available to help you to do just that. The key is choosing the right tools for the job. And, if you do, it will make a huge difference in both your workday and your business's performance!

I have taken the time to sort through many of the “best of” lists on the web to see what others are recommending and have combined that with my own personal experience in using many of these tools. The result is my personal list of “best of” business software tools. Hopefully, this list will help save you some of your valuable time.

Best Accounting: QuickBooks. Honorable Mention: Wave, Xero, Freshbooks

Best eCommerce: Shopify. Honorable Mention: Squarespace

Best Website Building: Wix. Honorable Mention: WordPress, Squarespace

Best Online Payment Tools: PayPal. Honorable Mention: Square, Stripe, Venmo (PayPal)

Best Project Management: Monday. Honorable Mention: Trello, Asana

Best Time Tracking: Wrike. Honorable Mention: Toggl, Zoho

Best e-Mail Marketing: MailChimp. Honorable Mention: Constant Contact, Drip

Best Communications/Collaboration: Slack. Honorable Mention: Grasshopper

Best Document Management: PandaDoc. Honorable Mention: Rubex, M-Files, OneHub

Best Human Resources: BambooHR. Honorable Mention: Gusto, Hubstaff, Sage

Best CRM: Salesforce. Honorable Mention: Act!, Pipedrive

Best Sales/Marketing: Hubspot. Honorable Mention: Marketo

Best Hiring/Recruitment: Workable. Honorable Mention: Freshteam, Workday

Best Social Media Management: SproutSocial. Honorable Mention: Hootsuite, Buffer, Zoho

Best Video Conferencing: Zoom. Honorable Mention: MS Teams, GoToMeeting, Cisco Webex

Best Customer Service & Help Desk: Zendesk. Honorable Mention: Groove

Best Productivity: Boomerang. Honorable Mention: Evernote

Best Tax Software: TurboTax. Honorable Mention: H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt Online

Best Public Relations: Help A Reporter Out (HARO). Honorable Mention: Buzzstream, Google Alerts

Best Print Marketing: VistaPrint. Honorable Mention: Moo

Best Content Marketing & SEO: Moz. Honorable Mention: Contently

Best Graphic Design Tool: Adobe Illustrator. Honorable Mention: Canva, Inkscape

Best Software Process Integration Tool: Airtable

There you have it! So, the next time you are looking for some software to help you get organized and lighten your load, this list should give you a good place to start. Remember the old adage: Make sure you choose the right tool for the job! And if you need help developing a growth strategy your best bet is TCV Growth Partners. Feel free to contact me for more information. Gary@TCV-Growth.Partners