Power tools for small businesses

Startups and entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for tools that could help them do their day to day stuff fast and efficiently. But sometimes money and time could be a barrier for them to get the best tools in each department . Fortunately it is 2015 and there are many tools available at low costs that could help you run your business as efficiently as any other industry leader. Here are a few tools

1.ERP -ERPnext: https://erpnext.com/ This is my favorite of all tools. ERP on the cloud ( Accounting ,HR, CRM and many more ) free upto 5 users.  You can automate your buying , invoicing and other routine activities.

2.Market Research -SEM Rush-http://www.semrush.com/ Find out what keywords your competitors are bidding on , similar competition , competetive positioning map etc.

3. Email Marketing: -http://mandrill.com/( 12000 emails free per month) and https://beefree.io are the two best email services ive seen in addition to mailchimp

4. Video Creation: I used fiverr.com to create a explainer video and it cost me around 150$ for a one minute video If you approach any animation agency , they would charge you around 120$ for a second . I've seen many startups use powtoons (pls do not use it) . The best video creation website i think iswww.animaker.com . Totally cost effective and easy to use (free upto 2 minutes) and if you want a HD export you would need to pay around 10$.

5.Productivity : Trello and Asana .

6.Customer Service: http://helprace.com/  Free Up to 3 agents for small support teams.

7.Legal Documents:  Hiring a new employee and have no clue what to write in the offer letter ? http://www.docracy.com/ will hep you to find and sign legal documents online.

8.CRM inside Gmail : Lets you create a crm entry for each email an you can add notes create email filters to track sales progress .https://www.streak.com/. it also helps you track email.

9. FundRaising and equity: http://www.askthevc.com/ Here you can find some documents needed for early stage funding. http://startupequity.io/ for calculating how much equity to give to employees.

10.Design : Canva can help you design posters and infographics for your social media marketing . http://www.squarespace.com/ for free logo design .http://snapographic.com/ for free stock fotos for your website.

11. Office and docs: While Google docs have some really cool  features , if you are looking for alternatives , you should have a look at http://etherpad.org/ andhttps://personal.onlyoffice.com/. It is a free alternative to Microsoft office and has real time collaboration ,editing and chatting.