It is no lie that small businesses are the lifeblood of the global economy. According to a report by Salesforce in 2019, small & medium-sized businesses make up 90% of the business population. Your business could be as small as that bakery in your kitchen where you make sweet pastries and cakes for your friends, neighbours and colleagues. It could also be that store on your block where you buy groceries and important household items. It could also be that Google Meet call where you meet with and consult for your clients. One thing is sure, small businesses mean a lot to our global economy.
We understand that most small businesses are bootstrapped and would rather focus their capital on raw materials and core business needs. They also make the most of what they readily have available. To continue in our tradition of supporting small businesses, we’ll be sharing 5 valuable tools to help you run your small business.
1. Flutterwave For Business
Flutterwave, one of Africa’s top payment companies, is on a mission to simplify payments for endless possibilities. We can help you receive and make payments from & to customers across the globe in over 150 currencies. We have processed over 140 million transactions worth over $9 Billion since inception.
With our secure payment technology, your customers can safely pay you with different payment methods like debit/credit cards, PayPal, mobile money, bank transfer, bank, barter, QR code, USSD and so much more across multiple markets where we operate.
We have a host of services that can help you run your business finance efficiently. We have the Store, Payouts and Collections, Payment links, and Invoices.
With the Store, you can start an e-commerce business at no extra cost. You only need to upload your products, add the images, descriptions, variants & prices. You don’t need to own a website to successfully run your e-commerce business.
The Payment links allow you to receive payments from your customers seamlessly without having to worry about account numbers. We have 3 different payment links: Single Charge link, Subscription (Recurring) link and a Donation Page. In this very explanatory article, we describe how you can use the payment links to get paid.
Invoices are important to keep track of your inflows, especially if you run a service business. With Flutterwave Invoices, you can create a digital invoice that makes it possible for your customers to pay directly from the invoice. We have also written a detailed article that explains how Flutterwave Invoice can help you grow your business, you should check it out. To create an invoice, you need to have a Flutterwave account, you can create one here.
2. Canva
Canva is an online design platform for creating beautiful designs for your social media pages, brand items and so much more. With their templates and guidelines, Canva is very easy to use especially if you have no prior design experience. With the free version, you can create a lot of banners, letters, cards and more. They also have a lot of helpful videos on YouTube for people with very little or no design experience, check out their page below.
Canva has other valuable resources to help you have a great social media and content experience. To start creating designs, visit the Canva website.
3. Buffer
Buffer is a social media management tool that helps small businesses to schedule and analyse their posts, they also help them connect with their community. Buffer can help you schedule multiple posts for different social media accounts. If you are a very busy person with limited time for social media, you can use Buffer to make your social media activity less stressful. One helpful trick is creating all your social media content in bulk and then scheduling them on Buffer. You can learn more about Buffer here.
4. Google Workspace
This is one of the most helpful resources ever, Google’s apps are so important for organising our lives and businesses. Google’s productivity and collaboration tools are a must-have for small businesses, especially if you are starting small. Google makes it easy to manage your contacts, emails, events, meetings, documents, files and so much more.
Visit this link to learn more about Google Workspace. You can get started by creating your Google account here.
5. Mailchimp
It is important to keep engaging with your customers after they have patronised you, keep them updated about the new products you have and also share vital business news with them (business break, out of stock and so on).
Mailchimp is a marketing automation and email marketing platform that helps you engage with your community. With Mailchimp, you can run different business promotion activities with your customers.
If you have never used Mailchimp, they have a lot of tutorials on their YouTube channel to help you get started.
We hope you find these tools helpful and take your business to the next level, we’re always rooting for you and ready to help.