Everyone’s buzzing about the perks of "working in the cloud" these days. It’s all about saving time, money, and skipping the tech headaches. But if you’re a busy small business owner, you might be wondering where to even begin. Well, you’re in luck! Here’s a handy list of 25 business tasks that you can do better in the cloud.
Start by scanning the list for tasks that are a pain to manage, cost you a lot, or take up too much of your time. Then, pop the task name into your search engine, followed by the word ‘software’, to find online tools that can help you do it better in the cloud.
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Appointment Scheduling: Scheduling client appointments can be a real time-sucker, especially when cancellations and changes come into play. Luckily, there are cloud tools that let your clients handle the whole process.
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Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Building relationships with your customers takes time, effort, and a lot of tracking. But with the right cloud tool, it’s a breeze. There are plenty of CRM solutions in the cloud that can help you nurture your customers without sacrificing your relationships.
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Sales: The ultimate goal of building relationships is to make sales. The cloud has got you covered here too, with online selling tools that help you manage your sales process from start to finish.
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Customer Support: Once you’ve landed a client, you need to support them. Cloud-based helpdesk solutions let you manage customer complaints and suggestions, and even let customers help themselves and others via a knowledge base and community.
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Recruiting and Hiring: This is a complex, time-consuming process. But with the latest online tools, you can handle everything from posting job ads to tracking the hiring process and making the final offer.
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Hiring Freelancers: More and more companies are hiring freelancers these days. If you’re looking to join the gig economy, check out freelance marketplaces like Upwork, Guru, and Fiverr. They offer project management and communication tools, as well as payment options.
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Workforce Management: Once you’ve got your team, you need to manage them. Cloud-based solutions can help you handle everything from onboarding to training, reviews, and even shift scheduling.
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Payroll: Paying your team is a complex process, full of regulations and tax laws. Online payroll solutions have all those rules built-in, so you can rest easy.
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Invoicing: Getting paid can be a hassle. Cloud-based invoicing makes it easier by letting your clients pay directly from their email, sending automatic reminders for overdue bills, and providing end-of-year reports for tax prep.
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Accounting: Unless you’re an accountant, you probably didn’t start a business to keep the books. Thankfully, there are plenty of online bookkeeping options that let your accountant handle the work and keep up with the latest compliance and tax regulations.
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Time Management: You’re busy, and it’s easy to lose track of what you should be working on. Online time management apps can help you plan better, be more productive, and stay focused on your core business operations.
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Task List Management: Managing your to-do list is just as important as managing your time. Cloud-based task list tools can help you do just that, with reminders, repeating tasks, and re-usable checklists.
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Video Conferencing: Face-to-face meetings are ideal, but not always possible. Online video conferencing is the answer, with smooth video, clear audio, and lots of collaborative and interactive tools.
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Collaborating: Whether you’re working in real time or exchanging comments and updates, cloud-based collaboration tools can keep your team connected, no matter where they are.
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Messaging: Tools like Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Project make it easy to stay in touch with your team. Online instant messaging is a quick and efficient way to communicate.
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Cloud Storage: Your business produces a lot of digital documents, and you need a place to store them. Cloud-based storage solutions are your virtual file cabinet, with indexing and search features, and selective sharing options.
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Sharing: Even without a cloud storage solution, you can still share files, especially large ones, using online sharing tools.
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Marketing Automation: Marketing is essential, but time-consuming. Cloud-based marketing automation tools can handle a lot of the tasks associated with your marketing campaigns, freeing you up to focus on the rest of your business.
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Social Media Management: Social media can be a time sink. Online social media management solutions let you schedule updates in advance, track your mentions, and get alerts when you need to respond.
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Email Marketing: Email marketing is still going strong, with plenty of cloud-based solutions to support it. You can build a customer list, send emails manually or automatically, and track details like opens, click-throughs, and conversions.
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Project Management: The cloud is perfect for managing projects. Tools like Microsoft Planner for Office 365 let you get the whole team on board and track every step in real time.
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Business Intelligence: If you’re a numbers person, you’ll love cloud-based dashboards. They collect data related to your business and present it in easy-to-understand charts and reports.
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Automated Integration: In the past, you needed a team of programmers to make two solutions work together. Now, tools like Microsoft Flow let you create workflows that move between separate systems, no coding required!
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Website Design: You don’t need to hire a web designer or developer to create a good-looking, functional website with eCommerce features. Cloud-based tools like Microsoft ASP.NET and Visual Studio make it easier and cheaper.
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Back Office Management: Everything from logistics to supplies, shipping, and fleet management can be handled using online software. Whatever you need to run your business, there’s likely an online solution that will keep your back office running smoothly.
