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Best Productivity Software for Small Businesses

Best Productivity Software for Small Businesses

By Daniel C. Daniel C. Verified by Saskia H. Saskia H. Last updated: October 3, 2024 (0)
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Regardless of its size, your business can only go as far as your employees take it. And although the first step to help your company reach its full potential is hiring top talent, it’s also essential to nurture your employees and give them the necessary tools for maximum efficiency. For instance, unmotivated employees are unlikely to go the extra mile for your company, but even the most driven teams won’t be able to work at their best without the appropriate software.

In short, productivity can make or break your company. If you don’t take action to improve communication, team management, efficiency, and morale, it will be hard for your business to thrive. Fortunately, productivity software allows companies to tackle many of these issues.

Managing a small team effectively

The average employee spends 60% of their time attending meetings with no clear goals, chasing approvals, searching for documents, and managing their workload. This is a lot of time spent on menial tasks that don’t add any value to your company. So, the first challenge to face is to find a way of reducing the time spent organizing work. Effectively delegating tasks and showing employees how to manage their time is a great starting point. Strategies like the Pomodoro technique or the ‘getting things done’ method are just a few proven tactics that help people declutter their minds and focus on the important tasks at hand.

However, to have your team performing at their best, there are a lot of human capital management best practices that need to be followed. This can be the most challenging part, as people are complex and what works for some might not work for others. That’s why it’s essential to have transparent communication with your employees and know what motivates them individually. Not taking this into consideration can decrease overall productivity and even result in losing top talent to other organizations or mental illnesses like burnout.

Recommended productivity tools for small businesses

Even though software isn’t able to tackle an employee’s motivational issues, it does solve some logistical productivity challenges. Here’s what we recommend using to boost your team’s productivity:

SaneBox
Email management: SaneBox
Editor's rating:
Reviews
  • Powerful AI filtering
  • Compatible with all email clients
  • Free trial
  • Wide range of tools
  • Reasonable prices
  • No Android app
  • Outdated interface
Starting price: $2/mo Visit SaneBox
Video overview
Offers
Exclusive $25 credit for SaneBox
Just $2 per month for SaneBox
Up to 43% off SaneBox
14-day free trial of SaneBox
30-day money-back guarantee with SaneBox
1Password
Password manager: 1Password
Editor's rating:
Reviews
  • End-to-end encryption
  • Secure authentication method
  • Data breach alarms
  • One-time password support
  • User-friendly interface
  • Limited subscription options
  • No free plan available
Starting price: $2.99/mo Visit 1Password
Video overview
Offers
1Password subscription starting at $2.99 per month
As little as $1 per month per user with 1Password families
Just $2 per month per user for 1Password teams
14-day free trial of 1Password
Asana
Project management: Asana
Editor's rating:
  • Workflow automation
  • Dynamic reporting
  • Multiple project views
  • Integrations
  • Free plan
  • Price
  • Learning curve
Screenshots
ActivTrak
Productivity monitoring: ActivTrak
Editor's rating:
Reviews
  • Non-evasive screenshots
  • Thorough reporting
  • User-friendly
  • Free plan available
  • Admin mobile app
  • Integrations paid separately
  • Lack of email tracking
Starting price: $9/user/mo Visit ActivTrak
Video overview
Offers
Free employee monitoring system with ActivTrak
Free 14-day trial of ActivTrak
Trainual
Onboarding and training: Trainual
Editor's rating:
Reviews
  • Easy to use
  • Extensive customer support
  • Ideal for onboarding
  • Helps create autonomous employees
  • Free trial of top-tier plan
  • Slightly expensive
  • Overcomplicated terminology
Starting price: $49/mo Visit Trainual
Video overview
Offers
20% off Trainual with annual plan
$100 discount on Trainual
7-day free trial of Trainual
Housecall Pro
Home service work scheduler: Housecall Pro
Editor's rating:
Reviews
  • Automation tools
  • Superb mobile app
  • Various integrations
  • Affordable
  • User-friendly
  • Vague refund policy
  • Bigger teams need to scale up
Starting price: $49/mo Visit Housecall Pro
Video overview
Offers
Up to 30% off Housecall Pro
14-day free trial of Housecall Pro
50% off Housecall Pro for the first 2 months
HoneyBook
CRM: HoneyBook
Editor's rating:
Reviews
  • All-in-one platform
  • Extensive list of features
  • Easy to use
  • Mobile apps
  • Customer support
  • Non-customizable dashboard
  • No mobile app for clients
Starting price: $32.5/mo Visit HoneyBook
Video overview
Offers
Up to 17% discount on HoneyBook
HoneyBook free 7-day trial
HoneyBook 60-day money-back guarantee
Microsoft 365
Office suite: Microsoft 365
Editor's rating:
Reviews
  • All-in-one digital workspace
  • Synchronization across various devices
  • Free upgrades
  • Wide range of useful apps
  • 24/7 customer support
  • Pricey
  • Subscription-based only
  • No free version
Starting price: $6/user/mo Visit Microsoft 365
Video overview
Offers
Up to 15% discount on Microsoft 365 business
Microsoft 365 business free 30-day trial
Semrush
Digital marketing suite: Semrush
Editor's rating:
Reviews
  • In-depth keyword analysis
  • Content management optimization
  • 14-day free trial
  • Intuitive
  • Social media management
  • Lack of 24/7 customer support
  • Only covers Google, Baidu, and Bing
Starting price: $108.33/mo Visit Semrush
Video overview
Offers
17% off Semrush
Free SEO suite with Semrush
Exclusive 14-day free trial of Semrush Pro
7-day money-back guarantee with Semrush
Munch
Repurposing content: Munch
Editor's rating:
Reviews
  • All-in-one platform
  • Highly customizable
  • Easy to navigate
  • Trend-oriented
  • Publishing management
  • Lacks a mobile app
  • Only email as point of contact
  • Free trial only available in the U.S.
Starting price: $40.80/mo Visit Munch
Video overview
Offers
Up to 16.6% off with Munch
1 free video on Munch for U.S. accounts
Free Munch account
YouMail
Spam blocker: YouMail
Editor's rating:
Reviews
  • Thorough robocall blocker
  • Smart voicemail
  • Voicemail customization
  • Call screening
  • Free version
  • Ad-supported free version
  • Doesn't support VoIP
Starting price: $5.99/mo Visit YouMail
Video overview
Offers
Up to 25% off YouMail
Free call blocking with YouMail
14-day money guarantee with YouMail

Best ways to boost productivity

Although using the right software improves efficiency, the way your small team works is what most impacts their productivity. Thankfully, many companies have already researched how to boost their productivity, and there are several best practices you can follow to deliver a higher output with less effort.

Simplifying your surroundings is a great place to start. While project management apps help clear up your information flow, you should also declutter your working space. Only having the essentials on your desk and always keeping things in the same place is a good way to prevent losing time looking for a document or a stapler.

With everything we need to do during a day, it’s easy to think that multitasking can help you finish more tasks in a shorter period of time. But that’s not entirely true. In fact, you should avoid multitasking altogether, as our brains aren’t wired to process several tasks simultaneously. It will not only take you longer to finish both tasks, but the quality of your work will also suffer. It’s better to just do one task at a time and capitalize on your peak productivity hours. For instance, if you have several meetings you need to attend in a day, try to schedule them all in a row, giving yourself the rest of the day to focus on your to-do list.

Additional advice for small businesses

Productivity is indeed crucial, but there are many other aspects that business owners need to worry about. From marketing to payroll and online security, small business owners need to be a jack of all trades. Fortunately, we live in an era where technology can help with less important tasks, allowing you to focus on the most essential elements of a small business, such as strategy and human capital management.

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