6 Top CRM for Small Businesses in 2019

Published on: 05 April 2019 Last Updated on: 04 September 2024

Growing your small business in a cost-effective way that increases your brand awareness and attracts more customers is no easy feat.

According to a Statistic Brain study, the failure rate for all companies across the US after 5 years is over 50%.

So how do you make sure you don’t fail? By ensuring your customers are happy, of course. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems allow you to collect data about your customer’s interactions with your business.

Read on to learn about the top CRM for small businesses.

Why Use a CRM?

Customer Relationship Management systems are a great way to analyze data from various channels. Channels include your business’s website, social media channels, customer support logs, and feedback reviews.

CRM let you see what your customers like about your business’s products and/or services. CRM also allows you to address any customer concerns and better your products/services.

The success of a business, particularly a small business, relies on its customers. That’s why CRM systems are one of the most essential business tools you need in order to grow your business.

Top CRM for Small Businesses:

Find out everything you need to know about CRMs by learning more about the pros and cons of CRM for small businesses.

We’ve compiled a list of 6 of the best CRM solutions for small businesses, check it out now:

1. Salesforce:

Salesforce offers an affordable package whilst still including all of the essential product’s great features.

Salesforce is easy to use and includes key features such as:

Lead generation
Contact and opportunity management
Sales forecasting
Workflow automation

Salesforce is ideal for small businesses who want an affordable CRM.

2. HubSpot:

HubSpot

Be sure to add HubSpot to your list of must-have small business tools. The free version of HubSpot offers CRM solutions for small businesses and includes:

Learning guides
Invoice template generators
Email signature generators
Marketing plan template generators

HubSpot offers a great package for independent contractors and/or small businesses.

3. Agile CRM:

Up next in our top CRM software solution that your business needs are Agile CRM. Agile CRM allows you to:

Store details about 10,000 companies or contacts
Receive support for tracking emails
Set lead scoring and custom deal milestones
Access builder tools for forms, email templates, and website landing pages
Monitor social media

Agile CRM is great for small and big-sized businesses that want a whole range of customer relationship management tools.

4. Zoho CRM:

The multi-channel online CRM, Zoho CRM can collect data from your emails, calls, live chats, and social media channels. It is popular amongst small businesses because of it:

Is easy to use
Offers real-time analytics and notifications for every customer
Allows you to assign individual targets for your team
Features the option to build and automate your sales processes

Zoho Marketplace also ensures that you can increase your business functionality by offering various extensions that can be added to your CRM dashboard.

5. Streak:

Streak

If you are looking to implement a CRM system that is easy to use, you need to get a Streak. Streak can be installed and added as an extension on your Gmail. Streak CRM for Gmail features:

Easy collaboration options (with the ability to easily share contacts and files)
Webhook API access
Mail merge
Ability to manage deals

The streak is ideal for small business owners who are new to the world of CRM and need an easy to use platform to help grow their business.

6. Insightly:

Insightly is great for small businesses because it is an affordable CRM that offers a range of features, such as:

Storage space of 10gb
send up to 2,500 mass emails a day
detailed reports and analysis options
API access
and the ability to import 25,000 records per session.

Insightly can be used by big, medium, and small-sized businesses who are looking for a tool that offers a range of features to better understand their customers.

7. Freshsales:

Freshsales is a full-fledged sales CRM software for businesses that range from startups to enterprises. With Freshsales you don’t need multiple tools to drive sales anymore.

The major advantages of choosing Freshsales are below

Simple UI with powerful features
Detailed overview of leads & customers
Configurable dashboards and reports
Great integrations
It also offers a free forever plan for unlimited users with basic contact management and a built-in phone system.

The Right CRM Software for You:

When choosing from our list of the top CRM for small businesses list, make sure you know what you want from your CRM.

If you want a more basic, low-cost CRM then opt for one that is free or cheaper. Or if you want one that has all the trimmings and helps you understand and analyze all parts of your business, then opt for one that has more features.

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Have You Been Laid Off Because Of Coronavirus? Here Are 5 Income Earning Opportunities For You

Have you been recently fired from your job because of the Coronavirus problem? Are you looking to sustain yourself by earning during the lockdown period? Do you know of certain high-paying and profitable opportunities, which you can take up? With global economic losses crossing the $2 Trillion mark, Coronavirus is jeopardizing millions of livelihoods. According to financial experts, we are going to witness a period of global financial recession. In these testing times, we have two options in front of us- We can either mope or blame our destiny for all the bad that is happening. Or, We can put ourselves together, invoke our entrepreneurial spirit and work our way out of the problem. You might have heard the proverb, ‘when God closes a door, he opens a new window.’ In this article, we are going to open five windows for you. 5 ways to earn income during the Coronavirus lockdown: The List 1. Start a News Blog on Coronavirus or COVID 19- You do not need a flair for creative writing if you are looking to start a news blog. All you need to do is create a simple WordPress website for your news blog and start a social media page. Publish five to ten 500 word articles every day and see the traffic flowing. People are interested in knowing about everything related to the Coronavirus. This is a good time to look up government sources, Reuters and different news publications and collate them all in one place. Once you get decent site metrics and traffic, you can earn income through Ad displays, guest posting, and other ways. 2. Take up Cryptocurrency trading in a major way- Did you know that you could easily earn hundreds of dollars every week by just trading cryptocurrencies? With the rise of cryptocurrency trading platforms, you can easily become a trader. All you need to do is open account and start trading. The technologically advanced software of the platform is going to guide you when it comes to making the best trades. By investing a small sum of money, going for low-risk trades initially, you can become a seasoned and experienced cryptocurrency trader in no time. 3. Get paid by signing up for Surveys and Options Sites- There are many survey sites, businesses and companies, which pay up to $10 USD per survey. This is a great sum of money when you consider that you can easily do a minimum of five surveys per day. This is not only going to help you earn, but also explore new opportunities. Big businesses work with market research firms to find out about the opinions of consumers. By signing up to such platforms, becoming part of interviews and focus group discussions, you can earn close to $3000 USD per month. 4. Food or Grocery delivery agent in your neighborhood- Almost all nations around the world have exempted online companies from the lockdown. This means that these companies are hiring aggressively as more and more people are ordering things while sitting at home. If you have a bike, you can easily sign up with one of the major players in your neighborhood and start delivering to people. This is not only very profitable now, but also very humane. You are going to help someone get their medicines and other essentials on time. 5. Start your own Freelance Gig- If you are good at writing, start bidding for content writing jobs on freelance websites. If you are good at cooking, you can start your own food delivery gig. No matter what your passion, you can always make it into a fully income-generating opportunity. As more and more companies are looking to cut costs by firing people, they are not going to stop their operations altogether. Approach them as a freelancer and offer your services for an attractive fee. You will be surprised to see the results of your outreach. Conclusion In this article, we have listed five great income-earning opportunities for people who have been laid off because of the Coronavirus. All these opportunities do require time and effort. However, if you are able to do them right, you will see cash flowing into your account. Can you think of some similar opportunities to earn cash? Let us know in the comments section below. Read also: The Top Benefits of Using an Insurance Broker Is an online degree in business management worth it?

Employee Monitoring Linked To Business Growth

The name “Spy App” itself sounds awfully notorious like something out of a James Bond movie, but according to the state law, its use is quite legal. As long as employers follow a few basic rules regarding spy apps, they are perfectly authorized to monitor employees by using the said apps. Spy apps like; TheOneSpy is quite helpful in keeping track of employees’ various activities, online and offline. They indirectly can also serve as a great medium of business growth strategy. According to various surveys, companies lose millions of dollars every year due to non-work related internet surfing as well as idle employees who slack off during work hours. This is where turning to spy applications can serve greatly in terms of business growth strategy in the following ways: Read Also: What Does Business Law State about Monitoring Employees? You Can Increase Employee Productivity Most businesses use video surveillance to keep an eye on their employees. Video surveillance was enough at a time when if the boss saw that the employee was in his cubicle, it meant that he was working. But now, with unlimited access to the internet, employees can browse through various blogs and videos at their leisure while they pretend to be working. Such a coupe can seriously damage the productivity of such an employee since their work vs. time ratio doesn’t add up. If such employees learn that their employer has his eye on every single keystroke they make on the company sanctioned computer, it greatly reduces the chances of them slacking off during work hours. Additionally, this way you can easily work out the slackers and identify the hard workers they have in their business firm. Keep Confidential Information From Being Leaked Humans are fickle beings by nature. They can be the best people you have ever met and yet at the same time, they can turn out to be the worst people you can have the misfortune of ever coming across. We meet thousands of people every day. When we meet them, we can never know at a glance whether they are worthy of our trust or not. The same goes for employers when they hire an employee. At first, even the most notorious people seem fine but when given the time, such people show their true colors. Spy apps can serve as a brilliant medium to catch such people early on since spy apps allow you to: Take a look at their browsing history. Keep an eye on the emails being sent or received. Get detailed logs about every single keystroke being made by the employee. This way, if you keep a close eye on a certain suspicious employee by using the spy app, you can not only prevent confidential data from being leaked but also catch such a thing from transpiring early on. Keep Internet Abuse At Bay Since most companies conduct most of their business interactions and other things using the internet. They use high-speed internet connections to make sure that an important business deal is not hindered by bad internet connection. Such high-speed internet bandwidth is equivalent to a shot of cocaine to an internet junkie, who’d rather watch funny and cute cat videos all day long instead of actually doing work assigned to them. Such slackers do not only abuse the unlimited internet access companies allow their employees, but it also reflects badly on the company if they are not on top of all the work assigned to them. Spy apps help company owners out with this problem as well. Since spy apps allow employees to block certain websites from being accessed by the target device, they can easily block the websites their employees are obsessed about to get them back to work. Keep Employers From Stalking Co- Workers One of the biggest setbacks being faced by business owners is employees manipulating the use of office hardware and bandwidth to stalk co-workers. Since almost all the official data is accessible by certain employees, they can use this data to harass their co-workers which may not reflect nicely on such a business if the local authorities are informed of such occurrences. Therefore, it is in the best interest of business owners to use spy apps to discover such obsessive behavior and immediately nip it in the bud before it can become much worse. The Bottom Line A business and its success completely rely on the people working for it. Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, humans are fickle by nature and such fickle nature is bad for business. Therefore, investing in a good spy app is in the best interest of business owners since they can serve as a great pair of eyes and ears on troublesome employees. Read More: 5 Major Tips To Increase Employee Engagement In A Call Centre Industry How To Get What You Want At Work By Strategic Negotiation

How To Sell A Small Business Without A Broker

Once you’re ready to sell your small business, hiring a business broker tops your list. An article from this perfectly defines the role of business brokers that is to act as “intermediaries between buyers and sellers of a business”. They are the equivalent of real estate brokers or agents who sell properties on behalf of property owners. Business brokers manage everything necessary to sell your small business, from planning to marketing to closing the deal. Some even assist during the transition process. Considering such an enormous task, enlisting a broker may seem the easiest and most convenient thing to do. However, their service comes with an outrageous fee, usually around 10% commission from the sale. This is certainly a huge cut from your profits. If you want to retain the full profit from the sale, you can opt to sell your small business sans middlemen. This is an excellent choice especially if you have previous experience selling a business, you know of prospective buyers, or you’re not in a hurry to sell-off. However, when you decide to sell your business on your own, you have to be ready for a tedious legwork. So, how do you go about the sale? Know your reason for selling the small business According to a business broker, the first thing that a buyer would want to know is why a business is being sold. For a business to attract a potential buyer, you need to have a good reason. Some of the common reasons are retirement, sudden changes in personal circumstances, illness or death, boredom, partnership disputes, and burnout. Prospective buyers find these as ‘attractive’ reasons to buy a business. It may be harder to sell a business if you tell the buyer that you’re selling the business due to its sorry financial state, persistent losses, lack of manpower, and changing market conditions and trends. Make your business easily marketable by timing your sale properly. Show positive attributes to make it more marketable such as a strong customer base, increased profitability, consistent good financials, well-defined business processes, and a good contract. Plan your sale Prepare your business at least two years ahead of the sale, especially if you won’t enlist a broker. Have an ample amount of time to improve your client base, business structure, and financial records. This will help improve the value of your business and make it more attractive to buyers. This should also help ease the transition process. Get your business appraised Once you’re ready to sell, you need to decide on the worth of your business. It is best to work with a professional business appraiser to get a proper valuation. Often, business owners become illogical when it comes to evaluating their own business. Some price is too low in an attempt to make it more marketable but end up losing on potential profit. Others price it too high hence making it unattractive to potential buyers. A business appraiser will evaluate your business to determine its worth. He then prepares a detailed explanation to give credibility to the proposed price. Prepare all documents Give time in preparing the design or sales package for your business. This document represents your business in the best possible light to potential buyers. It should include financial, operational and marketing information. If you are not comfortable with your communication skills, you can enlist the help of professional business writers. Financial documents are an important part of the sale process. Gather your books of account, financial statements, and tax returns for the past four years. Review these documents with an accountant. In addition, develop a list of assets that are being sold along with the business. Include other necessary documents such as lease agreements, supplier contracts, and contact lists. Prepare an information packet or operating manual that provides an overview of your business processes. In addition, you want to add photographs of your business, testimonials, case studies, and customer profiles. Highlight accomplishments and milestones to make it more marketable and command better-asking price. Prepare your business on-site Alongside the documentary preparations, you should also make your business site presentable. Check your physical store, production site, warehouse, and other related locations. You might need to have some areas repainted or redeveloped. Check if equipment or machinery needs to be replaced or fixed before the sale. Investing in such developments can help improve the asking price. It might sound cliché but first impressions last. An unkempt and dilapidated business site might turn off a potential buyer. It pays to invest in your physical asset as soon as you decide to sell on your own. Look for a buyer to sell your small business Finding a buyer is difficult, but it becomes doubly challenging if you don’t have a business broker. Unless you have a ready buyer, it may take several months to years before you can find the right buyer. The advantage of hiring a business broker is that they have wide networks and established marketing methods. If you are working solo, you will need to compensate for these services. There are listing sites dedicated to businesses-on-sale. You only need to pay a one-time fee and your business becomes available to potential buyers. You can also tap your networks. Perhaps, a friend or an acquaintance (or someone they know) is planning to buy a business. You can check your local business clubs or chambers. Visit online forums and social networks. Don’t limit your advertising methods. Final Thoughts As you can see, if you sell your small business without a broker is possible. It can even be advantageous if you play an active role in the sales and negotiation process. Quite obviously, business owners are more passionate to sell their business to the right buyers. Of course, you just have to remain rational and avoid getting your emotions to affect your decisions. As a final caution, if you have no experience selling and buying a business, you should consider working with a business broker or someone who has experience in this field. Better yet, you can check with your local chamber of commerce for assistance and counseling. Read Also: How to Boost Traffic to your Small Business Cost Effective Custom Mobile Accessories Packaging for your Small Business How To Empower Your Small Business through Digital Marketing? 4 Simple And Cheap Methods To Attract More Customers For Your Small Business

6 Top CRM for Small Businesses in 2019

Why Use a CRM?