5 Best Communication and Collaboration Tools for New & Growing Businesses

Building a startup requires you to manage multiple aspects of business development at the same time, and to introduce the right strategies and solutions within the first year in order to stay afloat. It is crucial that you keep the company’s cash flow stable during the critical three-year period in order to get the brand on its feet and set the stage for long-term growth. To do this, you will need to manage the financial resources from your business loan wisely and to invest in the right tools and software.

Of course, improving communication and collaboration should be your top priorities, especially now that you’re probably managing your operations remotely. To do this, you need to invest in the right tech that will facilitate collaboration, automate various processes, and keep your teams in sync. Let’s take a look at the tools your growing business needs.

Boosting collaboration with a project management tool

Firstly, you need to make sure that your employees from all departments have the tools they need to collaborate seamlessly in the digital workplace. The first tool you should consider implementing into your operation is a project management tool, preferably a cloud-based one that won’t put any strain on your own IT resources but will provide plenty of fancy features to ensure efficient and effective collaboration.

Among the top features you should look for in a PM tool are visual boards for tracking and task overview, time tracking and logging of each project and their associated tasks, file management and sharing, team messaging, analytics and reports, and intuitive project timelines. These are the essential features your PM tool should have, which will help your employees manage their work with ease.

Standardizing messaging app use

Your employees are most likely using more than one messaging app to communicate about work, but also just to stay in touch, catch up, and share cat memes. Now, while there is nothing wrong with using various messaging apps for the latter, the former demands that you standardize the app use in your company. When your employees send work information and files from one app to another, they are unwittingly losing the much-needed end-to-end encryption provided by the app, which is a big security risk.

To prevent inadvertent data loss, you need to pick a single app with the highest security and the best features that all your employees will use for work-related communication. This is something that a good entrepreneur and business leader need to do in order to minimize risks and improve communication and collaboration between remote teams as well as in-house staff.

Integrating a VoIP phone system

Having a phone system in a growing business is absolutely essential for boosting marketing, sales, PR, customer support, and other mission-critical departments. That said, it’s also crucial for internal communication and collaboration because you need a phone system that facilitates seamless communication across the company. Now, it’s important to note that legacy phone systems are outdated nowadays, and a far more contemporary option is to invest in a VoIP solution.

Voice over internet protocol is a cloud-based phone system that brings various perks and digital features to your company. Some of the best rated VoIP providers typically provide valuable features like low-cost national and international calls, full mobile optimization, various integrations with other tools you’re using, video conferencing tools, collaboration tools that include file and screen sharing as well as scheduling, and more. Choose the right VoIP plan and you might even be able to avoid paying for a project management tool altogether as VoIP typically has all you need for effective communication and collaboration.

Using a dedicated video conferencing tool

Whether you’re in the process of researching VoIP plans or if you’re not yet ready to make the switch, you can always make do with a free video conferencing tool like Google Hangouts or Microsoft’s Skype for the time being. While these are valid choices if you’re strapped for cash, they offer little in the way of collaboration and communication quality.

That said, you can still use them for small-scale video calls comprising of a couple of participants. Whatever you choose, though, it is imperative that you have a video conferencing tool instead of relying on just your email communication – make sure to use it mostly for email marketing – in order to keep the team together in the digital workplace.

Cloud-based file sharing apps

Lastly, you need a place in the cloud to store and share all important work files. This can be a dedicated PM tool, it can be your VoIP system, or it can be a free cloud storage space like Drive or Dropbox. Make sure to research the free options thoroughly and assess their level of security as well as the features they offer. Typically, you will need to pay for a business account to get more storage space and additional features that will allow your teams to collaborate more effectively.

Managing a growing business requires a lot of investing, and you need to make sure you’re pouring capital into the right strategies and solutions. Consider making communication and collaboration a priority and invest in these tools to take your new business forward in the years to come.