Essential tools for your online start-up business!

Starting your online business can be daunting. For example, which start-up tools  should you use for
your online business? Maybe you’re fresh out of college, or someone who has had enough of working for someone else, or perhaps you’re finding it hard to get work. More and more people are starting their own online business but are unsure which tools are best for start-ups to use.
In this article we take a look at some of the tools for businesses which will help you to organize, secure and manage your business.


Six essential tools for business start-ups
1. Evernote
Evernote is a nifty business tool which can capture everything; from what you’ve written down to what you hear. You can add images, scanned documents and even audio.  Many users refer Evernote as their “external brain” and the great thing about this startup tool is that you can access all this information from anywhere – say goodbye to folders, and binders and the post-it note!
You’re in a meeting, and there’s a bunch of really helpful notes on a whiteboard. Instead of typing the information or writing it down, simply take a picture of the whiteboard with your phone, and Evernote takes care of the rest. You can find anything quickly using Evernote, and it even recognize texts inside your images or files.  Check out their website and their beginner’s guide for more information.

2. Virtual Private Network (VPN) – Hide My Ass! Pro VPN
Whether your online business is new or you’re just looking to start one, you need to be able to keep in touch with your contacts and clients at all times. There will be times that you’ll need to work in a cafe, in a hotel or airport, and you’ll need to use public Wi-Fi – but danger lurks! This is because public hotspots do not give any encryption security. You should seriously think about using a VPN to safeguard your data.

HMA! Pro VPN (yes, it’s a shameless plug), should be an essential part of your online start-up toolkit, especially when using public Wi-Fi.
Just imagine, a thief, attacker or other third party stealing your ideas, your contacts, your banking and other confidential information?. Not a pleasant thought, is it? You take an enormous risk each time you use public Wi-Fi. Secure your personal data with a VPN.

3. Dashlane
How many passwords do you have for all your various accounts; Facebook, Twitter, banking, etc?  Of course, you shouldn’t be using the same password for all your accounts for security reasons, which leaves you racking your brain trying to remember them all. We’ve all been there, typed in what we think is our password, and yep, access denied. You enter it in again, and again, positive that it’s the right one this time, then once you realise you’re beaten, and click the dreaded “Forgot your Password?” button.

Thank the password gods for Dashlane! Dashlane is a fantastic password manager, it’s secure and even provides a “free form filler to automatically login to your accounts” which saves your brain from having to remember all those passwords. Check out their website for further details.

4. Boomerang
Don’t let that important lead end up forgotten at the bottom of your email account!
What Boomerang does is quite simple, but it’s super-duper useful.
It’s Monday morning, and you have 200 emails to plough through and respond to. Replying to some of those emails will likely drop through the net, which could potentially jeopardise the success of your online business.
Boomerang is a free Gmail plugin which works far better than setting a reminder in your calendar, because Boomerang sends you a reminder straight to your inbox.

5. Hootsuite
Many online businesses heavily rely on getting their message and brand across the countless number of social media platforms on the market to expose their business to many people as possible. Hootsuite is a great social media management tool that allows you to manage Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all from one dashboard.
There are a number of cool things you can set up on it, for example, anyone who mentions you in a tweet will show up in your alerts.
There’s also an auto-schedule posts feature which is a very handy tool for businesses to keep in contact with customers around the globe 24/7.

6. Google
We’ve all heard of Gmail, but did you also know that Google has some other great gems in their treasure chest? For example, there is Google Drive – which allows you to write articles, create spreadsheets, and you can also share these documents with your clients. There’s also Google Hangouts for all your video conferencing and messaging needs.

Hopefully you will find some of these tools for businesses useful.

If you already have a start-up, which business tools do you use?

HMA! Pro VPN allows you to surf the net anonymously, bypass government internet blocks, you can access TV shows from any country, and keep safe when using public Wi-Fi hotspots.  For full details visit our website, or you can always drop us an email or contact us via LiveChat – we always love to hear from you!

Name of the Provider	Website Address
Hide My Ass	Visit Provider
Strong VPN	Visit Provider
Switch VPN	Visit Provider
Pure VPN	Visit Provider
IPVanish VPN	Visit Provider
Hotspot Shield Elite	Visit Provider