For Small Businesses: Here Are Helpful Web-Based Tools You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

Small businesses are some of the greatest upholders of the entire global economy. They also contribute to local economies and even micro ones. As we gear towards a more home-based workforce, small business owners need to seamlessly adjust to this transition. It’s understandable that it can be tough to turn to online and web-based tools when all you’ve used for your systems are trusty offline software.

But that fear of transitioning to more browser-based tools is unfounded, and in fact, browser-based tools can be your edge over competitors. They’re not only more convenient; in some cases, these web-based tools cost half the price of some premium desktop-based software. Cost-effectiveness and reliability – ticked off at the same time. In this article, we’ve collated some of the most helpful tools you can use to make the transition smoother for your business easily:

An online PDF editor that has an array of helpful individualized applications

No matter what industry your business is in, working with papers, documents, and files is universal. And as the standard becomes soft copies, PDF, or portable document format, is the file format that gets to be shared in messaging platforms, over group chats, and even in official office communications. A browser-based PDF editor is a perfect way to streamline your PDF editing office-wide.

There are many options for a web-based PDF editor you can use, but PDF Bear is one of the few that takes the cake. It has a wide array of applications that focus on individual edits like splitting a PDF, rotating it, password protection, as well as converting PPT to PDF. The site also has tools for PDF encryption, which means you can do almost anything with the tool. It’s a nifty little site to have ready access to any time, so let your employees try it for themselves.

To make your employees more productive, use an online tool that blocks social media

In this day and age, where the Internet is both a boon and a bane for efficient production, blocking social media access can be the exact thing you need to make sure that employees stay as productive as they can be. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you truly don’t give them access to it on the duration of their work hours – you can just set a number of hours that social media can be accessed – maybe on break times and for when people have already finished their work for the day.

A social media blocker is one of the few things you can invest in without paying for anything. You don’t even need to have a fancy dedicated software for it. You can just go to the site, set the timer, and then let it work in the background. Then, you can just sit back, relax, and manage your employees’ time management behaviors. It’s also more effective when you use the social media blocker on your own work computer as well. This way, you won’t alienate your employees.

A business account on a cloud storage service

It goes without saying that every business needs to have its own cloud storage service. Storing files, important documents, and other pertinent papers that are helpful and a necessity for the company is one of the healthiest things you can do to keep your business in tip-top shape. A great cloud storage service should not only have easy syncing, but it should also be cheap. The best ones may always be pricier, but you can find an excellent middle ground if you really push for it.

Make it your mission to get the best deal you can. A business account is only needed when you have too much going on,  your business is on the rise or will be growing in the next year or so. Having the savvy to keep things online is smart because you don’t want to expose possible damages to your files if you keep them in physical storage. 

Takeaway

For these tools to make sense with your new systems, you need to slowly and deliberately include each and every tool in every day until your employees are weaned off from the previous software. Make sure that there is a formal transition period, and don’t discard the old system completely. For a more organized transition, use bookmark folders dedicated only to the organization of web-based tools.