7 Indispensable Tools For Being a Proactive Entrepreneur

Avinash Nair

January 29, 2018

A successful entrepreneur dons many hats, especially while leading a startup towards success.
Read managing expenses, recruiting a fab team, addressing the pros and cons, shuffling multiple tasks and so on and so forth.

But before anything else, they need to be proactive, which means “to create or control the situation by causing something to happen rather than respond to it after it has happened.”

In case you’re an entrepreneur who’s seeking ways to be proactive, here are some of the best tools you need to add to your arsenal without delay (Feel free to click on any of the following, to jump directly to that tool. The seven are:

SaneBox for Email Management

Nutcache for Project Management

XMind for Mind Mapping

Proud for Mac Productivity

Animoto for Video Creation

MeetEdgar for Social Media Scheduling Management

Upwork for Hiring Freelancers

Tools For The Proactive Entrepreneur

1. SaneBox

Entrepreneurs receive tons of emails every single day. And we all know that it is no easy feat to read each email and respond.

This changes with SaneBox.

The tool lets you easily prioritize your inbox, get reminders, snooze emails, filter important emails from spam and more. These and a handful of more useful features in SaneBox make it a must-have app for every entrepreneur.

For instance, you can put an email in the SaneBlackHole and any future emails from the sender will get stored in it and will eventually be sent to the trash. Similarly, SaneNoReplies will contain the emails you have sent but haven’t yet received a reply. And for all your newsletters and mailing lists, you can opt for the SaneNews feature.

In short, you can bid goodbye to distractions and embrace a sorted inbox with SaneBox. Beat that!

2. Nutcache

When you want to save time, meet deadlines, collaborate and manage priorities, nothing works better than Nutcache. Use the tool to manage all the crucial information of your project right from its inception to end.

An intuitive screen is one of the mainstays of Nutcache, which helps you save time. It also lets you organize and prioritize tasks by setting the due date and estimated time. This can be a lifesaver when you want to toe stringent deadlines!

But what we love about Nutcache the most are its boards. You can use them to apply project management methodologies such as Agile, Scrum, and Kaban.

All in all, the cloud-based project and expense management system is great for all SMBs.

3. XMind

The importance of mind mapping can’t be stressed enough for entrepreneurs. XMind is an apt tool that lets you do this and more.

You can use it to store, view and edit mind maps on the cloud. While editing the maps, you can also switch views seamlessly for an enhanced experience.

When it comes to brainstorming, you can opt for the Idea Factory feature, which makes it easy to record and collect inspirations. There’s also a timer, which lets you control each session time for the brainstorming sessions.

Furthermore, a slide-based presentation in the software makes it easy to create, present and share your ideas with your peers and target audience.

That pretty much sums up the main benefits of this handy tool for entrepreneurs!

4. Proud

Another intuitive and powerful productivity app on this list is Proud, an app that works only on Apple devices.

Use it to break down big tasks into smaller ones to accomplish all of them. Additionally, you can also sort your tasks into categories, sub and sub-sub categories. This paves the way for clear focus and makes tasks more manageable.

The app’s Destress Superpower feature lets you relax for a few minutes by taking you through your achievements. Also, it uses Soft Time technology to back all the tasks and habits you save on the app. It automatically schedules your day by creating a perfect balance between work and leisure so that you don’t get overstressed and achieve all your goals.

Surely, this tool provides a refreshing twist to productivity!

5. Animoto

Consumer Internet Video is on the rise, with videos slated to represent 82% of total internet traffic by 2021. Also, social video generates 1200% more shares than the combination of text and images, signaling the phenomenal rise of video content.

To make the most of videos, entrepreneurs need to zero in on Animoto. It’s a handy tool when it comes to marketing brands or businesses on various channels and standing out easily.

The tool offers over 100 brilliant video styles, slideshow videos, square video output, soundtracks, voice-over, collages and layouts among other features.

This means you can get creative with your branding videos, marketing videos or personal branding videos and post them on different channels to get a sure-shot advantage over your competition!

6. MeetEdgar

Going social is the norm for all entrepreneurs nowadays. If you don’t have a social media presence, you’ll lose the race even before it begins. That said, MeetEdgar is a great social scheduling tool for busy entrepreneurs.

You can use it to automate your social posting, connect with the brands you love, indulge in real-time conversations and engage on an authentic level. This helps you land a bigger target audience and plan ahead to get everything done on time.

Because the app helps you handle your social posts, you can use the time you save to focus on your core business.

Now that’s exactly what a seasoned entrepreneur would look forward to!

7. Upwork

Hiring freelancers becomes easy with Upwork. Formerly called Elance-ODesk, it is the best place for head hunting.

Take your pick from developers, designers, writers, researchers, sales and marketing experts, accountants and many other professionals to build a winning team and delegate tasks to them.

Using Upwork is a cakewalk. You can easily use the platform to post a job with details, browse profiles and interview the top candidates, share files and collaborate with talented individuals. And that’s not all. You can also manage invoicing and payments for the authorized work.

The best part is that you can do all these on the go!

Conclusion

You may be the busiest entrepreneur with a zillion things on your to-do list. But you also need to be proactive to propel your business to success. Get started on the right note with these incredible tools and do let us know how you fared!

Over To You

We hope you found the above helpful. Do you use any of them? Do prefer a competitor of any of them? Are there any other tools in different areas of business, that you find indispensable? Please share them with your fellow readers.