Let's face it, when starting a new online business, life is going to get messy, chaotic and it will take a while to get into the routine of being a well organised machine - you'll need to build an effective system. 

As I work with my business coaching clients who are launching an ecommerce business we plan for the fact it's naturally going to be hard work but there are some amazing time saving, productivity apps and tools that can help you on this journey. Here's my top 5 tools that everyone growing an ecommerce business should be using:

1. Hootsuite

This incredible app allows you to take control of your social media pages from anywhere. The app is intended for you to be able to schedule all of your social media posts rather than having to manually do it throughout the day. You can also interact with your audience using this app. You can access it when you are on your travels, or wherever you haven’t taken your laptop.

By being able to schedule your posts in advance and in one go over several platforms, you are saving yourself so much time. You can have unlimited scheduling on 10 different platforms for only small cost per month, which is definitely worth it for the time you will save.

2. Expensify: Receipts and Expenses.

This is a must have for tracking your ecommerce business expenses as you go along. All you have to do is simply take a photo of your receipt and upload it. Never manually enter receipts at the end of a month again! This is a cute time saver that stops financial admin eating away into precious time and becoming a tedious chore.

The app even categorises your spending and allows you to keep an eye on your ecommerce business expenses in one place, making it easier to submit for approval and reimbursement. Great for sales teams on the go!

3. Trello

Trello is a productivity tool app that allows you and your ecommerce team to work more effectively and efficiently. You can use the boards and lists to help organise and prioritise the tasks that you have to do. You are then able to share these with colleagues and this allows you to see at a glance what is being worked on, what has been done and by whom. Ideal if you are managed teams of freelancers or developers.

Information is available at a quick glance and is portrayed in a much more fun and flexible way then working through your own notepads and endless lists written down. This really does help boost your and your ecommerce team’s productivity.

4. Evernote

If you are the type of person who has endless pages of "useful notes" that you are saving for another day, then this app is for you!  It allows you to input all of your ideas, jobs, ideas and tasks into one place. You can even add voice memos and clip photos and screenshots from websites. This information is all kept safe in secure cloud storage.

This all means that you can access this information and your ideas anywhere, even when you are on the go. This saves time as you are able to keep working on something in those rare moments where you may find yourself with a bit of time - like on a long train journey or waiting for a business partner to turn up at a meeting place.

5. Calendly

This is a great tool to use for you to be able to schedule appointments, saving time from the traditional ways of making appointments. All you have to do is enter in your scheduling availability, then publish on your chosen platforms or share the link and your job is done. The appointment / meeting app will then be made available to your potential client’s who can self serve, select a meeting time and date which works best for them... and once booked it will show up on your or your team member’s calendars.

Helpful tip - add your calendly link to your email footer to allow important suppliers, customers and contacts to easily schedule in time to speak with you. 

This app is privacy compliant, secure and easy to use. It supports a range of scenarios for teams and individuals and can be integrated easily into your working environment. 

Make It Happen In Your Business

If you want to grow your ecommerce business, there is no excuse for not optimising your business machine!  Recognise the need you have first - for example, perhaps you need a place to co-ordinate all your notes into one place so you don't have a million sticky notes covering your desk.... and only then do we go look for the technology to fill that need.  Remember, there's no point using an app for an apps sake!  It has to be useful and add value to your world.  

Next Steps:

• Identify where your gaps are - what might you need help with either in terms of better productivity or scheduling of your time?  
• Think about how you can bring these tools into your daily routine to help improve your productivity and free up brain space and time. 
• Always take advantage of the free trials on offer and test the tool thoroughly before committing to a paid for service - start with the free plan first if you can and ask yourself "does it really do what I need it to do?" - make sure it helps you get the results you want.  
• This testing of tools and productivity apps is a great task to delegate out to your Virtual assistant or a team member and ask them to report back on their findings, what they liked about it and where they felt there might be gaps or missing functionality for your purposes.  Ask them to make a recommendation on whether you bring this tool into your ecommerce business.