They say a carpenter’s only as good as his tools. Well, having the right tools not only makes life easier, it actually makes business better. Looking forward to growth? Here are three tools essential to a small business owner looking to grow his or her business.

A Good Social Media Platform and Strategy

A good tool for getting the most out of your social media sites in the shortest amount of time is Hootsuite. You can manage your Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts all in one. You don’t have to visit each site individually to update your posts, which can save a lot of time. You can also schedule updates to go up later on during the week. Other such tools include Social Oomph and Social Sprout. As for strategy you should always keep in mind what you want to achieve. What do you want, more followers, more visitors to your site, sales? You should keep this in mind and tailor your posts accordingly. But make sure that you keep these goals realistic and more importantly, measurable. Have a schedule for when you invest time in social media efforts, and make sure you have a good idea if you want to handle social media, or if you want someone else to do it.

Accounting Software and Strategy

For your accounting you could use software such as QuickBooks or FreshBooks. With these you’ll be able to send invoices, pay taxes and track expenses among other things. As for general and financial strategies, you should make sure to have your personal and business finances separate, or else things might get too complicated. Have categories for what you spend on. The software will allow you to do this. Another basic, but often overlooked piece of advice is to track everything. This will help you tremendously in the long run. And, last but not least, try to pay your taxes throughout the year.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software and Strategy

CRM platforms such as Insightly and Zoho will help you keep track of your customers by creating profiles for them and saving emails, details and notes related to them. To maximize the results of your CRM software you can set to-dos and assign them to your team members, track milestones and deadlines and take tons of notes on your clients, which in turn will help you with your to do list.