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If you’re a business owner, then you’re probably always looking for ways to improve your company’s efficiency and productivity. You might do this through the way in which you manage your employees, or by how you prioritize tasks, or by how you control your company’s budget.

Computer software can improve your business, too. There’s a ton of different software on the market that you can implement to help your business in a variety of different facets, from marketing to accounting to project management.

Here are 5 great software programs that can boost your business, no matter what your business does.

Microsoft Office

All right, so we’re cheating a little bit: Microsoft Office isn’t just one application, but several. Office is a collection of business applications that are designed for doing office work. The business version of office comes with the following programs:

  • Outlook (email)
  • Word (word processing)
  • Excel (spreadsheets)
  • PowerPoint (presentations)

As you can see, the Microsoft Office suite covers a very broad range of business activities. Email is an obvious one—very important for communication within the office and with external business partners. With Word, you can type up business documents, whether they be press releases, copy, or memos. You can use Excel to track accounting and create budgets. And you can use PowerPoint to create visual presentations for business meetings with staff, clients, or shareholders.

What’s fantastic about Microsoft Office is that all the applications are designed with a relatively similar interface. Once you learn one, it’s fairly easy to get the hang of the others. And the price is unbeatable for how often you’ll be using some of these programs.

Intuit ProConnect

ProSeries, designed by Intuit, is a professional tax preparation software that’s designed for any company that handles taxes. You can use this software if you’re handling taxes for external clients, or if you work in the accounting department of your firm.

The ProSeries interface is similar to the spreadsheet interface of Excel or Google Sheets, but it’s equipped with plenty of features that are optimized for tax filing. For example, there’s an automatic data transfer to individual tax returns, and there’s an easy “missing data” tracker that’ll let you know what additional information you need from clients to successfully file their return.

If you’re in the tax business, you need this software.

Dropbox

Dropbox was a pioneer in large volume file sharing, and it’s still popular today. Dropbox uses cloud storage to enable you to digitally store and share files that would otherwise be too large to send over email.

Dropbox files and folders can be shared with any number of people, or they can be kept private—it’s up to you. You also have the option of downloading or storing some files directly on your computer.

You can use a business Dropbox to enable file sharing between different departments at your company, or you can use it to send files to business partners or clients. It’s a fast service, much faster than if you were to mail out flash drives. To boot, Dropbox has a potentially unlimited storage capacity; no more full flash drives, either.

Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe Creative Cloud is similar to Microsoft Office, but it’s built for the creative professional. If you’re in the business of video editing, digital illustration, or marketing, Adobe Creative Cloud is a must-have. It’s a subscription-based service. A full membership includes access to the following programs:

  • Premiere Pro (video editing)
  • After Effects (video effects)
  • Audition (audio editing)
  • Photoshop (photo editing)
  • InDesign (design for printing)
  • Illustrator (digital illustration)

And the list goes on. Adobe produces a large amount of applications that are available through Creative Cloud, although the ones listed above are the most popular. Like the applications in Microsoft Office, all of the Adobe applications have a similar interface, so if you learn one, it’s not too difficult to learn the rest (although the learning curve for these programs is undoubtedly higher than that of Office).

Website Builders

One of the most expensive business costs is developing a great website. But a website is very important and you can’t afford to settle for less. Rather than hiring a website developer, you can build your company’s website in-house by using a website builder. Website builders are sometimes downloadable applications, but most of the time they operate as websites. Some of the most popular website builders include:

  • WordPress
  • Wix
  • Weebly
  • Squarespace

Here’s a great guide that’ll help you choose the best website builder for you business.

Great software won’t boost your profits all on its own, but if you’re running an efficient company, then having the right software will no doubt improve the workflow and quality of the work that you and your employees do.

Chiino
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