Until recently, small businesses have been at a tremendous disadvantage competing with large companies and their massive overhead budgets. But, because they are leaner, more agile, quicker to adapt to new trends, and closer to their market, they also have several significant advantages. With the help of widely available and inexpensive technologies, it could not only level the playing field, but it could also tilt the advantage in their direction.

The good news is today’s technology doesn’t require significant investments in servers, storage, and IT support to get ramped up. Small businesses can opt for cloud-based apps and infrastructure accessed over the internet and supported by someone else. Business automation software enables small businesses to scale up their processes while keeping their headcounts and costs in check. Many business automation tools are pay-as-you-go with low or no upfront investment and simple ways to scale up as you grow.

Technology is now available to help a small business execute critical functions and tasks with greater efficiency and effectiveness, including:

Organization and Workflow

Trellois a simple and intuitive project management tool that can create sustainable workflows for everything from simple tasks to complex projects that’s easy for all team members to follow. Other options: Basecamp, Asana

Communication

Google G Suitecombines several critical business elements - management, communication, and collaboration - into one tool for managing the constant stream of messages, calendar and project updates, and a multitude of files. Using different forms of communication, such as video chat, messaging, and email, all team members are kept in the loop in real-time, eliminating confusion and miscommunication while enabling instant collaboration. Other options: Slack, Flowdock

Marketing

MailChimphas become synonymous with lead generation through email marketing, offering everything from list segmenting to split-testing to creating efficient email marketing campaigns. MailChimp’s startup package is free and can be upgraded for just $10 a month. Other options: Constant Contact, Active Campaign

Sales

HubSpotoffers a complete platform for managing sales and marketing functions, but its CRM feature may be the most important for building up your sales pipeline. HubSpot CRM enables you to track your prospects, customers, and vendors and all the calls, emails, meeting histories associated with them, and then assign tasks for follow-up. HubSpot CRM is free, and it integrates with Gmail. Other options: Salesforce, Hatchbuck

Social Media

Hootsuiteenables small businesses to become more active with their social media accounts with little effort. With Hootsuite, you can manage all your social media accounts on one platform, including scheduled posting and viewing analytics for all social media accounts. Other options: Buffer, Agora Pulse

Accounting

FreshBooksoffers comprehensive cloud-based software covering most accounting functions, including invoicing, expensing, time tracking, payments, and an online dashboard for viewing detailed financial reports. There are three packages available, all coming with unlimited invoicing, expenses, credit card payments, and time tracking. All packages integrate with PayPal, MailChimp, and Basecamp, along with additional add-ons. Other options: QuickBooks, Kashoo

Productivity

Zapierallows you to create automated actions between several automation applications to reduce repetitive manual tasks. For example, if you use Trello, Zapier will automatically convert emails received into Trello tasks. It can also link Google C-Suite to PayPal to send a notification each time a product is purchased. Other options: IFTTT

Just a few years ago, the efficiency and scale necessary to grow to the next level eluded small businesses, making it virtually impossible to compete with resource-rich companies. With the technology available today, small businesses can amplify their advantages while competing on a level playing field.