[9 Secure] Best Remote Startup Tools for Building Remote Team

The number of startups across the globe has been increasing over the past decade. They are all managing their work with remote teams. Team members of remote startups work from around the world. The online tools for video editing apps, payment platforms, time & task management software, invoicing software, online meeting platforms, and social media publishing make remote work easy. These online tools enable a remote startup to assign tasks, manage teams, communicate and collaborate with its employees across the globe effortlessly.

The remote startup seems to be the new normal, from drop shipping businesses to digital marketing agencies and software companies. Setting up a remote team requires hiring, training, task allocation, daily meetings, collaboration, PowerPoint presentations, discussions, leave management system, payroll management, and much more. It would be very overwhelming to manage multiple platforms to manage all these tasks daily.

Remote startup seemed like a distant dream a couple of decades ago and is the best way to manage a startup in the current scenario.

It is no secret that startups work on a tight budget. A remote team helps them to cut a significant chunk of expenses for office space, operational costs, employee benefits (occurred onsite), and a variety of other expenses. A standard office setup helps employers build a culture and enable their employees to get acquainted with it. Email, stand up meetings, technical discussions, daily communication, career growth, interpersonal relationships, and much more are much more comfortable in a traditional office setup.

But like everything else, it comes with a cost. An office set up also mean hiring people from different locations and paying them a competitive salary. Thanks to technology, a remote startup can easily manage all the activities through online tools that enable hiring, training, task allocation, communication, and collaboration without any hassles.

Remote jobs have been at an all-time high. While some of it is due to a remote startup's fast-growing trend, the others may be due to the pandemic.

Startups that were working on a regular setup also have been looking to begin work remotely. Most large organizations are looking to move their sales, marketing, business development, and content creation teams into working remotely. Remote startup jobs are also increasing heavily. Teams like customer service and a significant part of the senior management have even begun working remotely.

The quality of life has changed, and so has the work culture across companies. Freelancing career has not been popular previously. Today it has become one of the fast-growing types of employment and seems to become mainstream. Technology is the main reason for this change. With the pandemic creating waves of change in every aspect of life, remote working has become routine.

A remote startup can create more remote jobs. Technology-based jobs, skills that can work remotely are growing. Companies looking to hire remote jobs are utilizing online tools for a variety of tasks. Remote jobs in roles like business development, sales, marketing, technology, and a few others were initially working well. However, recent technology has made it possible for many other roles to work remotely, except for a few others. Like everything else, remote startup companies also face tons of challenges and some fantastic benefits.

Benefits of setting up a remote startup:

Challenges of setting up a remote startup:

Building a remote startup has both benefits and challenges. Regular onsite meetups (when necessary and possible) and group meetups for employees in similar geographical locations, team lunches, annual team building activities, and a few other plans can improve the togetherness between employees. It also helps remove the awkwardness, improve trust, and interpersonal relationships between team members, thereby contributing to better performance. Building a remote startup involves a lot of challenges on the business front.

The remote hiring, training, payroll, leave management, task allocation, communication, and collaboration only add to the bandwagon. However, technology has got it all covered through a variety of online software products. These applications enable employees to work remotely and companies to hire remote workers. The pandemic has added to the surging number of remote jobs. Startups are leveraging some of the best software to manage their teams remotely. Remote work has become the new normal, with more companies hiring their business development, marketing, customer care, and a few other teams to work remotely.

We will discuss the features, uses, benefits, and pricing of some of the best software that enables a remote startup and fast-growing companies to manage their remote workforce.

Toptal is a talent network where companies can hire the cream of talent for their development, designing, and financial positions. The best talent available in Toptal has excellent communication skills in English, irrespective of their origin. Toptal offers a talent pool of talents to companies looking for freelancers, full-time workforce, and part-time employees.

Features

• Vetted Freelancers
• No-Cost Freelancer Trial
• Talent Relocation
• Remote Work
• Full Talent Integration
• Flexible Invoicing
• IP Protection

Uses Benefits Pricing

Indiehackers

Indiehackers works as a platform that enables companies(remote startup entrepreneurs) to collaborate with talents(like developers) to share their strategies and financials to allow the projects to perform better.

Features Uses Benefits Pricing

Mailer Lite

Mailer lite offers email marketing and fits well for startups. It is easy to use, and the helpful features are a part of the Mailer lite software. The drag and drop editor feature helps businesses to design professional-looking emails and newsletters effortlessly. Landing pages, web forms, and many other exciting features are a part of the Mailer lite software.

Features

• Drag-and-drop Editor
• Custom HTML Editor
• Rich Text Editor
• Free Newsletter Design Templates
• Built-in Photo Editing Feature
• File Manager
• Subscriber Management
• Popups
• Landing Pages
• Embeddable Web Forms
• Campaign Reports
• Email Automation
• RSS Campaigns
• Auto Resend
• User Permissions
• Integrations

Uses Benefits Pricing

Nifty PM is a complete package that enables companies to manage the entire project cycle and automate reporting. NiftyPM is an excellent fit for your business, whether you are a startup or a large organization. The project tracking and collaboration features of NiftyPM enable companies to improve communication and feedback mechanisms between team members and share ideas in real-time. Task management, instant messaging, communication, idea sharing, discussions, and much more is possible with a few clicks.

Features

• Task Assignment
• Custom Fields
• Real-time Collaboration
• File Sharing
• Message Threads
• Direct Messaging
• Project Overview
• Task View
• Time log Views
• Progress Reporting
• Timeline View
• Milestone Dependencies
• Custom Labels
• Collaborative Documents
• Quick Collaboration
• Conversational Files
• Time Tracking

Uses

• Agile project management enables teams to work effectively and efficiently.
• Client management
• Digital agency
• Marketing and advertising teams

Benefits Pricing

Hive enables data analysis, querying, and summarizing. Remote teams enjoy Hive since it allows them to work with freedom. The Kanban and Gantt chart are some of the most popular features by the engineering and design team.

Features

• Flexible project views
• Automation
• Forms & Templates
• Workflows
• Hive Analytics
• Integrated Email Inbox
• Templates

Uses Benefits Pricing

Hubstaff offers both desktop and mobile app versions making it easier for users to manage work on the go. The in-depth reporting, time tracking, automated invoice generation, payroll management, timesheets, and many other features offered by Hubstaff make it a breeze for a remote startup to manage remotely. Hubstaff offers time tracking and URL tracking features that help freelancers to track their most productive time.

Features

• Time Tracking
• Screenshots
• Activity Levels
• Automatic Payroll
• Advanced Reporting
• Mobile Apps

Uses Benefits

• Hubstaff works well for both employees and employers. While it helps employers manage employee performance, it also enables freelancers/ contract employees to calculate the actual time required to perform a task, making it easy for them to figure.
• Employee productivity tracking is much more comfortable with tracking tools.

Pricing

Clickfunnels

Sales teams love the click funnels app because of its simplification tools that help in marketing and sales activities. Sales teams can create effective funnels without wasting time on website hosting, landing pages, and email responses. All these features are available in a single platform with Clickfunnels.

Features

• Custom Domains
• Email Integrations
• Click Pops
• All Advanced Funnels
• Sales Funnels
• Membership Funnels
• Auto Webinar Funnels
• Webinar Funnels
• Hangout Funnels
• Order Pages
• Upsell Pages
• Down sale Pages
• Share Your Funnels
• Priority Support
• Priority Template Requests

Uses Benefits Pricing

Hey.com is an email provider just like Gmail and others but offers to screen your emails, thereby safeguarding from anyone snooping. Hey enables users to stay in control of their content-based email.

Features

• Screen emails
• Fix bad subject lines
• Add private notes
• Find files
• Block email spies
• Send large files on the same platform

Uses

• Safeguards from snooping
• Available on all platforms

Benefits

• Email management tools.
• Anti Email tracking.

Pricing

• The HEY for YOU is an excellent plan for individual freelancers. You can try it for free for up to fourteen days. The paid version costs $99 per year and covers @hey.com email address, available on all platforms, up to a hundred GB storage space, and spy pixel blocking.
• The HEY for the WORK plan works well for large organizations and costs $12 per month per user. All the "hey for you" features are available in this plan along with multi-user, custom domain, thread sharing, email aliases, and private team comments.

Plutio is an excellent fit for freelancers and small businesses. Managing remote teams, collaboration, client communication can all be done on a single platform. The customizable application helps users manage tasks, proposals, invoicing and much more on a single app and a few clicks.

Features

• Tasks management
• Time tracking
• Project management
• Invoicing
• Proposals & contracts management
• CRM
• Calendar
• Inbox

Uses Benefits Pricing

Conclusion

Funding plays a vital role in a startup, and cutting costs that do not seem necessary is the first and foremost thought in those growing years. Startups went through hiring, training, office space, and many other overheads that were previously mandatory. However, the concept of a remote startup cut down the initial investment on a variety of overheads. A remote startup uses a variety of tools/ software to streamline their regular work process. Communication, collaboration, task assignment, daily meetings, hiring, training, leave management, payroll management, time and expense tracking is all now possible with the online tools.

The remote startup has its challenges, but the team management, work assignment, tracking time, project management, and other areas are all managed with the online tools effortlessly. Some of the online tools also enable taxation, analytics, reporting, accounting, and expense tracking, making it a lot easier to manage a startup, whether remote or not. Choosing the right tool plays a vital role. No best tool works well for all types of businesses. While accounting is the key at one startup, communication, and collaboration between remote team members may be critical for another.

Some startups are dependent on the collaboration between the marketing and sales teams so on and so forth. It would be best if users get to decide which is the most suitable tool for their business. We have discussed the features, uses, benefits, and pricing of some of the best apps in the market to enable a better decision.

Questions asked while looking for tools used in remote startup:

Regina is Guest Contributor at Sprout24 and Web content analyst at Ad Week. She loves writing about sales and marketing software reviews in business that help them in a big way with driving conversions.