Collaboration tools can help with a range of business processes, such as simplifying workflows, improving communication, and tracking projects. They’re particularly useful for a small business with a growing team, helping streamline teamwork and boost productivity regardless of where you or your employees are based.
But with countless tools on the market, how do you know which is the best one for you? Luckily, the UK’s best company formation agent, 1st Formations, has done the hard work for you and narrowed it down to four collaboration tools that can specifically benefit small businesses. Keep reading to find out more about their top picks.
Monday
Monday is one of the best collaboration tools out there. It connects all your processes, tools, and teams into one, user-friendly platform. It’s also quick to learn, and there’s a range of value subscriptions, allowing you to use your budget effectively. Monday’s best functionalities include:
- Fully customisable dashboards: Customise your tasks, workflows, and widgets to suit your work style and priorities. For example, you can highlight key results per team member, overall project status, or outstanding tasks.
- Pre-built automations: Over 200 automation features mean you can collaborate efficiently.
- App integration: Simply connect your existing apps (like emails, calendars, and messaging tools) for seamless collaboration across all your platforms.
- In-app communication: Create, like, and respond to messages, or send emails about a project in the monday app, so there’s no need to take communication elsewhere.
There’s a variety of different subscriptions to suit different team sizes and business objectives. For small businesses with up to two people, there’s a free plan that allows you to collaborate across up to three boards.
If you need more capacity, the basic plan is only £8 per user per month. If you’re unsure which plan is right for you, take advantage of the free trial to see how monday can help your small business collaborate efficiently.
Microsoft Teams
You probably weren’t expecting this collaboration tool to make our list as it’s one of the biggest ones out there, but believe it or not, Microsoft Teams has come a long way since the pandemic and has lots of benefits for small businesses. It was initially only available with a wider MS Office subscription, but it’s now open to all and includes a range of free and low-cost plans.. Let’s take a closer look at some of its best features.
- Meet and collaborate from anywhere – whether you’re at home, in the office, or on the move
- Send and receive messages even if you’re offline
- Noise suppression minimises background noise to make sure your meetings run as smoothly as possible
- Eliminate unwanted notifications by creating individual chats and rooms for different topics and only the relevant people
- There’s no need to download separate calendar apps, file storage, video calling tools, or instant messaging systems – do all your collaboration in one place
You’ll also be pleased to hear that there is a free version of Teams. However, there are some restrictions regarding storage, meeting length, and tech support.
So, if you can afford to stretch your budget a little, we recommend Teams Essentials, which costs £3.30 (plus VAT) per user, per month, and includes unlimited chats, collaborative annotations, 10GB of storage, file sharing, data encryption, and more.
Slack
Despite its ironic name, Slack is one of the most popular and flexible collaboration tools among small businesses. It makes communication easier, helps you and your team get organised, and get more done. Here’s what we like most about Slack:
Huddles
Think of this feature as the digital equivalent of popping your head into someone’s office to ask them a quick question. Similar to a voice note, Huddles are audio messages you can send to someone in and outside your organisation.
You can also share your screen during a Huddle. This is a great option if you want to tie up loose ends after a meeting, have a light brainstorming session, or simply ask when they’re free for lunch.
Clips
Free up your time (we know it’s scarce for small business owners) with the Clips feature. You can record and send video clips and watch them at your convenience.
According to Slack’s data, over half of business meetings were reduced in 2023 thanks to Clips. It’s flexible, convenient, and allows you to collaborate with others regardless of your individual schedules.
Automation
Efficiency is key in a small business. Make sure your projects run smoothly by letting Slack do the hard work and automating your routine tasks and processes.
Slack Connect
This feature allows you to collaborate with your partners, vendors, customers, and any other external stakeholders. Connect faster with real-time messages and bring disconnected conversations together into one convenient place.
Pricing
Slack’s free price plan is the best way to try this collaboration tool and see what it can do for your small business. This is a basic version, though, with 90 days of message history, 1:1 huddles, and 1:1 instant messages.
The next plan up is only £3.50 a month for three months, followed by £7 a month. This option includes unlimited history, integrations, huddles, group messages, workflow automations, and more.
Wrike
If you run a small creative or IT business and your day-to-day is project-based, Wrike could be right for you. Whether you need to collaborate with people within your company or external stakeholders, Wrike is great for project tracking and keeping everyone updated. Its top collaborative features include:
- Kanban boards: Instantly view project progress and who is working on what
- Project views: Customise how you view each project so that it works best for you and your team
- Cross-tagging: Enable visibility across multiple work streams
- Gantt charts: Interactive project scheduling across teams
- Customisation: Tailor the app to fit your specific business
Wrike’s free plan is ideal for new businesses and start-ups. For growing teams of up to 25 people, you might prefer the Team plan. At $9.80 per user per month, it’s slightly more expensive than the other collaboration apps we’ve discussed, but it comes with 20 free collaborators, unlimited tasks, custom workflows, and much more.
Summary
Whether you need a collaboration tool to facilitate day-to-day communication or a comprehensive app that can manage workflows and automate tasks, our short and sweet list of recommendations has something for every small business owner, no matter your budget.1st Formations is the UK’s leading company formation agent, helping aspiring entrepreneurs launch their own companies quickly, easily, and affordably. They also provide ongoing support and services to help companies remain compliant. For more information on their incorporation packages, visit the 1st Formations website.
