Why Trello is the ideal tool for small businesses
Transform your small business workflow with Trello and the Email for Trello Power-Up! It’s the perfect low-cost solution for organizing operations, handling customer emails, and managing projects in one visual hub.
If you’re looking for software to manage your small business, look no further than the simplicity and flexibility of Trello! Its powerful and adaptable features make it an essential tool for your small business toolkit.
In this article, we take a look at why Trello is a great fit for small businesses, as well as how to set up your workspace to get the most out of Trello as a tool – including effective email management with the Email for Trello Power-Up.
Why use Trello for small business
Trello is a project management tool to organize work, prioritize tasks, and collaborate with colleagues. Simple to use and easy to understand, Trello is ideal for any small business team looking to work together more effectively.
From one central platform in Trello, you can:
Organize and prioritize tasks. Add due dates, label Trello cards by urgency, and arrange to-dos into lists (like ‘To Do’, ‘Doing’ and ‘Done’) to get an accurate picture of work in progress.
Collaborate with team members. Use mentions and comments to discuss ongoing and upcoming work. Everyone has an overview of what’s in progress so that nothing gets overlooked.
Manage email effectively. For most small businesses, email is key to nearly every critical workflow. With the Email for Trello Power-Up, your team can receive all incoming emails as new Trello cards, making it possible to read, send, reply to, and collaborate on emails – without ever leaving your Trello board.
Trello is also a highly cost effective solution for small businesses. Instead of paying for lots of bells and whistles that you don’t need, Trello enables your team to start small, scaling with you as your business grows and develops.
💡 TIP We love the simplicity and power of Trello! Find out more about how to turn your Trello workspace into an all-in-one business hub for your whole team.
Build your small business in Trello
Discover the power of Kanban
Trello is based on the principles of Kanban – a method for visualizing your tasks and optimizing your workflow. All your team’s work is arranged as cards in lists, making it easy to keep track of progress.
A simple example Trello workflow – To Do, In Progress, and Done
Each Trello card represents your team’s individual tasks, clients, emails, projects – whatever your small business is managing. They are easy to move from left to right as things progress, offering a visual overview of all your ongoing work.
Plus, you can customize your cards with built-in Trello features like due dates, attachments, checklists, and more, making them super versatile and adaptable to your needs.
💡 TIP Use Kanban to sort out your shared inbox, so that your team can spend less time on email.
Create a board for every team
Trello is not just a project management system – it’s a hub for your whole team to collaborate around daily tasks. Everyone in your team can see what work is on the go and who’s responsible for getting it done.
It’s useful to set up separate boards for each of the different functions in your small business. For example:
Customer Support: Build your help desk in Trello and use Email for Trello to turn your board into a shared support inbox, so that your team can collaborate on replying to help tickets.
HR and Recruitment: Create a Trello board to organize your recruitment pipeline and discuss hiring decisions with your team. Handle email outreach and conversations with potential candidates using the Email for Trello Power-Up.
Project Management: Create a customized project management workflow in Trello and use Email for Trello to engage with clients and suppliers via email right from your board.
Find out more about how to use Trello in a team, including setting up your board, adding team members, and using Trello features like due dates, labels, and more.
💡 TIP Need more board ideas for your small business? Browse our directory of ready-to-use Trello board templates for different business functions. Just copy and get started!
Customize your workflow with Power-Ups
Power-Ups like Email for Trello bring additional functionality into Trello so that you can customize your board to suit your team. Integrate your favorite tools and apps right into your Trello workspace. No more time-consuming context switching!
Here’s a quick overview of some useful Power-Ups for small businesses working in Trello:
Sales & CRM: Spot cold leads with the Card Aging Power-Up, add extra sales data to your Trello cards with Smart Fields, and keep your Trello board synced with your Salesforce pipeline.
Marketing: Track work in progress with List Limits, take quick polls with the Voting Power-Up, and manage PR requests with Forms by Blue Cat.
eCommerce: Manage similar orders with Bulk Actions, view shipping status with the Package Tracker Power-Up, and work across multiple boards with 2 way Card Mirror & Sync by Placker.
For more ideas on how to boost your small business workflow, take a look at our ultimate guide to Trello Power-Ups.
Optimize with automation
Built-in Trello automation is a powerful way to save time, avoid mistakes, and help your team get more done. Setting up a few helpful workflow and email automations can also help your business get more out of Trello for longer, delaying the need to move to more specialized or expensive software.
Here are a few ideas for Trello automations to cut down on busy work and streamline your small business processes:
Make your Trello checklists work for you! Automatically add checklists, create cards from incomplete checklist items, and more. Take a look at our 8 cool automations you can do with checklists in Trello.
Stay on top of project communications with automated client update emails sent straight from Trello.
Running your support desk in Trello? Keep customers up to date by sending an automatic ‘ticket assigned’ confirmation email when someone starts work on their help query.
Automate your HR processes in Trello for things like receiving job application forms, sharing onboarding documentation, and calculating PTO. Discover 27+ Trello automations for HR and recruitment teams.
For more automation ideas for your Trello workspace, take a look at our handy collection of automation templates for any business working in Trello.
Boost your small business workflow with Trello
Trello is a powerful collaboration tool for small businesses – it’s visual, easy to understand, and adaptable to many kinds of teams.
With the addition of the Email for Trello Power-Up, your team can turn their Trello workspace into a flexible hub for managing the daily ops, emails, and projects associated with the different aspects of your small business.
