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How Small Businesses Can Overcome Challenges During a Pandemic

Pandemics are rare. In the past century, we have seen only two major pandemics. This means that rarely people will see two pandemics in their lifetime. But why am I telling you this? The rarity adds unpredictability and exposes how we are not ready to handle the situation.

If you are a small business, you would agree with it. Right now, keeping your small business can be a big challenge. This is entirely different from what the big giants have to go through. The pandemic helped Amazon reach double profit over the year as they netted a $5.2 billion profit compared to their last year’s profit(2019) for $2.6 billion.

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How to Create a Job Application Form in WordPress (Easily)

Do you want to add a job application form to the careers page on your WordPress website?

Often small businesses do not have a system in place for receiving job applications. This can quickly lead to a huge number of resumes in your email inbox, without an easy way to sort through them.

The good news is that you can easily solve this. In this article, we’ll show you how to create a job application form in WordPress that makes it easy for people to apply online while also making it easy for you to manage applications in one place.

Creating a job application form in WordPress

Creating Your Job Application Form in WordPress

If you run a small business website, then adding a ‘Careers’ or ‘Jobs’ page on your website allows you to attract talented people to join your team.

To attract the best people, you also need to make it easier for interested candidates to apply for a job by adding a job application form on that page.

Let’s take a look at how WordPress makes it easy to add a job application form.

First, you need to install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

WPForms is the best WordPress forms plugin on the market. It’s designed to be very beginner-friendly and it lets you create lots of different forms for your small business.

After activating the plugin, you need to visit the WPForms » Settings page in your WordPress dashboard to enter your license key. You can find your license under your account on the WPForms website.

Entering your license key for WPForms

Next, visit the WPForms » Addons page to install the Form Templates Pack Addon. This pack includes the job application form template.

Adding the form templates pack addon to WPForms

Tip: The Form Templates Pack is only available if you have the Pro plan for WPForms or higher. However, you can still create a job application form by using the Simple Contact Form template in the free version of the plugin.

Now, it’s time to create your form. To start, you need to visit WPForms » Add New in your WordPress admin area.

On this page, you will then be prompted to name your form and choose a template. After that, scroll down to the Job Application Upload Form template or search for it using the search bar.

Select the Job Application Upload Form template

Once you’ve clicked on your chosen template, you will be taken to the WPForms form builder.

You will see the default job application upload form template here. You can use it just as it is, or edit it using the drag & drop interface.

The default job application upload form template in WPForms

If you’re happy with the form as is, then simply save it and click the X button to leave the WPForms builder.

Saving and exiting the form

Next, you need to put the form on your website. You can embed it in a post or page, or you could even add it to your sidebar. We’re going to create a new page by going to Pages » Add New in the WordPress dashboard.

On the page edit screen, simply click on the (+) to add a new block and then look for WPForms block. You can find it in the ‘Widgets’ section of blocks or you can use the search bar.

Adding a new WPForms block to a page in WordPress

Once you’ve added that block, click and select your job application form from the dropdown list.

Selecting your form from the WPForms dropdown list

WPForms will load a preview of your form in the content editor. You can now go ahead and save or publish your page.

After that, don’t forget to visit your website to see the live form in action. On our page, we have a title, a short description, an image, and then the job application form:

The job application form on the website

Note: If you’re using the old classic WordPress editor, then you can click the ‘Add Form’ button to add a form to your page:

Adding a form to the page using the classic WordPress editor

Editing Your Job Application Form

You can edit your job application form at any time to add more fields, notifications, and descriptions.

To do this, simply go to the WPForms » All Forms page and click on the title of your form to open it up for editing:

Opening up your job application form to edit it

You can change the existing fields (parts of the form), move them up or down, delete fields, and add new ones.

First, we’re going to edit the ‘How did you find out about this position?’ question on our job application form. To edit a field, click on it. You will see the options for the field open up in the left-hand editing pane.

We’re going to delete the ‘Newspaper Ad’ and ‘Radio/TV Ad’ options. Simply click the (-) button next to the option to remove it.

Editing the 'How did you find out about this position?' field

Next, we’re going to remove the ‘If other’ field immediately below this. To delete a field, simply bring your mouse cursor over the field and then click the red trash can icon that appears:

Deleting the text field for 'If Other' in WPForms

We’re also going to add a field just before the resume upload. This is where our prospective content writers can share links to their previously published work.

First, click the ‘Add Fields’ tab on the left-hand side if it’s not already selected. Then, simply drag and drop your chosen field into place on the form. We’re going to use the Paragraph Text field.

Dragging and dropping a new paragraph field onto the job application form

Once the field is in place on the form, just click on it to change its label and provide a description.

Editing the label for a field in WPForms

You can make as many changes and additions as you want to the form. Make sure you click the ‘Save’ button after doing so.

Editing Notifications and Confirmation Messages for Your Job Application Form

By default, all job applications will be sent to the administrator email of your WordPress site. However, in some cases the person responsible for managing these job applications may not be an administrator on your website.

This is why WPForms makes it easy to send form submissions via email to anyone without giving them access to WordPress admin area. You can also view all applications right inside WordPress (more on this later).

To edit the notification settings, simply edit your job application form and then switch to the Settings » Notifications tab.

Changing the email address that the job application form is sent to

In the ‘Send To Email Address’ box, type in the email addresses that you want forms to be sent to.

You can also change other aspects of the notification, such as the email subject line.

If you want to send the applicant an email to let them know that their application has been received, that’s possible, too. Simply follow our instructions on creating a form with multiple recipients.

You may also want to change the default confirmation message that the applicant sees after submitting the form. You can edit this under Settings » Confirmations tab. Simply type the message you want into the box:

Changing the confirmation message that's shown on the screen after the form is submitted

Viewing Submitted Applications inside WordPress

Each job application will come to the admin email address of your WordPress site or the addresses you entered under the notifications tab.

The email will include all the details submitted, plus a link to download the resume or any other files uploaded:

The job application email notification with resume link in place

Tip: Make sure you test email notifications by submitting your forms. If you don’t receive notifications, then see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.

WPForms also saves all applications within WordPress itself. This makes it easy for other team members to review and even comment on applications.

To see the submitted job applications, go to WPForms » Entries in your WordPress dashboard. Scroll down to below the graph and click on the name of your form.

Click on the name of a form to view the entries for it

Now, simply click the ‘View’ link next to any application to see the details of it.

Click the 'View' link to see the details of a completed application

You will then be able to see the application form. You can download the candidate’s resume here. You can use the Star feature in WPForms to highlight your favorite candidates.

It’s also easy to add a note by clicking the ‘Add Note’ button. This is a very useful feature if several people will be viewing and commenting on applications:

Adding a note to a job application in WPForms

That’s it. You have successfully created a job application form on your WordPress site that lets you easily gather and sort through applications.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to create a job application form in WordPress. You might also like our articles on the how to create a professional business email address for your team members, and the best VOIP phone services for small businesses that you can use to give each new team member a virtual phone number.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create a Job Application Form in WordPress (Easily) appeared first on WPBeginner.

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test casebzjzbsmsks

Mr.X owns a small business in a region with poor law-and-order. Recently his warehouse has been plagued by thieves. Gangs of thieves raid over his warehouse from time to time, stealing his raw material, affecting his business. He has studied the occurrences and noticed it that they are cyclical.

Assuming that a work week starts every Monday, and Sat and Sun are holidays, predict the total number of days when business would be affected.

Ex:
He has noticed that currently there seem to be 2 gangs. Gang 1 raids every 4 days, whereas Gang 2 strikes every 6 days.( See attached image )

Raids On Holidays are okay - since there is no raw material on those days. If more than gang raids the warehouse on a particular day, it is still counted as one bad day only . So the answer in this case is 5.

Sample Input:
2
2
4 6
21
3
3 4 8
14

The first line indicates the number of test cases - 2 above. Each test case is made up of 3 lines.
The first line of every test case indicates the number of gangs, n. (i.e 2 for Test Cases#1)
The next line contains n integers, where each number k indicates that the gang strikes every k days. (i.e. 4 and 6 for TestCase#1)

The next line is the number of days d, for which the prediction is needed. 0 <= d <= 365 (i.e. 21 days for TestCase#1)

Sample output:
5
5

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How to Start a Small Business in 8 Steps: The Essential Guide

Many people want to learn how to start a (small) business this year. Half-baked business ideas are a dime a dozen, and it’s not unusual for an entrepreneur to have several possible ventures lined up. But what’s critical to finding real success is testing these ideas and refining your business concept before getting in over your head. Here’s a step-by-step walk-through on how to start a (small) business.
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Why Accessibility Matters for WordPress Themes and Their Users

“Do you ever read the subtitles on a video so you didn’t need to unmute it?” asked William Patton, a representative from the WordPress Themes Team. “Used the ‘beep’ from a crosswalk to know when to cross the road? Found yourself reading the info panel at an airport? Those things are considered features, but in reality, they are aids for people with additional needs.”

As I talked with Patton and other reps from the Themes Team, it was clear they believed accessibility was a vital piece of the theme-building puzzle. The team has made small moves in the last year to bring more themes up to standards. However, it has been a slow-going process.

Last July, the team initiated a plan to add a new guideline every two months or so that would address a single accessibility issue. It would become every theme author’s responsibility to make sure they were meeting the new guidelines. It would be every reviewer’s responsibility to understand how to test guidelines as they were implemented. Thus far, the team has required only that themes have a working skip-to-content link and keyboard-capable navigation menus.

Not every theme author was excited about the move. Some have still shown resistance a year later.

Last week, we covered the Astra theme’s news of hitting 1 million active installs. A commenter made a point that the data shows that end-users do not care about accessibility — the Astra theme makes no mention of being accessibility-ready. The conclusion was that the Themes Team should not be implementing such guidelines based on the success of one of the directory’s most popular themes.

While there are several things we could do to pick apart the original comment and the limited view of the situation, we can instead use it as a catalyst to discuss why accessibility is something that should be at the forefront of every theme author’s mind. Patton, along with Themes Team representatives Carolina Nymark and Denis Žoljom, had a lot to say on the subject.

The overarching theme was that awareness is vital and that theme developers play a crucial role in making the web more accessible.

Awareness Is Key

Decorative image of a closeup-view of a human eye.

Žoljom likened the awareness of accessibility to that of a cisgender person looking at the world from the perspective of a transgender person. Once he became aware of larger issues, he made sure to address gender-specific pronouns in his code comments, such as replacing instances of “he” with “they.” He hopes such small changes spark similar changes from others.

He said the situation was the same with accessibility. “It might not mean much to a person who doesn’t have any disabilities, but putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes changes one’s perspective. This is why we started to include things like skip links, keyboard nav, etc.”

The team does not hope theme authors will merely become technically proficient at addressing accessibility issues in their themes. While that would be a help from a review standpoint, it addresses only the symptoms rather than root causes of the issues. Instead, by making more developers aware, they will begin to look at development from multiple perspectives. They will ask how a screen-readers will handle their theme. They will ask whether their colors have enough contrast for low-vision users to read. They will wonder if non-mouse users can navigate their users’ sites.

The technical stuff is the easy part. Changing perspectives and becoming more empathetic toward those who are different is much more difficult. But not impossible.

“A lot of us who build for the web are lacking some basic insights into what it is like to have additional needs beyond what is our own normal,” said Patton. “There is a saying: ‘if you could see it through my eyes, you would see it differently.’ If you could see through the eyes of someone with color blindness or impaired vision, you quite literally would see things differently.”

The trouble with humans, in general, is that it can sometimes be hard to see things through someone else’s eyes. Of course, there are tools to simulate accessibility issues for developers, so that helps. However, these tools do not replicate what it is like to walk through life with a particular impairment or disability. Some of us can only partially glimpse the difficulties that others may have when navigating the web. This does not mean that we cannot address the downfalls of the software we build and become more inclusive to all people, especially if we are proactive when issues are raised.

Nymark identified a few areas where the community can improve awareness:

  • Make sure that all contributors are aware of the WordPress accessibility requirements so that all new features are accessible.
  • Highlight accessibility improvements when WordPress is updated.
  • Feature more diverse use cases and highlight areas where the accessibility that is built into WordPress has helped people share and access important content.

“The themes team hopes that by making theme authors aware of accessibility issues, authors will learn that even small changes to their code and design can have a great positive impact,” she said.

Is Accessibility Important to End-Users?

Decorative image of a laptop, book, and artwork.

Certainly, accessibility is important for some users. It certainly mattered to Guillermo Robles, a blind man who sued pizza chain Domino’s in 2016 for an inaccessible website. The court case was important enough that it moved through the system all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ultimately, the higher court denied Domino’s appeal of an earlier ruling. The U.S. 9th Circuit court had previously ruled that business websites fall under Title III of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and must meet accessibility standards.

This was a landmark case in the U.S. for accessibility advocates last October. It is also worth remembering as we near the upcoming 30th anniversary of the ADA on July 26.

Domino’s is a billion-dollar business. The company has enough money to fight such battles for years. They also have the money to hire world-class web developers to correct any accessibility issues.

However, for small business owners, hiring a single developer, much less an entire agency or team, is often a non-starter. Many small businesses are fortunate to break even. WordPress and its ecosystem of free or low-cost solutions have democratized eCommerce on a scale previously unwitnessed. It means that mom-and-pop stores can have an online presence. It means teens can begin selling their custom art and a multitude of others can make money online without the backing of wads of cash.

For these small business owners, many are unaware of accessibility concerns. They pick up a few plugins and find a theme that suitably matches their branding. The possibility of an impending accessibility-related lawsuit is the furthest thing from their mind. This is a major reason that WordPress needs to be a leader in meeting accessibility standards. Themes, which are the part of the site that visitors will interact with, are possibly the most important part of that equation.

Some would argue that small business owners should understand the laws of their jurisdiction. That is true. However, it is also partly the responsibility of the software creators, says the Theme Team representatives.

“Yes, the technology should account for additional needs,” said Patton. “Yes, the tooling should enable people to make good choices with regards to this. Yes, it should be easy to meet a minimum level of accessibility in the things we create with ease. Yes, it should be a fair assumption that the choices available to pick from are accessible.”

The web is inherently accessible out of the box. Raw HTML is read and output by web browsers in such a way that the content can be accessed by anyone. Patton says that it is the things that developers do from that point forward that makes that experience better or worse.

“Trade-offs are made that are well-intentioned but not always helpful,” he said. “Design trade-offs are the easiest to point out. Taking text and embedding it into an image means that some of its value is lost in exchange for it looking pretty. Using closely matching colors for text and background might create an interesting effect to some people but for others, it makes it impossible to read. Sometimes it’s about balancing those trade-offs with the needs of others, but it is those kinds of trade-offs that most people struggle to give up.”

Nymark described some more technical issues that the average end-user should expect to simply be a non-issue. For example, it is reasonable to assume that a theme installed from the official WordPress directory would be free from HTML, PHP, and JavaScript errors. These are items that users should not have to worry about checking before activating the theme on their site. The errors should simply not exist.

It is that level of quality control that end-users should expect in terms of accessibility, an assurance that the theme does all the things it is supposed to do. It is not about whether end-users “care” about accessibility.

“If a form on a shop checkout page is not working, this can lead to loss of income,” she said. “Users rely on the technical solution provided by plugins and themes and expect everyone to be able to use their shop. Whether or not the site owner recognizes this as an accessibility issue is irrelevant because their page just needs to work.”

Why Theme Authors Should Care

Decorative image of a white desktop with an assortment of items, including an Apple computer and coffee mug.

“If those who choose themes don’t consider accessibility and the theme author did not consider it, then the [visitors] of the sites built with those themes are the ones that lose out,” said Patton. “It’s not a huge leap to realize that low accessibility on your site directly equates to a reduction of potential users.”

He said that end-users would naturally assume the themes they are picking from do not have accessibility issues. However, that assumption is typically far from accurate.

“Theme authors should care about the accessibility of their creations so that the people picking their themes don’t need to use it as a deciding factor,” he said.

My go-to response is that developers should concern themselves with accessibility because it is for the collective good. Humans should care about making sure that all other humans have the same freedoms that they enjoy, which are often take for granted.

Even those who cannot view it from that perspective should be able to appreciate that it is a smart business decision. It makes little sense to leave money on the table, especially if you are a developer who is selling a theme or upselling additional features on top of a free theme. There is an entire segment of users that represents money lost.

Additionally, more and more countries are implementing laws around web accessibility. Over time, such laws will be commonplace, particularly in the business sector. Inaccessible themes will lose users as such laws are enforced. Now is a good time to get ahead of impending change.

More Guidelines Ahead

The WordPress Themes Team has been slow about adopting additional guidelines surrounding accessibility. However, more are expected to land at some point. Team reps want to work with authors and reviewers alike to make the transition as painless as possible.

“We have not added anything else because theme authors are still not releasing themes with working implementations of skip links and usable keyboard navigation,” said Patton. “When those two things become habitual, it will be time to introduce another aspect as a requirement.”

The next guideline in line is expected to be underlined links in the post content. This would be an easy win if the team can get past the current stage. Right now, the team reps are unsure when that will happen.

“The fact that this has taken so long for authors to get this right probably indicates that we need to do better at guiding them to resources to learn how to do it and why it is important,” said Patton. “Perhaps that is a better avenue to pursue than looking to implement additional asks of them.”

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Quora Marketing: Beginner’s Guide With the Best Strategies to Get You Started

“You have to get on Facebook. Don’t forget about Twitter. Now it’s all about Snapchat and Instagram Stories. Try Quora!” It may seem like your small business is constantly behind when it comes to marketing, especially on social media. There’s absolutely no reason to be on all of them, but Quora marketing does provide interesting potential for learning about your industry and gaining website traffic in the process.
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How to Send SMS Messages to Your WordPress Users

Recently, one of our readers asked if it was possible to send SMS messages to their subscribers along with email newsletters.

The answer is yes. You can easily send text messages to your website users by using one of the many SMS plugins for WordPress.

In this article, we’ll show you how to send SMS messages to your WordPress users, step by step.

Sending SMS messages to your website's users

Why Send SMS Messages to Your Users?

Sending SMS messages can be highly effective in bringing back customers to your website. Particularly, when used with other marketing tools like an email newsletter, push notifications, and search traffic.

Text messages have a fantastic open rate. Some studies suggest that SMS open rates are as high as 98%.

Compare that with a typical open rate of just 20% for emails, and you can see why SMS messages are becoming a preferred marketing medium.

People check text messages much more quickly than they check emails. It takes an average of 90 seconds for someone to respond to a text and 90 minutes to respond to an email.

Of course, you don’t want to overdo it. Even when they’ve opted in, most users won’t want daily texts from you. Even weekly might be too much.

Important: Make sure you obey the law. Different countries have different legal requirements for text messages, particularly marketing messages.

You might also want to use SMS messages to send receipts or order updates. We’ll cover how to do that later in this tutorial.

Sending SMS Marketing Messages Using Sendinblue

Sendinblue is an email marketing service that also allows you to send SMS messages to your subscribers.

To get started, you’ll need to set up an account with Sendinblue if you haven’t already got one. On the Sendinblue website, click the ‘Sign up free’ button to start creating your account.

Once you’ve finished the account setup process, you’ll see your Sendinblue dashboard. If you didn’t complete your profile during the setup stage, you’ll be prompted to do so here.

Complete your Sendinblue profile

Before you can start sending messages, you’ll need to contact the support team. Go to the Sendinblue contact page and write a message that includes:

  • A request to activate your account.
  • Your site’s URL.
  • A note that you’ll be sending marketing messages.

Once your account has been approved, you’ll get an email from Sendinblue. Note that this can take up to 24 hours.

Buying SMS Credits for Your Sendinblue Account

While you’re waiting for your account to be approved, you can start creating an SMS campaign in Sendinblue.

First, click the + button in the Sendinblue menu to go to the Apps and Integrations page.

The Sendinblue Apps and Integrations page

Then, scroll down the page to find the SMS Campaigns app and click the slider to activate it.

Switching on SMS campaigns in Sendinblue

Next, you’ll need to purchase SMS credits. In your Sendinblue dashboard, you’ll see ‘0 SMS Credits’ on the left-hand side. You need to click the ‘Get more credits’ link to purchase SMS credits.

Click the 'Get More Credits' link

You’ll be taken to the ‘My Plan’ area of the dashboard. In the SMS Credits section, click the ‘Get More SMS Credits’ link.

Click to Get More SMS Credits

Sendinblue defaults to selling you 100 credits at a time. You can buy fewer, but the minimum charge is still $1.14 plus tax.

Choose how many credits you want to buy

Note: It costs 1 credit to send a text message in the US, but you’ll need to pay more than 1 credit per message in other countries.

Once you have selected the number of credits, go ahead and complete your purchase.

Pay for your SMS credits

Once you’ve bought your credits, you may need to wait for up to 48 hours for them to appear in your account. You may also get an email from Sendinblue asking you for more details about what type of SMS marketing you plan to do.

This is to help you stay in compliance with SMS laws.

You’ll need to reply to them with answers to their questions before your credits can be added to your account.

Creating Your SMS Marketing List

In order to send out SMS messages, you’ll need to import your list. You can do this by going to the Contacts tab in your Sendinblue dashboard. Then, click the ‘Import contacts’ button.

You can either upload a .csv file from your computer, or you can copy and paste contacts line by line. Whichever option you choose, Sendinblue offers examples to help you.

Sendinblue's import options for your contacts list

Important: Your users need to have opted in for SMS marketing messages.

You can collect website visitor’s phone numbers and consent using a WordPress form plugin like WPForms, or using a marketing popup plugin like OptinMonster.

Sending Your First SMS Campaign

Once your credits show up and your account is approved, you can start sending messages.

First, you’ll want to add a test contact in Sendinblue, so you can test your SMS campaign.

Simply, go to the Contacts section in your dashboard, then click the ‘Add a contact’ button.

Adding a contact in Sendinblue

Next, fill in your details, including your mobile phone number.

Enter your own details to create a sample contact

After that, you can either add your test contact to an existing list, or you can create a new one.

Add your sample contact to a list

Once you’ve done that, click ‘Save and close’. You should see a message telling you that the subscriber has been successfully added.

When your SMS credits have been added to your account, you can test out sending a text message.

First, go to the SMS tab in your Sendinblue dashboard. Next, click the ‘Create my first SMS campaign’ button.

Create your first SMS campaign

You can enter whatever you want for your Campaign Name. This isn’t seen by the recipients. You should also enter an SMS Sender. This will display for users in certain countries.

Entering a name and a sender for your SMS campaign

Next, enter your SMS message. Beneath the message box, you can see how many characters you’ve used and how many SMS messages will be sent.

Entering the text for your SMS message

At the bottom of the screen, click the ‘Send a test’ button.

Send a test SMS message

Next, a popup box will appear. Enter your mobile number, which you included when you added yourself as a contact earlier.

Enter your mobile number

You should see a message telling you that your test message has been sent successfully.

Confirmation that the test SMS message was successfully sent

Now, check your phone to see if the text has come through. Here’s ours:

The text message campaign shown on a mobile phone

If your text hasn’t arrived, wait a minute or two and it should appear. If not, double-check that you’re using the right mobile number.

Once you know everything’s working, you can continue setting up your campaign. Click the X to close the ‘Send a test’ window, then click the ‘Next Step’ button on the top right of the screen.

Moving to the next step of the SMS campaign

Now, you’ll need to choose your contact list(s). Check all the lists you want to use, then click the ‘Next Step’ button.

Choosing the contact list for your SMS campaign

That’s all you need to do! Your SMS campaign is now ready to send.

You can review the details and change them if you want to, using the ‘Return to this step’ links. Once you’re happy, click ‘Schedule’ on the top right.

Reviewing your SMS campaign before sending

You can either schedule your campaign so that your texts are sent out at a specific time, or you can send it immediately.

Send or schedule your SMS campaign

Important: Avoid sending your text messages early in the morning or late at night. Be mindful of timezones, too. Not everyone will remember to turn on Do Not Disturb mode overnight.

Sending SMS Messages to Your WooCommerce Customers

What if you want to send your customers notifications about their orders?

If you’ve decided to start an online store, then you might want to send text updates as well as emails to your customers.

The easiest way to do that is with a suitable plugin such as YITH WooCommerce SMS Notifications. This plugin lets you use an SMS gateway, such as Twilio, to send SMS messages to your customers. They receive these when their order status changes, such as when it’s dispatched.

You can set up YITH WooCommerce SMS Notifications so that it’s enabled for all customers, or you can let customers opt-in at the checkout.

Also, you can use it to get SMS notifications yourself about new orders. This makes it easy to stay on top of things if you’re away from your computer.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to send SMS messages to your WordPress users. You may also want to see our list of best business phone services for small business, and our list of the best live chat software to grow your sales.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Send SMS Messages to Your WordPress Users appeared first on WPBeginner.

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8 Best WordPress Notification Bar Plugins (Compared)

Do you want to add a notification bar on your website? A floating bar or “hello bar” can be an effective and non-intrusive way to alert users about a sale or coupon.

However, it could also get annoying if it’s not setup properly. For instance, a notification bar that takes half the screen on mobile is not a good user experience.

In this article, we’ll help you pick the best WordPress notification bar plugins to boost traffic, get more subscribers, and increase sales.

Finding the best WordPress notification bar plugins

What to look for in a WordPress Notification Bar Plugin?

There are plenty of WordPress notification bar plugins available in the market, but not all of them have the right set features you may need for getting the maximum results.

For example, some notification bar plugins are too simple and does not come with proper settings for allowing users to hide the notification. Others may not have the ability to add dynamic elements such as call to action buttons or countdown timers to boost urgency.

Basically, you need to choose a floating bar plugin that aligns with your goal: increase traffic, show announcement alert, grow your email list, increase sales conversion, etc.

Here are some of the most important factors you need to look for when choosing a notification bar plugin:

  • Targeting and Cookie Settings – Your notification plugin should have targeting option that allows you to customize the message for different sections, and also remember what user has seen in the past to improve user experience.
  • Dynamic Elements – A good alert notification plugin allows you to add dynamic elements such as countdown timers, multiple call-to-action buttons, animation effects, etc.
  • Newsletter Integrations – If your goal is to grow your email newsletter, then you need to make sure that the sticky bar plugin integrates with popular email marketing services.
  • Support options – Lastly, you need to make sure that there are support options available. Good support can save you a lot of money in the long run.

With that said, let’s take a look at our comparison of the best WordPress notification bar plugins.

1. OptinMonster

OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the best conversation optimization software that comes with several marketing tools to help you turn website visitors into subscribers and customers.

It also includes a notification bar feature with dozens of beautiful templates. Their drag and drop builder allows you to customize the design or even create completely custom templates to match your brand. You can include things like a countdown timer, too.

A selection of the floating bar template options in OptinMonster

OptinMonster is great for notification bars that encourage action. It has advanced targeting features that allow you to personalize the message based on your goals and users’ past behavior.

An example of a donation bar in OptinMonster

You can also use OptinMonster’s notification bars to show an alert or message. If you’ve had to suddenly change your business hours, for instance, you can alert your website visitors to this.

An example of an announcement bar in OptinMonster

Other use-cases include: creating a free shipping bar notice for WooCommerce, add a newsletter opt-in form, create a discount alert bar, redirect traffic to a landing page, and more.

Below are some real example screenshots from their floating bar gallery:

OptinMonster Floating Bar Screenshots

Aside from just notification bars, you can use OptinMonster to create all sorts of different popups and alerts including spin to win gamified opt-in forms, exit-intent popups, fullscreen welcome mats, and more:

Different campaign types in OptinMonster

Not to mention, there is no other solution that offers more personalization and targeting features than OptinMonster. Take a look at some of their targeting rules:

OptinMonster personalization and targeting rules

2. SeedProd’s Notification Bar Pro

SeedProd

SeedProd is best known for its ‘Coming Soon’ page plugin. However, they also have a floating bar plugin, called Notification Bar Pro.

You can buy Notification Bar Pro as part of the SeedProd bundle.

With SeedProd’s Notification Bar Pro, you can design your notification bar however you want. It shows a live preview of your notification bar as you design it. This makes it easy to tweak it to look however you want.

A notification bar created by SeedProd, including button and timer

You don’t have to show your notification bar on every page of your site. Instead, you might choose to show it on just the home page. You could also allow or exclude specific pages.

It’s very quick to build and tweak your notification bar with SeedProd. If you want to go further than the wide range of built-in options, then you can also add custom CSS to style the floating bar.

There’s a limited free version available, too, called WordPress Notification Bar. This doesn’t offer all the features of the full version, but you might like to try it out if you’re just getting started.

3. TrustPulse

TrustPulse

TrustPulse is a little different from the plugins we’ve looked at so far. It offers a real-time social proof notifications, letting your users know what’s happening right now on your site.

This can be a great way to take advantage of the FOMO effect while building trust around your brand.

When someone visits your site, TrustPulse will show a small notification bar that lets them know who’s buying your product right now, or who’s bought it recently. This is a powerful form of social proof that is proven to increase conversions.

A TrustPulse notification showing on the SeedProd website

It works with all top eCommerce platforms including WooCommerce. You can also set up TrustPulse to track other types of interactions. For instance, you could use it to show a notification when someone joins your email list.

TrustPulse is incredibly easy to use out of the box. However, there are plenty of features you can customize if you want to. You can easily change the message, colors, and images used in your notifications, for instance.

It also gives you lots of useful analytics, showing you which pages are delivering the highest conversion rate.

There’s even a free version, which lets you show notifications for up to 500 sessions (visits from users).

4. WP Notification Bar Pro

WP Notification Bar Pro

WP Notification Bar Pro offers multiple different notification types. You can use it to build your email list, grow your social media following, advertise sales, and more.

This is a great option if you want to show something a bit unusual in your notification bar. For instance, you can use WP Notification Bar Pro to show your latest posts or even posts that are related to the one the user is on.

You can even display a search form or social media buttons in your notification bar.

WP Notification Bar Pro lets you create multiple notification bars. You can set their priority so the most important one always displays on a given page.

You can also split test your bars to see which performs best. You can track your views and clicks, too.

5. Hello Bar

Hello Bar

Hello Bar is a well known and popular notification bar plugin for WordPress. It’s easy and straightforward to use. If you’re a complete beginner, it could be a good option.

Like with OptinMonster, you can use Hello Bar to add users to your email lists, as it integrates with popular email marketing services.

As well as notification bars, Hello Bar lets you create other types of popups such as sliders and even popups that take over the whole screen.

There’s a limited free version of Hello Bar available. You’ll need to create an account with Hello Bar in order to use it.

The free version doesn’t give you as much control over your notification bars as the full version. You’ll still be able to make some basic design changes using it, though.

Note: You won’t be able to remove the Hello Bar branding unless you pay for a premium plan at which point OptinMonster is a much better option at the price.

6. Easy Notification Bar

Easy Notification Bar

Easy Notification Bar is a simple, free option. You can just install it on your site and get started straight away.

It doesn’t have all the options you’ll get from other plugins, but you can still do basic things like type in your text, choose a font size, add a link, and customize the colors.

Unlike many of the other plugins here, Easy Notification Bar only offers a floating bar. It doesn’t let you create other types of popup too.

If you just want to put an alert on your website, it could be a great option. For instance, if you run a restaurant and want to alert customers to a temporary closure or change in business hours, this plugin might be all you need.

It’s completely free, and there’s no premium version. If you’re on a tight budget after the other costs of building a WordPress site, then this could be a good plugin to start with.

7. WPFront Notification Bar

WPFront Notification Bar

WPFront Notification bar is another simple plugin that lets you create notification bars in WordPress. You can place the bar at the top or bottom of the page.

You can set the bar to automatically close and/or have a close button for your visitors. You can also configure when the bar appears, for example you might set a start and end date for it.

WPFront Notification Bar is completely free and regularly updated. As with Easy Notification Bar, there’s no premium version. One key drawback with this plugin is that you can only create a single notification bar at a time.

8. Divi Notification Bar

Divi by Elegant Themes is one of the most popular drag & drop page builder for WordPress.

Aside from letting you create custom landing pages, Divi also allows you to easily create and add notification alerts in your pages with their easy drag & drop interface.

Although it doesn’t come with the powerful personalization and targeting features like OptinMonster, it is still a suitable solution for basic needs.

Expert Pick: Which is the Best Notification Bar Plugin for WordPress?

In our opinion, OptinMonster is the best WordPress notification bar plugin because of it’s large template selection, easy to use design customizer, advanced personalization / targeting features, and hundreds of integrations with popular email marketing services & CRMs. Not to mention, it also gives you a whole range of other marketing tools like popups, slide-ins, fullscreen welcome mats, gamified spin a wheel opt-in forms, and more.

If you’re looking to display social proof notifications, then TrustPulse is an ideal solution.

We hope this article helped you learn about the best WordPress notification bar plugins. You might also want to take a look at our expert list of the best business phone services and must have WordPress plugins for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 8 Best WordPress Notification Bar Plugins (Compared) appeared first on WPBeginner.

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The Best Employee Retirement Plans

Studies show that retirement plans are a benefit the vast majority of employees want. In fact, 81 percent of workers say they would like it if their employer enrolled them in a 401(k) automatically. Despite this, a mere 22 percent of employers actually do so.

So what accounts for the disconnect? In many cases, business owners, and especially small business owners, are intimidated by the prospect of employee retirement plans. Admittedly, retirement plans can seem complicated. They can also involve high administrative costs and various fees.

If you take time to learn a little bit about employee retirement plans, however, you’ll see they’re not as overwhelming as they sound. There are also low-cost plans available. Here’s a look at some of the top employee retirement plans, along with tips for picking the best one for your business.

The 5 Best Employee Retirement Plans

It’s no secret that companies that offer a generous benefits package tend to attract the top talent. If you’re a small business owner, this is where you can get a jump on the competition. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just 47 percent of companies with fewer than 50 workers offer a retirement plan.

Fortunately, there are a number of excellent employee retirement plans available, with some tailored toward small businesses and others marketed toward companies with hundreds or thousands of workers. There are even retirement plans for gig workers, freelancers, and self-employed business owners.

Generally, you can break these plans down into two groups: 401(k)s and IRAs. Which type of plan you choose will depend on the nature of your business, as well as your financial needs and those of your workforce.

The more popular offering is the 401(k) and probably the plan most people are used to hearing about. The 401(k) is a common choice among employees because it allows for greater contribution limits and lets workers opt for pretax contributions.

However, IRAs also have their perks. While they tend to feature lower contribution limits compared to a 401(k), they are generally easier and less costly to set up and administer. IRAs also come in a few different variations, including the Roth IRA and the SIMPLE IRA.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at five of the best employee retirement plans on the market today.

1. ShareBuilder 401(k)

ShareBuilder 401k
Visit ShareBuilder 401k

• Hassle-free setup
• Handles all regulations
• Multiple options
• Affordable for any business
• Get Started Now

If you’re looking for a hassle-free setup, ShareBuilder 401(k) is worth a look. ShareBuilder takes the guesswork out of employee retirement plans by handling all the federal government regulations, custodianship issues, recordkeeping requirements, investment management tasks, and administration. Once you set up your account, ShareBuilder takes care of the rest.

ShareBuilder offers a traditional 401(k) plan to small businesses with up to 100 employees. It also gives companies the option to select an individual 401(k) plan, a Roth option, or a safe harbor 401(k). With a safe harbor plan, employers must match all employee contributions equaling the same percentage of each worker’s salary. Additionally, employer contributions must vest automatically.

ShareBuilder makes an effort to keep its retirement plans affordable for any business owner regardless of the business’s size.

With some exceptions, ShareBuilder charges a $495 setup fee for its safe harbor 401(k), plus $95 per month in administrative costs. While ShareBuilder doesn’t require employers to sign a contract, it imposes a $1,000 cancellation fee if a business owner chooses to cancel its plan.

For a traditional 401(k), the set up fee is $750, and the monthly administrative fee is $110 per month. As with the safe harbor 401(k), ShareBuilder charges a $1,000 cancellation fee. According to ShareBuilder, this fee covers the cost of filing paperwork with the government and transferring the plan benefits to another provider.

If you’re a self-employed business owner, you can also set up an individual 401(k). The setup fee is $150, and the monthly administration cost is $25. If you cancel, you’ll pay just $150.

2. Fidelity SIMPLE IRA

Fidelity
Visit Fidelity

• Great for small businesses
• No setup or maintenance fee
• Affordable options
• Access to investment advisors
• Get Started Now

If you’re self-employed or own a business with fewer than 100 employees, the Fidelity SIMPLE IRA can offer significant cost-savings.

Unlike other types of employee retirement plans, the Fidelity SIMPLE IRA doesn’t charge a setup fee or monthly maintenance fee. Instead, plan participants cover trade fees only.

Plan participants also get complimentary access to Fidelity investment advisors. This is an excellent perk, as Fidelity advisors, who boast a customer network of 28 million and manage $7 trillion in assets, are experts in the industry.

For business owners concerned about expense, the Fidelity SIMPLE IRA is probably the most affordable option available. The only fees employers pay are a 3% employee contribution match or a 2% contribution across every employee account.

One potential drawback with Fidelity is the inability to apply online. While you can download the application from the Fidelity website, you can’t submit a completed form over the internet. Rather, Fidelity only accepts applications through regular mail. Additionally, Fidelity customers don’t get access to a personal retirement advisor. Instead, you must call a general customer service number if you have questions or concerns.

3. Guideline 401(k)

Guideline
Visit Guideline

• Two plan options
• All-in-one fees
• HR and payroll integration
• Straightforward pricing
• Get Started Now

Guideline has only been around since 2016, but it has already made a big footprint in the retirement benefits industry. It offers all-in-one fees and HR and payroll integration with a network of top providers that include Gusto, ADP, and Intuit Quickbooks.

Business owners who have avoided employee retirement plans due to the expense and hassle of administration are likely to be impressed with Guideline’s straightforward pricing structure, which the company describes as “transparent and predictable.”

Guideline offers two main types of plans: a startup plan and a prime plan. For the startup plan, employers pay a $39 per month base fee plus $8 per month per employee. The cost of the prime plan is $99 per month plus $8 per month per employee. For both plans, the cancellation fee is $250, which is much lower than most plans offered by other companies.

For many employers, retirement account compliance issues can be a constant source of headaches. This is where Guideline can help. Because it handles all compliance requirements, employers don’t have to worry about fines or hire an in-house or third party company to oversee the plan’s administration.

While Guideline doesn’t assign employees a personal benefits advisor, the company has a fully staffed customer service department available by email, chat, and phone between the hours of 6 a.m. and 5 p.m.

4. Human Interest

Human Interest
Visit Human Interest

• Straightforward pricing
• Services 2,000+ companies
• Managed administrative tasks
• Personalized support
• Get Started Now

Human Interest markets its retirement plan to small and medium-sized businesses. It offers straightforward pricing as well as all the compliance, administration, and record-keeping tasks associated with its plans. According to its website, Human Interest services employee retirement plans for over 60,000 workers and 2,000 companies.

Pricing is available in clear terms on the Human Interest website. For a 401(k), employers pay $120 per month plus $4 per month per employee. There is also a one-time $499 setup fee. Unlike some other companies that market low-cost plans to small businesses, Human Interest requires employers to sign a one-year contract. There is also a $750 plan termination fee, which is a bit lower than the industry average of $1,000.

Human interest also takes care of the administrative tasks associated with its retirement plans. Employers receive automated signup and onboarding for employees, as well as record-keeping and payroll synchronization. Additionally, Human Interest takes care of IRS forms, HR, and compliance.

With Human Interest, employers don’t have to sacrifice personalized support for affordability. Every employer and employee received a dedicated support team for both the setup process and ongoing administration.

5. Vanguard

Vanguard
Visit Vanguard

• Great for the self-employed
• No setup fees
• Online-only brokerage
• Comprehensive info & tools
• Get Started Now

If you’re self-employed, it’s worth taking a look at the individual 401(k) offered by Vanguard. There are also no setup fees, and no age or income restrictions. Vanguard does charge an annual $20 fee per fund held in an individual 401(k), however, the company says it may waive this fee if the account maintains a $50,000 balance.

Employers can contribute up to 25% of compensation capped at $57,000 for the year 2020, and contributions are tax-deductible. Employees can defer 100% of their compensation up to $19,500 for the year 2020. This contribution limit increases to $26,000 for employees age 50 and up.

If you’re a self-employed business owner, however, you’re considered both an employer and an employee. This means you can contribute as both, however your combined contributions are capped at $57,000 for the year 2020. If you’re 50 or older, this limit increases to $62,000.

Vanguard is an online-only brokerage, so you can’t visit a physical office or meet with an advisor in person. Rather, everything with your account is managed online. However, this is common among affordable employee retirement plans, so it’s probably not a dealbreaker for most people.

Vanguard also offers comprehensive information and tools about retirement planning on its site. Some of these tools include well-developed calculators that let you estimate your retirement expenses so you can make adjustments. Vanguard also offers a broad menu of other types of retirement accounts, including IRAs and Roth IRAs, so you can convert your 401(k) if your circumstances change or you think a different kind of plan might better suit your goals.

How to Choose the Best Employee Retirement Plans for You

Most employers, and especially small business owners, don’t have the internal resources to devote to managing employee retirement accounts. When you’re running a business, you don’t have time to take care of things like account onboarding, compliance, and administration.

When searching for an employee retirement plan that fits your business, it’s important to focus on ease of administration and affordability. The employee retirement plans listed above satisfy these criteria.

However, you should look for other things, too. Here are five factors to keep in mind when you’re shopping around for an employee retirement plan.

1. Administrative Support

Employee retirement plans like 401(k)s are regulated by the government. Companies that fail to comply with contribution limits and tax laws could be subject to costly fines and other types of liability.

Some employee retirement plans let businesses shift those responsibilities to the third party that offers the plan. Look for a retirement plan provider that bundles administration, compliance, advisory support, and recordkeeping requirements in one service.

2. Cost

Many employers shy away from employee retirement plans because they assume they can’t afford them. While this may very well be true for certain providers, there are plenty of low-cost and low maintenance employee retirement plans on the market today.

3. Clear Information About Costs

Cost is definitely a factor, but so is the accessibility of cost information. In other words, is the company up front about its fees and charges? Does it post a detailed cost breakdown on its website, so business owners can see exactly how much they’ll pay for a retirement plan?

You should also carefully review any plan documents beforehand. Look for hidden costs and additional fees. You don’t want to be surprised by extra expenses after you’ve gone through the setup process and enrolled your entire workforce in a retirement plan, as terminating the plan and moving to another provider will almost always involve a fee.

4. Customer Service

No matter how streamlined and hassle-free a retirement plan is, you and your employees are bound to have questions. When you do, you want to know there’s a way to get prompt assistance from your retirement plan provider. Consider whether the company has live support by phone, or if it has restricted call hours or support via email only.

You should also decide whether you prefer a personal retirement advisor or a general help center. Some retirement companies automatically assign each account holder their own advisor, which can be a nice feature for employers and employees when they have a question.

5. Web and Mobile Access

There’s a good chance many of your employees already handle most of their finances online. From checking their bank balance to paying credit card bills, many people use the internet to conduct these types of transactions.

The ability to manage their retirement account online and on mobile is a perk many employees will appreciate. It’s also good for employers, as it gives workers direct access to resources and help numbers they can turn to when they have a question.

Conclusion

Offering your workers an employee retirement plan can reduce your turnover and boost productivity. Studies show that employees are happier when they have access to high-quality employment benefits. With so many affordable and low maintenance employee retirement plans available, choosing a plan that works for your business and your workforce has never been easier.

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The Ultimate Coronavirus Small Business Guide – WordPress + Tools to Grow Online

Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, there is a lot of uncertainty in the world, especially for small business owners.

Many small businesses are being forced to adapt and make critical changes just to survive.

During these tough times, the world seems uncontrollable. That’s why it’s extremely crucial for us, small business owners, to focus on what we can control because that’s how we will survive and thrive during these unprecedented times.

In this ultimate coronavirus small business guide, I will share the top tools, tutorials, and WordPress resources that can help you adapt to the changes, streamline your workflow, and even grow your business.

Ultimate Small Business Resource for Coronavirus - WordPress, Tools, and Training to Grow Your Online Presence

Note: I will be updating this guide through out the next couple of weeks to add more resources as I find them. If you’ve seen helpful guides, then please let me know in the comments below, and I’ll update the list.

Quick Intro (Covering the Basics)

A lot of you reading this coronavirus small business resource might be new to WPBeginner, and I want to welcome you to our community.

My name is Syed Balkhi, and I created WPBeginner over 10 years ago to help small businesses grow and compete with the big guys in the digital world.

In my 17 year career, I have built multiple successful small businesses with 100% remote teams. Currently, my companies have over 130+ employees, completely remote, all over the world.

I am creating this resource because many of my friends, family members, WPBeginner readers, and thousands of fellow entrepreneurs are hurting / going through a lot of change.

My hope is that by sharing my experiences, helpful tools, and useful WordPress tutorials, we can help others navigate through this crisis and succeed once it’s all over.

The only thing I ask in return is that if you find this guide helpful, then please spread the word (share it on social media, message the link to a family member, and / or email it to friends who can benefit from it).

Important: To save you time, this article DOES NOT contain information on how to get small business loans or anything related to coronavirus small business relief / business grants / financial assistance programs. Forbes is attempting to keep an updated list of various COVID-19 relief programs, but it’s always best practice to check with your local government authorities for this information.

I am going to divide this article into two sections. First part is for small business owners looking to transition to remote work and/or establish a digital presence to grow online.

Second part is for small business owners looking for side-hustle ideas to supplement their main income. The second part can of course be utilized by anyone (including students). I highly encourage you to take action.

Ultimate Tools to Help Small Businesses with Remote Work (Digital Presence)

In this section, I will share the list of tools that we use in my various companies to streamline our workflows, processes, and ultimately grow online.

You do not need to use all these tools, so please only pick what you need for your specific industry, business, and use-case.

Transparency Disclaimer: WPBeginner content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of the links in this post, we may earn a small referral fee. Please know that we only recommend products that we use ourselves and/or believe will add value to our readers. See how WPBeginner is funded for more details.

Here’s a quick outline to help you easily navigate:

Best Website Builder for Small Businesses

If you’re looking to establish your online presence, then you’re likely looking for a website builder.

I have tested all the popular ones, and I can confidently say that WordPress is the best. Rest of the world agrees with me too considering WordPress powers 35% of all websites on the internet.

With WordPress, you can create any type of website from simple business sites to online stores, restaurant website, gym sites, etc etc.

You can follow my step by step guide on how to make a website for detailed instructions.

We also have specific tutorials on how to start an online store, and how to start a blog in case you’re looking for that.

The best part about WordPress is that it comes with tons of free templates (aka themes) that you can use. For easy customization and gorgeous designs, I recommend using Divi by Elegant Themes, it’s a powerful WordPress page builder.

Divi comes with pre-made layouts for every industry (gyms, cafes, restaurants, etc). You can also try Astra Theme because they also have tons of starter templates.

Once your website is live, use our WordPress SEO guide and these proven tips to grow your website traffic.

Business Phone Service that Work Anywhere

We use Nextiva for our business phone service.

Since it’s a business VOIP provider, they have a mobile and desktop app that allows our various team members to receive client calls without having to share their cell phone numbers.

It comes with tons of other powerful features like caller ID, call forwarding, routing, custom greetings, call analytics, customer CRM, live chat, and more. Basically it’s a unified communication platform that lets you work from anywhere.

If you’re looking for an alternative, then check out RingCentral. They’re fairly competitive as well.

Reliable Business Group / Team Chat

With remote teams, communication is like oxygen. You need to have a reliable team chat software.

I recommend using either Slack or Microsoft Teams.

Slack is free with limited storage and up to 10,000 message. However it gets expensive when you try to upgrade to the Pro version.

Microsoft Teams is free for everyone, and they give you even more features with Office365 accounts which is great because that saves you money in the long run.

Online Conference Calls (Group Meetings)

Call quality is my #1 priority when it comes to online conference calls.

If you’re only doing audio conferencing, then Nextiva is perfect. Everyone can either dial-in from their phone or connect using the Nextiva app.

If video conferencing is important, then I recommend using either Zoom or RingCentral.

Both solutions have desktop / mobile apps. Individuals can also dial-in from their phone as well in case internet connection quality isn’t good.

The free version of Zoom is good, but it restricts your calls to 40 minutes. If you’re thinking about upgrading to Zoom Pro, then you’re actually better off using RingCentral because they also offer virtual business phone number along with a complete platform.

If you want a completely free option, then you can use Skype as well. Although call quality suffers with larger groups.

Bulk Email Service to Contact Customers

In these tough times, you must stay in constant communication with your customers. Keep them informed about how you’re serving them, any special offers that you have running, and even how they can help you.

The easiest way to send bulk email is by using an email marketing service like Constant Contact or SendinBlue.

The cool part about these services is that they let you personalize the emails and save time. See this complete step-by-step email marketing guide for more details.

Setup Online Order Forms to Accept Online Orders

I know a lot of businesses are either switching to taking orders by phone or looking for an online alternative.

If you’re just looking for a simple order form, then use WPForms. It’s a WordPress form builder that let’s you easily create an order form and accept payments online.

If you need to sell multiple products online, then I recommend starting an online store using WooCommerce. It’s the most popular eCommerce platform in the world.

For more details, see our beginner’s guide on how to start an online store.

Create a Membership Site for Training / Tutoring / E-Learning

A lot of gyms, yoga classes, personal trainers, tutoring centers, and schools are shutting down due to this coronavirus pandemic.

You can transition to virtual classes using one of the many platforms.

With WordPress, you can use the MemberPress plugin to create members-only area, share content, collect payments, etc. We have a step by step tutorial on how to create a membership site.

If you want to have e-learning component that involves quizzes, grading, etc, then you can use LearnDash. It’s a powerful WordPress Learning Management Solution (LMS), and we have created a step by step guide on how to create / sell courses online.

You can combine both of these platforms with an online video platform like YouTube, Vimeo, or even a live conference software like Zoom to deliver content.

Some businesses and communities are using a membership site in combination with a Facebook Group where they’re using Facebook Live to run classes.

A lot of school districts are using Google Classrooms which is a free product by Google. It’s a bit complicated to use, but it gets the job done.

Basically, we need to use the resources available and be resourceful, so we can serve those around us.

Appointments and Booking Tools

As you move to remote work, managing appointments and bookings is a challenge. It’s hard to keep track of available time slots while avoiding the email back-and-forth.

The easiest tool that I have often used myself is Calendly. It’s a free tool for 1 calendar per user.

You can simply select available time slots, and send your calendly link to clients. Your client can pick a time that works best for them from your available slots, and Calendly marks that spot as reserved in your calendar, so no one else can claim it.

If you need to manage bookings for multiple people, then you can use WPForms. It has a booking form template that can seamlessly integrate with your Google Calendar and even Calendly.

For advanced booking plugins, I recommend checking out StartBooking or BirchPress.

Email Support and Ticketing Software

If you’re looking for an easy way to collaborate on emails with your team, then the most proven solution is to use an email support ticketing software.

At my team, we use HelpScout. It’s a robust platform, and small teams can use their Basic plan which is very affordable (scroll down on pricing page, since they list it below their main plans).

FreshDesk and Front App are two other alternatives that you can also take a look at.

Live Chat Software

If you’re switching to selling online, then you might be looking for a live chat software. There are a lot of them, and some of them are really expensive.

My team uses LiveChat Inc. They offer a 30-day free trial.

If you’re using Nextiva for your business phone number, then they also offer Live Chat feature as part of their platform.

Other companies that I mentioned above like HelpScout, SendinBlue, etc also offer Live Chat as part of their higher plans.

If you’re a small business and don’t have the staff to manage Live Chat, then you can also look at using a ChatBot.com platform and use their bot templates to automate some support.

Time Tracking Software for Productivity and Accountability

One of the biggest critique I have heard from small business owners about remote work is loss of productivity and accountability.

That’s simply not true because my business has been remote for over a decade (but that’s a whole different debate).

You can use time tracking software like Time Doctor and HubStaff for improved accountability and reporting.

Easy Online File Storage / Document Sharing Apps

The easiest way to improve collaboration online is by using smart file sharing and document sharing apps.

There are a lot of providers that you can use.

Microsoft Office365 suite includes OneDrive, Word, Powerpoint, etc. that you can use to easily share files and collaborate online.

Dropbox along with Dropbox Paper is another great tool that you can use.

If you’re using Gmail, then you can also use Google Doc and their doc platform.

Note: I’m purposefully not linking to G Suite because Google compliance team has decided that they don’t want G Suite partners like us mentioning them in any articles related to Coronavirus (COVID-19). I use and love G Suite, but I’m greatly disappointed by their compliance team’s decision.

Online Project Management Tools for Small Business

The key to succeeding with remote teams is project management. When I first started, this used to be a big challenge, but it’s gotten a lot easier.

My team at Awesome Motive uses Asana because it’s both powerful and easy to use. We love it.

In the past, I have also tried Trello and Basecamp. Both of these apps are also good for specific use-cases, but they have their limitations.

Company Hub / Wiki Tools / Intranet solutions

The easiest way to create a company wiki is to make a WordPress site and use one of the Heroic Knowledge Base plugin.

If you want to create a complete intranet, then WordPress can help with that. See how to create an intranet for small business with WordPress.

If you’re using Microsoft Office365 suite, then they also offer intranet and team sites.

Some of my friends are using Notion, and they really love it. I tried it long ago, and it didn’t have the same level of flexibility, but they seem to have added a ton since then.

Online Forms Solution

Online forms are essential for all businesses. Whether you need to offer your customers an easy way to contact you, collect feedback / surveys, accept appointments or bookings, take online orders, etc etc.

My company, WPForms can help here. You can use either the free version, WPForms Lite, or use the pro version. It’s a robust platform used by over 3 million websites.

If you’re a developer trying to help small businesses create advanced form solutions like calculators, directories, forms that displays data on front-end, and other advanced forms, then I recommend using Formidable Forms.

Side Hustle Ideas for Small Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, and Students

I know these are tough times for everyone. With so much craziness and uncertainty in the world, several people have reached out to me for suggestions on side-hustle ideas to supplement their main income.

Through out history, humans have done some of our best work during times of crisis and stress.

In 1665, when Cambridge University closed for a year because of the Great Plague of London, a young scholar named Isaac Newton was sent home.

While at home, he discovered Calculus and refined the ideas that later became his theory of gravity.

In 1606, Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, King Lear, and Anthony and Cleopatra while quarantined at home.

We may not be Newton or Shakespeare, but you can learn how to use WordPress to build your dream and / or improve your site, so you’re stronger when all of the craziness pass away.

If it helps motivate anyone, I too launched WPBeginner in 2009 towards the tail-end of the global recession of 2008.

With that said, I want to emphasize that there are no shortcuts to making money online.

It takes a lot of work, and you have to treat your website like an actual business. Yes, it is a REAL job.

Anyone person that’s selling a “magic” course that will supposedly help you replicate their success, don’t waste your time or money on that. It’s a scam. There’s a special place in hell for these people especially if they try to market during these times.

Anyways, as long as you’re willing to do the leg work, I think you can make money online.

Here are 30 proven ways to make money online with your website or by offering services.

Specific side hustle ideas:

The easiest way is to sell your knowledge. If you’re a chef, teach others how to cook or sell recipes. If you’re a personal trainer, show people how to work out and sell virtual coaching classes. You can create a membership site with WordPress to sell eBooks, courses, etc.

Along the same line, you can start a blog to teach what you know, so you can build a following. This way you have an audience that you can market your products to, and / or even make money with ads.

You can start a food blog to share recipes, your favorite cooking appliances (affiliate revenue), etc.

If you’re witty, then you can also create a site like Buzzfeed and create entertaining content. People are consuming a lot of content right now, and you can make some money with banner ads.

You can create a question and answers website where you can charge for giving professional advice. You can even invite other professionals

You can also create a micro-jobs site like Fiverr for your local community and help others earn money while taking a small cut of each transaction.

You can create an auction site like eBay, but focus on specific niche or vertical, so you can quality control better, offer expert advice, etc.

If you love craft and making things with your hand, then you can sell your work on Etsy, or better yet create an Etsy-like store with WordPress, so you can avoid middle-man fees.

Again these are just some ideas that others have used to make extra income on the side. For more ideas, you should check out these 27 online business ideas.

Remember, whatever you do, please DO NOT fall for any get rich quick schemes during these times of crisis. There are no shortcuts to make money online!

It takes a lot of hard work and dedication (like any other business would).

The good news though is that you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to broaden your skillset.

With WPBeginner, you can learn WordPress for free in a week or less.

We also have tons of useful free resources like:

Aside from WPBeginner, there are a lot of universities and creators that are making their courses temporarily free to help others expand their skillset.

Here are some helpful resources from other creators:

  • Ryan Deiss (founder of Digital Marketer) has made all their digital marketing training available for free until March 31st. Get Digital Marketer Labs Plus for free.
  • Joost de Valk (founder of Yoast) has made their All-round SEO training course available for free. It’ll be free until June 1st. They also have a free training on WordPress block editor for those who need it.
  • Cole Joseph (founder of Cole’s Classroom) is offering all their photography training courses for free until April 8th.
  • … more coming soon as I find them.

Final Thoughts

I know these next few weeks will feel very long … and I hope that these guides help you create something amazing that you’ll be proud of in the next 6 months.

As small business owners, we need to be disciplined, make the most of the resources available to us (be resourceful), and focus on opportunities that will have the biggest impact.

While the world seems uncontrollable, it’s extremely crucial that we focus on what we can control because that’s how we will win and come out ahead.

I’ll end the article with this beautiful quote from Maya Angelou:

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

Stay safe, healthy, and in good spirits :)

If you liked this article, then please spread the word. Share it on social media, message the link to a family member, and/or email it to friends who can benefit from it.

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for our WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post The Ultimate Coronavirus Small Business Guide – WordPress + Tools to Grow Online appeared first on WPBeginner.

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7 Best Wix Alternatives in 2020 (More Powerful and Reliable)

Are you looking for the best Wix alternatives?

Wix is a website builder that people use to create a website when they first start out, likely because they saw a TV commercial or heard one of the many ads.

The challenge is that their free version is quite limited in functionality, and it gets really expensive when you try to upgrade.

The good news is that many other website builders provide better functionality and features, at a lower cost. In this article, we’ll share our expert pick of the best Wix alternatives that are more powerful and reliable.

Best Wix Alternatives

Why Are People Switching Away From Wix?

Wix is a popular website builder that’s advertised to have a simple drag and drop builder which makes it easy to build websites quickly.

However, they limit users to specific features, and you will need to pay for every third-party app or plugin to add more options to your site. With the growth in your business, it becomes more expensive to use and still limited in terms of features.

It also limits you in your website template or theme selection. This means you cannot switch to a different template after your website is live on the internet.

With these limitations, Wix is upsetting a lot of users and giving them a reason to switch away to other more powerful and reliable solutions.

Luckily, there are many Wix alternatives with better features, flexibility, and prices.

Best Wix Alternatives

There are multiple website builders that you can choose for your site. We have handpicked the best Wix alternatives for your small businesses, blogs, online stores (eCommerce businesses), etc.

Here are the best Wix alternatives that you can use.

1. WordPress

WordPress

WordPress is the most popular website builder and a perfect alternative to Wix. Over 35% of websites in the world are using WordPress which makes WordPress the de-facto market leader.

There are two different versions of WordPress which often confuses beginners. WordPress.com, is a hosted solution (ranked #7 – we’ll talk about it later in this article), and WordPress.org, which is a self-hosted and free solution (ranked #1).

For more details, you should check out our complete guide on the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

WordPress is very easy to set up and it gives you maximum control of your website. It is highly flexible and comes with thousands of themes and plugins to start a blog, create an online store, build a community forum, or more.

Unlike Wix, it is an open-source website builder with a simple admin panel for customization. You can also use the WordPress customizer with live preview to make changes to your site.

To use WordPress, you’ll need a WordPress hosting platform (where you’ll store your files) and a domain name (the URL that your users will use to browse your site, like wpbeginner.com or google.com) to set up your website.

Price: WordPress is a FREE website builder. But, you need to purchase a domain name and web hosting that costs 14.99/year and $7.99/month, respectively.

Bluehost offers WPBeginner users a 65% discount on web hosting, free domain name, and free SSL certificate. It is a popular web hosting company, and an official WordPress hosting partner.

This lets you make a WordPress website as low as $2.75 per month, which is a lot cheaper than Wix or any other website builder in the market.

→ Click here to Claim this Exclusive Bluehost offer ←

If you are looking for a Bluehost alternative, then you can check out SiteGround or another recommended provider from our best WordPress hosting list.

2. Constant Contact Website Builder

Constant Contact Website Builder

Constant Contact Website Builder is fast and A.I. based to create powerful websites without writing any code. It is an alternative to Wix and lets you set up a custom website in a few minutes.

It integrates with Unsplash to provide over 550,000 professional-quality images that you can use to engage your website users.

Constant Contact offers a CDN (content delivery network) to load your website pages super fast in any part of the world. It also improves your website SEO rankings.

Other notable features include a logo maker, website analytics, eCommerce support, engaging visual effects, customizable layouts, and more.

If we talk about features, Constant Contact is one of the most powerful and professional website builders in the market.

Price: Constant Contact has a FREE plan that lets you make a website, blog, or an online store.

Their premium plans start as low as $8 per month, and the paid version includes customer support, free domain name, free SSL certificate, and more features.

For online stores, they offer a business plan that costs $18.29 per month. It includes advanced integrations, unlimited products, no transaction fees, and priority customer support.

3. Gator by HostGator

Gator Website Builder

Gator is a leading website builder by HostGator. Since it is built by a popular hosting company, it is an ultimate website builder solution and a perfect alternative to Wix.

It comes with over 200 fully customizable templates to design a website easily. These templates are beautiful and stylish to make a powerful first impression on your website visitors.

Gator is a hosted solution, which means they take care of your website backups, updates, and software. This allows you to focus on the growth of your business.

It also offers multiple tools, social media integration, live Instagram feed, and support for eCommerce stores. Moreover, it has premium-quality stock photos that you can use on your site.

Price: Gator has premium plans starting from $3.46 per month, making it affordable for small businesses and startups. Each plan comes with a free domain name, free SSL certificate, website analytics, and premium 24/7 live support.

4. BigCommerce

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is an excellent eCommerce builder for your online store. It is a 1-stop solution to create powerful eCommerce shops and fully scalable to take your business to the next level.

It is a hosted platform, and their team of experts will take care of your website speed, security, updates, and any other technical issues.

BigCommerce has a strong affiliation with WordPress, which means you can combine the features of 2 most powerful platforms to set up an excellent eCommerce solution for your users.

When it comes to payment solutions, BigCommerce supports PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, Chase Pay, Visa Checkout, and more. It doesn’t charge any transaction fees, which means you get the complete profit of your sales.

It is a perfect eCommerce solution for online store owners, and far better than the Wix eCommerce builder.

Price: It offers a 15-day free trial to test all features of the BigCommerce platform. The premium plans starting from $29.95 per month. For more conversion optimization features, you can upgrade to a better plan as your business grows.

5. Divi

Divi Website Builder

Divi is an ultimate theme and a drag and drop page builder for WordPress websites. It comes with 100+ layout packs for different business niches.

It also includes 800+ pre-made designs, custom page templates, and website elements that you can use to create any website or online store easily.

With its point and click tools, you can start editing any section of your site from the frontend. Divi is easy to use, and it gives you complete control of everything, including fonts, colors, shapes, background, etc.

It offers advanced editing features like multi-select and bulk editing, find and replace styles, powerful color manager, copy and paste styles, and more.

Divi is better and faster than Wix. And, it combines with WordPress to offer a more robust and powerful solution for building any website, blog, online store, or membership site.

Price: The starting price is $89 per year with 1-year of premium support and product updates. You can also pay a 1-time fee of $249 and take benefit of all their features, lifetime premium support, lifetime software updates, and more.

Both plans include risk-free 30-day money back guarantee (no questions asked). So, you can get familiar with the platform without worrying about your money.

6. Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is a powerful WordPress page builder plugin that combines with other WordPress features to let you launch your website quickly.

It comes with dozens of beautiful landing page and content page templates that are ready to add on your site. You can replace the demo text and images with your original content and publish the pages.

Unlike Wix, Beaver Builder lets you create fully customizable pages with a drag and drop builder for the setup. You can also use the WordPress customizer to make changes to your site.

Price: The standard plan costs $99 that includes 1-year of support and updates, premium modules, templates, and more for unlimited websites.

If you are looking for more advanced features like support for WordPress multisite network, dedicated Beaver Builder theme, etc., then you can select the Pro plan for $199.

For enterprise users who want white labeling to get full control of the software, they offer an Agency plan for $399.

Beaver Builder also comes with a Beaver Themer addon that allows you to create completely custom WordPress themes from scratch without writing any code. This is great for aspiring developers and / or agencies who want to build websites faster.

7. WordPress.com

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is a hosting solution for WordPress blogs and websites. It is built by Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of self-hosted WordPress and founder of Automattic.

For more details, you should check out our article on how are WordPress.com and WordPress.org related.

Unlike self-hosted WordPress.org, you don’t need to worry about software updates and backups with WordPress.com. It is a fully custom website builder for beginners and bloggers.

WordPress.com doesn’t come with a drag and drop builder. But, you can use the native WordPress live customizer to make changes easily.

Price: It offers a free basic plan with limited features. The personal plan costs $4 per month, including a custom domain.

Their premium plan for freelancers costs $8 per month. For small business websites, they offer a business plan costing $25 per month.

If you want to run an online store with custom features and WooCommerce extensions, then it has an eCommerce plan for $45 per month. All their plans are billed annually.

Other Wix Alternatives

You may also find other Wix alternatives that are ideal for different types of use cases.

Shopify

Shopify

Shopify is an eCommerce software that integrates with your website builder to set up an online store. You can use Shopify as a Wix alternative.

Unlike BigCommerce, you need to pay transaction fees for every sale you make using Shopify. It also becomes expensive when you want to add more features and extensions to grow your online store.

Related: Check out our comparisons between Shopify vs WooCommerce and BigCommerce vs WooCommerce to find out the perfect Wix alternative for eCommerce stores.

Squarespace

Squarespace

Squarespace is a premium website builder and an alternative to Wix. It is easy to use for beginners to add content anywhere on the site without editing any code.

However, Squarespace has limited third-party integrations, which can be a hurdle in the growth of your business. It can be ideal at the start, but as your business grows, you need to move to a better platform like WordPress.

You can read our complete article on Squarespace vs WordPress for more details.

Weebly

Weebly

Weebly is a flexible website builder for any type of website. It is an alternative to Wix for a long time and ideal for small businesses and startups.

It restricts you to the limited features and doesn’t let you add third-party tools to set up a powerful site. If you plan to run an online store, Weebly also charges 3% transaction fees for every payment.

Related: WordPress vs Weebly – Which one is better?

Conclusion: Which is the Best Wix Alternative?

If you are looking for a perfect Wix alternative at an affordable price, then WordPress is the right choice. It is highly flexible and easy to use.

You can use Bluehost for WordPress websites to get the maximum discounts and start as low as $2.75 per month.

After that you can either use Divi or Beaver Builder, which are powerful WordPress drag and drop page builder plugins, to design beautiful website layouts without writing any code.

If you’re looking for a non-WordPress solution that’s hassle-free with better support than Wix, then look at Constant Contact Website Builder. It is perfect for small businesses that are looking for a FREE website builder. It is fast, intelligent, and A.I. powered making it a direct Wix alternative.

In case, you want to build a powerful online store to replace the Wix eCommerce solution, then you’ll need BigCommerce or Shopify. It comes with all the essential features and both offer way more powerful eCommerce solutions than Wix.

We hope this article helped you choose the best website builder for your project. You may also want to see out list of best email marketing services and best business phone services for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 7 Best Wix Alternatives in 2020 (More Powerful and Reliable) appeared first on WPBeginner.

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Best Business Insurance for 2020

Hopefully, you’ll never have to use your business insurance. But just like car insurance or health insurance, protecting your business from unexpected situations is crucial.

However, 44% of small business owners don’t have insurance.

This statistic is shocking. If you’re uninsured or underinsured, your company could potentially go bankrupt if something goes wrong, and you’re forced to pay out of pocket.

Any business with employees needs to carry workers’ compensation insurance and unemployment insurance, at a minimum. But depending on your business type and industry, you’ll also want to consider getting general liability insurance, commercial property insurance, and professional liability insurance.

But finding the best business insurance goes beyond getting the right policy. Getting insured through the right company makes a huge difference.

From filing a claim to getting assistance with your agent or adjuster, service definitely varies from company to company. Some business insurance companies specialize in specific industries, such as retail, restaurants, or tech. Other companies concentrate on certain types of coverage, like commercial auto or workers’ compensation.

Top 10 Best Business Insurance Companies For 2020

The best business insurance policies offer a wide range of basic coverage. Ideally, you’d like to get a policy covering all of your needs under one roof.

After reviewing and researching dozens of business insurance companies, we narrowed down the top ten for you to consider.

  • The Hartford
  • Travelers
  • State Farm
  • Chubb
  • Progressive
  • Liberty Mutual
  • AmTrust Financial
  • Founder Shield
  • Farmers Insurance
  • Allstate

Our list is based on factors like coverage offered, premium pricing, and customer service. Use this guide to find the best business insurance company for you.

The Best Business Insurance Reviews

The Hartford

The Hartford is the best overall business insurance company on the market today. Covering businesses of all different shapes and sizes, The Hartford has everything you could possibly need.

For over 200 years, this company has been providing insurance solutions to businesses across the country. They’ve also made the list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies 11 different times.

The Hartford offers a wide range of business insurance policies, including:

  • General liability insurance
  • Commercial property insurance
  • Business income insurance
  • Professional liability insurance
  • Data breach insurance
  • Commercial umbrella insurance
  • Commercial auto insurance

From a bodily injury on one of your properties to stolen inventory, fires, or floods, The Hartford has you covered.

It’s easy for you to bundle different types of insurance with add-ons to a single policy. You can apply online to get a quote in minutes.

The Hartford is known for providing exceptional service to its business customers during the claims process. You can’t go wrong by getting a quote from an industry leader in business insurance.

Travelers

Travelers is another giant in the world of business insurance. The company covers a wide range of industries, including construction, finance, manufacturing, retail, technology, and more.

With more than 30,000 employees and roughly 13,500 independent agents and brokers, Travelers insures businesses across the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the UK.

This insurance company has been around for more than 160 years.

In addition to industry-specific policies, Travelers provides lots of different coverage types. Some of the most popular Travelers business insurance solutions cover:

  • General liability
  • Workers’ compensation
  • Management and professional liability
  • Cyber liability
  • Commercial auto and trucking
  • Surety bonds
  • Environmental liability
  • Boiler and machinery
  • Excess casualty and umbrella

With that said, the workers’ compensation insurance policies from Travelers really stand out the most. More than 500,000 businesses trust Travelers for workers’ comp insurance.

Whether you’re a small local business or national organization with employees across multiple states, Travelers is a top choice to consider for workers’ compensation and general liability.

State Farm

State Farm is typically associated with home insurance and car insurance. They are best known for providing excellent customer service at affordable rates to their customers.

This service and reliability definitely applies to their business insurance plans as well.

State Farm has policies designed specifically for small business owners:

  • Business owners policy
  • Professional liability
  • Commercial liability umbrella
  • Workers’ compensation
  • Individual health
  • Business and commercial auto
  • Small business life

With State Farm, it’s easy for you to adjust your coverage as your company grows. Your agent will work with you to understand the needs of your scaling small business. This will ensure that your coverage limits are appropriate for the business size.

From the startup stage all the way until a company sale or change of ownership, State Farm has everything a small business owner needs to protect themself from the unexpected.

Chubb

Chubb is second to none when it comes to taking care of their insureds. This insurance company has a reputation for providing “white glove” service and paying out claims quickly, without any hassle.

Chubb has business insurance coverages that aren’t offered by other companies on the market today. In addition to general liability and workers’ compensation, Chubb has business insurance packages in the following categories:

  • Accident and health
  • Cyber
  • Environmental
  • Excess and surplus
  • Global casualty
  • International solutions for mid-sized companies
  • Management liability
  • Marine
  • Medical liability
  • Product recall
  • Professional liability
  • Railroad liability
  • Surety
  • Trade credit and political risk

As you can see, the list includes some rare and unique coverage options that we haven’t really seen from other providers in this guide.

Between Chubb’s excellent customer service and wide range of coverage options, you can expect to pay a little bit more on your business insurance premiums.

Chubb is best for businesses in need of international coverage. So if you’re traveling for work or making transactions outside of the US, consider Chubb for your insurance needs.

Progressive

Like most insurance companies, Progressive has several different business insurance policies and coverage types. They provide general liability insurance, professional liability, cyber insurance, workers’ compensation, and business owner’s policy.

With that said, Progressive’s specialty is commercial auto insurance.

  • Truck insurance
  • Pickup truck insurance
  • Van insurance
  • Box truck insurance
  • Tow truck insurance
  • Cars and SUVs
  • Commercial trailers

More than one million commercial vehicles in the United States are insured by Progressive. Basically, any vehicle used for business purposes can get insurance protection from Progressive.

As the country’s most popular business auto insurance company, the rates are actually pretty affordable. Progressive’s average commercial customer pays $165 per month for business auto. You’ll even get 15% off if you pay your premiums in advance.

In addition to the coverage provided by Progressive, the company will be there when you need them. Adding a driver, vehicle, or changing a policy is quick and easy. Progressive has 24/7 commercial auto service.

Progressive’s claim experts will help get your vehicles back on the road as soon as possible to limit business interruptions in the event of an accident.

If your company has vans, trucks, drivers, or any vehicles on the road for business purposes, Progressive will be a top choice for business auto insurance.

Liberty Mutual

Liberty Mutual is another well-known name in the insurance industry. The company provides small business insurance coverage as well as mid-to-large size business protection. Liberty Mutual even insures Fortune 500 corporations.

With more than 50,000 employees and 800+ offices throughout the world, Liberty mutual is a top provider of preferred property and casualty business insurance.

Some of the top coverage options include:

  • Equipment breakdown insurance
  • Excess liability insurance
  • General liability insurance
  • Inland marine
  • Ocean marine
  • Property
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Umbrella
  • Third-party administration
  • Workers’ compensation

Liberty Mutual works with a wide range of industries as well. But overall, it’s one of the best insurance providers for companies in manufacturing and agriculture.

From product recalls to errors and omissions coverages, Liberty Mutual can customize your policy to protect your employees, customers, and business from unforeseen circumstances.

AmTrust Financial

AmTrust Financial isn’t as well-known as some of the other insurance companies on our list. It’s definitely not a household name State Farm or Liberty Mutual. The company isn’t nearly as old as The Hartford or Travelers either.

In fact, AmTrust Financial was born less than 25 years ago, in 1998.

With that said, the company has grown quickly. They currently have 7,000+ employees serving over 70 countries.

AmTrust Financial isn’t trying to compete with the biggest insurance providers on the planet. Instead, they are focusing on niche solutions in the following industries:

  • Financial institutions
  • Nonprofit organizations
  • Restaurants
  • Transportation

Overall, the best coverage offered is for restaurant business insurance.

AmTrust understands the unique risks associated with owning a restaurant. They’ll help you get a policy to protect your workers as well as your customers.

Some of the popular restaurant enhancement coverages include:

  • Spoilage
  • Foodborne contamination
  • Stock sales price (including liquor and fine wine)
  • Peak season
  • Umbrella limits
  • Liquor liability

AmTrust Financial covers family-style and fine dining restaurants meeting certain eligibility requirements. They also work with delis, cafes, and pizzerias.

With that said, not every restaurant will qualify for coverage. For example, new restaurants with a large bar area operating in a 25-year-old building would need to look elsewhere.

Founder Shield

Founder Shield is another new and lesser-known company. They have only been providing insurance coverages for less than ten years.

But similar to AmTrust, Founder Shield is carving out a niche in the world of business insurance.

Founder Shield specializes in providing coverage to tech startups. Popular coverage categories include:

  • Crime insurance
  • Cyber insurance
  • Intellectual property insurance
  • Directors and officers insurance
  • Fiduciary liability insurance
  • Representations and warranties insurance
  • Key person insurance
  • Product liability
  • Pollution insurance

You’ll also find that Founder Shield offers more traditional business insurance coverage for general liability, workers’ compensation, and umbrella insurance.

Founder Shield is a more modern way to get insurance. The purchasing process is 100% digital. This means there is less paperwork, and it’s easy to manage everything online.

If your company is a high-growth startup in the technology industry, consider getting a quote from Founder Shield.

Farmers Insurance

Farmers is an industry leader for home, auto, and life insurance. But it’s also a top choice to consider for business owners.

The company has been around for nearly 100 years. So you know that you’ll be getting quality service from a well-established name. They have a network of 48,000 agents and 21,000 employees across all 50 states.

Farmers Insurance provides business coverage in the following categories:

  • Property
  • Liability
  • Crime
  • Auto
  • Workers’ compensation
  • Umbrella
  • Life
  • Loss control

While Farmers covers a wide range of industries, I’d recommend it to business owners in retail. You’ll be able to get an affordable policy to protect you from things like theft, injuries, and loss of income.

This is an ideal solution for boutique shop owners, dry cleaners, florists, and salons.

Allstate

Allstate is best known for offering car insurance to individuals. While business insurance isn’t necessarily Allstate’s specialty or primary focus, there are certain industries and business types that should consider this carrier.

The company provides a high level of customer service with friendly agents and fully customizable plans.

Allstate has coverage solutions across nearly every industry, including professional firms, healthcare, service businesses, retail goods, and food service.

Top insurance coverages from Allstate include:

  • Business property
  • Business liability

Since all of the policies are customized, you can add specific types of coverage to your plan when you get a quote. Needs will vary based on business and industry.

Some unique standouts from Allstate include their real estate coverage and business insurance for rental services.

Allstate has been providing insurance since 1931. So you know that you’re getting coverage from a trusted and well-established name in the insurance world.

How to Find the Best Business Insurance Company For You

With so many companies providing business insurance, you’ll need to learn how narrow your options down. There are certain factors that must be taken into consideration when you’re evaluating an insurance provider.

This is the methodology that we use and recommend. You can use these same factors when searching for the best business insurance.

Coverage Types

Determine what type of coverage you need and find a company that can meet those policy requirements. Most insurance companies will offer the same basic types of coverage.

  • General liability insurance
  • Workers’ compensation insurance
  • Commercial property insurance
  • Professional liability insurance

But some companies specialize in certain coverages. For example, Progressive is the best for commercial auto insurance. Other companies offer unique coverage for things like cyber liability, intellectual property insurance, or international services.

So if your company needs rare or specialized coverage, make sure you discuss those needs with an agent. The last thing you want is to be underinsured.

Company Reputation

I tend to lean towards companies that have been in business for a long time. The Hartford and Travelers have been around for 200+ and 160+ years, respectively.

Lots of other insurance providers on our list have been around for roughly 100 years as well.

These companies have seen it all. They understand everything there is to know about the insurance industry, and your claim won’t surprise them. Plus, a well-established company has stood the test of time. You know that natural disasters won’t bankrupt them, so your policy is safe.

There are some newer insurance companies, like AmTrust and Founder Shield, that provide unique solutions for niche industries.

Getting a policy through one of those providers definitely has some risk. But it can still be a viable option if you’re looking for rare or specialized coverages.

Claims Process

Having business insurance is like having a good lawyer. You hope you never have to use it. But when something comes up, you want to make sure that everything goes smoothly.

The best business insurance companies have an easy claims process. Depending on your preferences, you can file a claim online or over the phone in minutes.

An adjuster will be highly responsive and settle the claim as fast as possible.

If one of your company vehicles is involved in an accident or a piece of equipment breaks during a flood, you don’t want operations to be stalled because of the insurance company dragging their feet.

Costs

Price is obviously a top consideration when evaluating business insurance.

Weigh the cost of your monthly and annual premiums against the amount of coverage you’re getting in a policy.

Always shop around for business insurance. Get quotes from a handful of providers to get a better sense of the market. You can potentially use one quote as leverage to lower another one. These companies want your business, so there could be some room for negotiation.

Just know that some insurance providers, like Chubb, will usually have higher prices for their policies.

Customer Service

Customer service goes a long way in the insurance industry. Aside from renewing or updating your policy, it’s generally not good news if you need to contact your insurance provider.

During these difficult and stressful times, it’s important that you receive excellent customer service. You want someone to answer the phone as opposed to going through ten minutes of speaking to a robot, followed by another 45 minutes on hold.

The best business insurance companies understand your needs at every level. From the sales agent to the adjuster and claims department, great service will make your life much easier.

Conclusion

If you’re shopping for a business insurance quote, look no further than these ten companies:

  • The Hartford — Best overall business insurance company.
  • Travelers — Best insurance company for workers’ compensation.
  • State Farm — Best for small business insurance.
  • Chubb — Best business insurance for international coverage.
  • Progressive — Best for commercial auto insurance.
  • Liberty Mutual — Best business insurance for manufacturing and agriculture.
  • AmTrust Financial — Best business insurance for restaurants.
  • Founder Shield — Best business insurance for tech startups.
  • Farmers Insurance — Best small business retail insurance.
  • Allstate — Best for rental services and real estate agents.

No matter what type of business you have or what industry you’re in, you can find what you’re looking for on this list. From startups to small businesses and national chains, these insurance providers can handle all of your coverage needs.

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WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal – Which One is Better?

While WordPress powers more than 35% of all websites on the internet, it’s not the only open-source content management system (CMS) in the market. There are other poplar software like Joomla and Drupal.

All three of them have a lot in common and many significant differences. Each one of them is a unique website builder with pros and cons.

In this article, we will compare WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal to find out which one is the best choice for you.

WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal

Note: We are comparing WordPress.org, and not the WordPress.com hosting service. Please see our guide on the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

What’s Common in WordPress, Joomla and Drupal

All three of the web’s most popular CMS have a lot in common in terms of technology, philosophy, and community.

WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal are released under GNU GPL license

  • WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal are all free and open source software licensed under GPL. See our article on why is WordPress free to learn more about free software.
  • All three of them are written primarily in PHP.
  • They all support MySQL as their database management system. WordPress exclusively supports only MySQL, while Joomla and Drupal support other database management systems.
  • All three of them use themes and templates for visual appearance of sites, and plugins, modules, or extensions for extending features.
  • As open source software, they are all community-driven projects.

While there are a lot of similarities, they are different in many aspects.

For instance, they have different policies about what to include in the core software, how to handle modules and templates, how to deal with security, etc.

These differences make a big impact on users, and how they build their websites.

Having that said, let’s take a look at how WordPress, Joomla and Drupal compare to each other, so you can choose the best website builder platform for your business.

Ease of Use and Beginner Friendliness

Most people creating their websites are not web developers, designers, or programmers. They are average users who just want to build a website. Ease of use is the most important factor for majority of users.

WordPress

WordPress comes with a famous five minute install. Most WordPress hosting providers also offer one click install of WordPress. This makes it fairly easy for a new user start a WordPress blog or website in minutes, not hours.

WordPress dashboard

The post-install user experience of WordPress is way better than Joomla or Drupal. The user sees a simple clean-cut user interface with the menus to create posts, pages, or start customizing appearance and themes.

Joomla

Joomla installation may not look as quick as WordPress, but it has very similar steps. Apart from that many shared hosting providers offer one-click install packages for Joomla as well.

Joomla dashboard after a fresh install

After the installation, the user lands on a control panel that is not as straight forward as WordPress. There are just too many menus to click on and customize your site.

Joomla fans would say that’s because Joomla is a lot more powerful than WordPress, but we don’t believe that to be true.

Drupal

Drupal’s installation is similar to both Joomla and WordPress. Simply download and upload the package and run the installation script.

Drupal admin

Drupal also offers distributions. These are pre-packaged Drupal bundles with modules and configurations to create specific types of websites.

The post-installation experience for absolute beginners is a bit complicated. Users will find it difficult to figure out how to change things on their site. Drupal makes it very obvious how to add the content, but changing appearance and adding non-content elements is not very obvious.

Winner: WordPress

Themes and Addons

All three of these popular CMS come with themes and plugins / modules as a way to extend the features and appearance of the software.

Themes control the appearance of your website and how it looks to your users. Plugins or Modules are like apps for your CMS.

Let’s see how these three major CMS software perform in this category.

WordPress

WordPress allows users to change their site’s appearance using themes. WordPress comes with a few default themes pre-installed.

At any time, you can click on the add new button from your Appearance page and install free WordPress themes from the official WordPress.org theme directory.

Wordpress themes

Apart from free themes, you will find many more premium WordPress themes developed by third-party theme shops like StudioPress, Astra Theme, Elegant Themes, and more. These are paid themes and come with premium support options.

The real power of WordPress lies in plugins. There are more than 55,000 WordPress plugins available for free in the official WordPress plugin directory. You can also buy premium plugins that come with paid support provided by plugin developers. Check out our list of must-have WordPress plugins to see how plugins make WordPress awesome.

Joomla

Just like WordPress, Joomla also comes with templates and extensions. There are great extensions to do just about anything from creating an eCommerce store to managing email.

Joomla extensions

However, the quantity of these templates and extensions is not as high as WordPress. This could make finding the perfect template and the perfect extensions a bit difficult.

By default, Joomla does not have a feature that would allow users to search and install extensions or templates from the administration area. There is an extension that allows you to add “install from web” feature for extensions. But for templates, users will still have to manually search templates and then install them by adding their URL.

Drupal

Drupal has the same issue with the availability of themes and modules. Users will have to leave their site, search for the module and theme they want to add, then locate the project’s zip file URL. Finally, they can enter the URL in the Modules or Themes page to install them.

Drupal Modules

There are modules to do just about anything and new ones are added regularly. Still, the overall quantity of modules is lacking when compared to WordPress.

Winner: WordPress.

Support Options

The availability of help and support options is very important for beginner users. There will surely be some hurdles when you are trying new software. That’s ok as long as you can get help.

WordPress

WordPress has a strong community of users. You can find WordPress help on official support forums, docs, handbooks, codex, Slack channels, Stack Exchange, WPBeginner Engage facebook group, and almost every forum on the internet about web design and development.

WordPress support forums

There are sites like WPBeginner, containing hundreds of tutorials, video tutorials, and articles catering to beginner level WordPress users. There are many ways to ask for free WordPress support and get it.

Apart from the free support options, there are ways to get paid support for WordPress as well.

Online platforms like Codeable, UpWork, Fiverr, etc. are just some of the places where you can hire WordPress professionals to help you. Due to the immense popularity of WordPress, finding WordPress developers is easy and affordable for small businesses and individuals.

Joomla

Joomla, just like WordPress has a large and very helpful community. There is extensive documentation on the Joomla website which is a valuable resource for beginners. For more interactive support, users can join forums, mailing lists, user groups, etc.

Joomla support forum

Apart from community support, there are third party resources, paid training, and development agencies that can be helpful.

Unlike WordPress, finding affordable expert help is quite difficult for Joomla. Hiring a developer or expert for Joomla development, troubleshooting or assistance can cost way more than WordPress.

Drupal

Drupal has a very proactive community of fans and users. You will find all the community support options for Drupal just like WordPress and Joomla. There is extensive documentation, support forum, mailing lists, user groups, irc chatrooms. All good places to get advice and free help.

Drupal community support

Drupal tries to connect users to developers and companies offering professional Drupal services. You may find them in Drupal Marketplace.

However Drupal developer similar to Joomla are very expensive when compared to WordPress.

Winner: WordPress

Localization & Multilingual Support

A large percentage of websites created each day, are non-English or multilingual sites. It is much more likely that many beginners would probably be looking for a CMS that can handle multiple languages or has support for different locales and languages.

WordPress

WordPress does an excellent job of offering a good platform to build a multilingual site. It does not support multiple languages out of the box, but there are some excellent plugins that allow you to easily create a WordPress multilingual site.

WordPress is available in more than 57 languages. New languages can be installed with just a click from the WordPress admin area.

Select language in WordPress

Most popular themes and plugins are also available in multiple languages. Theme and plugin developers are actively seeking help to translate their packages into other languages.

All these efforts make WordPress a great platform to build a non-English or multilingual website.

Joomla

Joomla comes with out of the box capability to handle a multilingual website without installing any extension. Simply go to language manager, add a content language and start creating multilingual content on your website.

Adding language support in Joomla

Translations are also available for the admin interface in many languages and can be easily installed from the admin area.

Drupal

Drupal comes with built-in support to handle non-English or multilingual sites. You will need to enable locale and content translation modules. After that, you can add site and admin interface languages from Drupal’s configuration section.

Drupal multilingual support

Winner: Tie – All three of them support multilingual sites and are available in multiple languages.

Security

Security is a very important factor when choosing a CMS for your website. Almost every website on the internet is vulnerable to security threats.

WordPress

Being the most popular CMS in the world, WordPress based websites are often targeted by hackers. However, WordPress is built on a very secure code, and it responds to security vulnerability very quickly.

WordPress also has an auto-update mechanism which allows WordPress websites to automatically update when there is a new security patch.

WordPress sites can be further secured with automated backups, two-factor authentication, and other WordPress security best practices.

There is also a built-in mechanism to show updates for WordPress themes and plugins. This allows themes and plugin developers to rapidly respond to any security vulnerability.

Joomla

Joomla is very similar to WordPress when it comes to security. They actively respond to any security vulnerability and are very quick to patch it up. However, maintaining a website and installing updates is still up to the user.

There are extensions available to backup your Joomla site. You can also strengthen your Joomla site’s security by following the same best practices as WordPress.

Drupal

Drupal takes a very serious approach to security. They publish security vulnerabilities on their own site as they are discovered and patched. There is a perception that Drupal is more secure because you don’t hear about Drupal sites being hacked as often, but that could because it’s not as popular Joomla or WordPress.

Winner: Tie – All three follow proper security standards.

Conclusion:

Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress are all fantastic content management systems. Drupal and Joomla come with many more built-in features than WordPress.

However, WordPress beats them with its ease of use, huge global community, plugins, and themes. We feel that most non-developer users would find it much easier to build with WordPress than Joomla or Drupal.

With over 55,000 WordPress plugins, you can add just about any feature or build any type of website that you like (without writing code).

Overall Winner: WordPress

How to Get Started With Your Favorite CMS

Whether you choose WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, you will need a domain name and website hosting to make a website.

Luckily, all three of these top CMS software have quite similar requirements which means all top web hosting companies support them.

We recommend using either Bluehost or SiteGround. They are both among the largest hosting companies in the world and specialize in hosting WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal websites.

For more recommendations, see our complete web hosting guide for beginners.

If you are starting with WordPress, then see our beginner’s guide on how to make a website with step by step instructions.

We hope this article helped you compare WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal, to find out the best CMS for your site. You may also want to see our comparison of the best email marketing services and best live chat software for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal – Which One is Better? appeared first on WPBeginner.

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Compare The Best Business Loans

Want to jump straight to the answer? The best business loan for most people is from Bluevine or Lendio.

From startups to companies that have been around for decades, it’s not uncommon for businesses to seek funding at one point or another. Loans can cover operating costs, purchase new equipment, buy inventory, help with expansion, and more. 

Regardless of your company size or capital needs, you can find the best loan for your business using this guide.

Compare Quotes From The Best Business Loan Companies

Get matched up with a business loan that fits your specific needs.

Compare Quotes

Top 11 Best Business Loans for 2022

  • Bluevine — Best for established businesses seeking lines of credit up to $250,000.
  • Lendio — Best small business loan marketplace with 75+ lenders.
  • OnDeck — Term loans and lines of credit for business owners with a 600+ FICO score.
  • Fundbox — Best for new businesses in need of inventory or supplies from vendors.
  • Funding Circle — Best small business lender for loan terms up to five years.
  • Kabbage — Best for businesses with low monthly or annual revenue.
  • Lending Club — Best P2P lending marketplace for business loans.
  • Kiva — Microloans up to $10,000 at 0% interest for entrepreneurs.
  • SmartBiz — Best for SBA loans up to $5 million with 25 year terms.
  • Credibility Capital — Bank-backed loans for business owners with great credit.
  • CAN Capital — Best merchant cash advance for small business.
How to choose the best business loan provider. Quicksprout.com's methodology for reviewing business loan providers.

I’ll review each business loan below. You can use this information to decide which loan best fits the needs of your small business.

The Best Business Loan Reviews

Bluevine

Bluevine is one of the first places a business owner should look for a loan. You can get approved for a loan in just five minutes, and they have interest rates as low as 6.2%.

Applying online will not affect your credit score. Hard credit checks are only performed after you’ve reviewed and accepted an offer.

Bluevine offers lines of credit up to $250,000 with a decision made in just five minutes.

Bluevine’s main type of small business assistance comes in the form of a line of credit, which includes:

  • Revolving line of credit to $250,000
  • Only pay interest for the amount used
  • No prepayment penalties
  • Fast decision turnaround

The line of credit funds are available on-demand and very simple to request on the website. As your business grows and gets a better credit score, your line of credit will increase.

More than 20,000 business owners have used Bluevine for a loan. The company has provided more than $2 billion in loans to a wide range of business types across all industries.

There are some eligibility restrictions to consider. For example, to get a line of credit, you need to be in business for at least 24 months, earn at least $40,000 in monthly revenue, and have a 600+ FICO score.

This makes Bluevine a better choice for an established business as opposed to a startup company. Apply online.

Lendio

Lendio is unique compared to some of the other lenders on our list. That’s because you won’t be borrowing money directly from them.

Instead, Lendio operates as a small business loan marketplace. They have a national network of more than 75 different lenders. PayPal, American Express, and Bank of America are just a few of the many companies that you’re familiar with. You’ll even recognize some names from our list of the best business credit cards.

Simply fill out an application, and you’ll be matched with the top lenders and loan terms to meet your needs. This is the best way to compare business loans from a single platform.

It takes just 15 minutes to apply, and there’s no fee or obligation. Once approved, you can have access to your funds in as little as 24 hours.

Lendio works with lenders providing:

  • Business Lines of Credit
  • SBA Loans
  • Short Term Loans
  • Merchant Cash Advance
  • Business Term Loans
  • Business Credit Cards
  • Equipment Financing
  • Commercial Mortgages
  • Accounts Receivable Financing
  • Startup Loans
  • Business Acquisition Loans

Over $10 billion has been funded from 216,000+ loans in the Lendio marketplace. No matter what you need the capital for, Lendio is sure to have an option for you.

In some cases, Lendio will request additional information or documentation after you apply, which can sometimes be a pain. But if you’re not in a major rush to get a loan, this extra step is a non-issue. Apply online now.

OnDeck

OnDeck is a global leader in business financing. The company has loaned more than $13 billion to businesses across 700+ industries.

With OnDeck, you can access a term loan or a business line of credit. Here’s a quick overview of each option:

OnDeck Term Loan

  • $5,000 to $500,000
  • Term lengths from three to 36 months
  • Same day funding
  • Daily or weekly payments

OnDeck Line of Credit

  • Revolving line of $6,000 up to $100,000
  • 12-month term lengths
  • No prepayment penalties
  • Weekly payments

To qualify for a loan with OnDeck, regardless of the loan type, you must meet the following minimum requirements:

  • At least one year in business
  • Personal FICO score 600+
  • Annual revenue $100,000+
  • Established business bank account

With that said, the typical OnDeck customer has been in business for more than three years, has a personal FICO score above 650, and does $300,000+ in annual revenue.

There’s some conflicting information online about OnDeck. Some websites claim this is a good place for business owners with bad credit. But you’ll still need to meet the minimum FICO requirements.

OnDeck does not offer funding to businesses based in certain industries. For example, adult entertainment materials, firearms, drug dispensaries, gambling services, and vehicle dealers will need to seek a loan elsewhere. You can view the full list of OnDeck restricted industries here.

Fundbox

More than 100,000 businesses have trusted Fundbox to finance their small business loans.

Fundbox is known for its simplicity and transparent pricing. It’s a great option for small business owners who don’t meet strict qualification terms from other lenders.

To get approved for a Fundbox loan, you need to meet the following qualifications:

  • 500 minimum personal credit score
  • Have a business checking account
  • Provide three months of business banking activity
  • Be registered in the US

Fundbox specializes in trade credit, which is also known as vendor credit or net terms. In these cases, your company can continue to purchase inventory and supplies directly from vendors. But the vender will be paid by the lender, and your business repays the lender based on your term agreement.

You can get interest rates as low as 4.66% with Fundbox. They offer 12 and 24-week term options for repayment.

Funding Circle

Funding Circle is a well-known and trusted name in the small business financing world. More than $10.9 billion has been lent to 77,000+ businesses throughout the globe on this platform.

It takes just six minutes to apply online for a loan from Funding Circle.

Access interest rates as low as 4.99% per year. You can borrow between $25,000 and $500,000 and pay it back between six months and five years.

This type of flexibility is one of the many reasons why Funding Circle is such a popular choice for small business owners.

Try the Funding Circle loan calculation tool on their website. It’s a great way to calculate your monthly payments based on the amount you want to borrow and the loan term.

One potential downside of using Funding Circle is that you’ll have to pay an origination fee. This fee ranges from 3.49% to 5.99%, depending on your term.

Funding Circle has loans specifically for minority business owners, businesses owned by women, business debt consolidation loans, and business acquisition loans.

Another reason why I like Funding Circle is because they provide excellent customer service. You’ll hear back from a personal loan specialist within an hour of applying. Once your offer has been approved and accepted, you can usually access funds the following business day.

Kabbage

Kabbage offers small business funding in the form of revolving credit. You can get a credit line of up to $250,000 from this online lender.

With Kabbage, the application process is simple. You’ll get a decision within minutes of applying online. With that said, you must connect your bank account so the system can review your business performance.

You have to meet the following minimum requirements to get a loan from Kabbage:

  • Business has been operating for at least one year
  • Revenue is $50,000 per year or $4,200 per month

This is a great alternative for business owners who don’t qualify for stricter revenue requirements that we’ve seen from other lenders.

Kabbage offers 6, 12, and 18-month loan terms with no prepayment penalties. However, you will pay a fixed monthly fee in addition to the financing rate. The monthly fee ranges from 1.5% to 10% of the principal loan amount. The good news is that there are no prepayment penalties if you want to pay your balance off early.

More than 200,000 businesses have used Kabbage to secure financing.

Lending Club

Lending Club offers a wide range of loan options. In addition to business loans, they provide auto refinancing, personal loans, and patient solutions for healthcare bills. Altogether, over three million customers have borrowed $50+ billion from Lending Club.

$28+ billion has been loaned to businesses.

Lending Club is another loan marketplace, similar to Lendio, which we reviewed earlier. However, Lending Club stands out because it’s a P2P lending network.

The money you borrow can come from individual investors.

In general, P2P lending has a reputation for high-interest rates since it involves more risk for the investor. But Lending Club has rates as low as 4.99% for qualifying borrowers.

Lending Club has business loans for:

  • Inventory
  • Debt consolidation
  • Marketing
  • Equipment
  • Remodels
  • Emergency repairs
  • Acquisitions

Another reason to consider Lending Club is the loan terms. You can get all of your capital in a lump sum upfront and repay it with fixed terms for up to five years. There are no prepayment penalties.

Loan amounts range from $5,000 up to $500,000. You can get funded in just a few days if you qualify.

To get a business loan from Lending Club, you must be in business for more than one year and have at least $50,000 in annual sales. You must own at least 20% of the business and be free of any recent bankruptcy or tax liens.

Loans over $100,000 require collateral.

Kiva

Kiva is a nonprofit organization. This allows them to offer business loans at 0% interest. Yes, you heard that right; 0%.

More than 2.5 million people have used Kiva to raise $1+ billion.

This platform is designed to create opportunities for entrepreneurs in the United States.

Benefiting from 0% interest does come at a cost. Kiva can only be used for microloans of up to $10,000. There is also a lengthy process to apply and get funded.

First, you’ll have to fill out an application that takes up to 30 minutes. Then you’ll spend 15 days getting your friends and family to lend you money “to prove your creditworthiness.” Next, you can go public on the Kiva marketplace, where your loan will be visible to more than 1.6 billion lenders across the globe.

Basically, Kiva is a mix between crowdfunding and P2P lending. You’ll have up to 36 months to repay the loan.

If you need fast access to large sums of cash, Kiva is not for you. But for small business owners who aren’t in a hurry to get a microloan, Kiva is the best way to avoid interest fees.

SmartBiz

In most instances, you’ll need to visit a bank to get an SBA loan. These are government-backed loans that give businesses access to cash at favorable rates.

Fortunately, you can get an SBA loan directly from banks in the SmartBiz marketplace.

SmartBiz has SBA loans for up to $5 million, with interest rates between 6.25% and 8.50%. Loan terms range between 10-25 years.

These favorable rates do come with stricter qualification terms. For example, get an SBA loan between $30,000 and $350,000 for working capital or debt refinancing, you must:

  • Be in business for 2+ years
  • Have a personal credit score above 650
  • Be a US citizen at least 21 years old
  • Own and operate the business in the US
  • No outstanding tax liens
  • No foreclosures in the past three years
  • No bankruptcies in the past three years
  • Be up to date on all other current government loan payments

SBA commercial real estate loans between $500,000 and $5 million have even stricter qualification terms:

  • Be in business for 3+ years
  • Personal credit score above 675
  • Real estate must be majority occupied (at least 51% of square footage) by your business
  • Sufficient cash flow to support debt
  • Provide three years of tax returns and financial information
  • No defaults or delinquencies on other government loans

While it’s harder to qualify, you’ll benefit from favorable lending terms. SmartBiz has other loans that aren’t SBA-backed. But I’d only consider using this platform if you’re seeking an SBA loan.

Credibility Capital

Credibility Capital specializes in small business loans. All of their loans are bank-backed, which gives them the ability to provide lower rates than other financing options on our list.

Loans range from $25,000 to $350,000.

Each loan is paid back monthly over one, two, or three-year terms. Interest rates start at 8%. There is no application fee. However, Credibility Capital charges origination fees starting at 3%. Fortunately, there are no prepayment penalties if you want to pay the loan off early.

Here are the eligibility requirements for Credibility Capital loans:

  • 2+ years in business
  • Business is currently generating revenue
  • Business owner is a US citizen
  • Strong personal credit
  • No bankruptcies in the last five years
  • Businesses located in Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota, or Nevada are NOT eligible

The information on their website is fairly limited. You’ll need to start an application to see more details about your financing options.

CAN Capital

CAN Capital has been served 81,000+ businesses for more than 20 years. During that time, they’ve loaned more than $7 billion to small business owners.

With CAN Capital, you can get access to funding quickly with minimal paperwork. Most decisions are made within a few hours of applying, and funds can be released as soon as the next business day.

They offer loans from $2,500 to $250,000.

In addition to short-term business loans, CAN Capital also provides merchant cash advance programs. A merchant cash advance is more flexible. The repayment schedule is based on a percentage of future credit card receivables.

This is an excellent option for business owners who don’t want to be locked into fixed daily payments, which is required for CAN Capital’s short-term loans.

Repayment terms range from 6-18 months, regardless of your loan type.

There’s an origination fee of up to 3% on short-term loans. All merchant cash advance loans have a $595 administrative fee.

How to Find the Best Business Loan For You

With so many business loan options to choose from, finding the best loan for your small business can be challenging. Getting a business loan is a big deal, so don’t rush through this process.

Compare Quotes From The Best Business Loan Companies

Get matched up with a business loan that fits your specific needs.

Compare Quotes

There are certain factors that must be taken into consideration when you’re evaluating a prospective loan or lender. This is the methodology that we used to narrow down the choices on our list. You can use the same criteria during your search.

Loan Type

All loans are not created equally. Some lenders offer a wide range of loan types, while others provide just one or two. Common types of small business loans include:

  • Installment Loans — Lump sum of cash paid back in fixed installments over the term length.
  • Business Line of Credit — Revolving line of funds that can be drawn at any time. Interest is only paid on the amount borrowed, as opposed to the full amount of the credit line.
  • SBA Loans — Loans with lower interest rates backed by the Federal government.
  • Short-Term Loan — Lump sum of cash that must be paid back in fixed installments over a shorter period than an installment loan. Some short term loans typically range from 12 weeks to 18 months.
  • Equipment Loans — Must be used to purchase business equipment. In many cases, the equipment is used as collateral to secure the loan.
  • Merchant Cash Advance — Money borrowed against future revenue, typically repaid as a percentage of daily or weekly credit card sales.

It’s important that you apply for the right type of loan. For example, certain loans can only be used for real estate. So you wouldn’t be able to use those funds to purchase inventory.

Lender Type

Decide what type of lender you want to borrow money from. Certain lenders offer more flexible terms or types of loans. Lenders typically fall into one of the following categories:

  • Big national banks
  • Small local banks
  • Credit unions
  • Alternative lenders
  • Loan marketplaces
  • Nonprofit lenders
  • Crowdfunding services
  • P2P lending

Qualification terms and interest rates vary based on the lender. For example, a P2P lending platform might offer loans to business owners with poor credit, but the interest rates will be much higher than an SBA loan from a bank.

Funding Needed

How much money do you need?

This will have a significant impact on choosing a loan and lender. Some lenders on our list only provide microloans of up to $10,000. Others offer loans in the $500,000 to $5 million range.

Make sure you choose a lending option that can provide you with adequate funding.

Interest Rates and Loan Terms

Before you accept a business loan agreement, review all of the terms. Some platforms have great tools to calculate the amount you’ll pay, including interest and other fees, over the term of your loan.

Shop around for the best interest rates for your loan type. If you have excellent credit, you’ll be able to get more favorable terms.

Always try to get the longest loan term for the lowest interest rate. I only recommend loans with no prepayment penalties. So you can pay it off early to avoid added interest charges.

Some loans come with other charges, like a fixed monthly fee or an origination fee. While a 3% origination fee might not sound like much, it gets quite expensive as you start looking at six-figure loans.

Qualification Requirements

Unless you have an outstanding credit score, you probably won’t qualify for every loan. Review the qualification terms before you apply to anything. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time.

Common loan qualification terms include:

  • Minimum credit score
  • Location of business
  • Age of the business owner
  • Years the business has been operating
  • Minimum monthly or annual revenue

These requirements are usually easy to find on every lending website.

Funding Time

How fast do you need money?

In some cases, you can fill out an application online in just a few minutes and get a decision within the hour. Other times, the application process is a bit slower.

Some business loans provide same-day or next-day funding once you’ve been approved. You’ll have to wait days, weeks, or even months (rarely) in other cases to get your hands on cash from some lenders.

Unless it’s an emergency, getting next-day funding shouldn’t be the deciding factor. I’d rather get a loan with lower interest rates and favorable terms, even if it takes a bit longer to get funded.

The Top Small Business Loans in Summary

The best small business loans give you working capital for your business. These loans can range anywhere from $15,000 to $1+ million.

While you may be tempted visit your local bank or credit union. The best business loans typically come from online lenders and alternative financing options.

Compare Quotes From The Best Business Loan Companies

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Best Business Credit Cards

A small business credit card can offer more than just a way to pay for everyday purchases. Lots of business owners use these cards as an alternative way to secure financing if they don’t qualify for a small business loan.

That’s because business credit cards usually have higher spending limits compared to traditional consumer credit cards.

In many instances, you don’t even need a formal business structure to apply for a small business credit card. If you’re a freelancer or entrepreneur without a registered LLC, you can still apply for cards using your social security number as opposed to a tax ID or EIN.

The best business credit cards offer exceptional rewards, from cash back to airline miles and other money-saving benefits.

This guide is perfect for anyone interested in a small business credit card. I’ll show you the top options and explain how to find the best business credit card for your situation.

Top 8 Best Business Credit Cards for 2020

There are hundreds of business credit cards on the market today. It seems like they all claim to be “the best” for something. But with that said, there are only eight business credit cards that I would confidently recommend.

I’ll highlight the top features, benefits, costs, and any other considerations for each one below.

The Best Business Credit Card Reviews

Chase Ink Business Cash

Chase Ink Business Cash

Chase Ink Business Cash is the best overall business credit card. It ranks first on our list because of its benefits and flexibility for a wide range of business purposes.

That’s because Chase offers outstanding rewards on this card for things you’re already spending money on.

  • 5% cash back on first $25,000 in combined purchases for Internet, cable, business phone services per year
  • 2% cash back on first $25,000 spent at restaurants and gas stations
  • Unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases

You’ll get up to $1,750 cash back each year if you max out those first two categories.

Chase offers built-in protection for instances using your Ink Business Cash card. You can decline collision insurance offered by rental companies when you’re renting a car; Chase Ink Business Cash has you covered.

The card also provides purchase protection against theft or damage to items for 120 days, up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account. It also extends qualified manufacturer’s warranties on purchases for an additional year.

You can get extra cards for your employees at no cost, and set individual spending limits for each cardholder.

Chase is currently offering a $500 bonus cash back bonus if you spend $3,000 in the first three months of opening a new account. There is 0% APR for the first 12 months using the card. After that, there is a 14.74% – 20.74% variable APR.

The Ink Business Cash card does not have an annual fee.

Capital One Spark Cash

Capital One Spark Cash

Capital One Spark Cash offers unlimited 2% cash back on all purchases. The offer for new cardmembers is a $500 cash bonus when you spend $4,500 in the first three months of opening an account.

There is a $95 annual fee for this card, but it’s waived for the first year.

Some of the top features and benefits for Capital One Spark Cash include:

  • Free employee cards
  • Fraud alerts and protection
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck
  • Rental car collision coverage

I like the fact that you can immediately lock a card from the mobile app if it’s lost or stolen.

You’ll also benefit from a detailed year-end summary report that’s perfect for budgeting and tax preparation. It’s easy to integrate your purchase records with Quickbooks to simplify your accounting tasks.

There is an 18.49% variable APR with this card.

Capital One provides emergency card replacement, as well as emergency cash 24/7 at locations throughout the world.

Not everyone will be eligible for this card. To apply, you’ll need an excellent credit score and a business registered in the US.

Blue Business Cash Card From American Express

Blue Business Cash Amex

If you want all of the benefits associated with American Express, without paying an annual fee, the Blue Business Cash Card will be your best option.

You’ll earn 2% cash back on purchases up to $50,000 in a calendar year. After that, you’ll receive 1% cash back on your purchases. Rewards will automatically be credited to your statement, so you don’t have to worry about manual redemption.

One unique feature of this card is the spending capacity terms. You have the ability to spend above your credit limit with Amex’s expanded buying power.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll have unlimited spending freedom. The amount available above your limit varies based on things like your payment history, usage, and other factors.

American Express offers outstanding travel and transportation benefits with this card. In addition to car rental loss and damage insurance, you’ll also have access to 24/7 services with global hotline assist whenever you’re more than 100 miles from home.

This program gives you access to legal, financial, medical, and other emergency services coordination, such as helping you travel with a lost passport.

Other Blue Business Card highlights include:

  • No charge for employee cards
  • Detailed year-end summary with spending category and expense reports
  • Account alerts and monitoring
  • Integration with Vendor Pay by Bill.com
  • Extend manufacturer’s warranty on purchases
  • Purchase protection

American Express has a long history of providing exceptional service to its cardholders. Their dispute resolution services are second to none.

You can apply online for the Blue Business Cash Card from American Express and get a decision in 30 seconds.

Chase Ink Business Preferred

Chase Ink Business Preferred

The Chase Ink Business Preferred card has better benefits and rewards than the Ink Business Cash card that we previously reviewed. However, this card does have a $95 annual fee. It’s a better option for business owners who spend more money and prefer rewards points as opposed to cash back.

Earn 3 points for every $1 spent on the first $150,000 in combined purchases on:

  • Airfare
  • Hotels
  • Car rentals, train tickets, and taxis
  • Advertising purchases on social media and search engines
  • Internet, cable, and phone bill

In short, you can earn up to 450,000 points per year if you spend money in those categories. You’ll get 1 point for every $1 spent on all other purchases, unlimited.

If you redeem your travel points with Chase Ultimate Rewards, the points are worth up to 25% more. For example, 80,000 points will get you roughly $1,000 toward travel.

You can even transfer qualified points to your favorite frequent travel programs at a 1:1 value.

Chase Ink Business Preferred gives you protection for auto rental collision, cell phone protection, as well as trip cancellation or trip interruption insurance. If you miss a business trip or need to cut it short due to sickness, weather, or other situations, Chase will reimburse you up to $5,000 for prepaid, non-refundable expenses. This includes hotels, airfare, and tours.

If you refer other business owners to an Ink Business Preferred card, you can earn up to 100,000 bonus points per year (20,000 per approved referral).

Capital One Spark Miles For Business

Capital One Spark Miles

If you’re a frequent business traveler, the Capital One Spark Miles cards will reward you with miles instead of cash or points.

There are actually two options to choose here. One card is free with decent perks, and the other has a $95 annual fee with better rewards. Beyond that, the two cards are basically identical. Here’s an overview of each one:

Capital One Spark Miles

  • $95 annual fee (waived the first year)
  • Unlimited 2x miles per $1 dollar spent on all purchases
  • Unlimited 5x miles per $1 dollar spent on hotel and car rental bookings through Capital One
  • 18.49% variable APR
  • Earn a 50,000 mile bonus ($500 in travel) when you spend $4,500 in the first three months of opening an account

Capital One Spark Miles Select

  • $0 annual fee
  • Unlimited 1.5x miles per $1 dollar spent on all purchases
  • Unlimited 5x miles per $1 dollar spent on hotel and car rental bookings through Capital One
  • 0% intro APR for first 9 months, 14.49% – 22.49% variable APR after
  • Earn a 20,000 mile bonus ($200 in travel) when you spend $3,000 in the first three months of opening an account

The Spark Miles Select card will best for those of you who don’t want to pay the annual fee. But if you travel often enough, the $95 is justifiable for Spark Miles card.

CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum Select World Mastercard

CitiBusiness AAdvantage

The CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum Select World Mastercard is the best business credit card for frequent American Airlines travelers. If you or your employees frequently fly with American, you definitely need to consider this card.

Travel Benefits:

  • First checked bag free for you and up to four people on your itinerary
  • Preferred boarding
  • 25% off in-flight food and beverages
  • 25% off in-flight Wi-Fi

Rewards Benefits:

  • 2x miles per $1 spent on cable, telecommunications, gas, and car rentals
  • 2x miles per $1 spent on American Airlines purchases
  • Earn 1 mile per $1 spent on all other purchases

You’ll also earn an American Airlines Companion Certificate for domestic travel after spending $30,000 per year. The certificate is worth a free round-trip domestic flight for someone else on your itinerary. You’ll just have to pay taxes and fees.

New card members can earn 65,000 bonus miles after they spend $4,000 in the first four months of opening an account. The $95 annual fee is waived for the first year.

It’s easy to justify the annual fee is you travel with American Airlines often enough. Assuming you check a bag when flying, two round-trip tickets would normally cost $100 in bag fees. The card pays for itself right there.

American Express Business Gold

American Express Business Gold

American Express Business Gold is one of the most premier business credit cards on the market today.

The card allows you to earn 4x membership points on the top two categories where your business spends the most money each billing cycle. Those categories are:

  • Airfare
  • Advertising purchases
  • Computer hardware, software, and cloud technology
  • Gas Stations
  • Restaurants
  • Shipping

The 4x points are valid for the first $150,000 spent per year combined on your top two categories. You’ll earn unlimited one point for every $1 spent after that.

American Express has an outstanding membership rewards program for redemption. Your points will transfer to the majority of popular loyalty programs.

If you book a flight using American Express Travel and pay with your points, you’ll get 25% of those points back to your account.

You also get all of the exceptional American Express travel perks like no foreign transaction fees, car rental loss and damage insurance, baggage insurance, and the global assist hotline.

Furthermore, the Amex Business Gold card offers room upgrades and a $100 hotel credit for dining, spa, and other resort activities when you stay at a participating property for at least two consecutive nights.

Amex offers a 50,000 sign-up bonus to cardmembers who spend $5,000 in the first three months of opening an account.

The American Express Business Gold card has a $295 annual fee.

Chase Ink Business Unlimited

Chase Ink Business Unlimited

The Chase Ink Business Unlimited credit card is very similar to the Ink Business cash card that we reviewed earlier. The most significant difference between the two cards is the way rewards get earned.

With the Ink Business Cash card, you’ll get a different percentage of cash back based on your spending category with certain limits and restrictions for how much can be earned in a year.

The Ink Business Unlimited card is much more straightforward. You earn 1.5% cash back on all purchases; no limit.

All of the other features and benefits are the same as the Ink Business Cash card.

You’ll get a $500 cash back bonus after spending $3,000 in the first three months using the card. There is no annual fee for the Chase Ink Business Unlimited card.

How to Choose The Best Business Credit Card

Now that you’ve had the chance to review the top business credit cards, you’ll need to choose one for yourself. But the best business card for me might not be the best for you. Everyone’s situation is different.

This is the methodology that we used to come up with the cards on this list. You can use the same process to evaluate the best option for your business.

Fees

One of the first things you should look at is how much the card will cost you. The cards we reviewed ranged from $0 to $295 in annual fees.

An annual fee is easy to justify if you’re going to be spending enough to get the most out of the perks and rewards. But if you’re a single-member sole-proprietor working out of your home office, you probably don’t need a card with an annual fee.

Beyond that, look for APR, cash advance fees, foreign transaction fees, transfer fees, and late payment fees. Personally, I always pay my cards in-full each month, so the late fees and APR aren’t really relevant to me. But things like foreign transaction fees can add up quickly during international travel.

Rewards

What type of rewards do you want?

Some cards offer cash back, while others offer points or miles. Cash back will likely be the best option for most of you. If you travel often for business, cards that reward you with miles should definitely be taken into consideration.

Just make sure you understand how rewards get earned and if there are any stipulations. Some cards will limit the number of rewards you can earn in a year.

Qualification Terms

Some cards require you and your business to have excellent credit. You won’t get approved for certain cards if your credit score is below 700.

You’ll also need to have an incorporated business to be eligible for certain cards. Other cards allow you to apply using just your name and social security number.

Loyalty Programs

There are certain business credit cards that are tied to a specific loyalty partner. For example, the CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum Select World Mastercard is an American Airlines card.

In most cases, it’s best to stay away from those airline or hotel-specific cards because you won’t be rewarded as much for purchases with another company. So you’re better off with general miles, cash back, or points that can be used with any airline or hotel.

With that said, if you know that you’ll be flying a specific airline often, these types of loyalty programs will give you the most rewarding benefits.

So if you fly from Chicago to Dallas once a month (both American Airlines hubs), it makes perfect sense to get a card tied to AAdvantage.

Spending Habits

A business spending $10,000 per year shouldn’t have the same credit card as a company charging $100,000 per year.

Your spending categories can also influence your decision when choosing a card. Certain cards offer better rewards for purchases at restaurants or gas stations. Others will give you extra benefits for money spent on advertising or your phone bill.

Perks

There are dozens and dozens of potential perks that could sway you to choose one card over another. Some of these include:

  • Sign up bonus
  • Purchase protection
  • Extended warranties
  • Free cards for employees
  • Insurance protection (travel, car rental, baggage)
  • Priority boarding
  • Free checked bags
  • Hotel credits

The list goes on and on. Find a card with perks that align with your business and spending habits.

For example, the American Express Business Gold card has a 50,000 point sign up bonus if you spend $5,000 in the first three months using the card. But if you don’t normally spend $5,000 in three months, this card isn’t for you. The $295 annual fee won’t be worth it.

Conclusion

Every business owner needs a credit card. Fortunately, the credit card companies have created cards with a wide range of benefits, rewards, and perks to accommodate your needs.

Here’s a quick recap of the best business credit cards on our list:

Whether you want cash back, miles, or points, I made sure to include something for everyone on this list. Some of these cards are best for larger businesses that travel frequently, while others are suitable for small business owners and sole proprietors.

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24 Must Have WordPress Plugins for Business Websites in 2020

Looking for the best WordPress plugins to take your business to the next level in 2020?

There are over 55,000+ WordPress plugins that you can choose from. This makes it extremely overwhelming for new users to find the right plugin for their website.

We are often asked by readers for the best WordPress plugin suggestions for SEO, social media, backups, speed, etc.

Being the largest WordPress resource site, our experts test over a thousand best paid and free WordPress plugins every year, so we can make it easy for our users (you) to find the best solutions.

Having the right set of WordPress plugins and tools can help you grow your online business. In this article, we have shared our expert pick of the must-have WordPress plugins for business websites in 2020.

Must have WordPress plugin for business websites

Note: these are the plugins that our team installs when we start a new blog or make a new website for our own businesses.

1. WPForms

WPForms

Every website needs a contact form because it makes it easy for your visitors to get in touch with you. WPForms is the most user-friendly contact form plugin for WordPress.

This drag & drop online form builder allows you to easily create contact forms, email subscription forms, online order forms, payment forms,
surveys, polls, and basically all other types of online forms with just a few clicks.

WPForms integrates with all popular marketing and payment platforms, so you can build powerful forms in less than 5 minutes.

It even comes with options to help you create a custom WordPress user registration form and login page.

We use WPForms on the WPBeginner website and all of our other websites. But we’re not alone. Over 3 million websites use WPForms, and they have consistently maintained a 4.9 out of 5-star rating average for over 3 years now.

There’s a free WPForms Lite version available for those who are looking for a simple solution.

If you are seriously looking to grow your business, then we recommend getting the Pro version because it comes with all the powerful features you need to boost your lead generation efforts. Use this WPForms coupon to get 50% off your purchase.

Alternative: Formidable Forms is an excellent alternative for creating advanced solution-focused WordPress forms.

2. MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It allows you to “properly” connect your website with Google Analytics, so you can see exactly how people find and use your website.

The best part is that it shows you all the important stats that matter right inside your WordPress dashboard.

You can then optimize your website accordingly to increase your traffic, subscribers, and revenue. We have detailed guides on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress, how to use Google Analytics to enable eCommerce tracking, and how to track user engagement.

MonsterInsights has a free version, but the true power of it only unlocks when you upgrade to the premium version.

You can use our MonsterInsights coupon to get 50% off your purchase.

MonsterInsights is used by over 2 million websites.

3. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO

SEO helps you get more visitors from search engines to your website. While WordPress is SEO friendly out of the box, there is so much more you can do to increase your website traffic using SEO best practices.

Yoast SEO is one of the most popular WordPress plugin of all time. Out of all the WordPress SEO plugins, Yoast offers the most comprehensive solution with all the features and tools that you need to improve your on-page SEO.

It helps you add meta tags, generate sitemaps, connect your site to Google Search Console, optimize it for social media, and more.

Yoast comes with a powerful Redirect feature that lets you easily create 301 redirects which is extremely helpful. It also detects change of URLs and create auto-redirects, so you don’t have any broken links on your website.

For complete SEO setup on your website, follow our ultimate WordPress SEO tutorial for beginners with step by step instructions.

Alternative: All in One SEO Pack is a great alternative for Yoast SEO.

4. Constant Contact

Constant Contact

Email is the most effective and most reliable marketing tool at your disposal as a business owner. It allows you to stay in touch with your users even after they leave your website. This is why we recommend every business owner to start building an email list right away.

Constant Contact is one of the most popular email marketing service providers in the world.

Their platform allows you to build an email list and send beautiful email newsletters to your subscribers.

It offers a quick and easy setup for non-techy users. It also works well with popular lead generation plugins for WordPress like OptinMonster and WPForms.

Alternatives: SendinBlue and ConvertKit are good alternatives if you want something more advanced, but they are more pricey.

5. OptinMonster

OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the most popular conversion rate optimization software in the market. It allows you to convert abandoning website visitors into email subscribers and customers.

This WordPress plugin and application helps you get more email subscribers, fast.

OptinMonster comes with pre-made high-converting opt-in forms that you can easily customize with their drag & drop builder. Their powerful display targeting features allow you to personalize the campaigns for each user, so you can show the right message at the right time.

It’s a great solution for bloggers, business websites, and eCommerce websites. Basically, if you want to make more money from your website traffic, then you need OptinMonster.

It helps you recover abandoned cart sales, convert website visitors, and grow your email list. Read these case studies to see how much success other businesses are having by using OptinMonster.

We use OptinMonster on WPBeginner and our other websites.

6. Sucuri

Sucuri

Security should be a top priority for all online business owners. Sucuri offers a WordPress security plugin and web application firewall that is probably one of the best protection you can get for your site.

They monitor and protect your site from DDoS, malware threats, XSS attacks, brute force attacks, and basically every other type of attack. If you don’t have a firewall on your website, then you need to add one today.

To learn more on how to strengthen the security of your website and protect your business, see our ultimate WordPress security guide with step by step instructions for beginners.

Sucuri help us block hundreds of thousands of attacks every month on WPBeginner.

7. UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is the most popular WordPress backup plugin on the market. It allows you to set up automatic backups and safely store them on a remote location like Google Drive, Dropbox, S3, Rackspace, FTP, email, and more.

It also makes it super easy to restore your website from a backup. Their base plugin is free, but they also have a paid plan with extra features and priority support.

Alternative: BackupBuddy and VaultPress (Jetpack Backups) are also excellent solutions, but they are paid only.

8. WP Rocket

WP Rocket

WP Rocket is the best WordPress caching plugin on the market. It allows you to instantly improve your WordPress website speed and performance with no technical skills required.

It automatically turns on recommended WordPress caching settings like gzip compression, page cache, and cache pre-loading. You can also turn on optional features like lazy loading images, CDN support, DNS pre-fetching, minification, and more to further improve page load times.

Most importantly, WP Rocket doesn’t wait for someone to request a page to save it in the cache. It automatically crawls and build your website cache which results in an instant performance boost.

WP Rocket also offers Imagify which is a free image optimization service to help you speed up your website even further.

This is by far the easiest and most beginner-friendly caching plugin. The only downside is that it’s paid only.

Alternative: WP Super Cache is free, but it’s not as powerful or easy.

9. Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is the best drag and drop page builder for WordPress. It allows you to easily customize your website design and create custom page layouts without writing any code.

Business owners love it because it lets them create completely custom landing pages within minutes without having to hire a developer.

Alternative: Divi page builder plugin is a great alternative.

10. MemberPress

MemberPress

MemberPress allows you to build online communities and membership sites using WordPress. It is the best WordPress membership plugin in the market.

You can create subscriptions and restrict content to users based on their subscription plans. It works with all popular payment solutions and plays nicely with online stores using WooCommerce. For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to make a membership website in WordPress.

11. RafflePress

RafflePress

RafflePress is the best WordPress giveaway plugin on the market. It allows you to instantly increase your website traffic, get more social media followers, and email subscribers with viral giveaways and contests.

RafflePress comes with an easy drag and drop giveaway builder along with proven giveaway templates that you can use to create a giveaway that attracts visitor’s attention.

To enter the giveaway, website visitors must use their email address. This helps you get more subscribers for your email newsletter.

RafflePress incentivizes users to follow your social profiles and share the giveaway with their friends to get more entries into the contest. This helps you increase social media engagement.

The word-of-mouth marketing helps you get more traffic, FASTER! This results in more followers, more sales, and more revenue!

You can easily connect your social profiles, WordPress form plugins, and all popular marketing platforms and CRMs.

RafflePress has a free version called RafflePress lite that you can get started with. If you want more powerful features to skyrocket your growth, then you need to use RafflePress Pro.

WPBeginner users can use our RafflePress coupon code: wpbeginner20 to get an additional 20% off.

12. CSS Hero

CSS Hero

WordPress themes rely on CSS for the visual appearance of your website. If you want to make customization to your theme, then you will have to learn CSS. This can be time-consuming for a business owner.

CSS Hero is a WordPress plugin that allows you to customize any WordPress theme without writing a single line of code. Check out our review of how CSS Hero makes WordPress customization easy for more information.

It’s not a drag & drop page builder like BeaverBuilder that helps you build custom layouts. Rather it helps you customize any WordPress theme available in the market within minutes to match your needs.

13. SeedProd

SeedProd

SeedProd is the best WordPress maintenance mode and coming soon page plugin that helps you collect leads and grow your followers even when your website is not available.

If your site is under construction, then you can use it to create beautiful coming soon landing pages. It includes features like integration with your email marketing services, countdown timer, social media integration, and dozens of templates to choose from.

14. LearnDash

LearnDash

LearnDash is the best WordPress LMS plugin to create and sell online courses from your WordPress website. It has a drag and drop course builder that allows you to quickly add lessons, quizzes, and assignments to build your course.

For detailed step by step instructions, see our guide on how to create online courses in WordPress using LearnDash.

15. G Suite

G Suite

G Suite is a suite of web applications like email, docs, spreadsheets, etc. Created by Google, this powerful set of office applications is cheaper, easy to deploy, and hassle free.

It allows you to save costs on software licenses, hardware, hiring IT staff, managing backups, and more. Most importantly it allows you to use professional email addresses with your own business domain name right inside Gmail.

Alternative: You can also get a free business email from your WordPress hosting provider or use Microsoft Office365.

16. SEMRush

SEMRush

SEMRush is an all-in-one marketing toolkit for digital marketing professionals and business owners. It comes with powerful tools to help you improve your SEO, paid traffic strategy, social media, and content & PR strategy.

It also helps you gather competitive intelligence on your competitors, so you can outrank them and dominate your industry.

It helps you do keyword research, backlink audit, track brand mentions, spy on competitors, discover best-performing posts and pages on social media, ad strategy analysis, and more.

These short paragraphs are not enough to describe the true power of SEMRush. It’s a must have tool in our list for serious business owners.

17. LiveChat

LiveChat

LiveChat Inc is the best live chat support software for businesses and e-commerce websites. It is super easy to use and allows you to quickly add live chat on your WordPress website.

It has tons of customization options, and it comes with a mobile app, so you can provide real-time support.

It integrates with your existing support software, CRM, email marketing, and other tools. Most importantly, it loads fast and offers a great user experience.

Alternative: Sendinblue Chat is another popular service which lets you connect chat, CRM, SMS, Facebook, and email in one platform.

18. Pretty Links Pro

Pretty Links Pro

Pretty Links Pro is one of the best link management plugins for WordPress. It allows you to easily manage affiliate links while making it easy make your affiliate links short and memorable for sharing.

It is the perfect tool for affiliate marketers, podcasters, business owners, and others who want to easily create short URLs in WordPress.

Alternative: ThirstyAffiliates is an excellent alternative with lots of powerful features.

19. Shared Counts

Shared Counts

Shared Counts is the best WordPress social media plugin that allows you to easily add beautiful social sharing buttons on your website.

It also shows share counts, which helps you add social proof to your website.

While there are many paid solutions available, this free plugin beats them all in code quality and performance.

We use SharedCount on a lot of our website because it offers an easy out of the box solution for both beginners and developers.

20. WP Mail SMTP

WP Mail SMTP

By default, WordPress uses the PHP mail function to send emails. The problem is that either WordPress hosting companies don’t have this feature setup properly, or they block it to prevent abuse.

This basically means that you and your users may not receive important email notifications from your WordPress site.

WP Mail SMTP solves this problem by sending WordPress emails using a proper SMTP mail server. To learn more, see our article on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.

Pro tip: The paid version called WP Mail SMTP Pro comes with white glove setup and more features. Basically, their support staff will set it up and connect it to use your SMTP service provider.

21. Insert Headers and Footers

Insert Headers and Footers

While managing your WordPress site, you may sometimes need to add code snippets to your WordPress header or footer for verification, inserting ad retargeting scripts, etc.

Insert Headers and Footer allows you to easily add code snippets to your WordPress site without editing your theme files. Take a look at our tutorial on how to add header and footer code in WordPress.

This free plugin is extremely handy for business owners.

22. WPML

WPML

By default, WordPress does not allow you to easily create a multilingual website. This is a challenge for businesses that cater to a multilingual customer base in different geographic locations.

This is where you’ll need WPML. It is a WordPress multilingual plugin that allows you to easily create multi-lingual websites with WordPress.

It is very easy to use, SEO friendly, and helps you easily create content in different languages.

Alternative: TranslatePress is an excellent alternative that’s growing fast.

23. WooCommerce

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress used by over 4 million websites.

It comes with all the powerful features that you need to create an online store.

Over the last few years, WooCommerce has established itself as the most dominant eCommerce plugin for WordPress. There’s even a WooCommerce ecosystem now with dedicated WooCommerce hosting, WooCommerce themes, and WooCommerce plugins available.

Companion plugin: TrustPulse helps you instantly win customer trust with social proof and FOMO.

Alternative: BigCommerce is a fully-hosted headless eCommerce platform for WordPress. It offers high scalability and low maintenance for serious store owners.

24. Nextiva

Nextiva

Nextiva is the best business phone service in terms of features and ease of use. They allow you to get a business phone number for your website which comes with advanced call routing, unlimited free domestic calling, voicemail to email or text, online faxing, and more.

The best part is that you can receive calls from your business phone number straight to your cell phone which is excellent for small businesses. You can also set business hours, so you are not getting disturbed during holidays or non-work hours.

Their platform also offers CRM, live chat, online surveys, and other communication features. You can manage it all in a simple web-based admin panel which makes it easy for small business owners to easily manage everything like a pro.

We use Nextiva VOIP for our business because it’s one of the most affordable and most reliable business phone service that grows with your business.

Alternative: RingCentral is another highly recommended phone service and business voip provider.

Bonus Tools

Aside from the top 24 WordPress plugins and tools that we mentioned above, we also use and recommend the following tools to better manage our WordPress sites:

  • Grammarly – excellent grammar checking tool that comes with plagiarism detector, vocabulary enhancement, and more.
  • PublishPress – this plugin makes it easy for us to manage our editorial workflow in WordPress.
  • Antispam Bee – An excellent plugin to improve comments section with reduced spam on your website. It works particularly well when used alongside with Akismet.
  • Adobe Photoshop – this makes it easy for us to create blog thumbnails and other images for our articles.
  • MaxCDN – this helps us speed up our website by geographically spreading our content to multiple servers (see: what is a CDN)
  • Envira Gallery – we use this plugin to help us create better galleries with albums.
  • Codeable – a platform that helps you work with vetted WordPress developers to troubleshoot problems and make customizations.

This concludes our list of the best WordPress plugins for business websites.

Depending on your business, you may not need to use all the WordPress plugins and tools mentioned in our list, but it’s pretty common for our readers to end up using at least 15 to 18 solutions that we have mentioned.

Now that you have the best WordPress plugins, you may also want to see our article on how to increase your website traffic (27 proven tips).

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