No Code Tools for Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs wear many hats throughout their career.
They act as salesmen. They are customer service representatives to their clients. They manage their company’s financials. They develop and maintain their websites. They constantly market themselves and their products/services. Most impressive, they manage all of the aforementioned usually as a solo act.
It has never been easier to become an entrepreneur and start a business than right now in 2022. However, since 2017, a new movement has been surging that aids both entrepreneurs and large scale businesses alike.
It’s called No Code.
No code development platforms, or NCDPs, bridge the gap between software developers and general consumers. Recently, the lack of software developers available for hire has catapulted no code platforms into the mainstream for both cost effectiveness and turnaround times.
Small business who once could not afford the budget for a software developer now can create custom solutions for their business in house. No code moves the power of development into the business owner’s hands and allows ownership of workflows.
The future of coding is no coding at all - Chris Wanstrath, CEO Github
If you’re an entrepreneur, business owner, or hobbyist, these no code tools will help you alongside your journey.
Webflow: No-Code Website Development
Webflow launched in 2013, and focused on web development beyond templates. Traditional web development platforms such as Squarespace, Wix, and Shopify offer consumers Templates to base the design of their website on. In doing so, the consumer does not have to worry about prior coding knowledge in languages like HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc. and can create their site through an intuitive drag and drop user interface.
Webflow flips the script, and incorporates HTML / CSS / Javascript into a visual canvas that allows customers to build any website they want. Webflow even encourages users to begin their design in another no code tool, Figma, to incorporate into their final website.
Webflow is an incredible tool for the everyday entrepreneur to build their site on. Aside from small businesses, Webflow is used by many enterprise-level corporations.
Zapier: No-Code Automation Setup
Zapier is an automation tool for web services which you might be familiar with from a previous blog post. Zapier has proved to be one of the most powerful automation tools that are used by all businesses, even enterprise! The use cases are endless, and continue to improve over time as Zapier adds more and more web services to their arsenal of apps they support.
Zapier connects the services you already use in your business and gives you the power to connect them via triggers and actions. Triggers and actions are based on your workflow. You can view triggers as such:
Trigger: Online order is placed through John Smith’s E-Commerce website
Action: Zapier will take all inputted customer data (Name, Email Address, Phone Number, Address, Etc.) and input that as a new email subscriber into John’s Email marketing service.
Quickbase: No-Code Software Development
Quickbase, Inc. was originally part of Intuit back in 1999 before being divested in 2016. Quickbase is known for its low/no code platform that allows consumers to build applications based around project management.
Quickbase is used among enterprise level companies in Real Estate, Construction, and Manufacturing but is also used in Education, Government, and Legal firms. The service allows industries which generally lack innovative software and put all of the power in the hands of the consumer to create the application they would use in their workflow.
No code has proven to be the newest wave of software development that’s accessible to more consumers. Which of the above platforms have you integrated into your workflow?