The days of taking care of business exclusively in an office are over. You’ve got a powerful productivity gadget in your pocket practically 24/7, and with the right set of apps, you can stay synced with the same spreadsheets, documents, and presentations that are on your desktop and work with them seamlessly from anywhere.
You have hundreds of tasks on your to-do list and have to solve problems every single day. You need to do extensive research, gather and manage your resources, maintain a communication level, build your brand presence, reach new clients, keep a track of all the accounts, and much more. With so much on your plate, is 24 hours a day enough?
Entrepreneurs know the need to remain agile and efficient, and working both in the office and on the go. Mobile devices almost certainly play an everyday role for most small businesses, but choosing and making use of the right apps goes a long way for effectiveness. So, as an entrepreneur, you’ll need a good range of apps to cover the most important eventualities.
In this guide, we will be focused on the most useful applications for small to medium businesses. All of these either offer a free tier or represent excellent value for money. Further premium features are often available as your business grows.
Best Apps For Small Businesses.
These essential productivity app are recommended for entrepreneurs to help you remain on the right track on your daily business activities.
Microsoft 365
This application is considered as the best office software app. Why? There are many different office software platforms, but despite fierce competition on price and features, Microsoft’s Office 365, recently rebranded as Microsoft 365, remains the leading suite and must-buy for entrepreneurs and ranks as our best small business software.
Microsoft 365 includes the 3 big office software apps you’re going to need: Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. OneDrive is also available for online backups and worth using, even if you already use another cloud provider such as Google Drive or Dropbox. Keeping your data safe is key and there’s no harm in having multiple backup options.
Also, there are other software applications included in Microsoft 365, such as Outlook (online version), and for PC use only there are also Publisher and Access.
Though there are alternatives to Microsoft Office, the simple fact is that they are not so good: features tend to be limited, and there can be problems converting key office files to alternative formats, which you absolutely do not need the stress of dealing with when running your own business.
PayPal
PayPal has become the ubiquitous payment portal for many online businesses due to the simple reason that it’s so easy to use, and ranks as our top pick for best credit card processing service.
This app has made integration into payment gateways simple for major e-commerce platforms, often requiring little more than a couple of clicks and an email address. Often then most, the complex part of setting up PayPal processing is copying and pasting a supplied API key to get started.
Although many shopping carts are built to accommodate PayPal from scratch, it can even be used as a standalone service for taking individual payments from clients, just by pasting a payment button code into an email. Subscription payments are also available by default.
Furthermore, PayPal offers additional features, such as taking in-store payments through a card reader. With no hidden costs or monthly charges. PayPal is one of the most accessible options for startups and small businesses.
Google My Business
This is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. If you verify and edit your business information, you can both help customers find your business and tell them your story.
Google My Business helps make businesses visible on Google Search and Google Maps. These features are huge potential sources for business growth and publicity. The app lets you update facts about your business like your hours of operation, name, and address. You can even manage multiple locations if needed. That makes it one of the most important business apps for small businesses, new businesses, and basically any business without a web presence yet.
QuickBooks
Quickbooks Online makes it super easy to manage all business needs, no matter the size of your company. Easily track expenses, create and send forms (such as quotes, invoices, accounting reports, etc.), know where your cash flow stands. its user-friendly dashboard presents everything in a way that’s simple to understand. From tax accounting to payroll, profit analysis, and inventory management, QuickBooks can do it all—depending on which version you’re paying for.
Zoom
Zoom is a video telephony software program developed by Zoom Video Communications. It provides a video chatting service that allows up to 100 devices at once for free, with a 40-minute time restriction for free accounts having meetings of three or more participants.
Users have the option to upgrade by subscribing to one of its plans, with the highest allowing up to 1,000 people concurrently, with no time restriction. It is a better and more modern option. It supports up to 200 concurrent participants. The exact number changes for each price tier. The service also boasts screen sharing services, presentation features, and above average connection stability. It scales up well and the app is fantastic.
Google Hangouts Meet is a decent option for smaller teams. GoToMeeting is another excellent selection with over 100 concurrent participants. Of course, the classic Cisco WebEx Meeting service is the old favorite.
Buffer
Maintaining your online reputation is necessary. But, have you ever felt that sharing your views on different social networking sites is taking the bigger share of your time? If so, then Buffer is here for your rescue. This social media management mobile application enables startup founders to schedule their social media posts according to the time when your target audience will be highly active.
Evernote
Another organizational powerhouse, Evernote is one of the most popular free, business-friendly apps out there. Evernote is ideal for organizing your personal and professional life side by side, thanks to the ability to create different notebooks, clip web articles, insert media (including video), search old notes based on keywords, share notebooks for collaboration while locking down private notes, create to-do lists and perform lightw犀利士 eight project management, scan documents with your camera, create and search handwritten notes, and access info across all your devices. Evernote is increasingly adding functionality for team collaboration and third-party integrations, and the paid features are worth checking out.
MailChimp
This also is an all-in-one marketing platform that helps you manage and talk to your clients, customers, and other interested parties. MailChimp approach to marketing focuses on healthy contact management practices, beautifully designed campaigns, and powerful data analysis. It helps you build and manage your mailing lists and easily create and send newsletters. You can also build and customize email templates and view performance reports about your emails. This information can help you send your customers more relevant emails.
Skype
Messaging and calling are the easiest ways to connect with your clients, investors, team, and friends. But, what if everyone is at different corners of the world or you want to connect them all at the same time? Not only will the charges be high, but you will find it uneasy to handle the conversations.
Well, this problem can be easily catered with the help of Skype mobile app. The professional networking app allows you to connect multiple people, share pictures and videos, and even add spice to your conversation with emoticons. All the chat remains stored which means you need not take notes of the key points of the conversation. Besides, you can have audio calls, video calls and group calls so that everyone remains on the same page while working on a project. And the best part is that you can access all these lucrative features using an unlimited data plan or WiFi connection.
As a working professional, you should get active on LinkedIn if you aren’t already. It’s a great way to find new employees, connect with like-minded business people, find new clients, and build a strong personal brand online. The LinkedIn app makes it simple to do all of those things from your Android device. And if you want to make the most of your LinkedIn account, you can try some of these other LinkedIn apps like LinkedIn job search, LinkedIn pulse and LinkedIn recruiter.
Conclusion
By using these productivity apps, you have a better chance of organizing a systematic approach for performing tasks. There is no doubt that the best small business apps help boost productivity (for both you and your employees) and definitely make your life as a small business owner more efficient and easy.
Read Also
- Why you need to Go Social
- How to Become a Digital Marketer without Marketing Certificate.
- Business Tips To Starting Small And Making It Big
- How to Increase Profits in Your Business
