Running a small business is a liberating and stressful experience. While you don’t have to answer to “the man,” everyone else is answering or trying to get ahold of you. If you have the right apps, though, running your small business can greatly improve and save you both time and energy later on.
Whether it be help with the books, keeping in touch with staff, processing payments and orders, or keeping track of productivity, there are apps for small business owners to keep you ahead of the competition.
QuickBooks
Quickbooks is famed for its business software for desktops, allowing clients to keep track of invoices, send out notices, and collection of payments. Quickbooks Self Employed is the app version of the software and just as powerful. You can categorize by customer, product, and due dates to keep everything organized. Come tax time, the app can import your data into your return automatically, saving you from hiring help or spending hours on it yourself.
ChargeStripe
These days it doesn’t matter what or where you sell. You need to accept credit cards or you may be delaying payments and losing out on sales. The good news is that you can easily accept credit card payments with the ChargeStripe app, whether you’re opening a salon, selling flowers at farmers’ markets, or running a local handyman service. With a 5-minute setup, no monthly fees, and no card reader required, it’s never been easier to offer flexible payment options for your customers.
Addappt
Addappt is a unique contact organizer. If people on their contacts list have the app as well, they can update their details in real-time as it happens. This is a great feature if you work as an independent contractor or have various people coming in for jobs throughout the work-week. Your clients can update their info and access yours right on the fly, without the awkward “They don’t work here” anymore conversation. You can also group certain contacts together, making sending out mass text messages and other communications such as email a breeze.
RescueTime
Rescuetime is set to kick you into shape as your procrastinator’s worst nightmare. With detailed statistics of where you spend your most time, this app is sure to give you a jolt when you realize how much time you’re burning away on Snapchat or Instagram. You can see daily, weekly, and overall breakdowns of your progress, or lack thereof, and make goals for yourself to cut out the biggest time drains. There are premium features as well, such as more elaborate summaries, being able to filter out your biggest time sinks, get cross-platform alerts when you’re pushing your free time limit and customizing filters.
Slack
If you are looking for an easy-to-use chat app for your business, Slack may be what you need. It has great features like screen sharing, audio and video calls, and direct and group messages. You can also organize your chats by private or public channels so only the eyes meant to be prying are peeping things. You can archive chats for easily retrieval and sharing files is as simple as dragging them into the chat window. This app is not Facetime or Google Duo, but if you have a small staff that interacts a lot during the day, you shouldn’t pass this one up.
Invoice by Wave
Invoice by Wave is a great budgeting app geared towards businesses with 10 or fewer employees. There’s receipt scanning, invoicing and tracking your regular expenses. Premium features include access to instant customer service and in-app payroll duties. It can seamlessly be integrated with PayPal or your bank account, letting you see things in real-time as you crunch the books.
Basecamp
If you’re managing a lot of projects with various different people involved, Basecamp is for you. You can organize the staff for each project, making communication throughout productive easy and simple. Scheduling deadlines and changes to plans is streamlined and your co-workers have the information as soon as you put it up. With a neat billing plan, users are charged not by individual user licensing, but rather projects themselves. For example, if you were to get a 10 project package, you could use an endless roster of employees to add to those specific projects at no additional fee. You can view detailed expense reports, chat with project members, track progress, make to-do lists and transfer pertinent documents to teammates.
Evernote
An oldie but a goodie, Evernote remains the go-to app for note-taking, not just during meetings or brainstorming sessions, but anywhere at anytime. Travel or bus to work, or have down periods when off work? Evernote acts as your personal assistant, taking down any ideas and solutions you come up with. Whether videos, links, photos, music, or simple notes, you can tag and categorize your notes to retrieve them with easy later. Like Wunderlist, these can be great whether for home or business, but a special premium version specifically for companies allows more control over the functionality and allows endless note taking.
What are the must-have apps for small businesses?
Just because you don’t haul your laptop around or have access to your home or office doesn’t mean you have to be in the dark about your business. Mobile devices have made it so simple with a vast array of apps available to accommodate any concern. From processing and tracking payments, organizing your time and projects, or simply taking notes, this list is meant to give you a head start on finding helpful apps for you and your business.
