10 Great Mobile Apps to
Boost Small Business Productivity
Every business owner is constantly looking for ways to boost
his or her personal productivity as an owner/manager as well as the company’s.
This could be a demanding task especially if the proprietor
is on the run without access to a computer, laptop or records.
Thanks to modern technology and the ubiquitous cell phone,
small business owners have a wide range of productivity tools at their disposal
that they didn’t have even a year ago.
However, surfing the Internet in search of these instruments
that can organize, streamline, automate and keep owners on top of their
companies is a time-consuming chore. Which tool is better than another, which
one is affordable, which one is safe? These are just some of the questions that
owners could struggle with.
Fortunately, a British website called Smarter
Business has assembled a short, useful directory of mobile phone
apps for budget-conscious owners that will satisfy their productivity quest and
budgets.
Here are the 10 cheap
Apps
Skype
Skype is an established and dependable communication
platform. And best of all, you can make Skype-to-Skype calls anywhere in the
world for free (yes, you’ll need Internet or Wi-Fi access, which you probably
already have). With Skype video conferencing, you can bring up to 25
colleagues, customers and suppliers together and still not pay a dime.
Google Drive
Google Drive has a suite of business applications,
communication and storage solutions in one platform. And just like Skype, these
features are free.
The Google cloud platform allows you to collaborate with
your staff no matter where they are. You can sync across emails, edit documents
in real-time, and use the 15GB of free storage to archive the work.
If you need more storage, you can get 100GB for only $1.99
per month or $9.99 for a terabyte. How much is a terabyte? A lot. 1,000GB.
FreshBooks
Tracking your T&E and other expenses is a tedious but
needed part of running a small business. With FreshBooks, owners can track all
invoices, expenses, projects, and even your time spent on projects.
The app also lets you automate your workflow so you can save
time by eliminating manual processes. The company has 70 new app integrations
to make FreshBooks work seamlessly with many popular apps.
The price depends on the number of clients, starting at $15
per month for five billable clients.
Hootsuite
As I have written in the past, social media is a must for
many small businesses. Hootsuite is a social media managing platform which
brings your channels together under one roof. The app lets you schedule your
posts, report on your online presence, gather content and measure performance.
As with many helpful apps, Hootsuite also has a free
version, but the premium tiers have extra tools for managing and monitoring
your social media efforts.
MailChimp
Email is still one of the best communications tools for
business. Mail Chimp has automation features designed to simplify the process
of sending emails. Whether you are launching a limited or large marketing
campaign, MailChimp has the tools for creating, managing, and tracking the
performance of each email.
Even the free version gives you 2,000 subscribers and 12,000
emails per month, which undeniably is a lot. The $10 Grow plan ups those
options to unlimited subscribers and emails.
Expensify
Some companies require regular expense reporting. Expensify
is designed to specifically tackle these business tasks by simplifying this monotonous
process. The app scans your receipt, automatically transcribes the details,
applies for reimbursement, and creates a report outside of the office.
The cost is free to the end user, but the person approving
the reimbursement will pay $5 per submitter/ month.
Asana
Managing teams has become much simpler due to digital
technology. Asana is a work management platform which brings all team members
together. Department heads and other leaders can manage, plan and structure
projects by setting priorities and deadlines and sharing details in one place.
A free version can bring up to 15 team members together. And
the premium tiers have more features, including more team members starting at
$9.99 per user/month.
Wix
A website is the digital storefront of any business. Wix is
a DIY web builder with drag and drop functionality for quickly and easily
creating a fully functional website. Wix features allow business owners to
create a website with its Artificial Design Intelligence or the Wix Editor.
This includes the ability to add advanced functionality such as mobile
optimization, SEO, e-commerce, and more.
You can create a free Wix website, but the paid packages,
which start at $4.50 per month are well worth the investment.
Prezi
If you’re still using PowerPoint, Prezi has an innovative
platform for creating engaging and interactive presentations. The canvas-based
tool uses a drag and drop interface to create timelines, historical references,
and chronological data. At the same time, Prezi is able to track how users are
viewing and where they are engaging most.
The personal standard tier starts at $5 per month, with the
plus going for $15 per month.
Dropbox
Last but not least. Dropbox is an extremely powerful and
essential sharing tool for today’s businesses.
It lets you store and organize all your files for easy
access. And you can share the files with your clients and interact with your
team from virtually anywhere. Dropbox is also a great tool for storing your
important information. The free version gives you 2GB of space and for $20 per
month, you can get as much space as your team needs.
This list of beneficial apps for small business owners is
not exhaustive. Even those listed here have helpful and useful competitors. The
point is that help for a busy small business owners is at the end of your arm
and your fingers. Don’t overlook it. And you have a starting point.
Also, as with all software and social media applications, while
they are basically easy to maneuver don’t give up on them if you get stuck.
Stay with them, work them, practice. You’ll get the hang of them and boost your productivity.
I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:
If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks, immigration policies
and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting
website:
Scroll through my blog to read about other topics, promote
yourselves and boost your outreach.
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