Small business, especially in their infancy, can be massively labor intensive. Even though it’s a labor of love, there seems to be more things to do than there are hours in the day. This means that every tool and resource you have counts so much more, because you need to simplify your life as much as possible. Thankfully, there are tons of apps designed to help small businesses with transactions, bookkeeping, productivity, and networking. Keep control from your smartphone.
- FreshBooks
FreshBooks is cloud based and easy to use. It works for billing, invoicing, and creating invoices. It also allows you to track your business expenses, which is especially important for a young business. When you’re working on a tight budget, you need a good idea of what your running tab is before you spend any money. It does cost a small monthly fee to use, but it’s worth it in what you’ll save by rolling all of those responsibilities into one interface.
- Square
Square takes payments anywhere and everywhere. If you have a physical location where you’re billing clients or charging customers, Square can integrate with any mobile device to accept payments. Since they charge a small fee for every transaction, it doesn’t cost money to use. The fee you pay with Square is slightly less than what you would pay with a lot of other payment processing options, so you’re getting convenience while keeping costs low.
- Slack
Slack is the perfect internal communications hub. It’s especially important to have an app like Slack if some of your employees are remote workers. If everyone has Slack, you can streamline your communications and keep a record of what’s going on. Nobody will feel confused, and you can host meetings even when someone is on a business trip. Slack is a freemium app. There are advanced features that cost a little bit to use, but you can start off with free Slack while you’re deciding whether or not you need them.
- MailChimp
MailChimp is perfect for branding and marketing. You need to be able to keep your customers up to date with what’s going on in your business. It’s easy to integrate into the majority of eCommerce platforms, which makes your job a lot easier. MailChimp will allow you to make your newsletters or sales emails with a drag and drop process, so you don’t need to be a seasoned genius to put something professional looking together. It’s freemium, and it’s definitely worth a try if you want to simplify your marketing.
Small businesses need to network all the time. LinkedIn is a dream for meeting other business owners who may be able to cross promote with you, as well as finding great hires in your community. Meeting people and making connections is crucial to the continued success and growth of your business. LinkedIn also provides articles, resources, and expert advice. If you want to stay breast with what’s happening in your industry, you’ll probably be able to find out on LinkedIn. Who says social networking at work is a bad thing?
Apps make fun and games a lot easier, but they’ll also improve your ability to run your business. Your smartphone is one of the most powerful tools you have to help you set a promising future for your professional success.
Merrigan Leone is a blogger and a businesswoman who currently works for Bizinfo.in as a Content Manager. She specializes in online marketing, career development and freelancing. In her free time, she enjoys traveling across the world and cooking.
