Best Apps for Small Businesses & What They Do
Apps, although there’s an overwhelming amount of them out there, can be extremely helpful, especially for small businesses. It’s amazing what technology can do for you. Technology improves general productivity, time tracking, project management, team communication, customer relationship management, financials, and accounting. Apps don’t replace humans, but they can come pretty darn close. Even if there’s an initial upfront payment, some of these apps can give a great return on investment.
Pocket is incredible for those with a busy life and a shaky memory. The objective of the app is to save articles, videos, etc. online to review for later. Pretty often, busy people come across a lengthy article that sounds interesting, but they don’t have the time to read it. If that’s you, download pocket. It’s simple to use, free, and you don’t need an Internet connection to view items saved throughout the day.
Toggl
Toggl manages user time. If you log billable hours, this app is going to make your life much easier. Encourage employees to also use this app if they need to bill individual clients as it’ll keep company billing consistent. Toggl includes colorful graphs, multiple projects, and clients; exports timesheets; and has the ability to sync numbers with other management apps. Using Toggl company-wide is easy because you can divide employees into a group in order to stay organized. Toggl is free for up to five users.
Sortly
The Sortly App is used for inventory management purposes. Users can upload products to the platform and tag them to QR labels or barcodes. The visual representation of inventory makes it easy to identify the products needed on the mobile platform or other smartphone devices. You can grant access to multiple employees as well so they can edit it. This app saves the time that you would normally spend rummaging through old inventory and puts it towards making the business the best it can be.
BaseCamp
This app is one of the most well-known and widely used apps for project management. It’s extremely intuitive and easy to navigate. Users can invite collaborators, chat about specific projects, track progress, attach files, manage checklists, and create workflow calendars to keep group members on task. This app is best for less complicated projects that don’t include a bunch of data and financial analysis. Basecamp can range in cost from $24/month to $150/month for an unlimited amount of projects.
Square
Almost every small business is adapting to the wave of users who no longer carry cash. Square is a new and well-known payment processing system that allows users to plug in a small card reader to a smartphone or other smart device. You can swipe a credit card through this reader (or use the chip/NFC) and then process the payment like other larger retailers. You don’t need to always be connected to the Internet, so this is perfect for craft fairs or other off-site events. Receipts are sent by text message or email and will ask the customer if they would like to leave a tip. Square has no monthly fee. Instead, they charge a 2.75% fee per swiped transaction or 3.5% if you have to manually enter the information.
There are hundreds of amazing apps that can do so much for your company. It’s important to compare and contrast not only their costs, but also their features and popularity amongst customers (if the app will directly impact the customer). Trial and error is a great way to test out free apps, but for the ones that come at an expense, it’s crucial you do your homework.
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