Between organizing meetings, keeping in touch with clients and staying on top of all the news related to your industry, running a small business can be very time consuming. You may need more employees, but your budget simply won’t permit for the luxury. You need an assistant that is economical and efficient; you need the right apps.
There are many apps that claim to be able to help small business owners manage their daily requirements and finding the right one can be a daunting task. Everyone know that Paypal is a really easy way to make and receive payments. Most people have at one time or another attended a Skype conference and many businesses store their files on the Cloud using Dropbox. However, there are a few lesser known apps that stand out as being perfect for the small business owner. Below is a list we found to be the best apps for small business.
Addappt
These days we live and work in a rather transient society. People in business often change their phone numbers, web and email addresses and the location of what is often times a virtual office. How many times have you written down someone’s information and then forgot to upload it into your phone?
This app lets your business associates update their own contact information in your address book. That way, instead of trying to remember where you scribbled down your contractor’s new phone number, your contractor can easily supply his or her new phone number to you or anyone else who might need it. You can also send messages though Addappt and organize your contacts in a way that works for you.
Anyone wanting to change their information will have to have the app themselves, but that’s okay because it is free no matter what kind of phone you have.
ZenPayroll
Perhaps, one of the hardest things about operating a small business is doing the payroll. It’s a time consuming task that happens on a regular basis. Hiring an accountant to handle it for you can be very expensive.
ZenPayroll makes payroll management very easy. You just add a new employee by having them enter their information directly into the app, rather than having them fill out paperwork. After that all you have to do is enter their salary and the hours work. The app will calculate bonuses as well.
You never have to worry about figuring out taxes and benefit deductions, because the system does that as well. It even hands out paycheck for you by emailing employees when their money is delivered and displaying their payroll stubs whenever they want to see them.
ZenPayroll works on all devices and operating systems and has a $25 monthly base fee, plus $4.00 a month for each employee.
KanbanFlow
Figuring out the logistics of which employee should do which job and when the paperwork for that job is due can be time consuming.
KanbanFlow, is a web-based app, that lets managers assign tasks to their underlings, upload the documents needed for the task and schedule the due dates by which those tasks need to be performed. KanbanFlow helps a manager to visualize the workflow of various projects and lets coworkers communicate with one another and clients.
The best part of this app is that it’s free and works on most smartphones and both PCs and Macs.
If you want added features such as attachments, revision history and a flow diagram that enables you to analyze your work history, you can get the premier version for only $5.00.
HootSuite
In today’s market it is very important to maintain a good social media standing. No matter what your industry, it is one of the most viable and least expensive forms of advertising. But, when you post on social media you want to make sure your updates get seen and you may not be able to afford a social media manager.
HootSuite allows business owners to manage their social media from their smartphones. It gives users the ability to run analytics and track social media content. It also allows you to know when your followers are the most active so you can schedule when posts will appear.
The free plan of HootSuite lets you post updates to three or more social media accounts at one time and can greatly reduce the time you will spend managing social media.
Finding the right apps can get the paperwork out of the way and let you concentrate on whatever it is that you do best.