10 Apps Every Small Business Owner Needs
With the rapid improvement of technology, mobile phones have become almost impossible to do away with. Beyond making calls and sending messages, business owners now run their businesses directly from their phones.
In addition to this, mobile apps have been designed to make running a business more effective. Below is a list of apps every small business owner needs to run a smooth and successful business.
1. Slack
Slack is one of the best communications and productivity apps. It can be used to send messages to groups and individuals. Slack saves you the stress of sending your employees mails every time an idea pops up.
Slack can be integrated with your other workflow apps, and what’s more? You can also conduct meetings and conferences via video calls. If you are a small business owner who can’t afford the premium version, you can utilise features on the free version.
2. Google Analytics
For business owners with an online store or a website, Google analytics will help you track your site’s progress. Also, it provides you with useful data to know which of the channels you make use of needs some improvement. Also, to track your marketing strategy’s effectiveness.
3. QuickBooks
As a small business owner, it is vital to keep a proper financial record. This can be achieved with the help of accounting software – QuickBooks.
QuickBooks helps to track the inflow and outflow of money in your business. It is also easier to track what expenses to cut off and determine what areas to invest more money into. With QuickBooks, analytics are generated based on the data imported by you into your system. To get your reports, load your invoices and vouchers on the QuickBooks platform, and your reports will be ready in no time.
4. Buffer
Social media is an effective way to promote your business to prospective clients. To put social media to good use, Buffer is a planner app; every small business owner should have.
With Buffer, you can schedule your content and get the best out of each post. It has a small business plan that comes with one of its paid versions; on this version, you can include five team members who also have access to managing your social media content. Having this planner app is vital for effective time management; you can always focus on other essential things that need to be fixed in your day to day business activities.
5. HubSpot
HubSpot is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software every SME in Nigeria should use. It is easy to integrate into your business and helps to organise your customers effectively.
With HubSpot, you can easily reach your customers via social media, website, phone calls, and emails. It organises your contacts, provides you with insights on all your leads, and gets your deals monitored with ease. It also boosts your traffic and aids lead conversion while guaranteeing you a good investment return.
6. Trello
Trello is a project management app that provides you with adequate information about your projects. With Trello, small business owners have easy access to the status of the projects being worked on.
It also breaks down projects in order of priority; this way, you can organise your projects and know which one to pay urgent attention to. Trello allows you to bring team members on board and assign tasks to them to aid collaboration. It comes with a cloud-based format that enables you to upload, attach, and download your project files.
7. Google Drive
The Google Drive package allows you to create and store your files/documents on Google’s cloud system. It saves you the stress of having to go around with hard drives or flash drives; all you have to do is create your file directly and save on the drive. As you begin creating your files online, it saves automatically and allows you to share your file with your team members and directly from the drive.
8. Canva
Canva is a graphic design app that provides small business owners with the luxury of creating designs on the go. It offers several free templates, illustrations, text designs, and pictures you can use in your design. With Canva, you can create designs for different platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Emails.
9. Adobe eSign
The Adobe eSign is an app small business owners can use to embed signatures on digital documents. In addition to this, your documents get stored in the Adobe cloud, making them secure. You can sign all your employee files and contracts online without having to print them out.
10. Adobe Spark
Adobe Spark is a video editor that allows small business owners to create and edit beautiful videos for their businesses. With Adobe Spark, you can also create graphics for your social media platforms and web pages.
As a small business owner, you have several apps at your disposal. Utilising these apps will not only boost your business; it will also help you stand out amongst competitors. Which of these apps are you currently using?
