Michelle Brammer
Running a small business (or any business, for that matter) is tough. As a small business owner, you wear several hats and need to stay on top of it all, even on the run. Getting new business and traveling are part of the gig. But so is keeping your business running smoothly.
How can you do both?
Mobile apps help you get things done on the run. We spend 30+ hours per month using mobile apps. For a busy entrepreneur, you’re dependent on these apps to keep everything running well.
These 10 apps can help keep you and your business in check while on the move:
1. SeatGuru
For frequent travelers like Dan Nainan, a comedian trekking over 250,000 miles a year, SeatGuru saves him from uncomfortable flights. He’ll consult SeatGuru for seat advice, user comments, and photos of certain plane seats. The app tells Nainan about seats that don’t recline, smaller seats, have no overhead space or legroom, and other common issues. Choosing a good seat makes his flights less taxing, and he can work more.
SeatGuru is available on iOS and Android.
2. Square
Square empowers small business owners by lowering the barrier to entry to accept payments. It makes your business’s point-of-sale a small phone that can go anywhere. With “no commitments, no minimums, no surprises,” small businesses are empowered by Square.
Square only takes 2.75% of each transaction and accepts all major credit cards. It keeps track of everything for you digitally, reducing your overhead and how many tools and apps you need to use for sales data. Plus, you can enable your team with Square readers for a truly mobile sales force. And all Square readers feed a dashboard, breaking down the sales volume for you.
Square Register is available on iOS and Android.
3. Google Apps
For our marketing team, Google Apps are a go-to on a daily basis, and small business owners are no different. For Mez Gallifuoco, CEO of Mezoose, collaboration, editing, sharing, and organizing on-the-go is a cinch with Google Drive and Google Sheets.
Nichole Young, owner and lead planner of Young Love Events, depends on Google Drive for her Orlando event planning boutique. And to keep her finger on the pulse of her company, Yellow Schedule CEO Martina Skelly relies on Google Analytics. With its cloud-based storage and instant access, Google products are the perfect tools.
Google apps are available on iOS, Android, and Windows.
4. Expensify
Travel can be a headache, and managing expenses can be almost impossible. Expensify Founder David Barrett set out to tackle this obvious problem. With the motto “Expense reports that don’t suck,” he figured out how to make the process easier.
Your employees (and you) can scan and upload receipts, track mileage, and submit expense reports, with just a few taps. They boast over 2 million users, like Jeremy Ames, President of Hive Tech HR, and Maura Thomas, TEDx speaker and founder of RegainYourTime.com.
Expensify is available on iOS, Android, and Windows.
5. Waze
You need to get around when travelling, right? A personal favorite of author and speaker Barry Maher, Waze helps him arrive on time in unfamiliar cities.
Waze is one of the largest community-based traffic monitoring and GPS apps available on the market. With Waze, the community contributes information about the roadways: updates on traffic jams, accidents, police activity, and road closures, help you avoid traffic nightmares and arrive on time. Translated into 39 languages, Waze will get you to your all appointments on time.
Waze is available on iOS, Android, and Windows.
6. SoftLayer
If your business resides on a server or cloud, like ours does, this app is everything. Used by our CEO, Rich Kahn, SoftLayer keeps him connected and in control of our computing and networking systems. From the app, he can submit help tickets, monitor bandwidth, and view server performance. It keeps our business up and running when Rich travels.
SoftLayer is available on iOS, Android, and Windows.
7. Skype
Nothing quite replaces face-to-face interaction. Skype, the low-or-no-cost VoIP service, connects businesses with their clients worldwide. With a computer or smartphone, internet access, and a microphone you can meet with clients anywhere.
Deborah Walliser, founder and CEO of Got Produce Franchising, Inc., attributes her international business growth to Skype.
Skype is available on iOS, Android, and Windows.
8. WhatTheFont
Have you ever fallen in love with a certain typography and wanted to know more about it? Okay, maybe that’s just a designer or marketer’s problem. WhatTheFont is an app that allows you to identify any font.
By scanning a font seen in a magazine ad, poster, website, you’ll learn the font’s name. Graphic designers, like Mitch Dowell at Branding Experiences, swear by this app to help them identify new and creative fonts. And if WhatTheFont can’t figure out what the font is, you can submit your image to the WhatTheFontForum, where typography enthusiasts around the world will lend their expertise.
WhatTheFont is available on iOS only.
9. Evernote
If you’re not using Evernote yet, you should be. Compile notes for quick access, save articles for later, take pictures, and create to-do lists. It syncs between your computer, smartphone, and tablet so your list is always available.
For daily projects and helping you stay better organized, Evernote Free should suffice. The more robust Evernote Premium runs a mere $ 5/month. And for businesses, Evernote Business runs only $ 10/month per user. Both boast offline access, collaboration and centralized administration.
Evernote is available on iOS, Android, and Windows.
10. Dropbox
Remember when you’d spend 15 minutes downloading an email attachment? I do, but Dropbox has solved that inconvenience. Dropbox is a cloud storage system where you can access your documents, photos, and videos anywhere and anytime.
The concept is quite simple: You ‘drop’ whatever you want access to into your ‘box’ for later. And you can share documents with employees or partners, too. With its seamless synchronization, any saved files are available on web, mobile, and tablet devices.
Dropbox is available on iOS and Android.
Of course, we couldn’t cover all the great apps out there, and there sure are tons. Tweet us at @eZangaInc and tell us which apps you can’t live without.
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