Ten Great Apps for Small to Medium Business Owners
There are no mobile phone applications that can truly tell you how to run your business, however there are many that have the ability to streamline, de-stress and organise your busy lifestyle. From creating beautiful visuals for your business, to sending your clients invoices or simply enabling yourself to be grounded and mindful. See our top 10 apps we recommend here:
1. CANVA – Design and Content Creation
Cost: free – $12.95/mo
Content is king and more times than not, that includes visuals. As a business owner at times creating graphics without a trained designer and software such as the Adobe Creative Suite can be a difficult task. Canva is an Australian app that allows anyone to create imagery for your website presence and social media. It is very easy to use with a library of layouts, stock photographs and illustrations with a simple drag and drop function. With over 8 million users and growing, this handy app enables you as the business owner to create visuals quickly, when you need them.
2. POCKETBOOK – Personal Budgeting and Planning
Cost: Free
PocketBook is a budget planner and personal finance app with nifty features that organises your spending and earnings into categories and sub-categorise such as household utilities, home, shopping and more. In this app you can create and track your personal budget as well as connect and forecast incoming bills. Pocketbook instantly converts all of this data into easy to understand visuals, so you can view what is coming in and out of your personal bank out weekly, monthly and even yearly.
3. ACORNS – Entry Level Investing
Cost: $1.25/mo (under 5k) or 0.275%/yr (over 5k)
Acorns is a micro-investment app, designed to lower the bar for entry into the stock market. It is based on an interesting concept of modernizing the old school practice of saving loose change by rounding up any purchase you make on your linked bank account to the nearest dollar. Your accounts are automatically managed, with easy to view performance graphs. If you are an experienced investor then this app may not be for you, but if not, it is definitely a thought-provoking foot into the stock market.
4. XERO – Accounting and Invoices
Cost: free for the app, however you do need a Xero membership
The typical small to medium business owner is always on the move. If you are already utilising Xero for you bookkeeping and accounting, then the Xero Accounting and Invoicing app is perfect for you. It has an array of features such as bank reconciliation, invoicing and quoting, real-time cashflow, expenses management and more. This app will upload all of your data to the cloud, for your accountant to access and take care of the rest.
5. DROPBOX – Sharing and Cloud Storage
Cost: free for 2GB to $49.99/mo for 500GB
Dropbox is a simple and reliable file sharing service that can be synchronised across desktop and hand-held devices, allowing you to access your work and projects no matter where you are. Not only can you store your own important files it also has the capabilities to share large files and folders, scan and store documents, collaborate on projects through it commenting function and restore deleted files if a mistake is made. The ability to pull up any project or document on the go is a must for any business owner and makes Dropbox an indispensable tool.
6. EVERNOTE – Note Taking and Research
Cost: free – $89.88/ye
Some people may prefer the traditional note taking method of pen and paper. However, in today’s busy climate, having a note taking app can free up space, prevent losing notes and decrease the issue with having piles of disorganised paper covering your desk. Evernote is not just restricted to note taking you can also categorise by tags and sync your notes among multiple platforms. It also has the ability to utilise key word search, create to-do lists and take web clippings, doubling as an excellent tool for research.
7. HOOTSUITE – Social Media Management
Cost: free – $25/mo for a single business use
Hootsuite allows you to manage all of your social media accounts in one place, with the ability to collaborate as a team. You can utilise this app across your phone and desktop to schedule content, reply to messages, view analytics and create reports. The great thing about Hootsuite is you can sign up for free and test out the features it offers to see if it suits you and your business’ needs.
8. TRIPIT – Travel Planning
Cost: free to $49US/yr
TripIt is an app that allows you to instantly organise your travel confirmations, flights, itineraries, hotel and car rental bookings and other data all in one simple easy to access place. Sync your travel plans across your Google calendar and share your collated plans with anyone. TripIt’s functions give you the ability to simplify your often stressful and time restricted travel plans.
9. AUSTRALIAN TAX OFFICE APP – Tax Planning
Cost: Free
The ATO app allows you to digitally track your deductions and log your car trips throughout the year and then easily export them when needed. There are a number of tools and calculators available, including a tax withheld calculator and a business performance check that can match your business up against competitors in your industry. This app can also be trusted that it is accurate against all of the ATO’s rules and regulations.
10. HEADSPACE – Meditation and Mindfulness
Cost: Free 10-day program – $12.99/mo
Business owners are typically across multiple projects at once, at any time of the day, week or even through-out scheduled holidays. Headspace isn’t just a meditation app, it has the power for you to enable yourself in handling daily stress, productivity blocks and improve your focus. Headspace has 10 easy ‘newbie’ focused meditation exercises that easily allows you to start the journey of incorporating meditation into your daily routine.
Want to read more insights from SiDCOR? Click here.