In the past, business owners had to monitor their daily business processes through logbooks and notes. But today, entrepreneurs have turned to their smartphones to track business flows while on the go.
We know running a new business isn’t an easy feat. With projects, clients and expenses to manage, you might feel increasingly overwhelmed. Here’s a pro-tip: streamline your daily business tasks with the best online business apps.
The best online business apps for your small business
From sorting emails, to managing your team’s progress, the online business apps featured in this article will give you a glimpse of how you could make your day at work run smoother.
For online conferences
The coronavirus pandemic has forced many entrepreneurs to find innovative ways to sustain business communication. Video conferencing apps have been essential in helping with this transition to working remotely.
Here’s a list of the most popular online video conferencing apps:
According to Apptopia via Business of Apps, Zoom usage increased 67% between January and mid-March, and was installed over 300 million times in Q2 2020. Using apps such as Zoom not only connects you to your team and business partners, but it can also help with networking and business pitches.
For managing business documents
The first thing that comes to mind when you think business documents will probably be emails. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Oftentimes, business owners have to sort through dozens of invoices, brainstorming documents, and templates, which can take up a lot of time.
Two of the most popular scloud suites used by business owners include:
- Google Suite (Google Workspace)
- Microsoft OneDrive
Investing in cloud suites such as G-Suite and Microsoft OneDrive can help you to stay organised—super important when first starting out. For example, GSuite lets you port files among PCs, tablets, and smartphones.
Signing up for a standard package comes with 30 GB of online storage per user with options to upgrade to unlimited. You’ll also be able to create docs, spreadsheets, presentations, manage emails and more.
Having these mobile apps on hand allows you to pull out documents anytime, which makes it more convenient when corresponding with clients.
For communicating with your team
Team communications might seem like a no brainer: create a new Whatsapp or Telegram chat. But that’s not exactly optimal. Oftentimes, using those communications can cause you to bring work back home. Separating business from social communications is essential for work-life balance.
Lauded as one of the best team communication apps, Slack has a host of customisation and channels one could take advantage of. Your team will have access to different company channels such as product or marketing, along with the ability to create public and private channels for each ongoing project.
The main draw of Slack is its advanced search modifiers, which allows users to find documents of chat threads easily. It also comes with other unique features such as an in-built document editor which allows for quick and easy edits.
For tracking project progress
Managing a huge project can get confusing, especially when you have documents and plans strewn all over your drive. Using the best planner apps for your business can help cut confusion and keep things clean.
Here are two of the most popular project management platforms used by businesses:
Project management applications like Trello help provide a bird’s eye view of who’s doing what, and where everything is. Similar to a whiteboard, Trello allows you to assign tasks to each person in your team. These appear in the form of task cards which outline the due-date and progress of the project. You can even link documents or data sources to each individual card!
Similar to Trello is Asana, which allows users to create task cards. However, Asana also comes with a Timeline feature, which helps you to visualise how the different pieces of your project fit together in weeks or months.
For keeping in contact with your professional networks
As a small business owner, you’re going to be constantly building your professional network. You might not be collecting physical business cards any longer, but having a business card reader and scanner on hand is a great way to organise and share contacts.
Business card scanners such as BizConnect scans physical business cards and turns that information into compact and accurate contact pages. It is also able to find social accounts of new contacts such as the LinkedIn profile of the person.
For managing financial transactions
Managing business finances make up the core of your daily business processes. Taking note of incoming and outcoming payments is essential to controlling your business finances.
Aspire is a business banking app that integrates your business account, business debit card, and business reports all in one place. Platforms such as Aspire can give you a wider view of how different areas of your business strategy are working together.
Your workday, easier
Now that you’ve discovered the best online business apps for your small business, streamlining day to day business operations will be a walk in the park!
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