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Helpful Apps All Small Business Owners Should Have

Apps for Small Business Owners

By Phil Cohen

There are thousands of apps out there that can help your small to mid-size business hire knowledgeable candidates, stay organized, foster relationships with your customers, generate leads and even revenue for your business. Small business owners have a lot on their plate, let us make it a little easier on you with some app suggestions to help you stay organized. With the huge amount of applications to choose from, where should you begin? Below is a compiled list of the most helpful apps for small business owners.

Financial Apps

QuickBooks—Run your business from your tablet, mobile phone, or anywhere else with the QuickBooks app. This app allows you to create, view and email estimates, invoices and sales receipts. Users can also access customer information, convert estimates to invoices, track expenses, receive payments and download and reconcile bank transactions. Business owners can download the QuickBooks app for free with their subscription.

Freshbooks—Freshbooks is an easy to use small business accounting software. Automate time consuming tasks like organizing expenses, tracking time and following up with customers with the freshbooks app. Like QuickBooks, all of your information is stored in the cloud so you can access it from any device. Freshbooks offers a free 30-day trial of the app.

Mint—Keep track of your businesses budget with Mint. Business owners can put their banking and credit card information into Mint and it will generate weekly reports and track your spending. You can even set up certain budgets and goals to meet each week or month. Mint allows you to see what’s due and when so you can be sure to make payments on time and never have to worry about late fees.

Banking Apps—Whether you bank with Key, Huntington, Bank of America or anywhere else, they most likely have an app. Usability differs depending on the app but most will let you deposit checks, view balances and transfer money. This can be helpful for business owners on the go who don’t have time to stop into the bank.

Communication Apps

Slack—Slack is team communication app that businesses can use for employee chat rooms, voice and video calls and direct messages. Slack allows for the sharing of any types of files such as images, PDFs, documents and spreadsheets. Slack integrates with other apps and platforms such as Google Drive and Dropbox so your documents will easily sync. Slack offers a few different pricing plans for use of their products as well as a free option.

Skype—Skype is a video conferencing platform that offers many other uses such as a chat feature. Skype can be used to send photos and files, call up to 25 people and send text messages. Business owners can also use Skype to screen share while giving a presentation to clients or coworkers.

Fuze—Fuze is a videoconferencing app that business owners can use to host online meetings on their phones, tablets or computers. Fuze is helpful if you have employees working remotely or often use videoconferencing. Fuze offers customization services so the platform works the way your company needs it to. Fuze offers some pre-built integrations to make set up easy to implement. Salesforce, Zoho, Zendesk NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics are a few of the integrated platforms.

Organization

Evernote—Evernote syncs notes across mobile and desktop devices. If you make a note one time, it’ll pop up on all of your devices. Business owners don’t have to worry about where they saved an important customer note. Sync your notes to all of your devices with Evernote. Evernote also has a search function that makes it easy to find notes you’ve written months or years ago. Business owners can also share notes with customers and coworkers. There are a few different pricing plans to choose from depending on how many megabytes you use per year but for free you can get up to 60 MB across two devices.

Trello—Trello is a project management app that tracks you team’s ongoing projects and their completion. Trello allows you to create different boards for different topics and list the projects accordingly. You can assign projects to specific employees and track their progress and record any questions they may have. The basic version of the app is free and the business version costs $10 per month. Trello also syncs with other apps such as Slack and Evernote.

Other

PayPal—The PayPal app allows users to collect and send payments via their PayPal accounts and credit or debit cards. They offer solutions for businesses such as merchant services, invoicing and more.

Dropbox—Dropbox is a file sharing app that is extremely useful for small businesses. Share documents and files internally or externally with clients. Dropbox offers a free plan or a pro plan with more features for $8.25 per month. Dropbox offers free trials for new users and syncs with all operating systems.

MailChimp—MailChimp is an email marketing service that small business owners can use to easily send marketing emails and offers to their customers. You can create custom email templates as well as create newsletters, emails and manage your mailing list. MailChimp has different pricing options based on how many emails you’ll be sending but they do have a free option as well.

Running a business is no easy task. As a business owner, it’s important to make sure you don’t waste time on the tasks you could automate. Mobile and tablet applications can simplify so many business processes and free up time so you can work on more important things, such as bringing in new customers and generating revenue.

What Sectors Can Factoring Help?

Factoring companies offer tailored financial services across various sectors. Here are some of the key industries they commonly serve:

  1. Transportation: Specializing in freight factoring, they provide crucial capital for cargo and shipping companies to manage their operations smoothly.
  2. Staffing: By factoring invoices, staffing agencies can ensure timely payments to their workforce without delays.
  3. Manufacturing: Manufacturing firms benefit from factoring to maintain their production schedules and manage supply chain expenses.
  4. Government Contracts: Factoring supports contractors working on government projects to bridge the gap between invoicing and payment receipts.
  5. Oil and Gas: This industry particularly benefits from oilfield factoring which helps manage the substantial finances involved.
  6. Medical: Medical accounts receivable factoring allows healthcare providers to quickly turn their service charges into cash.
  7. Construction: With factoring, construction companies can cover upfront costs before project payments are finalized.
  8. Startups: Emerging businesses often use factoring to gain instant access to working capital, promoting growth without equity loss.

Factoring companies thus play a crucial role in boosting liquidity for businesses in these areas, facilitating smoother operational flows and fostering growth.

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