May 12
2
Best Apps for Small Business
If you were trying to draw a picture, you wouldn’t cover up one eye, would you? If you were playing football, you wouldn’t tie one arm behind your back, would you? If you were cooking a meal, you wouldn’t intentionally leave out some of the ingredients, right?
The answers to those questions seem simple enough but in small business it seems that many people take the above-mentioned routes. They don’t utilize all the tools they have available. They try to leave certain things out of the equation and hope that it won’t catch up to bite them in the end. If you’re running a small business, some of the greatest tools you can utilize fit into the palm of your hand. Mobile apps are not only good for providing distractions through games like Angry Birds and Words With Friends. They can also optimize your business and help you to perform your duties more efficiently. Here are a few of my personal favorite apps available for iOS.
YouSendIt – free
This is a great cloud-based file-sharing network. The idea is that it allows users to bunny hop email and the associated size restrictions. Next time you need to share that entire PowerPoint presentation, video or .zip file, just drop it into YouSendIt. You can also manage who gets to see what, so performance reports get dropped in a folder that is only seen by the manager and assignment go straight to the worker bees.
Square – free
Square is the easiest way small businesses can accept credit card payment. Simply attach the free Square credit card processor (it plugs into your iPhone’s headphone jack) and begin swiping. The service only costs 2.75 percent of each transaction. There is no per-transaction set fee—quite a coup in the mobile payment processing world.
Evernote – free
Evernote is fantastic not only for businesses, but for anyone who wishes to stay organized. You can leave notes and voice memos for yourself that sync to your computer, tablet and smartphone. The next time you have some extra time at the airport, you can edit that quarterly report on your iPad in Evernote, then when you get back to the office after the return flight, the changes will be waiting for you on your desktop.
Twitterific – $4.99
This was the first Twitter app to hit the Apple App Store and it is full of awesome features. One of the best features for business people is that it is supported by both the iPhone and the iPad. Buy it on one device, have it on both. The premium account, which I highly recommend, allows users to interact with the app without having to deal with annoying ads. It also has the added perk of allowing management of multiple accounts.
Lisa is a guest blogger who writes about the latest tech devices, social media and ways to use Dell coupons for computers.
