Running a business can take its toll on you. It requires a lot of work, time and effort. You have many tasks fighting for your attention. Thank God for technology. Business apps are here to make your life much easier.
Let’s look at some of the top recommended apps to take the stress, manage your time and boost productivity.
- Good old Skype. This app is wonderful for communicating with new or potential customers. It’s ideal for holding team meetings, dealing with overseas partners, securing new business deals or holding a video conference.
You’ve got two options with Skype. Use it for free Skype audio and video calls plus messaging. You can have up to 25 people in a group call. It’s useful for conducting team meetings, sharing ideas, brainstorming and setting goals with members of your team.
For a $1.69 a month fee, Skype can host a video meeting with up to 250 people.
- Rescue time is ideal for keeping you focused and away from distractions. It will sit quietly on your computer in the background or on your mobile device.
Rescue Time gives you a report of your daily movements and shows you how long you spend on websites or activities. You’ll know when you’ve been productive or when you’ve wasted valuable time. Also, you can use the email report and productivity score to make a better plan for the following week. Use the reports to manage your time better.
Set daily goals to keep you on track and focused. For example, use it to limit the amount of time you spend checking your emails. Or set the alarm to tell you when you’ve spent more than the allocated time on Facebook. This is a big time eater and it’s easy to get carried away reading through Facebook feeds.
Rescue Time is available as a free app or for a premium fee of $72 a year.
The premium app will stop you from accessing sections of the internet that distract you. You will also get alerts when you’ve spent too much time on one activity. It’s super useful for logging how long you spend at meetings, on the phone or travelling.
- QuickBooks Online is an accounting app for managing your finances. It’s flexible. Your accountant will be able to see real-time updates from the dashboard, as you add to your accounting records.
QuickBooks has different plans to suit your business and it’s easy to use, even if you haven’t got any previous experience.
It’s simple to create customized invoices, track expenses and unpaid invoices, connect to your bank, pay staff and record receipts.
At a glance, you can see who owes you money, making it easier to chase them up for payment.
Keep on top of your business finances by viewing your balance sheet, profit and loss accounts and tax information. Plus, keep an eye on your cash flow and revenue with a click.
- Evernote has lots of benefits. Think of it as a workspace where you can keep your notes, documents, images, files, information and more. It’s one of the best productivity apps and you can access it while out and about with your mobile. Also, it’s free.
This helpful app has many uses. Evernote is ideal for creating project lists, making notes of to-do tasks, brainstorming and jotting down ideas for your business.
Easily find stored notes. Record interesting facts, blog articles, news, inspiration or anything else from the internet.
Collect images, files, research from the web and share ideas with colleagues. For convenience, sync everything between your mobile phone and computer from Evernote.
“Regardless of what we’re researching or what we’re studying, it’s all connected in one way or another. Evernote Business helps us find those connections.” ~ Aarron Walter, Director of UX, Mailchimp.
- Todois is a free time-saving productivity app. Use it to manage your projects online, offline, at home and across other platforms. Access it anywhere such as on your mobile phone, web browsers, inboxes and more.
Share tasks, projects and goals with business colleagues, mentors or anyone else connected to your business. You can do this in real-time. In addition, create lists with it and organize your tasks.
The push notification will notify you of important changes or you can choose to be alerted by email.
Make use of the color coded priority levels to focus on important tasks. Also, sort tasks into different categories using labels to help keep you organized. If you want to know how productive you are throughout the day, track your time using Todoist Karma.
In conclusion, apps are a godsend for reducing stress, managing time and keeping you focused while working on your business.
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