Epic’s Picks: Top 6 Apps for Small Businesses
Managing and growing a small or medium-sized business is a difficult job for any business owner. But thanks to technology, the job is becoming increasingly streamlined. We’ve filtered through the masses and determined the best apps and services that will save you time and money, allowing you to grow your businesses efficiently. Herewith are our favorites:
Evernote: a desktop and mobile app that allows you to save different forms of documents and notes all in one place. You can save notes, ideas, pictures on Evernote and share them easily between colleagues. Think of it as an extra brain inside of your computer. We use Evernote for all meeting notes, brainstorming, and for swipe files. Another huge benefit of Evernote is the ability to communicate within the app by posting comments and holding discussions about various documents.
Link to Download: https://evernote.com/evernote/
Bill.com is an online billing service that simplifies the accounts payable and accounts receivable processes. We’ve cut back on the time spent on billing considerably since we started using it, and although it is not a perfect system, it does make entering bills and sending invoices easier. The app is great for payments, but that is all it does, which is a little underwhelming.
Sign Up For Free: https://www.bill.com/5mhome/#
As far as project management tools go, Asana is by far our favorite (and dare we say the prettiest?). Like its competitors, Asana has tasks, conversations, projects, and dashboards, but what sets it apart is it’s UI. With an intuitively structured layout, customizable backgrounds, and even celebration unicorns when you complete a task, Asana’s design really sets it apart from the rest. Other perks include their impressive list of integrations (see their app directory https://asana.com/apps) and the ability to track individual employee progress with ease. We think Asana deserves its own celebration unicorn.
Sign Up For Free: https://asana.com/pricing
There’s quite a few apps out there that let you scan documents from your phone, but our personal favorite is Scannable. Outside of the obvious benefit of not having to go through the hassle of using scanners and fax machines to get high quality scans, scannable also integrates with Evernote, uploading documents directly into the app. Other benefits include the accuracy of the uploads, ease when it comes to taking the pictures (Scannable aligns the image for you) and automatically removed backgrounds (i.e. the desk you took the picture on). As Evernote users and scanning haters this app gets a gold star from us.
Link to Download: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/evernote-scannable/id883338188?mt=8
IFTTT (If This Then That) helps us automate internal processes so that we can worry about more important things… like who will ascend to the iron throne. The IFTTT app builds relationships and functions between various products and apps already in use at small and medium businesses. These connections, called “recipes”, allow apps to work together to deliver information to the user and save information pertinent to the business in online and cloud storage. For example, a “recipe” can sync new files added to Dropbox to Google Drive as well. If, like us, you are using multiple apps to manage your information, IFTTT can be a huge time saver.
Sign Up For Free: https://ifttt.com/join
We’ve used several email newsletter apps for our clients and Mailchimp is hands down the most intuitive and fun app to use. They have templates and comment sections inside the editor make the process easy for collaborative, multi-user accounts to create a polished finished product. Automation features allow users to follow up with customers after a purchase, re-engage with inactive subscribers, and extend warm welcomes to new subscribers. The reporting is robust so you can track how many people opened an email campaign, exactly what they clicked through, sales, and website activity with revenue reports. Mailchimp integrates with other apps and services like Salesforce, Eventbrite, Google, Facebook, and SurveyMonkey to further monitor trends and deliver results for your business.
Sign Up For Free: https://login.mailchimp.com/signup?source=website&pid=GAW
These applications are designed to streamline business processes and allow you to dedicate more time to growing your brand. Beyond just benefits of internal efficiency and simplicity, these apps will help you build a better business overall.
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