In a time where tech is king, it can be easy to get lost in the many different apps and services that are out there to help you manage your business on the go. The modern day small business owner is likely to be juggling a diverse and dynamic business whilst wearing many hats. The work doesn’t stop and because of this business owners have had to adapt.
We have picked our 5 favourite apps for managing your business whilst on the go. The apps we have chosen all serve a different purpose, and allow you to work coherently with your team and clients no matter where you are in the world.
- Asana
If you don’t have Asana go and download it right now. Asana is a workflow and project management tool, allowing you to create a structured task list for you and your team to use. Within Asana you can create projects and assign them to certain team members, and within projects you can create tasks, tasks within tasks, and so it goes on. It also allows you to post comments and chat with others in your team, ensuring everyone is in the know with what is going on.
Being that it is cloud based, you can create a task on your desktop, add a comment on your phone whilst in a meeting, and then update your employees on the next steps from your iPad. Now if you’re still not convinced, Asana is free for teams of up to 15 people. This means that small businesses can access the full functionality of Asana for free!
- Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a great tool to help you manage your business’ social media. With Hootsuite you can manage all your social accounts on the one platform. You can post updates, view your page’s streams/newsfeed’s and even comment and reply through the service.
Do you have a number of people that need access to your social pages? No worries, there is a great delegation feature, so if you have internal staff that manage different aspects of your social strategy, or use an outside agency, you will always have control and a knowledge of what is happening on each platform.
Another cloud-based platform, you can access Hootsuite on a desktop or download the app for access on the go. The service is not free, and you can view their costings here.
- Dropbox
I think it is safe to say that everyone is across Dropbox, over 500 million people use the service around the world! The service was launched in 2008 and we have all seen it’s gravitational rise to fame since then. Storing files in the cloud means that you have access to all your documents, image, and so on from anywhere on any device! You can also share your files easily between dropbox users.
Whilst a free account only gives you 2GB of storage, you can up-grade your account to 1TB, or sign up for Dropbox for Business to get unlimited storage and file retrieval.
- Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a tool that is crucial to your business’ online success. Google’s website analytics can provide you with an array of insights into your website’s performance. Having this data on hand means that you can change any online strategy you might be currently implementing, give potential customers or clients your website stats, or manage your Google Adwords account.
You can download the Google Analytics and Adword Manager on the App store.
- LinkedIn Pulse
Keeping your finger on the pulse in business is important. The LinkedIn Pulse platform was originally established so that LinkedIn Influencers (the likes of Sir Richard Branson, David Eldeman & Peter Guber) could post their own content and commentary for everyone to read. However, with its success LinkedIn altered the platform to allow all users to publish content.
Being able to build and develop your professional network on the go is essential. LinkedIn Pulse lets you do this and more! Developing and publishing your own content on LinkedIn Pulse will get you and your business out there in front of the right people.
So there you have it, the 5 best apps for managing your business on the go! Do you use these apps, or are there some apps that you think do a better job than the ones we have listed? Let us know.
Mary-Anne
