12 Oct Check These Out . . . Great Apps for Small Businesses
We know, we know. Everyone is always touting what’s the next best set of apps for small businesses. But that doesn’t mean that some aren’t worth checking out. You only need a couple of great ones to change your life (well, ok, at least your business day).
Here are some apps for small businesses that we recommend:
Toggl: If your business requires that you bill clients by the hour, you’re going to love Toggl (assuming you do your work online). For just $5 per month, you can integrate Toggl into your web browser and easily “toggle” the app on and off as you work on different projects.
It will also point out if you’ve been idle for a while, so if you get distracted and forget to turn it off, you can easily discard the unnecessary time. You can set up different projects with different users, set up expected total hours, and assign the hourly rate to each project (and within each project you can create tasks).
There is great reporting as well, so that you can see how much time you spent on each task, each client, over the last month, etc.
Square: If you haven’t heard of it, you should. Square is great for both taking payments in real life, or online. With the free reader provided by them, you can take credit cards on your phone (for chip technology and wireless transactions like ApplePay, you’ll need to order one of their more sophisticated readers).
Simply slide the credit card through the reader then use your phone to complete the transaction. If you bill online, Square can generate invoices for you to send out to clients. They can even register a credit card for you to charge when the bill is due, or set up a recurring payments for membership-type transactions.
It’s 2.75% fee for cards processed through the reader, and 3.5% for charges processed online. You can usually see the cash in your bank account just one day later.
GoTo Meeting: For $19 per month, GoTo meeting will let you schedule online meetings with colleagues clients (up to 10 attendees, more requires a higher plan). It’s simple to use, allows you to send a link to all the invitees, and you can use your own phone system or the audio link.
You can schedule in advance, set up recurring meetings, and once the meeting is active, it’s easy to let other people present their own screens to share with the group.
YouCanBook.me: If you want clients (and others) to be able to easily schedule an appointment with you, try You Can Book Me, which allows a free account for the basic services. Even the more robust version starts at just $10 per month.
This is a great app for those who have businesses like hair salons, spas, and other businesses that want to offer easy online booking. You decide when you’re available, setting your office hours so that people cannot book outside of those time frames.
Try out these great apps for small businesses and see which is a fit for you.
There are tons more options to check out, from time organizers to project planners to presentation software. Sometimes it seems like all the new apps out there are merely overwhelming, too many to sift through. But, if you can take the time to check them out, it could be really worth your while.
