10 free apps and tools to help you run your small business successfully
Running a small business in this day and age is no easy feat. Not only are you competing against other businesses and huge corporations that operate on a global scale, you are often doing so on a fraction of the budget they have to spend.
Another problem is that it can seem like you’ve never got enough time to spare. From managing your social media accounts and answering countless emails to setting up your marketing automation and dealing with custom queries, questions and complaints, most small business owners will agree that the to-do list never seems to shrink.
However, there are tools, services and email marketing hacks out there to help you carry out and manage your everyday tasks with ease, allowing you to focus on the most important aspects of your business. Here are ten of those essential tools and apps to get you started.
#1 – QuickBooks
How much time each month to you spend calculating all your finances and managing the inflow and outflow of money to and from your small business? If the answer is a lot, then it might be worth looking into apps like QuickBooks. Available for desktop and mobile devices, you can effortlessly manage all your finances from one central place.
#2 – Slack
As a small business, you’ll need to make sure that you can quickly and easily stay in contact with the rest of your team or employees to make sure problems are solved and progress is made on any projects that you’re working on. Using Slack you can easily set up chat rooms for each project or task and then stay connected using the secure instant messaging functions.
#3 – HootSuite
Managing your social media accounts can also be a real hassle for small businesses, especially when there are so many tricks, tips and algorithms to consider. However, HootSuite can help you to make things so much easier. The tool can seamlessly connect with all your social media profiles, allowing you to schedule posts, see all your analytics and manage your online content with ease.
#4 – Dropbox
Perhaps one of the most common apps to appear on small business productivity lists, Dropbox is an essential tool in any small business’s toolbox. Whether you’re out and about, or you have people working from home – or, in fact, anywhere in the world – accessing your files quickly and securely via the cloud servers is so important.
While the basic service is free, it only offers a relatively small amount of storage (up to 2GB storage). If you want a lot more space (2TB or more) then you will need to subscribe to the Dropbox Business service starting from £10 a month.
#5 – MailChimp
How do you currently handle all your emails? Manually, using a standard email client? If so, your life is about to be completely transformed thanks to MailChimp. MailChimp is a complete email marketing solution, allowing you to manage your mailing lists, creating high-quality emails from scratch or using templates. What’s more it’s available free of charge up to 50,000 emails per month.
#6 – Revieweal
If you’re looking for content for your website, blog, other guest blogs or any other form of written content, you may find that you don’t have time to write it all yourself and maintain the highest quality possible.
If this is the case, why not outsource your content tasks to professional writers found through websites such as Revieweal? Here, you’ll be able to find a collection of all the content marketing websites you’ll ever need, helping you find one that best suits you.
#7 – Evernote
Another essential app for you to use, that’s also compatible with desktop devices, is Evernote. Whether you’re creating to-do lists, writing content ideas, managing projects or even adding and editing content from the internet, Evernote is a multi-functional tool to help you effortlessly complete your tasks.
#8 – ToDoIst
While on the subject of to-do lists, keeping an organised and well-maintained to-do list is the best way to stay on top of everything you need to complete and keep your busy organised and successful.
ToDoIst is a complete to-do list management tool that’s available on all your devices, allowing you to effortlessly note down anything you need to do so you don’t ever forget anything that’s important.
#9 – Elite Assignment Help
Content marketing is one of the most important and effective ways to market your business, but it’s also renowned for being one of the most tedious and time-consuming. Through Elite Assignment Help, you can order all kinds of writing-based services, from editing and proofreading your content to writing it from scratch. These kinds of services were even recently featured in major publications like the Huffington Post.
#10 – Pocket
Pocket is a free app, available for both iOS and Android devices which can help you to store everything online you want to make a note of or refer back to at a later date. Whether it’s entire web pages, clips of articles, images or even just making notes, think of Pocket as your complete digital and portable notepad.
Rachel Summers has been a social media manager for five years, working alongside an extensive selection of companies, including custom writing service Boom Essays. During her free time, Rachel helps and a variety of small and start-up businesses on their social media and email marketing strategies.
