Are you a small business owner, interested in expanding your business? But don’t know from where to start? In this article I will offer some app recommendations for running a small business.
When you’re a small business owner, you’re expected to have all the answers. Such as solving problems, communicating with employees and customers, marketing, managing finances, and so on. There is no doubt you’re constantly searching for ways to increase productivity while competing with bigger companies but with little to no spare manpower. And let’s not forget that your customers expect the best customer experience, it makes no difference to them if you’re a small business or a large enterprise.
So to make your life a bit easier, you need the best small business apps.
And we know that in today’s world, everyone has a smartphone, that’s why so many small business owners are making the move to small business apps – they need their employees to get work done from anywhere, at any time.
What you are looking for in small business apps?
- Affordable.
- No commitment plans.
- Easy to use.
- Can scale with your business.
- Great customer service if you need assistance.
- It must have a direct impact on investment very fast.
We created a list of the best small business apps for 2021. Actually, we went a step further and categorized the apps into eight categories for clear and easy navigation! The eight categories for the best small business apps include:
1. Small business management apps
2. Payment apps for small businesses
3. Finance and accounting apps
Use the apps to communicate with all your employees, manage payroll, job scheduling, and so much more. When you have the right small business apps in your pocket, you can accomplish more than you thought while growing your business.
The 36 Best Small Business Apps In 2021
Small Business Management Apps
1. Connecteam
Connecteam is the employee app that connects everything a business needs from field to office, all in one place. In the click of a button, you can connect your staff, manage day-to-day operations, improve employee experience and engagement, and drive your business forward. Connecteam offers the full package.
From the minute an employee begins onboarding to daily communication to time tracking, job scheduling, and operational procedures, Connecteam has it all. This way, your employees are more productive, are easily kept in the loop, and you have full visibility on what is going on.
Operational features include an employee time clock so you can simply track work hours with a GPS time stamp, checklists and forms so all workflows and procedures are online, and also employee scheduling.
Internal communication features include customizable chat options with private or group conversations, an employee directory available directly on the app, live polls, sharing of videos, pictures, and GIFs, immediate updates through channels, surveys, a suggestion box, and more.
Create professional courses for easy employee training and onboarding, add policies with read & sign options, build a searchable library, conduct quizzes, and more.
The best thing about it is that you can truly have an all-in-one solution to manage your employees, instead of integrating multiple solutions which will be far more complicated, time-consuming, and expensive.
Connecteam is trusted by more than 8,000 companies and offers fixed monthly pricing plans, starting at $39. Start with the free plan to see what the best small business management app is all about!
Start scaling your business with Connecteam’s free employee management app by signing up today!
2. SAP SuccessFactors
SAP SuccessFactors makes it simple to engage your entire workforce and complete HR tasks. A main feature of SAP is to boost productivity – connect all your employees so they receive key information and processes no matter where they are. It includes self-service tools for managers, employees, and HR, this way everyone stays on time of critical tasks.
With its HCM feature, “you can automate your people processes, improve visibility and efficiency, and transform your business turning strategy into execution every day.” If you’re interested, this small business app costs $84.53/year/user.
3. Chanty
Chanty is a team chat app that lets you communicate and collaborate with your team with ease. Get in touch with them using text and voice messages or make audio and video calls. Share your screen and communicate one-on-one or through public channels. Besides communication, you can manage your tasks and project by turning messages into tasks. Assign those tasks to your team and set deadlines so you can manage your work from Chanty. Finally, you can see everything in one place: your Teambook. This is your central communication hub that stores all of your contacts, messages, tasks, files, and much more.
4. Workday
Workday boasts of a single small business app for HR and finance so you can make better choices based on data and not guesswork. With this app, you can easily engage all your employees and it is customizable at any moment. Through their Workday Human Capital Management (HCM), as a manager, you hold all the cards to efficiently and effectively plan, recruit, and develop talent in just a click. This easy to use, user-friendly small business app seamlessly takes your employees from day one to their last day. Chat with a representative to get a price quote.
5. Xero
This New Zealand company allows you to monitor your cash flow in real-time. Send invoices (and see when they’ve been opened), create expense claims, and import and categorize all your latest bank transactions. There are dozens and dozens of more features that Xero offers and it also integrates with over 700 small business apps, like PayPal. Start a 30-day free trial and then choose from 3 plans: Early $9/month, Growing $30/month, or Established $60/month. Carefully review what each pricing plan includes as not each one is suitable for your business size and needs.
6. EmailAnalytics
EmailAnalytics is an app that visualizes your team’s email activity, enabling you to see essential productivity KPIs at a glance, such as emails sent, emails received, and average email response time. The app automatically integrates and performs all the calculations for you, and delivers you a convenient daily or weekly email report so you can effortlessly keep tabs on your team’s workload and efficiency.
Pricing starts at $15/user/mo, but they also offer bulk discounts for teams of 5+ users, with pricing going as low as $5/user/mo.
Payment Apps For Small Businesses
7. Melio
Melio is a web-based account payable platform that lets you conveniently pay bills via bank transfer and debit card for free, even for vendors who only accept check payments. Currently only available to small businesses in the U.S.
Melio is a free solution you can use immediately on any internet-enabled device such as your laptop or smartphone. This works perfectly for busy entrepreneurs and professionals who are looking for a way to pay bills and manage cash flow on the go without spending a huge portion of their budgets on expensive accounts payable software.
Melio comes with payment scheduling features that help you set automatic payments so you don’t have to worry about late payments or paying too early. It also has payment approval workflows so you can invite users or your accountant to access the platform while still having full control of transaction approvals. It integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks accounting software and allows paying with any credit card or bank in the US.
8. Square
Doesn’t matter where you sell, Square allows you to easily accept all payments; from accepting credit and debit card payments on your phone to building a custom solution on Square’s payment platform, or selling your products online. Additionally, you can, “Get real-time analytics and sales data, send a marketing email and online invoices to your customers, manage your locations and employees, and even run it all on our hardware.” Check out their pricing page to know exactly what it will cost your business.
9. Venmo
Last on our list of payment apps for small businesses is Venmo. Venmo isn’t just for splitting cab fares or sharing payments with friends, their social commerce platform allows you to do so much more. When customers checkout on mobile or desktop, Venmo steps in to connect real friends who can share what they experienced and bought. That network of friends can then view, like, and comment on a shared purchase – which means your brand gains a lot more exposure.
In other words, “Paying with Venmo allows customers on iOS and Android devices to make purchases using their Venmo account. Customers can connect their Venmo wallet to your mobile app or mobile website, and then seamlessly pay for all future transactions via Venmo without having to reauthorize in the Venmo app.” Standard pricing applies, 2.9% + $.30 per transaction.
Finance And Accounting Apps
10. QuickBooks
Quickbooks Online makes it super easy to manage all business needs, no matter the size of your company. Easily track expenses, create and send forms (such as quotes, invoices, accounting reports, etc.), know where your cash flow stands – its user-friendly dashboard presents everything in a way that’s simple to understand.
Start a free 30-day trial and then you need to choose from a pricing plan: simple start ($15/month), essentials ($23/month), or plus ($31/month).
11. Wave
With Wave, you can track income and expenses, create and send invoices (from desktop or mobile), recurring billing, and scan receipts from anywhere. The Wave dashboard is easy to navigate and was built especially for small business owners. Maybe that’s why this small business app is completely free – yes, you read that right.
“Connecteam helped us transition from a handful of productivity apps into ONE”
Time Management Apps
12. RescueTime
RescueTime runs in the background of your mobile phone or desktop, it tracks the time you spend on applications and websites so you have an accurate picture of your day, and it sends you a detailed report based on your activity. RescueTime will set alerts so you know how much time was spent on an activity, block distracting websites, you can pause RescueTime at any time (like if you’re on vacation), detailed answers on how much time you spent reading emails, scrolling social media, etc. Once you know where you’re wasting time and how much of it, you can be far more productive!
Choose their free for life plan to really understand how you spend your time or choose their Premium plan that costs $9/month (includes a 14-day free trial) and is way more in-depth than the free plan.
13. My Minutes
You can set personal goals like the minimum or maximum amount of time you actually want to put into a task. For example, spending “at least”1-hour exercising, or “at most” 30 minutes checking your email. Set days for when your tasks repeat and My Minutes will remind you about them. As your “streaks” change to green, you will be more motivated to tackle them again and again. This small business app is free to use and helps you manage your personal time far more productively.
14. Toggl
Toggl can help boost productivity, it is “The simplest time tracker to help you get things done. Ideal for teams, freelancers & agencies.” All you need to do is push a button. Toggl will quickly break down the numbers and the data is laid out at your feet in a clear, easy to understand format. Plus, the Toggl Button browser extension efficiently allows you to track your time in over 80 online tools. Once all the data is accessible and you see where all your time is spent, you can adjust as you need. Pricing starts at $9/month/per user, $18/month/per user, or chat with a representative about their Enterprise plan.
Project Management Apps
15. Monday
Monday is a project management app that clearly organizes all tasks and boosts team communication. Just create a project, add tasks to the said project, and finally, add steps to each task. As your employees complete a task or steps of a task, the status is updated so everyone can easily see where a project or task currently stands. In addition, you can create knowledge bases to store documents and anything else project related.
Monday is available on desktop and mobile and you can receive notifications in real-time so you never miss a beat. The pricing plans available differ by the number of users, for example, 5 users cost $29/month or for up to 10 users costs $59/month. There are also Standard, Pro, and Enterprise plans.
16. nTask
nTask is a cloud-based task and project management software that caters to small businesses and individuals. It provides users with tools that enable collaboration with team members on tasks, projects, issues, meetings, timesheets, and risks.
You can plan all your projects in nTask with just a few clicks by adding description, assigning resources, setting a budget, and creating tasks. You can visualize your project progress with beautiful interactive Gantt charts that can help in decision making. nTask is available on the web, Android, and iOS devices. You can get started with nTask with the forever free plan. The Premium plan starts are $2.99/user per month, and the Business package starts at $7.99/user per month.
17. Trello
Use Trello for all business needs like project management, a daily/monthly task list, organization, meal prep, maintaining a blog, and so on. All of their Kanban boards are shareable, flexible, and so much detail can be added to each card.
You don’t even need to use Trello just for work purposes, use it to organize it your life too! Choose from Trello’s two pricing plans: free or $12.50/monthly per user.
18. Basecamp
Basecamp describes their product clearly, “Basecamp combines all the tools teams need to get work done in a single, streamlined package. With everything in one place, your team will know what to do, where things stand, and where to find things they need.” Create, assign tasks, and set due dates with a to-do list, create a message board on a single topic, schedules clearly display all projects, all files and documents are conveniently located in one place, chat in real-time, “check-in questions” allow you to ask questions daily, weekly or monthly, share access with your clients, hill charts show project status, Pings are a direct messaging option, forward emails into Basecamp, and SO much more.
Start a free 30-day trial and then you need to choose if the $99/month for your entire team is right for you.
19. ProofHub
ProofHub is a project management app that gives you access to all your projects on the go. It is one place for all your projects and team collaboration. Managers can delegate from a distance. They can assign tasks, check the current status of any task, have a look at the planning aspect in no time with the ProofHub app.
Apart from this, the features like in-app notifications help in keeping everyone on the same page regarding duties and task updates. With an Android app, everyone can join in the Discussions and chat whenever the need to communicate arises.
ProofHub is supported on iOS, Android, and Windows platforms. And the fact that it’s super affordable doesn’t hurt either. It is available for $89 per month for unlimited users.
Start scaling your business with Connecteam’s free employee management app by signing up today!
Job Scheduling Apps
20. Connecteam Scheduling App
Connecteam’s scheduling app makes it easy for managers to save time, money, and effort on planning. How so? It’s easy to use, affordable and offers real-time oversight on where things stand. Not to mention, the app’s robust scheduling features allow you to reduce labor costs, improve worker morale and satisfaction, and eliminate the headaches that come with creating a schedule. If you’re on the go, Connecteam makes it easy to manage your schedule (even if you have multiple sites or departments), you can create the schedule by week or month, use features like duplicate, drag & drop, templates, bulk actions, and you can even communicate with your team directly from the app. Try it for yourself and start for free now!
21. Schedule Planner
If you need daily planning helped, Schedule Planner, is the answer. All tasks are organized by category and priority. Schedule Planner is easy to use, practical and has a sleek user interface. Users can create plans from scratch or choose a pre-existing one. Chat with a customer service representative about pricing.
22. ZoomShift
Everything you need for job scheduling, like availability, time offs, and shift swaps, is available on one app, ZoomShift. Use existing templates to create a schedule in minutes, you can also drag and drop shifts on the calendar. Share the schedule via text message, email, or push notification. All team members can view their schedules, set availability preferences, request time off, and can pick up open shifts.
If you’re looking to replace Excel, sign up for their free plan. Otherwise, you are looking to pay either $2 or $3 per user every month, depending on exactly which plan you choose.
23. 10to8 Scheduling
10to8 has a feature, Meeting Scheduling Software, built to help remote teams connect and organize meetings, like daily calls, virtual coffees, cross-department meetings, and more. And if your team is spread among many time zones, there is a timezone management feature so you’re not stuck calculating the differing hours.
There is also a native Zoom Video integration that allows you to manage video calls easily.
Marketing Apps
24. Wix
Within minutes, through Wix, you can easily create the website of your dreams. Choose from thousands of templates or start from scratch, then simply add content, and publish. It really is that simple. With an amazing website, customers enjoy their online experience and you can generate more leads.
With more than 110 million customers, Wix helps you create your own stunning website, “We have the only drag and drop website building platform with HTML5 capabilities, 500+ designer-made templates, top-grade hosting, innovative Apps, and 1000s of features for free.” Wix offers a free plan that you can start off with and then you can upgrade to “unlimited” so you can enjoy even more features to further your business at $12.50/month.
25. Buffer
Schedule and manage every one of your social media posts from a single place. Easily send your message to your social platforms, without any of the added hassle. Create posts, analyze the data, and engage your followers.
Up to 25 users can be added to your Buffer account, and you can choose who has full posting access or needs permissions. Choose from free or $15/month starter plans or their business plans. However, based on what your needs are, take a close look at each of the plans so you can choose the right fit for you.
26. Hootsuite
You’re looking at a social media management system. Hootsuite helps you track and manage all your social network channels. It enables you to monitor what people are saying about your brand and helps you instantly respond to them. View streams from various networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ and post an update or reply directly. What is best about Hootsuite is that you really can monitor multiple streams from one place, currently, it supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ Pages, Foursquare, Instagram, WordPress blogs, Vimeo, Tumblr, Evernote, Flickr, Mailchimp, Slideshare, Storify, and more.
For $19/month, you get one user and up to 5 social platforms with unlimited scheduling. $99/month gets you 10 social profiles with 3 users and unlimited scheduling. $559/month gets you 35 social profiles for 5 users (up to 10) and unlimited scheduling. If you need an Enterprise plan, chat with a Hootsuite professional.
27. Mention
If you want real-time media monitoring on your brand, you need Mention. You can easily g live updates about your brand from all over the web and social media. With Boolean alerts, you can closely monitor your brand, competitors, and customers. This allows you to attract customers, build brand awareness, and improve the reputation of your business.
Choose from 3 plans: $25/month (2 basic alerts, 3,000 mentions, 2 social accounts and 1 user), $83/month (5 basic alerts, 5,000 mentions, 5 social accounts and 3 users) or $600+/month (Boolean alerts, custom mentions, 10+ social accounts and unlimited users).
28. Mailchimp
So you want to send out newsletters straight to your customer’s email? Or create landing pages, signup forms, and Facebook ads? Mailchimp is the solution! The interface is easy to navigate, their unique templates are professionally designed, and you can even start for free. Easily reach your clients and get new ones as you increase your marketing efforts in a snap.
As your audience grows, Mailchimp grows with you. The small business app has even more features that can help automate all your marketing goals and it isn’t complicated to understand. Their customer service is always available and membership is free, then costs you $10/monthly.
Org Chart Software
29. Pingboard
Pingboard is an amazing tool that provides real-time, collaborative org chart software so it’s that much easier to organize teams, plan for growth, and keep everyone on the same page. Simply create multiple private org charts to better manage hiring, execute succession planning, build interactive charts with real-time data, and benefit from the employee directory that’s available on iOS and Android.
You can start for free and then choose a pricing plan that best suits your budget and needs. On Pingboard’s pricing page, it separates pricing by how many employees you have so you can get a more calculated total.
Other Favorites
30. BlogIn
BlogIn is a beautifully simple internal blog and knowledge-sharing platform for teams of all sizes. The internal blog acts as a central information hub or a ‘virtual bulletin board’ for the company, allowing all employees to stay in the loop with what’s going on in and around the office. In addition, the blog opens a new, transparent, two-way communication channel inside an organization, where everyone can ask a question and get the information they need to make faster and smarter decisions. The internal blog is intuitive and easy to use, so everyone can quickly get on board, which is one of the reasons why it works so well as the internal communication tool.
What are some key benefits to your company? Share internal news and knowledge, improve internal communication, boost company culture, and enable transparent, two-way communication.
31. Acquire
With the help of Acquire, you can easily sell and support customers using a single platform. It helps in providing positive customer experience through its customer engagement software. As a business owner, it gives a unified customer view wherein you can check out all their digital interactions in one single timeline.
On top of this, the software also offers an omnichannel customer experience. Using this feature, you can utilize its real-time communication tools and capabilities, and offer an omnichannel customer experience. This way, it is possible for you to be everywhere your customers are. It also consists of more than 50 integrations that assist you connect your Acquire account to the most popular sales, support, and customer service tools.
32. Kipwise
Kipwise is a knowledge management tool that helps teams build up their company knowledge hub easily. It offers powerful Slack integration, browser extensions and is integrated with Google Drive, Trello, Airtable and more, so you can save and retrieve team knowledge easily, wherever you need them.
Using its real-time collaborative editor with rich embedding options, your team can edit the same doc at the same time and create visually appealing documentation easily. You can also set designated reviewers for your collections, and Kipwise will remind them to review the content regularly to ensure your knowledge base is always up-to-date and accurate.
33. YouTeam
YouTeam will support your company’s expansion. When you need to hire a remote software engineer or even hire a development team, this platform will help to make your hiring experience smooth, fast, and reliable. Backed by Y Combinator, YouTeam operates the network of trusted outsourcing companies from Eastern Europe and Latina America. Every partner in the network, as well as every developer that they submit to YouTeam’s talent pool, passes a pre-vetting process, including independent developers’ skills verification via HackerRank for Work™. This model and a fast matching process make it possible to hire a remote development team within 48 hours.
Among the most important features that you get with YouTeam should be mentioned: a handpicked talent sourcing, a dedicated manager to facilitate legal and communication questions between the client and the development side, secure payments. One more vital advantage of the platform is reasonable rates based on the engineer’s professional level and geo.
34. Hubspot
Forget about cluttered Excel spreadsheets or a complex onboarding process, Hubspot is the perfect CRM for you. Why? Well, all interactions are automatic, you receive up to 1,000,000 contacts, users, and storage until the end of time and best of all, it’s free! Just link the CRM to all locations (website, social media, email service providers, etc.) HubSpot said it best, “Organize your contacts, get deeper insights on every lead, and monitor deals with ease — all for free.”
HubSpot makes it easy to streamline all the data for current and future customers so that your team can focus on making money instead of navigating through endless paperwork. On-boarding is super easy as well so it’s a small business app your entire team will want to use over and over.
35. myHQ
myHQ is one of the fastest-growing networks of coworking spaces for individuals, startups and enterprise teams. In addition to monthly work plans, they also have a novel pay-per-use flexi pass which gives you access to over 300 workspaces at nominal prices. Their spaces are fully-furnished with premium amenities and host a vibrant community of innovators.
As a member, you also get access to free benefits worth $25K on over 100 global business tools & services like AWS, DigitalOcean, Segment, Hotjar, Constant Contract, etc.
36. Relevant Software
If you need a website, mobile application, or complex software system built for your business — Relevant is a company you should contact. In case you are a tech company, they can provide you with software developers fast to extend your existing engineering team. For 7 years on the market, they have helped more than 200 businesses progress with tech solutions.
The price for services is reasonable as the company is located in Ukraine – the country with an excellent tech skills reputation and quite a low cost of living.
Free communications apps
1. Glip by RingCentral
For small businesses that need a variety of different options for communicating with teammates, prospects, clients, freelancers, and more… our recommendation is always to find versatile apps that can do multiple things well.
Why?
Because if you can streamline your tools that way, then you’d be paying for fewer tools every month (one-trick-pony types of tools can add up fast and are hard to keep track of when you have 10 or 15 subscription fees every month) and also spending less valuable time trying to manage all those tools.
That’s why Glip is our pick. It’s a desktop and mobile app that gives you both team messaging and video conferencing for free in one easy-to-use interface:
Not only does it give you a maximum of 24 hours per meeting (no 40-minute caps), it also lets you have smarter meetings by giving you the full pre-meeting, in-meeting, and post-meeting experience.
Need to prep an agenda? It integrates with Google Calendar and Outlook to automatically add your video meeting PIN and other details right into the invite. And after the meeting, it lets you create a group chat with the attendees from that meeting to stay organized and keep track of follow-ups and other tasks.
Plus, with Glip’s free plan, you can…
- Call up to 100 participants for up to 24 hours at a time.
- One-click host and join: No downloads needed. To join a meeting, just open your internet browser to enter the meeting code. (Or use the app!)
- Create and assign tasks to your team:
- Share files and create team events:
- Share your screen.
- Send in-meeting private and group chats.
- And more…
🚀Free unlimited video meetings. Really.
Free finance apps
When looking for accounting apps or bookkeeping tools, two of the names that spring to mind are FreshBooks and QuickBooks. These both have great features for small businesses, but neither offers a free version. Here are some free alternatives:
1. Wave
Wave is a free app with features aimed specifically at small business owners. It’s cloud-based, so there’s no need for downloads or installation, but the relatively poor performance of the iOS and Android mobile apps may put some people off.
Useful features:
- Unlimited invoices, customers, and transactions
- Automated cash flow and expense tracking
- Ecommerce feature
- Direct integration with Etsy
- Adminsoft
This double-entry accounting system is free to use and includes standard invoicing, ledgers, and expense software. It’s mainly aimed at Windows devices but can also run on Mac and Linux.
Useful features:
- Stock control and purchase order tools
- HR and payroll options
- Multiple companies and multiple currencies
- Connect to receipt printers, cash drawers, and barcode scanners
2. Expensify
Expensify is only free for a trial period, but at least you can see if it’s suitable for you before committing to a pricing plan. It’s simple to use and works with iOS and Android.
Useful features:
- Most tasks can be automated
- Unlimited expense/receipt upload
- Real-time expense reports
- Easy integration with accounting software
File storage and sharing apps
With the rise of remote working and paperless offices, digitized storage and sharing of files becomes crucial. RingCentral’s Glip is the best app for file sharing and collaboration with free unlimited cloud storage, but here are a few other options:
1. Evernote
Great for efficiency, this app enables you to organize documents, notes, images, and recordings in one place. It’s especially handy for remote working, as you can jot down notes on the go.
Useful features:
- Share notes with colleagues
- Search for text in handwriting and images
- Drag and drop key documents into a new note
- Make notebooks accessible offline
- Use on Windows, Apple, Android, and iOS
2. Google Drive
With this free app, you can create and save files online, share them with team members, and access them from any device. That said, it’s best for those who are already using Google Workspace. It is available for iOS, but Android users will find it already integrated.
Useful features:
- Generous free storage
- Invite others to edit or download files
- Offline access available
- Link to other productivity tools
3. Microsoft OneDrive
This cloud storage app is best for those who already use Microsoft Office. If you have Microsoft 365, you’ll automatically get 1 TB of space per user for free; otherwise, it’s only 5 GB.
Useful features:
- Edit files online without downloading
- Share files with people who don’t have OneDrive
- Integration with Outlook and Windows 10
- Offline access available
- Compatible with Android, iPhone, and iPad
4. Dropbox
A well-known cloud computing app that allows you to sync files and folders across various platforms, Dropbox has a very basic free tier with just 2 GB of storage (we’d recommend just going with Glip’s free plan since it’s fully integrated into your team messaging anyway)—but you can try the paid plans free for 30 days.
Useful features:
- No-download web browser option
- Works on Windows and Mac, Android, and iOS
- File sync and recovery
- File previews and collaboration
Payment processing apps
1. Square
This popular payment app for small businesses is free to download, although Square deducts 2.75 percent from all credit card transactions, and you’ll need to pay extra for a reader that accepts contactless cards.
Useful features:
- Free reader to swipe credit cards
- Pay, tip, and sign right on your device
- Invoice sending and tracking
- Send receipts via email or text
- Real-time sales data and history
2. PayPal
We’re all familiar with PayPal, which is simple to use and boasts no sign-up cost or direct fees. You only pay after you make a sale, when it will take up to 4.4 percent—but its simplicity makes it attractive to small businesses.
Useful features:
- Express checkout
- Barcode scanning
- Inventory tracking
- Mobile card reader
- Online invoicing
Project management apps
Project management tools are a great way to maximize efficiency in small businesses. While Glip by RingCentral already gives you a way to create and assign tasks to teammates, if you tend to have a lot of really big and complex projects, here are a few other tools to choose from:
1. Trello
Trello lets you organize all of your work-based and personal projects through your mobile device or computer. There’s a free tier, but it does put a 10 MB limit on the size of file attachments.
Useful features:
- Set tasks and track progress
- Delegate tasks and make to-do lists
- Customized workflows
- Upgrade to integration with Google Hangouts and Slack
- Runs on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS
2. Asana
With an emphasis on teams and tracking, Asana offers some great features for managing projects—although the free version could be seen as a bit basic.
Useful features:
- Create to-do lists and reminders
- Add due dates, instructions, and comments
- Share images from other apps
- Track everything you and your colleagues work on
- Suitable for Android and iOS
3. Basecamp
Basecamp is an effective tool for teams that need to collaborate on projects, and it’s got a solid reputation after more than 10 years in the game. The free version lets you work on up to three projects with up to 20 people—for more functionality, you have to upgrade to a single paid tier.
Useful features:
- Direct messaging for quick discussions
- Set notifications for work hours only
- Applause button to praise colleagues
- Save and track client feedback
- Mobile apps for Android and iOS
Customer relationship management apps
Customer management is a crucial part of keeping your business running smoothly, because happy customers = loyal customers! Apps for this purpose will help you learn more about your customer base and target the right services to the right people.
1. Zoho CRM
The free version of Zoho CRM is good for the very smallest businesses, as it allows up to three users. And if you upgrade to the affordable Standard plan, you can take advantage of its integration with RingCentral for a better call-handling and CRM experience:
Useful features:
- Lead management
- Automated workflow
- Advanced analytics
- AI assistant included
- Apps for iOS and Android
2. Hubspot CRM
This easy-to-use CRM offers access to sales tools and data to help small businesses generate sales and implement loyalty campaigns. It’s free of charge and compatible with both Android and iOS.
Again, like Zoho CRM, you can hook up HubSpot to your communication platform or business phone app to make it possible to call your prospects and customers straight from your HubSpot dashboard. Here’s how it looks with RingCentral’s integration:
Useful features:
- Unlimited users and up to a million contacts
- Chrome email add-on
- Record calls and track website activity
- Live chat and chatbot included
Other marketing apps
Once you’ve learned what your customers’ preferences are, you can promote your services accordingly—and marketing apps can do much of the hard work for you by email, social media, and more.
1. Mailchimp
If you need a little help in making your marketing emails stand out, Mailchimp is for you. The free service (up to 10,000 monthly emails) offers marketing tools to create, manage, and analyze your email and ad campaigns.
Useful features:
- Templates for emails and newsletters
- Easy personalization options
- Advanced analytics and tracking
- Ecommerce integrations (Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento)
- Cross-platform compatibility
2. Foursquare for Business
This location-based social networking service is a free and instant way to advertise to a wide audience and interact with customers. Basically, you manage your own listing on the app, and people can then check in and share with others on Foursquare, Facebook, and Twitter.
Useful features:
- “Claim” your physical location and list your business
- Send updates to people who’ve previously checked in
- Promote specials, coupons, and deals
- Create badges for users to collect
- Cross-platform compatibility
Conclusion
Running a small business is hard work. It’s hard to keep up with the data, the minutiae, and the minutia of sometimes minuscule details that go into doing something yourself. Thankfully, there are plenty of applications out there to help you along the way.