Small Business Tips: 7 Apps for Productivity

Running a small business requires wearing many hats and you may find juggling between being the marketing guru to the finance expert is challenging and can demand a lot of your time. Luckily, there are a plethora of apps available to help you stay organized, productive, and save time! We’ve narrowed down the list to 7 of our favourite productivity apps that are ideal for small business people – apps that can help you in almost all aspects of running a small business. The best part is, the majority of these apps are free, with some charging fees for premium versions.

1. Trello
   Tired of lengthy email threads or out-of-date spreadsheets? Trello is a free, flexible, and visual platform that can help you and your team stay organized. Trello allows users to create boards, checklists, labels, due dates, and much more – it’s perfect for keeping projects on track, especially those where agility and collaboration is required. Best of all, Trello is available as a smartphone app on Android and iOS. So, you can make, update, and assign your to-do lists wherever and whenever it’s convenient for you.
2. QuickTapSurvey
   Need a quick, easy, and, effective way to collect customer feedbacks and business data in-person? QuickTapSurvey can help. QuickTapSurvey is beautifully designed, structured with the end users in mind, and can help collect data that small business owners often need make important decisions. This app is trusted by thousands of organizations and recently won “best Android phone app for in-the-field and data collection” and “best iPhone app for in-the-field and data collection” – making it the first Canadian company to win an Android award at the Tabby/Mobby Business Awards! We love a great Canadian startup success story.
3. DocuSign
   DocuSign is a widely used eSignature and Digital Transaction Management app with millions of users, including Lendified! With DocuSign, you can sign and return a document in just a few steps. This simple platform provides a secure and simple way for small business people and their customers to electronically sign documents and collect signatures from others. DocuSign has been used in nearly every industry and department, including human resources, legal, healthcare, and many more.
4. Expensify
   Acknowledged by many tech news outlets as one of the best apps for expense reporting, Expensify helps the process of capturing receipts, tracking time and mileage, and creating expense reports quickly and with ease. With the SmartScan technology designed in the app, you simply take a picture of your receipt, select which report the expense goes to, and the app will automatically input all the entries for you, helping you save time and energy for other important things to do when running a small business. Expensify works in both web and mobile and costs $5-$10 monthly per active account.
5. IFTTT
   An abbreviation for “If This, Then That”, IFTTT is an app that allows users to create chains of conditional statements call “recipes” that are linked to other web services like Facebook, Gmail, and Dropbox. For example, if the IFTTT weather app detects it may rain sometime during the day, then based on that conditional statement you have set, it may send a text reminder to the user to bring an umbrella before they head out. With IFTTT, all your favourite apps can be connected to help you stay productive and better connected to your clients. Click here for popular ready-to-use IFTTT recipes!
6. Dropbox
   As one of the leading cloud hosting and storage services around, Dropbox is no stranger to anyone. Many small businesses turn to the cloud for storage solutions, especially in the absence of internal networking solutions. It’s also great for sharing files with clients and partners. The app allows users to upload text, photo, and video files to folders in the cloud, and later look at them from anywhere. Dropbox’s flawless file syncing is perfect for small business owners and entrepreneurs who work on the go.
7. Todoist
   Trusted by 5 million users, Todoist is one of the best task management apps and online to-do lists in the market, recommended by many of the world’s top media outlets like Forbes, Techcrunch, and Mashable. This simple and intuitively designed platform visualizes your productivity level by allowing users to accumulate points and track their progress with charts and rankings. This app is available in 15+ different platforms, including iOS, Android, Web, Chrome, and Firefox.