Are you struggling to balance everything it takes to run your business? Have you tried to outsource, but failed to find someone equipped for the job? I’ve got solutions for you!
Most are familiar with the saying, “There’s an app for that.” And, it’s true. There really is an app for everything. Even for running your business. Not only are they cheaper than hiring someone, but these apps also make things so much easier.
So with that, let’s get started on my favorite apps to help you run your business better.
Accounting
Accounting is extremely crucial to running any small business. I mean, that’s you’re money. This includes payroll, your quotes and invoices, expenses, and payments. If you don’t have an accountant, you should at least have good accounting software.
Aside from your bank’s mobile app, here are some bookkeeping apps of the top bookkeeping apps for small businesses:
Quickbooks
QuickBooks is easy-to-use all-around accounting software that helps you do just about anything accounting-related, even taxes (with TurboTax integration).
Key Features:
- Various reports at the touch of a button
- Send invoices through text, email, or messaging app
- Immediate track and update mileage, hours, and expenses
- Auto transfer payments to your bank account (or to employees)
Pricing: Plans start at $15 per month.
Freshbooks
Freshbooks is cloud-based accounting software that lets you track anything from your phone and automate things like quotes to invoices.
Features:
- Recurring invoices for regular jobs
- Tracks finances, expenses, invoices, and more
- Easy invoice setup and customization
- Intuitive accounting and automation
Pricing: Try it free and upgrade starting at $1.90/a month. Pricing is dependent on features.
Sage
Sage is another trusted cloud-based accounting software that makes accounting easy through detailed reports and organized management.
Features:
- Sage University allows you to learn about accounting for your business
- The dashboard is highly visible and easy to read
- Automatic overdue invoice notifications
- Also offers HR services
Pricing: Try one of Sage’s accounting packages free for 3 months and upgrade starting at $15 per month.
Marketing
Marketing is a huge part of running your small business. Without it, you can never expect to get any clients. Marketing is really a big umbrella term for different branches like content marketing, search engine marketing, and social media marketing.
Here are my top three apps to help your small business with marketing.
Ahrefs:
Ahrefs is the best platform to help you with search engine marketing and search engine optimization, which are both key to getting seen by your target audience.
Features:
- Competitor research reports
- Backlinking help
- Website audits and reports
- Brand mentions monitoring
- Keyword research
Pricing: Try Ahrefs for free (limited trial) and then upgrade for $99/month
Hubspot
Hubspot is a marketing and CRM platform that has everything you need to properly grow and run your business.
Features:
- Email marketing
- Landing page creation for ads
- Mobile optimization
- Analytics reports
- Lead management
Pricing: Free trial is available, but it is limited. The starter package is $50 per month.
MailChimp
MailChimp is another great marketing platform that offers various services, due to its own growing business.
Features:
- All types of marketing on and offline
- Import and export data
- Automate what you need to simplify
- Focuses on your audience for better research
- Analytic reports
Pricing: Free trial of MailChimp is available, and then you can upgrade for $9.99 a month.
Project Management
When you run your own business, project management is key to ensuring everything is done well and on time. These apps help you stay on track whether you’re on your own or have a team to manage:
Monday
Monday is a great project management platform that allows you to customize your workflows and organize things the way you want them.
Features:
- Track progress on tasks and projects
- Set due dates and stay connected with your team
- Integrates with other apps like Slack, Loom, and Google Drive
- Automated assignments for each task to team members when a task is completed
Pricing: You can try Monday for free, and then upgrade to a better plan from $8 monthly.
ClickUp
ClickUp is a workflow and project management app that integrates with other apps and keeps your whole team organized on every project.
Features:
- In-app messaging to stay in touch with team members
- Integrates with Google Drive and other productivity apps
- Create to-do lists for each project with dependent tasks
- Hold team members accountable with deadlines
Pricing: Free trial is available, but unlimited plans start at $5/month.
Trello
Trello is a collaborative team and project management software that allows you to map out and track projects in a simple, organized way.
Features:
- Sort projects into cards and boards
- Auto-assign tasks for when others are done first
- Schedule recurring tasks
- Integrates with other apps for better productivity
- Prioritize the most important tasks
Pricing: Free plan is available. Upgraded plans start at $5 a month.
Sales
The most important part of your small business is sales. Even before you worry about accounting, you’ve got to have sales. “Sales” includes your customer outreach and payment systems.
Here are the best apps for small business sales:
Salesforce
Salesforce is a top-notch software that drives better sales and customer relationships that help grow your business.
Features:
- Customized reports
- Lead management
- Customer support
- Automation of almost everything
Pricing: Salesforce pricing plans start at $25
Square
Square is a POS hardware that comes with software and allows taking payments wherever you are.
Features:
- Sales reports
- Customer reports and insights
- Hardware scans cards and barcodes
- The software offers email marketing
Pricing: Software is free with Square hardware. Both are paid through a fee per transaction.
Shopify
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that makes it super simple to set up shop and sell your own products or do wholesale or dropshipping. Whatever you like.
Features:
- Templates make designing easy
- Integrate various payment methods
- Marketing & SEO plugins are available
- Mobile & desktop versions are available
Pricing: Limited free Shopify trial is available. After that, plans start at $29 per month.
Customer Relations Management (CRM)
This is another really important aspect of running your business. Once you’ve got clients, you want to keep them. So, you need to make sure you stay on their minds and in their good books.
Here are the best CRM platforms:
Hubspot
Hubspot CRM is a brand of Hubspot that focuses solely on your customers to help make your business the go-to!
Features:
- Pipeline management
- Customer reports
- Lead management
- Customize your sales funnel
Pricing: You start with Hubspot today for FREE
Salesforce
Aside from sales, Salesforce is also a fan favorite for CRM for its ultimate simplification of the sales and CRM parts of running your business.
Features:
- Contact management
- Lead management
- Quote and invoice management
- Complete automation of your sales funnel
- Insightful analytic reports
Pricing: You can start with Salesforce tarting at $25 a month.
Zoho
Zoho is an all-in-one CRM software for getting customers to your business and extending customer lifetime values.
Features:
- Integrates with other apps
- Lead management
- Analytics reports
- Sales management
- Marketing automation
Pricing: You can start with Zoho for free. Then, upgrade for $4 a month, depending on the features you want.
File Storage/Sharing
Finally, we come to file storage and sharing. There are a lot of documents you need to have access to at various times. And, the days of a filing cabinet are over.
Here are some recommended file storage and sharing platforms:
Google Drive
Google Drive is an easy and pretty universal place to store all of your files and share them or keep them secret.
Features:
- Store multiple file types
- Organize files and folders how you want
- Search files and pull up what you need in seconds
- Share what you want with who you want; or keep it private
Pricing: Totally free. (More cloud space can be bought if needed)
OneDrive
OneDrive is Microsoft’s version of Google Drive that offers basically everything that the Drive does. The only difference is pricing.
Features:
- Make files available offline
- Organize files and folders in your own way
- Easy sharing and collaboration with team members
- Auto-saving documents
Pricing: Free to start. More storage can be bought starting at $5 for 1 TB
DropBox Business
DropBox is a newer cloud-based storing and collaboration space that eliminated having to email files back and forth.
Features:
- Secure file storage
- Sharing and simultaneous editing
- Track edits and file changes
- User and role management
Pricing: Try Dropbox for free. Then, plans start at 19.99 a month
