One survey reported that small business owners work twice as much as regular employees. Busy business owners know how important it is to make the most out of every hour of the day. When you own a business, you must wear many hats — which often means running from one task to the next with no time to catch your breath.
Still looking to squeeze more out of your workday? While some apps can be a distraction, rather than an aid, these 10 apps were created to help business owners stay productive.
For tracking your time: RescueTime
Have you ever reached the end of a workday and wondered where the day went? RescueTime automatically tracks the amount of time you spent on apps, websites, and social networking sites. Set alerts to flag when you’ve spent too much time on a certain activity, like scrolling through Instagram or reading the news. Understand where time goes with no manual entry required.
For personal scheduling: Woven
Woven is a better calendar tool that uses artificial intelligence to help you keep your commitments straight. It won the 2019 Appy Award for best productivity app, and it’s easy to see why. Integrated scheduling links use keywords in your email to suggest calendar appointments. Availability polls, transit maps, appointment templates, and advanced time analytics all make scheduling your day faster and more straightforward than any other calendar tool.
For legal documents: HelloSign
HelloSign’s free and paid app services offer the ability to sign documents on the go. You can use HelloSign to edit, sign, and send documents via your mobile device. The platform integrates with Gmail, Google Docs, Salesforce and Oracle to help you keep track of contracts and vendor agreements as they get approved.
For managing expenses: Expensify
Expensify is for “everyone who hates expense reports”, according to their website. If you travel frequently for work or file expense reports regularly, this app is crucial. It integrates with Uber and HotelTonight to record expenses as you go, automating the entire receipt and expense management process.
[Read more: 4 Helpful Tools for Managing Business Travel Expenses]
For collaboration: Asana
Asana is a project management tool that lets you assign tasks, follow progress, share notes, upload files and more. It’s a great way to collaborate with different employees, like your designers, marketing lead and salespeople. Or, simply use it as a mobile checklist to make sure you’re prioritizing your tasks for the day and checking them off as you go. Asana integrates with Slack, Google Drive and Dropbox.
When you own a business, you must wear many hats — which often means running from one task to the next with no time to catch your breath.
For getting organized: Todoist
Free up brain space by dumping all your to-do lists, things to remember and notes in Todoist’s clean interface. This task management tool, like Asana, digitizes your daily, weekly or monthly to-do list to make tracking your tasks a lot more clear. You can delegate within the tool and see how small steps are helping you work toward bigger goals.
For employee scheduling: When I Work
Shift scheduling is often one of the biggest time-consuming tasks in a business owner’s week. When I Work cuts down on this particular burden by managing time-off requests, finding replacements to cover shifts by sending notifications to team members, letting employees grab open shifts and integrating with business accounting software to make payroll easier. The tool reportedly saves an average of 8 hours per week on employee scheduling.
[Read more: 7 Smart Ways to Motivate Your Employees]
For marketing: Buffer
Managing multiple social media platforms can take a lot of time out of your day, especially if you get distracted along the way. Buffer lets you plan and schedule posts ahead of time on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn, all from one simple dashboard. Set the time and date, add an image, write copy and the platform will take care of posting for you.
For customer management: Nimble
Nimble’s CRM tool automatically syncs, updates, and stores customer information so your sales and customer service teams can build great client relationships. The app provides customer profiles at your fingertips, which is great for remote sales teams. If you’re building brand loyalty while on the move, make sure to capture customer insights that lead to brand trust no matter where you are.
For downtime: Pocket
We’re all human: sometimes you see an article you just have to read. Instead of interrupting your workflow, save it for later. The Pocket app lets you save articles, videos and stories in your own curated library of content. Pocket can also download content for offline consumption (perfect for when you’re in transit) and give you links in case you want to upload something to your social media profiles.
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CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.
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