Small Business Tips
9 Powerhouse Apps for Small Businesses
When you’re running a small business, there’s never a shortage of things to do. From zipping between meetings to processing orders and payroll to juggling your personal life… Anything that can simplify things is a life raft in the Sea of The Busy Small Business. Nowadays, so much can be done on the go thanks to apps that can take care of everything from sending money to signing documents with the tap of a finger. Here at Fuze, we’re no strangers to the luxury (and salvation) of a really useful app, so we’ve rounded up some of our all time favorite apps that help us do what we do best: serve stellar small businesses around the world.
Here are 9 apps you definitely need to check out:
A Color Story
When it comes to crafting an out-of-this-world social media presence for your small business, imagery is key. That’s where A Color Story , created by popular bloggers Elsie Larson and Emma Chapman of A Beautiful Mess, comes in. It gives you so much functionality beyond what Instagram and other photo apps do on their own — A Color Story offers over 100 filters, 40 effects, and 20 tools to get you to the perfect image that represents you and your brand to a T. You know those pristine whites and poppy colors that dominate Instagram? #AColorStory.
Fotor
In addition to giving you another option for crafting killer photos, Fotor lets you take things one step further by giving you all the tools you need to make your very own graphic designs. Blog images. Profile pictures and cover images. All totally doable with Fotor. Also, have you ever seen those awesome collages on Instagram and wondered how they were done? Fotor, baby.
Adobe Document Cloud
We can’t get enough of Adobe Document Cloud (or what we like to call ADC because we’re cool like that). We use it to keep all of our client agreements and contractor information organized and in one digital place that’s accessible on all of our connected devices. The best part is being able to sign off on contracts on the go — no need to hold things up until you get back to your laptop.
Bitly
Whether you’re sharing a cool new blog post you just published or tweeting news from around the world wide web, nothing is more unappealing to readers than a long, convoluted link. Enter Bitly: Paste in a long link and it pops out a teeny tiny one in its place. Viola! You’re free to use precious space for content, not strings of numbers in a link. You can even create custom links to give your reader a quick hint on the topic. But best of all…You can track engagement. Want to know how many clicks your custom link has received and where your readers live? Check your Bitly app for some quick and useful data.
Staying on top of everything that’s happening in your industry is key, but it’s not often that you actually have the time to sit down and read something pertinent right then and there when you come across it. With Pocket, you can install the app on your browser or download it onto your phone and when you come across something good, all you’ve gotta do is click once to add it to your Pocket for safekeeping and later reading.
TripIt
Running a small business often means taking a lot of meetings, and those meetings can be from San Fran to the Big Apple and anywhere in between. It’s easy to lose track of what’s happening when and where without flight delays and travel hiccups added into the mix. TripIt lets you manage, store, and share all of your travel details in one place. And it’s with you on the go — gone are the days of ruffling through your carry on to find a confirmation number written on the back of a napkin somewhere.
Finding the time to post all those beautiful images you’ve crafted with the wonderful photo apps above can be quite the hidden social media challenge for your small business… unless you have Planoly in your corner! Unlike other scheduling apps, it’s got beginners in mind: It’s completely visual (drag-and-drop is the key maneuver), and it’s an amazing way to develop a consistent aesthetic for your Instagram feed. But it gets better. Planoly even includes analytics, so you can track the response to your posts, AND their customer service is extremely responsive and helpful when it comes to troubleshooting or answering your questions. Halleluja!
Acorns
Investing can be a scary proposition — not only does it usually require a substantial amount of money, but it’s just another thing that requires even more of that precious small business resource: time. Acorns changes all of that — it takes the spare change left over from your everyday purchases and automatically invests it for you in a smart, diversified way. Talk about making your money work for you.
Curator
If you stumble over crafting eye-catching presentations that explain your thoughts and ideas in a visually compelling way, Curator is the knight in shining armor galloping to your rescue. It’ll help you put together everything from mood boards to pdfs by collecting your thoughts and inspirations, organizing them in a logical way, and making them instantly presentable. Your ideas will never be lost in translation again.
What kind of apps do you swear by for making small business life easier? Tell us about ‘em and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram @fuzebranding, especially if you want to see us putting some of those imagery apps to good use ????
