There's An App For That!

The word “app” is now part of our everyday vernacular. But think back a mere 10 years ago. Smartphones were just becoming the norm and apps were just starting to become popular. 20 years ago, smartphones and apps were a rare thing. 25 years ago, “car phones” were huge bricks (and I admit, I thought my car phone was so cool). Times change. Quickly. Quite a change from the time of our Grandparents, that’s for sure!

In today’s world, not only do we love our smartphones – as you know, we also love our apps. There is an app for everything. Seriously. Everything!

When it comes to running a small business, there are plenty of apps to help. I’ve included some of my favorite apps here in this post – hopefully you’ll find them helpful!

TIPS FOR HELPFUL SMALL BUSINESS APPS:

Expense and Mileage Tracker – Expensify is a very nice app for keeping track of your business expenses and business mileage. You can scan your receipts and generate expense reports. This app can also track your time and your mileage, plus a whole lot more. It also integrates with QuickBooks.
Note and Information Organizer – Evernote is a great app for keeping track of notes, website bookmarks, online articles, images, and so much more. You can use Evernote on your desktop computer and on a mobile device, and the data is synced between all devices.
Task Automation – The program IFTTT (If This Then That) is a great app for automating repetitive actions. It works nicely to automatically tweet your latest Facebook posts, or post your latest Instagram photos to Twitter. It can do a lot more beyond social media, as well. There are many applets within IFTTT for automating practically anything! Check it out!
Text Over Images – WordSwag is the app I use to create the image quotes I post here on the blog in the Words of Wisdom category. It is very easy to us – just search for a photo in their database or upload your own, then add a text overlay using one of the many text styles. Once you have the image done, it’s ready to save or share on social media.
One Central Telephone Number – While it isn’t really an “app”, Google Voice is definitely a helpful tool to have for a small business! Google Voice acts as one central telephone number for all your other telephone numbers – just roll them all together into Google Voice. The nice thing about this for a small business is that you can use a Google Voice telephone number to display on your website, giving customers a phone number to call, without giving out your home phone number or cell phone number. If a customer uses your Google Voice number, your home phone and/or cell phone will allow you to accept the call. A business line, without the added cost of a dedicated business line!