10 Productivity Apps For Your Small Business

 

Where I Came From and Where I’m Going

In May of this year, I’ll celebrate my 17th year of being in business for myself. Some days it’s hard to believe that I’ve spent more years in the workforce, working for myself than I have for someone else.

In my former life, I was on the track up the corporate ladder. My parents were so proud of me. Those were the plans they had for me and they couldn’t have been happier.

I had finally made it. I had an office, a health care plan and a 401k. My folks bragged about me to all their friends.

But I couldn’t fit the part – because I HATED it.

I’m not a big fan of the word HATE and I’m constantly on my son Jake to not use that word when he talks. It’s such a strong word of ugly emotion but there comes a time when a certain word is necessary to get your point across.

I worked so hard at that job. I worked 12 hour days and never complained when my paycheck paid me for a 40-hour work week. It was a high-paced competitive environment where everyone tried to outdo each other by staying later, coming in earlier or working more weekends.

I tried, I really did. I stuck it out in that place for over 2 years but eventually my truth came out.

I’m not like the others.

I’m weird. I’m different. I dance like Seinfeld’s Elaine to my own beat.

There were times during the meetings when I would crack a joke and they would give me that blank stare. I’d have to say, “I’m just kidding you know. You guys get that right?” {enter the sound of crickets}

Deep in my soul, I knew this wasn’t the right place for me and I left the corporate world. It took me a couple of weeks to tell my parents that I quit and started my own business. My dad was excited but concerned for my financial situation and my mom, I could hear the disappointment in her voice.

I can honestly say that after all these years, neither one of my parents really understand the social media work I do these days. But they get the concept of marketing and they’re proud of me for being in business this long, so I guess we’re halfway there.

A Few Things I’ve Learned Along the Way

One of the best things I’ve learned to grow my business is to figure out how to get more done in less time.

I realize that being efficient is more than just finding pockets in my schedule to dedicate to each project or client. It’s a combination of blocks of time and programs that I can use both on my computer and my mobile devices.

And now, one of my new favorite words is SYNC.

When my work that I type into my laptop in the morning shows up in my tablet later that night, it just makes my whole life work smoother. Stuff gets done and all the pieces and parts of my world are at peace. {OK, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration but seriously, how happy are you when things just fall into place?}

Let me share with you my favorite apps that can help you get more done with your business:

1. Evernote

How much do I love Evernote? Let me count the ways ….

This program has been an endless list of time saving goodness that I don’t want to think about the days I was working without Evernote. If you haven’t had a chance to try out Evernote, I detailed in this post how it works and how I use it to manage my social media marketing.

2. Trello

This online productivity tool is more than just lists and checkboxes. It’s a visual task tracking program that lets you see at a glance where you are with your projects, what needs to get done and what you’ve completed.

3. Asana

Asana is a cool task management program you want to use when you’re working on a project with a team of people. There’s no more need for all that crazy back and forth with emails – Asana lets you see what everyone is working on and gives you a place to communicate with each other to keep everything moving forward.

4. DocuSign

An easy to use program to help you take care of business with your clients. DocuSign lets you sign, send and approve documents from where ever you’re working from that day.

5. Dropbox

Where ever you are, Dropbox lets you upload anything you need to run your business. It’s so simple to hit that share button and in a matter of seconds, my stuff gets added into one of my storage folders.

6. Nozbe

Inspired by the Getting Things Done process, this program is another great option to get more stuff done and work with others on your projects. One of the coolest features of Nozbe is that it connects to your other tools like Evernote, Google Drive and Dropbox, making it easier to keep everything organized.

7. OfficeTime

Tracking your time just got easier with OfficeTime. You can use this program for loads of things – tracking to see how long it takes you to do certain tasks to help organize your to-do list, tracking your time for client projects and running reports that turn into detailed invoices.

8. Remember the Milk

Not only is this a total fun name for an app, it’s a program to get all those to-do things out of your head and into a place to help you get them done. You can set up your lists any way you want and to help you stay even more productive, Remember the Milk connects to Gmail, Google Calendar and Evernote.

9. Paypal

I’m sure by now you know about Paypal and most likely have an account. And most of us have been using this program on our computers for years. But the Paypal app? Hello powerful tool that makes your life easier to receive payments and transfer that money into your bank.

10. Square

You may have seen someone take payments on their phone by swiping a card through a small white magnet looking thing. This is called the Square app and it’s a pretty amazing tool to help process payments anywhere you are.

Want to be more productive?

Imagine being so productive, you’ve checked off everything on your social media marketing to-do list. You’ve increased your social presence so much that you’re connecting to new people every day who want to buy your stuff.

The Social Media Productivity Planner will introduce you to a new way of managing your social media marketing so you can get new followers, show up more consistently online and grow your social presence to get more clients.

It’s the starting point you’ll need to build and implement an effective social media strategy. You’ll learn what to do, what site to log into and exactly what to do when you have a 30 – 60 minute chunk of time in your schedule.

Click here to grab your copy of the Social Media Productivity Planner!