As a millennial, I like to believe I am tech savvy and in tune with the applications that are helping keep businesses stay alive. Entering directly into the entrepreneurial life, I quickly realized I was wrong. There is an absurd amount of apps available to small businesses, often making it really difficult to find the app best suited for your needs. There have been plenty of times already, where I’ve seen a video marketing this great app that promises to solve all of my problems, and once I try it, I find problems that directly conflict with my ability to do my job. Luckily I’ve been a part of a great team who has run into some of these problems before, and together we have found solutions that not only work for us personally, but also allow us to work seamlessly as a team, even when we aren’t all together. Below, I have put together a list of the apps that help me get my work done and work effectively with my team.
Evernote is my favorite app for jotting down thoughts before I forget. I can save photos, attachments, set reminders, share my notes, and even create a work chat. But by far the best feature is that everything is saved online. You can access your notes on all of your electronic devices because everything is synced to the cloud, so when you edit or create a note on one device, it then appears on all of them. This is great if you ever lose or switch devices. I was previously using the note pad on the iPhone, but when I made the switch to Samsung, none of my 30+ notes transferred over. This was a huge problem, so I eventually ended up having to copy and paste my notes into Evernote to access them.
This is not a traditional business tool, but for me its essential. I need music to work, it helps me lock in my focus and stay there. I’ve been on SoundCloud for a while and have found their selection of music to be superior to that of Spotify, iTunes, or Pandora. SoundCloud has a wide array of music, you can find everything from aggressive EDM music, to pre-WWII folk music catered by The Smithsonian. They’ve now added a great “radio” feature that allows for easier discovery of awesome music. I utilize this feature and their selection of music to create and find playlists for keeping my mind focused on work, and consider it to be a secret business weapon of mine.
HootSuite is simply awesome. It’s one of, if not the best social media marketing platform. They offer 3 different plans catered from individuals who want more control over their personal profiles, to small companies and agencies who need to manage 50+ accounts. Hootsuite allows you to send one post across all of your profiles, engage in conversations with your following, and they even provide valuable analytics that you can use to measure your growth and identify areas that need improvement.
If you work collaboratively, you have got to try BaseCamp. BaseCamp is pretty much a virtual office, where you and your team can host meetings, share documents, and assign each other tasks. In the past we have run into problems with other collaborative apps because they make you use their program for everything. This caused some problems between iCalendar vs. Outlook, Google docs vs. Dropbox, Mac vs. PC. The great thing about BaseCamp, is that it allows everyone to keep working on the platforms they prefer, while still allowing everyone to share documents and sync their calendars together. When you are working collaboratively and remotely, communication will be the determining factor of success. BaseCamp has allowed us to effectively and efficiently plan and complete projects, while maintaining the flexible schedules we desire.
Flipboard is a great way to stay up-to-date with just about any subject you can think of. Whether it’s the latest in cognitive research or men’s fashion, they have it covered. After you create your profile you can choose to follow any amount of subjects, and Flipboard will then create a news feed of recent articles relating to those subjects. I like to use this to find great sharable content for social media as well as keeping myself updated with the latest tech and marketing trends.