I just counted the number of apps that I use; 30. They include the popular mainstay apps such as Gmail and WordPress and also the relatively new like Tempo and Wave. Don’t get put off by the headline. I am not suggesting that apps should replace employees. Like employees, apps can help you accomplish certain key tasks.
For startups the decision to hire staff is usually postponed until resources permit. Until such time the job still has to be done. In that case, hire an app. Apps allow entrepreneurs to do more with the little resources they have; especially time and money. In many instances, apps lower the expertise requirement and allow the entrepreneur to achieve more with basic knowledge.
Apps can be free or paid. There are good free apps. One of my favorites is Wave. Wave is a free accounting package. If you can post a transaction you can use this app.
A mainstay is Elance. I use Elance to find freelancers from lawyers to graphic designers online.
Recently, I began using the indispensible Google Contacts. It will take a while to organize your contacts at first but it’s worth it. Emails are normally the first point of meaningful contact and the main basis on which communication occurs.
Google Contacts create the base contact record from the email information. Hence, providing the basic by which other contact information can be readily added. Since many persons have Gmail email addresses building the contact record is made easier.
The main point is to organize your contacts. Categorize them into groups or circles. Trust me your contacts spread across business cards, emails and on your address book become a gold mine for marketing when sanitized into one place.
Recently, I discovered Hootsuite. I write blogs and post articles to different social media. Previously, I posted the articles on several social media platforms and forums therein, one at a time. This took a few minutes well. With Hootsuite, I can post several many platforms from one source and get insightful metrics. This saves time.
For calendar and appointments management I use Tempo. Tempo is intelligent. For example, you can say ‘Call John Doe’ and Tempo will insert the contact information of John Doe from your address book into the appointment. So the phone number is right at your fingertips at the time to call.
Evernote is another mainstay. I use it to make notes, organize my ideas and maintain my to-do-list. It’s accessible on all devices and the information is synced across accounts.
For a CRM I just started using Insightly. I like this app because it is free and integrates into Google applications. It’s available on mobile too.
Bannersnack makes internet advertising easy. It has a really cool interface to create your own banners; powerful stuff at your fingertips!
A must have is Dropbox, the cloud based file storage system. Dropbox is becoming ubiquitous being integrated into more and more apps daily. This makes files accessible over a larger number of your favorite apps on different devices.
Other apps of interest are Optimizely, Google Analytics, Unbounce, and Pingdom. Check them out.
Each person needs are different so a different suite of apps may apply to you. To find great apps I use Get Apps. Many times I stumble across new apps while browsing the internet and from blogs that I follow.
The bias is always to get the free stuff. While some great apps are free the real benefits of others have a price tag. Many use a subscription model that keeps the price low and allows you to manage without necessarily hiring staff.
