Manager. Accountant. Trainer. Customer Service. Problem solver. Chief Marketing Officer. Salesperson. Entrepreneurship involves wearing a lot of hats, but with the best entrepreneur apps, you can manage and automate tasks that will maximize your most precious commodity: Time. If you’re looking to increase productivity and organization — or just make your life a little easier — check these out!
The Collision Cowork community’s best entrepreneur apps and online productivity tools:
Best Entrepreneur Apps for Marketing
Effective marketing is critical for the growth of small businesses. Even if there isn’t much budget for marketing, entrepreneurs still need to do more than “get the word out” when it comes to digital marketing. Use these apps to help you keep your marketing up-to-date and relevant online:
Planoly
Planoly makes Instagram marketing a breeze! Denise Benson, family portrait and personal branding photographer, has over 4,000 followers on Instagram thanks to Planoly. App features allow Denise to create a visual story for her brand like no other Instagram posting tool.
InShot
Although you cannot replace Adobe Premier with InShot, the flexibility to use it for video editing and social media, vlogging and simple reviews makes it a great choice for entrepreneurs. Alease Michelle Jones, Founder of Lady Boss Club, uses the tool to train other entrepreneurs on how to achieve income and life goals.
Ripl
Pamela Jenkins, Marketing Coordinator for Collision Cowork, uses Ripl to make and edit social media videos. Since 2018, Facebook has dominated YouTube for video content, so it’s important to use video on social media, even if you don’t run a business in the creative industry.
Zoho
Several of our members use Zoho to manage sales and marketing workflows. Integration is the best feature and makes Zoho popular with Fortune 500 companies such as Amazon, Citrix, and Netflix. Zoho applications offer industry-specific apps built for specific niches and activities, making it an entrepreneur favorite.
Best Entrepreneur Apps for Organization
Stay on top of all of your work tasks with these top organization apps:
Evernote
If you’re looking to improve organization with minimal effort, look no further than Evernote. The web-based and mobile app lets you view all tasks and projects and follow progress on the Asana board, and you can share notes, upload files and communicate without having to rely on email. Asana also integrates with Google Drive and Dropbox to attach files, and with Slack for communication to post updates to a Slack messaging channel.
Proven
Proven helps you organize hiring, allowing you to post job listings to multiple job boards with one click on your smartphone. You can also sort through dozens of application responses in minutes; categorize applicants into “yes,” “no” and “maybe” buckets, and note when you follow up with a candidate.
It’s a good fit for entrepreneurs that have sporadic hiring needs, or for an entrepreneur who juggles multiple business tasks and needs to save time on hiring.
BoxMeUp
The Android app Boxmeup organizes and tracks your packages, containers and other bulk storage items. It allows you to print the proper QR labels, which you can scan with your phone to access a list of items in each container at any time. There’s no iPhone app, but you can access Boxmeup’s mobile website using an iPhone.
GSuite
GSuite allows you to integrate web-based email, documents files and storage, and your company calendar in one interface. Everything you need to manage your colleagues and connections will live under one roof, simplifying your ability to connect, access, and control data and users.
Invoicing, Expense, and Time Tracking App
While QuickBooks is an accountant favorite, it can be expensive for someone who is still managing the finances alone. If you’re searching for an app that allows simplified invoicing, online payments, and project time tracking, marketing entrepreneur Markelle Harden at ClassyInbound recommends Freshbooks.
Markelle adds, “As an entrepreneur, delegating tasks is key to my success. While I have no problem outsourcing graphic design or web development projects, outsourcing my finances is something that makes me nervous. Freshbooks provides the easy, all-in-one secure system that keeps me organized and when I’m ready to outsource, I won’t have to change platforms.”
Freshbooks is very mobile-friendly, giving busy business owners access to expenses, invoicing, and payments on any device.
Other favorites
Here are some of the honorable mentions from our team and business associates:
Givolio
Givolio is a charitable giving app born and raised here in York County by local digital marketing group, Revenflo. Philanthropy and entrepreneurship go hand-in-hand, and Givolio eliminates the year-end rush to make meaningful contributions. While logged into your free account, you can search ALL 501(c)3 organizations in the United States.
MailChimp
MailChimp helps you build and manage your email lists and newsletters. MailChimp is popular among entrepreneurs because of their pricing model; monthly fees are very affordable for those who are just starting out and you can grow with MailChimp as your email list grows.
Productivity and business growth apps are critical to your success. They not only help entrepreneurs wear many hats, but they also create processes and systems that can be passed onto new team members when the time is right for expansion and growth. If you’re overwhelmed by the number of apps available, make a list of your priorities, and get started with one new app per month. By the end of the year, you’ll be an app pro!