Being a small business owner can be hard and challenging, especially when you are just getting started. There are a million apps/tools to turn to when running a small business. You need apps to manage your finances, organize your files, chat with your clients/employees, set up meetings the list could go on and on. This process can be extremely overwhelming, and being in your shoes I know it was for me. I compiled a list of apps that I currently use at Big Imprint that can help you get started with your small business.
LastPass
LastPass helps you manage passwords across all of your devices. It keeps your passwords safe and protected and allows for easy access when signing into a saved website. You can connect your employees to LastPass and create shared folders of passwords for easy access. If that wasn’t enough to sell you on it, LastPass also creates strong and randomized passwords for your accounts. This app is great for small business owner’s who want to safely store passwords to important websites.
G Suite
This tool may not come as a surprise, but G Suite is amazing. This is where your Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, Meet and much more come together. If you want something simple and all in one place, G Suite is the tool for you. We love the ability to be able to quickly access our email and calendar all in one place. When you need to schedule a meeting you can quickly reference your calendar and invite your guests. Google Keep is another part of G Suite and provides you a place where you can keep lists and reminders for your small business. G Suite has it all with quick and easy access.
DialPad
DialPad is a great tool to use if you need to work remotely or are always on the go. It allows you to move your phone system over the cloud, so you can receive office phone calls from anywhere. This tool has voice recognition, creates call analytics, and allows you to connect to your mobile phone. DialPad has allowed my employees to work from home and for me to answer calls on the go. In this day of age, DialPad is a must have system to keep clients and employees connected.
HelpScout
HelpScout lets you share email inboxes with other employees to allow for easy collaboration on email conversations. This gives your clients fast communication from an actual employee of the organization. Besides email HelpScout also allows you to directly chat with customers in real-time and when no one is available the clients are sent directly to email. This is a great place to keep client contacts, so you know quickly who you are speaking with. HelpScout has been really helpful for us to maintain quick communication with our clients.
ChargeOver
ChargeOver is a tool that allows us to spend a lot less time on the paperwork behind all the finances. Forget putting in everything manually every time you need to bill someone. You can set up recurring billing for credit cards or ACH with a zero transaction fee on ChargeOver! Once you have received their payment, it also allows you to send a receipt directly to the client with no hassle. ChargeOver has allowed us to focus more on the work side of things instead of the billing and for that we are very thankful!
These are only five apps/tools that have made a difference at Big Imprint. Using these apps has allowed us to have a more efficient work environment from finances to communication to organization. Of course there are many more apps/tools that you can take advantage of to make your small business run smoothly. You can see a full list of great apps that we use at Big Imprint here.
