The Best Business Apps for Entrepreneurs
Running a business is hard. The right apps can make it (somewhat) easier. If you’ve been meaning to network more efficiently, communicate with your team better, and level-up your organization and productivity, these seven top apps every entrepreneur needs are bound to prove useful.
1. Conspire, Free
Have you ever wondered how you’re going to score an introduction to a business contact that you’ve been dying to connect with? Let Conspire take the lead and tell you how to get introduced to anyone you’d like to meet. The app analyzes email data and can determine how well you know the people in your contacts list. Then, it finds the “strongest path of connections” between your extended network and the person you’d like to meet.
2. Clarity.fm, Varies
One of the downsides to entrepreneurial life is that it can make it more difficult to connect with other professionals in your field, especially if you’re working alone or from home. Clarity.fm connects you to industry experts in your field, and you can ask them anything you want. Whether you need help working through a specific problem, or want some career advice for your field, there’s an expert who can help you. Each expert sets their own fees, so costs vary.
3. Evernote, Free to $49.99
Evernote seems to end up on virtually every top app list, but for good reason — this simple app packs a ton of power. Use it to keep track of anything you write, from short notes to drafts of lengthier documents. You can also use it to collect information, and even collaborate with team members in real time. You’ll be able to access your information anywhere and from any device, since all of your data is linked to your account.
4. Toggl, Free to $49/month
Toggl’s creators claims that their app is “as easy to use as Twitter,” and they’re probably right — the app helps you track how much time you spend on a task, in real time, and the interface is incredibly simple. It’s perfect for tracking billable hours for your entire team, and you can create professional reports to send straight to clients. The free version is great for teams of up to five people.
5. Slack, Free
If you want to use the same messaging app as the teams who put robots on Mars, then Slack is just what you’ve been searching for. Slack lets you create channels for specific projects with different groups, making it easy to keep all of your communication in one place. Each discussion supports file uploads, comments, video, and more. Plus, everything is easily searchable.
6. Expensify, Free to $9/month
No one likes doing expense reports, but Expensify makes creating reports as simple as snapping a photo. Users simply install the app on their smartphone, take a photo of the necessary receipts, and the app does the rest. It even keeps track of mileage, time, and other reimbursable expenses. The teams at Pinterest, Evernote, Square, and more all use and love Expensify… maybe your team would, too.
7. Zapier, Free to $125
Now that you have all of these helpful new apps, you probably have a lot of similar data floating around on each program. Zapier is an app integration service that syncs data between all of the apps that you use, storing everything in one place. It also helps you automate tasks, saving tons of time. You can create tasks and to-dos from emails, get automatic notifications for new brand mentions, save all new form entries into a spreadsheet, and more.
