Best Apps for Small Businesses
Whether you’re starting your own business or working at a small business, leveraging the right tools can help your company streamline its operations. If you or your employees are experiencing pain points, like ineffective communication or project disorganization, there are business apps that offer unique solutions.
Here are a few of the best business apps to explore for your small business.
Best business apps for finance and accounting
QuickBooks
Best for comprehensive insight. QuickBooks is a robust bookkeeping software that helps you track expenses, sales, invoices, banking transactions, profits and losses, and more. It will also track your quarterly tax payments if you are self-employed so you won’t be overwhelmed on tax day.
Expensify
Best for business trips and meetings Expensify simplifies employee reimbursements for business trips using its intuitive mobile business app. Your employees can simply scan receipts into the app and Expensify automates the rest of the process. This is also great if you want to split up expenses.
FreshBooks
Best for growing teams FreshBooks is a simple and easy-to-use business app that lets small businesses manage accounting and payroll while automating tasks, like recurring invoices and expenses.
Best business apps for human resources
DocuSign
Best for completing contracts for remote employees, clients and vendors
DocuSign is a small business app that securely uploads documents, facilitates electronic signatures, sends reminders, and provides document status updates. This is great and I have used it several times in my small business.
Gusto
Best for employee benefits integration
Gusto is an all-in-one accounting HR tools platform that also helps small businesses manage employee benefits, like health insurance, worker’s comp, retirement savings, and life insurance.
Best business apps for communication
Grammarly Business
Best for improving your writing
Grammarly Business is a business app that assures your team’s written communications—whether a social media post, email, or memo—are polished, professional, and mistake-free. I actually use it for my blog writing and I have mentioned it here before.
Slack
Best for keeping teams connected in real time
Slack is an instant messaging platform that lets you have direct message conversations and group “channel” discussions that can be themed based on activities, projects, etc.
Zoom
Best for video conference calling
Zoom lets individuals and small businesses create meeting rooms for video-based meetings. Meeting attendees don’t need to have a Zoom account to join a video call which makes it easy for clients and vendors to participate in calls.
Fuze
Best for managing customer support calls
Fuze offers video conferencing services and an integrated contact center feature that routes customer calls to the right department or agent within your business.
Streamyard
Streamyard is a streaming device I use to do all my lives and “Chats from the Blog Cabin”. I love that I can record it and go live at the same time.
Best business apps for organization
Trello
Best for detailed project management
Trello helps your small business manage project workflows using cards that specify due dates, checklists, assignees, and more. Members of a project can also communicate within each card to ask questions, send requests, or check on the status of a task. It is also how I keep my guests straight on Chats from the Blog Cabin.
Best business apps for accepting payments
PayPal
Best for online business sales
PayPal is a widely used electronic payment platform that lets merchants accept payment for goods and services. This is my main form of payment for sponsored posts. I hate the fees paypal takes out but I have yet to find another one I like better.
Square
Best for integrated software and hardware
In addition to its payment business app, Square offers brick-and-mortar businesses the option to request point-of-sale payments using its own sleekly designed hardware. We use this at the farm and honestly, I think it is easier to use than Paypal.
Venmo
Best for brand awareness through social sharing
Venmo is a payment platform that lets you accept and send payments on your mobile device. In addition to its transactional functions, your customers’ Venmo payments are shown on their account feed for their network to see. We used this for Maddie’s wedding to pay most of the vendors
Best business apps for marketing and social media
Hootsuite
Best for complete social media channel integration
Hootsuite lets you plan, create, and schedule social media posts across all of your business’s social channels and flag social mentions about your company so you can respond swiftly. I have this and most of the others on this list.
Buffer
Best for social media reporting
Buffer helps your team manage social media posts so that your small business is engaged with its followers around the clock. It also features analytics reporting and other performance insights for future adjustments.
Mailchimp
Best for automated email marketing
Among the many email apps for businesses today, Mailchimp is an all-inclusive marketing tool that sends your customers targeted messaging regarding your business. I just recently paid a friend of mine to create a newsletter for me using Mailchimp. I have yet to create one but now I have the template.
These are just a few small business apps that can help your teams work more effectively no matter what department they’re in.
Remember, nothing beats FREE, except for the possibility of getting paid AGAIN for the same product! That is the opportunity you have with Grammarly!
But the best app that I have in my toolbox is one that you should have as well. That is Grammarly should be in everyone’s toolbox, and that it is FREE to download!
