A small business can go in and out of binds and lurches daily; however, in 2016, these problems can be solved more and more by the use of integrative digital devices and technology applications. We’ve compiled 9 of the most common problems we have heard voiced by small businesses with which we work and…today’s your lucky day…we have found a solution for each by employing 9 very useful applications. They all can be downloaded on computers, tablets and smart phones.
Here are the 9 apps to solve a businesses’s most common 99 problems:
1. You need a digital copy of my biz docs? What? CamScanner or Scannable for IOS platforms are great mobile apps designed to make high quality document scanning easy for you using your smart phone. Say, you need to take a quick scan of your social security card, your business ownership docs or your W2s, these apps are much better than just taking a mere photo with your phone. These scanning apps are really quite sophisticated, making it easy to scan multiple pages into one document or to auto-crop the image to exactly what you wish to keep. Cost: FREE
2. I have a really hard time communicating with my staff. Download Slack. It’s best when you can use an internal messaging system for your team that they can download onto their desktops and smart phones and use on the go. Slack is just that! You can invite your staff to join your work team and can remove them if they ever separate from the company. Sharing documents is also as easy as 123. Slack enables you to share all types of files, even those stored outside of the solution itself. Cost: FREE
3. I don’t have an accountant. You may not have an accountant on staff yet, but that doesn’t mean you’re not empowered to do your own bookkeeping. If you’re looking for an easy way to track your sales and expenses or balance your bank accounts, QuickBooks’s accounting software will help and it’s easy. You can also use it to view profit-and-loss reports, pay your employees and vendors and track unpaid invoices. It connects directly to accounts like your business bank account, credit cards, PayPal and Square and uploads the data from these sources right onto its platform. COST: Free Trial $13/month
4. I need to check RIGHT NOW if my account has gone negative. Then, you definitely need to download one of the mobile banking apps provided by the 100+ U.S. banks for their customers. Some of the banks that have some of the better mobile apps are Capital One, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, CitiBank, TD Dank, USBank, BB&T, SunTrust and PNC. With these apps, you can check your balance in seconds, transfer funds, verify if a deposit was made and contact a customer service agent at the touch of your fingertips. It’s super beneficial when applying for a merchant cash advance or when you need to verify financial records quickly. Time delays business. So, the amount of time it may take you to get in front of a computer to go online, or worse yet, walk into a branch, your mobile app could have saved the day. COST: FREE
5. I don’t have a record of all my kajillion passwords. – Evernote helps keep them all in one place. Which super genius is going to remember his password for Capital One and for AT&T and for Apple ID and for LinkedIn and for all other online portals that keep his life together? With Evernote, you can clip bits and pieces of information from the web, tag them for easy searching, and alter any of them by adding to it, condensing it, or embedding pictures, tables, audio, video, and the like. COST: FREE
6. I need to scale my biz by hiring qualified staff quickly. – Indeed. Nuff said. With over 100 million unique visitors per month, Indeed is the quickest and most affordable job advertisement site around. If you’re looking for quick responses from quality candidates, it definitely beats LinkedIn, Monster, Careerbuilder and even Craigslist. It has an easy-to-use interface, info on company and industry trends, and it’s free to post on their site. Indeed posts your openings on Twitter and Facebook also at no cost. It offers a pay-per-click service that posts your job on over 25,000 partner sites, charging you only when a candidate clicks to view your post. COST: FREE to post
7. I need some quick cash in my business account and my credit card is all I have. Venmo is your answer. While you may have to pay upwards of 20 percent to get a cash advance from your credit card when you’re in a bind, Venmo is a new online payment system similar to PayPal but works MUCH faster. While you may have to wait for 3 days for a PayPal transaction to hit your account, Venmo payments hit next day. Here’s a trick: Request the cash you need from your business partner. Have them pay you with your business credit card. The cash hits your account the next day and you only get charged 3% by Venmo. COST: FREE
8. I wish I could update my social media by ONLY going to one place. Well, HootSuite is the tool of choice for many social media professionals and small businesses. Using HootSuite, you can send out the exact same message to every platform – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and others – at one time. Whether that means a particular sale, promo or company announcement, you’d like to make across social media, it saves loads of time for a busy business owner. Cost: FREE for 5 social profiles
9.Rats! I left an important doc on my work computer. TeamViewer is your first option. It gives you access to a computer from another device. Just download it on that computer and leave it running. Remote desktop access, hands down, is a necessity to keep in touch with the files on your desktop and manage them from any possible location. It also helps your IT guy help you troubleshoot your issues remotely. Being able to log into your office computer when you’re at home or on-the-go makes an entrepreneur’s life so much easier. Just use your tablet or phone and you have access to all of your work docs and then can email them to yourself or another. COST: FREE
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