Best Apps for Entrepreneurs in 2021 to Level Up their Business

An entrepreneur has to be the jack of all trades and king of one, especially in startups that have a little budget & cannot afford professionals for every task. From work management to handling organization issues, promoting business & being an expert in their niche, they find themselves at the center of all these. And often this multi-tasking can cause delays in meeting deadlines or unorganized efforts which is the last thing anyone would want. But how about having expert assistance in all the different areas of work? Yes, and why not!

Technology has not only changed our personal lives but the face of entrepreneurship, too, with the development of productivity applications that are designed to assist users in time management, information sharing, password storage, digital presence management & much more. In this blog post, we are going to talk about the need for productivity apps in different areas of a business, and introduce you to the 8 go-to apps that you are going to love.

Why Productivity Apps?

The name says it all, these applications boost your productivity by taking off your shoulders the monotonous & tedious work, and allowing you to focus your energy on decision making & other important tasks. For instance, it can be difficult to keep a track of all your meetings & engagements, and a physical to-do list might not help as well, because you need to remember to check your list in order to be reminded of your engagements. Likewise, there are multiple other tasks you need to perform. The key functions where apps can help you are:

• Project Management to schedule activities, manage tasks, share files, assign work & stay updated on work status.
• Instant Messaging for team collaboration.
• Calendars & Schedulers to find all your important dates, events, tasks at one place.
• Note-taking so that you don’t ever forget anything & have everything on your fingertips.
• Time tracking to analyze your performance & increase productivity.
• File Storage & Sharing to manage all your files & folders at one place.
• Digital Marketing because maintaining an effective online presence is key to businesses today.
• Accounting/Finance to automate day-to-day accounting activities & track money you received, have to receive & owe.

It is an all-in-one application that can be used by entrepreneurs to manage in-house, remote teams & freelancers. It provides the opportunity for teams to share updates, assign tasks & custom roles, add timesheets, etc., promoting efficient project management. The key features of this app are:

• Chat
• Kanban board
• Gantt chart
• Discussion
• Custom roles & reports
• Files
• Timesheets
• Notes

It is a cloud-based software that allows team collaboration. It brings together people & information, facilitating effective communication. It integrates with almost all the tools & apps your organization already uses, keeping a track of project budget & time & yielding impactful outcomes. It is more than just an instant messaging tool that every organization must have. However, if you are already using ProofHub, which also has an in-built chat feature, then that can work as a substitute for Slack. The key features are:

• File sharing
• Time messaging
• Powerful search

It is an amazing application that is used by experts & professionals to organize their work and boost productivity. Any.do allows you to keep all your reminders, tasks, and lists at one place, and syncs across multiple devices. Key features of this application are:

• Facilitates time management & organization
• Allows prioritization of tasks
• Reduces time wastage & brings efficiency
• Allows theme & recurring tasks customization

While, as the name suggests, its primary task is taking notes, the tool also promotes efficient task management. You can easily capture your ideas here by adding your notes and prioritizing them. You can bring together all projects, ideas, to-do lists, minutes of the meetings, and all other things so that nothing skips off your mind. The key features of this application are:

• Share notes or even complete notebooks with team members
• Take pictures and attach them to your notes that you share, both within the app
• Supports multiple devices
• Scan photo text to create notes using its Optical Character Recognition

It is a fully automated time tracking application that allows you to be in complete control of your time by helping you analyze the time you spend on various activities throughout the day. Here is an overview of all the benefits of Rescue Time:

• Monitors both online & offline computer activities; you do not need an internet connection 24X7 to run this app
• Brings to notice the time spent on ad hoc things other than the core work like meetings & phone calls
• Compares your unproductive versus productive days
• Blocks unauthorized & distracting websites to eliminate distraction and retain your focus

A widely used file storage, sharing & sync system by Google, this application has made the lives of users so easy. Now you can store thousands of files on your Goog;e Drive account, and access them anytime, anywhere. It is available for both personal & professional accounts. The main idea behind this platform is to simplify the way we store, share, edit & collaborate on files & folders while working on the same project or objective. The key features are:

• Provides free storage (although it’s limited but sufficient; if you need more storage, it allows you to purchase that at affordable prices)
• Secure way to create file backups
• Allows real-time updates; If a file is shared by multiple users and someone makes a change, all the users can view the same
• Keeps track of user activities through Version History
• Supports multiple devices

Having an online presence for businesses is mandatory in this time & age. And startups often cannot afford professional assistance for handling multiple social media accounts. Hootsuite is the most popular tool for social media management that integrates with your multiple social media accounts. Key features are:

• Add multiple social media accounts to schedule posts from one dashboard
• Add team members for instant approvals
• Track overall engagement

It is used by accountants and is very useful for small businesses. It helps you efficiently manage your funds by:

• Reconciling banks
• Drafting invoices
• Tracking expenses
• Monitoring financial reports

These applications are used widely by global users, helping small businesses grow. Some, like Hootsuite, are even used by established organizations, however, managed by dedicated digital marketing professionals to bring impactful results. So, download them now & get ready to revolutionize your working style. For more insightful blogs, stay tuned!