5 Must Have Apps for Any Business

If you are reading this, it means that you know how hard it can get to properly conduct business and keep ahead of duties and responsibilities. The great thing is that it doesn’t have to stay that way. With the world constantly improving and growing, so is the technology that we are using. In this article, we are giving you 5 tried and tested Apps that you must have for any business.

With so many apps out there and everyone promising a revolution to your day - from managing your schedule to your task list - it’s all very promising. We all go through the dance.

Think of a problem which, at that moment, seems like it would really end your business. Like forgetting to send off that email at the end of the day or missing a meeting. It all seems too much to bear, so we turn to technology and the creators of apps that may have had similar issues and decided to solve it in their way.  

A perfect example of this is an app I downloaded after seeing it on the hit show “Planet of the Apps”. A designer and entrepreneur had come together to solve the problem that has been affecting mankind and yes, to a lesser extent, women-kind. The problem of having to deal with a calendar layout which seems not to be up to their standard. (The app will remain nameless to stop you from going off and wasting 3 minutes to download it and 8 minutes to play with it, only to find out that the original Gregorian layout had nothing wrong with it.)

And this, my friend, seems to be the trend developers are following: developing what they hope will be the next big thing and then letting you do the testing by seeing if you adopt it or not. That decision is simply based on whether it has made life simpler and if it has made your business more profitable. With that in mind, I’ve developed a skill over the years: I simply wait until it has reached a critical mass - that phase where it’s moving out of the early adopter phase into the mainstream phase - and then jumping in wholeheartedly. This means that I get proven technology to implement and improve in my business.

Too many business owners get stuck in ‘shiny object syndrome’ and too many think they will get their big break from being the first to buy a $2 app, thinking this is the app that is going to revolutionise their business. The truth is, the success is dedicated to implementation of the systems into the entire business, where everyone is trained on what they need to do in order for the system to work as a whole. Only when everyone and everything do their part, do you really start to move the needle.

CamCard. My favourites apps are CamCard and Infusionsoft. This is a great example of what I would call a bolt-on system, instead of an integral system. CamCard is great for scanning business cards, only occasionally getting the text on the card incorrect (mostly when it’s some fancy font). However, as impressive as it is standing in a conference scanning someone’s card and then handing it back to them, it’s useless if you don’t use that information to follow up with that person, be it a phone call or an automated email. This is where Infusionsoft comes into its own. Not only can you scan the card, you can also add them to an automated email follow up sequence, fixing a big issue around follow up failure.

Zoom. My next favourite mobile app is also my least favourite. It’s a typical blessing and curse scenario. Zoom allows you to have online meetings on your mobile. It’s great for when you are out of the office, running late and need to get started or if you actually schedule to have a meeting while driving back from holiday. Just remember, mobile networks are not the same as the connection in your office. The curse part comes in where we now change the saying of ‘work from anywhere’ to ‘work from everywhere’. I once was out for a ride in the morning and in my excitement forgot to check my schedule. Next thing, a notification comes up on my Apple watch (yes, I know) “Meeting in 10 minutes’. I had to stop and make the call which was with a client in Australia. Curse because it had left me with no excuse, blessing because it kept my business going.

Uber Yes, you heard right. The amount of work and relaxation that can be achieved while sitting in an Uber getting from one point to another, in my mind, can’t be replaced. I typically only do something in an Uber if it’s absolutely urgent. Otherwise, it’s a great time to catch up with the team or clients in a very relaxed environment or, most times, to simply gather my thoughts for the meeting ahead.

Google Docs. Google has simply revolutionised our business. I’m writing this on a Google Doc (Microsoft Word equivalent) which gets shared with the Editor and the rest of the team to fix my poor spelling and grammar. If Google Docs works as it should or, should I say, if the people working with it work as planned, then this article should come out as planned. The beauty behind the mobile app is that I can store, share and edit on the move - making my office truly mobile. I have found this great when managing projects to make sure people have access to the documents they need, when they need it. And, if things need my input, I can ensure that I can push it to them as needed.

Infusionsoft. One ring to rule them all, which really has become true for us. Like I said, a system is only as good as the ecosystem it lives in. Having the mobile version of the world’s best small business CRM is like a magic wand in my pocket. Let’s say you need me to add you to our mailing list or send you the latest e-book, there’s a Tag for that (it’s what Infusionsoft uses to trigger automation). Do you need access to our latest e-learning course, let me give you access quickly. Oh, the deal was won, let me update my sales pipeline. You need a quote for that, just one sec…. If you are reading this article, then you already know how hard it can be to run a business on the daily. Between meetings

So yes, all these things are possible and the reality that I want to share with you is that no quick-fix app will make it come together for you. You need to marry great technology with even greater people and rather rapidly you can truly take your business to the next level from your smartphone.

Written by: Wesley Longueira