Whether you have five, 50, or 500 employees, having solid resources can make the difference between running your business and letting the business run you. And surprisingly, it’s not all about having the most expensive technology or complicated software; an iPhone application can often times do the job for a fraction of the price. An application can be that bridge between what you wish you could do and what you can do as a small business owner. Here are seven noteworthy applications you may want to phone a friend about:
(BlackEnterprise.com only reviewed the paid versions of these applications. Many of the apps have free versions that have fewer features.)
Small Business Guide: As a small business owner, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the amount of information you need to know in order successfully operate. With Small Business Guide ($29.99), created by Intersog, learning the basics is a lot easier. This interactive app includes a course book, flash cards and self-test covering subjects like power marketing, managing human resources and debt and equity financing. If this reads like gibberish, then this pocket teacher might be a good study-buddy.
GotExpenses: Keeping track of your expenses is vital, but it is very easy to get lost in the mountains of transactions happening on a daily basis. GotExpenses ($2.99) by app creators Meiwin Fu allows you to create a fully customizable monthly budget as well as monitor how much of your budget you have exhausted. And when the month ends, the data can be synced with Google Spreadsheets in order to export all of your budgeting information. A free limited version of the app is available.
Credit Card Expense Manager: This app ($3.99) by Atinco is another great budgeting app. For some small business owners, when cash is low, credit is king. Of course, being knowledgeable and responsible about your credit cards can ensure costly fees don’t trump your spending and that your credit score is a winner. Users can stay abreast of payment due dates, credit limits and a ton of other specific information. The number of cards that can be managed through the app is limitless and all information garnered can be emailed. Both Credit Card Manager and GotExpenses have security settings to ensure that sensitive information is protects. A free version of the app is available but does not include all of the features of its full-price counterpart.
Bill Minder: For the person who needs help managing their bills, Bill Minder (99 cents) by return7 is just what you’ve been looking for. This app lets users set up recurring bill reminders for up to 17 months, view a calendar with all of your bill due dates and see the total amounts for unpaid bills, paid bills and the grand total for all of your bills for each month. Users can also email a backup version of their information, manage account and bill information and secure everything with Bill Minder’s password protection feature.