Of course, you are already familiar with social media apps for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype and other social networks. Obviously, you need them on your mobile devices and personal computer to keep track of your fans on social networks and maintain constant conversation with them. Like many stay-at-home mums and sole entrepreneurs do, you can create a virtual business outlet even if you don’t have an office yet by properly maximizing your social media presence.
Simple Web Apps that Make Business Easier
Now, let’s look at some other important apps that are making business easier for people in different parts of the world:
1. Google Apps
First, if you do not have a Google account, you are probably missing some of the best free things on the Internet. The most popularly used services in Google Apps are webmail, calendar and documents; but the platform also enables you to create sites, set up custom webmail (that is [email protected]), process several kinds of documents (Word, Excel, and Power Point) and also store them in Google drive, and so much more.
So, whether you have Microsoft Office installed on your system or not, you can always use Google app to create and store office documents. Also with your documents in Google drive, you no longer need to take your laptop everywhere you go. You can simply use any available laptop, connect to the web and retrieve your documents from Google drive.
2. Mail Chimp
Do you constantly send emails or online newsletters to customers, partners or other stakeholders in your company, maybe about 20, 50, 100 or 1000 separate email addresses?
Mail Chimp is an amazing tool that you can use to create great newsletters using their free tools or inbuilt templates, and it is free for up to 2000 persons on your mailing list which is a big number for many small businesses. Mail Chimp lets you design and send email newsletters, share them on your website and social networks, integrate them with other web services and ultimately track and analyse the location and demography of your subscribers.
3. Zoho
Importantly if you don’t like Google Apps for Business, you should try another amazing tool – Zoho. It is very useful for communicating and collaborating with partners when executing projects.
Zoho will help your business by providing important apps for collaboration, documenting, meeting, sharing, chatting, invoicing, recruiting as well as other apps like Calendar, notebook, planner and many more. If you are already using Google Apps, you should try the Zoho applications that integrate neatly with Google Apps like Zoho CRM, Zoho Projects, Zoho Creator and Zoho Invoice.
Read a detailed review of Zoho on Timedoctor blog.
4. Campfire
Campfire is another cool tool for project collaboration. It will help you and your partners share texts, files and even codes via the Internet to make your work faster.
They have an iPhone app that you can use to communicate and collaborate on your phone when you don’t have access to a computer. However Campfire is not free. It comes with 30 days free trial for 4 different plans depending on the size of the group you are working with.
5. Cloudo
Have you ever wished to travel with your desktop because you may need just any document on the computer? Cloudo solves this problem. It simply lets you upload your personal computer to the Internet just the way they appear on your home computer including all your files and folders. Once you are done, you can access them from any other computer. It is currently in beta, so you can use Cloudo absolutely free.
6. Precurio
If you are looking for a complete but simple intranet solution for your business, Precurio is a relatively new platform you should try out. It will help you automate workflow, approve requests and send information to all employees within a classified network for your company alone. You will be able to easily take opinion polls, manage tasks, chat with one another and so much more. You can even set birthday reminders, feature best performing employees and post social events. Precurio is not free also. To know if it is right for your business, simply take advantage of their 14-day free trial period.
These are just a few of the cool stuff changing how businesses interact and collaborate. Ignoring these invaluable tools can make you vulnerable in the face of stiff competition. Since some businesses are already using these apps, do not be left out. Go and check out some of the apps that appeal to you. Make sure you try out Google Apps for Business and Zoho Apps. You'll be amazed by the number of tools available to improve your business.
