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The Best Tools and Apps for Self-Employed Small Business Owners
The complexity of today’s business world, coupled with personal responsibilities, can create arrays of challenges for both startup and established entrepreneurs. Many self-employed business owners, especially those in highly competitive industries, admit that they are overwhelmed by their daily tasks. Sadly, they can’t slow down. Technology is advancing, trends are changing, and competition is becoming fiercer. To this end, business owners must make extra effort to ensure they are not left behind. Fortunately, many tools and apps can support the self-employed business owner and help streamline complicated processes, reducing the stress associated with growing a business, and increasing efficiency.
Why Do You Need Digital Tools?
Flexibility is one of the advantages of self-employment. However, while you may enjoy more freedom and boss yourself as a micro-business owner, it also comes with the hassle of shouldering all the responsibilities — the difficult task, the risk, and the decision-making. Studies reveal that despite the opportunity self-employed solopreneurs have to choose their working hours, they work more hours than their counterparts employed in similar sectors1. This usually affects their personal life. Unfortunately, improper work-life balance can impair both physical and mental health and consequently decrease productivity2. While you can get help, from The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) and other non-profit organizations, it is essential to invest in technology as this will help you manage the burden of responsibilities brought by entrepreneurship effectively. We understand this and we know the top apps and tools that can be used by small firms to manage tasks, optimize productivity, and increase efficiency. We also understand that entrepreneurs have different needs, different budgets, and different priorities, that is why we always recommend only tools that have proven to be effective under all conditions.
Top Apps for Small Business Owners
As an owner running a family business, sole ownership, or with a small team, you may have realized that building a business is both physical work and a mental job. It could also be financially constraining. That is why we have selected apps with a special focus on cost, ease of use, simplicity, efficiency, and core function. These apps would definitely ease your stress and increase your productivity.
Asana
Asana has emerged as one of the most popular tools for organizing and managing tasks in the United States and across the globe. According to the developer, Asana has over 150,000 paying customers and is being used by millions of people in almost all countries of the world3. Asana.com listed popular brands like Amazon and T-Mobile as its customers. The cloud-based project management app can be used to create projects, delegate tasks, monitor progress, and collaborate with team members. Its ability to support real-time communication among workgroups makes it an excellent app for teamwork. However, if you work alone, you can still use this app to ensure your task is well organized and your time effectively managed. You can use Asana to create a project, set tasks and due dates, and move tasks from one level of completion to the next as you progress. As a solopreneur with many tasks to handle, Asana will enable you to see at a glance which tasks are completed, which are in progress, and which are yet to be started. It can also be automated such that a new task is automatically assigned when due or when you reach a certain level in your project.
Furthermore, the app can be integrated into over 300 web-based apps like Google Drive, Dropbox, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. Fortunately, its pricing is affordable. While we will recommend choosing a package that can support all your business needs, it is essential to state here that you can sign up for free.
GEAR-COMPLEX Key Features:
- Advanced features for project management and task classification
- Platform for teamwork
- Integration with many other tools
BADGE-CHECK Why It’s Great for Self-Employed Business Owners:
Asana provides a versatile and comprehensive solution for planning and tracking projects with the ability to communicate and collaborate with other stakeholders in real-time.
CIRCLE-INFO Facts and Figures:
Available in over 200 countries, with over 2.5 million active weekly users and more than 150,000 companies as paying subscribers. It can be integrated into over 300 apps, supports mobile use, and has a free package.
Trello
Trello is another work tool for managing projects. It has the advantage of low cost and ease of use. Even though it is not as advanced as Asana, over 2 million users trust and use this app globally. Developed in 2011, this app, built on a Kanban-style board system, has many distinguished features that enable users to work with anyone anywhere. With Trello, you can manage any kind of project, streamline your tasks, track progress, and collaborate with other members of your team. This tool allows you to organize and coordinate your process with boards, lists, and cards. Many users agreed that the big and clear visual representation of tasks on the Kanban board makes the interface user-friendly and enhances multi-tasking. Like Asana, Trello can also be integrated into multiple web platforms and is supported by mobile devices.
GEAR-COMPLEX Key Features:
- Easy-to-use interface
- A vivid visual representation of tasks
- Affordable
BADGE-CHECK Why It’s Great for Self-Employed Business Owners:
Trello is flexible and can be used for all kinds of projects. It is affordable and easy to use. It can also be integrated into multiple apps.
CIRCLE-INFO Facts and Figures:
Over 2 million users, can be integrated into over 100 apps, and support both Android and Apple devices.
Zoom Workplace
Zoom announced in April 2020 that it has over 300 million daily meeting attendance4. The majority of those in attendance were businesspeople, making use of the online platform to reduce cost, enhance collaboration, increase efficiency, and subsequently, profit. In today’s competitive business environment, effective communication is crucial. However, the development of virtual meeting platforms means business owners do not need to leave their office before they meet clients, present a proposal, or hire staff. This is specifically great for someone who has just started building a business. Zoom is one of the most popular video conferencing platforms that allows virtual meetings, audio calls, screen and file sharing, and text messages. Meetings can be recorded for future reference, and attendance can be taken automatically. Participants can also choose to disable their camera or change the background if they do not want to show their surroundings.
GEAR-COMPLEX Key Features:
- High-quality video conferencing
- File and screen-sharing capabilities
- Allows breakout rooms for group discussions
BADGE-CHECK Why It’s Great for Self-Employed Business Owners:
Zoom is reliable and user-friendly, and it presents a great platform for collaboration, remote meetings, delivering presentations, or holding business and organizational discussions.
CIRCLE-INFO Facts and Figures:
Over 300 million daily meetings. It can allow up to 1000 participants in a single conference and a meeting can last up to 30 hours. It is supported by mobile devices and many of its features can be used for free.
QuickBooks
Keeping track of income, expenditures, taxes, and other financial activities can be overwhelming for a microbusiness, but digital invoicing solutions can help simplify the process. Not only does digital invoicing simplify work, but research shows that it also improves relationships with business stakeholders5. Among the available accounting software, QuickBooks has proven to be an ideal choice for small business owners. This digital tool can be used to organize financial records, manage payroll and taxation, automate client invoicing, track income and expenses, and provide financial reports and analytics. It will ensure no payment is missed, no record is skipped, and the book is always balanced. This will also help in making an informed financial decision.
The NASE has teamed with Intuit®, the makers of QuickBooks Self -Employed financial software. Save on a membership of QuickBooks through your NASE membership.
GEAR-COMPLEX Key Features:
- Automatic invoicing
- It can be linked with a payment solution
- Effective tracking of income and expenses
BADGE-CHECK Why It’s Great for Self-Employed Business Owners:
QuickBooks Self-Employed is an all-in-one solution for managing finances. It also helps prevent missed payments that is common among overwhelmed self-employed business owners.
CIRCLE-INFO Facts and Figures:
Over 6.5 million online subscribers, support multicurrency transactions, has a dedicated platform for self-employed business owners.
HubSpot CRM
At its core, HubSpot CRM provides a platform for managing customers’ data and leads. This is crucial to the success of every business. The Customer Relationship Management app comes with a lot of features that help businesses obtain and store important information about their customers, send automatic messages and responses, and track interactions with potential customers to develop a tailor-made campaign and increase the chance of conversion. The advanced email marketing features of this CRM are among the reasons we consider it one of the top apps for self-employed business owners. With it, businesses can send personalized and automated emails to their customers and prospects and respond automatically to inquiries. This is one of the tools you must not ignore when starting a business.
GEAR-COMPLEX Key Features:
- Enhances lead conversion
- Effective email marketing features
- Task automation
BADGE-CHECK Why It’s Great for Self-Employed Business Owners:
HubSpot CRM helps entrepreneurs keep a database of their customers’ credentials. It is also effective for marketing and lead conversion.
CIRCLE-INFO Facts and Figures:
Available in over 135 countries with over 200,000 customers. It can be used for free
Conclusion
The use of the right technology is crucial in every business. This will help to adopt strategies that will streamline processes, automate tasks, and enhance staff and client relationships. As the digital landscape evolves, we want to keep you ahead of the curve, which is why we recommend tools that have proven to be useful in assisting entrepreneurs to overcome the complexity of business ownership, increase efficiency, and drive growth. The apps discussed in this white paper were carefully considered to ensure they can meet the various challenges faced by small business owners and give room for scalability. So, whether you are working alone or managing a small team, these tools will certainly be of great value to you and your business.