Entrepreneurs have a lot of responsibilities. Between selling your product, networking, paying your bills, managing inventory and employees, and taking care of chores at home like picking the kids up at school, it’s a wonder that you have time to sleep. That’s why entrepreneurs are constantly on the lookout for tricks ands tools and tools that can keep you productive and organized so that you can handle all of those responsibilities. Here are 10 apps that will keep you organized and productive.
1. Due
At first glance, Due may appear to be just a powerful invoicing tool. That in itself can already save you a ton of time since you can set-up recurring invoices or create professional invoices in just a matter of minutes. These invoices are also extremely organized so that you easily see which ones have been paid and the ones that are pending. It also comes with an innovative time tracking tool that works in the background and tracks the time spend on various projects. You can then take that data import into your invoices.
There’s also a digital wallet so that you can receive or send money from anywhere in the world. This streamlines the invoicing and payment process that includes project management, time tracking, estimates, invoices and payments in one convenient dashboard.
Due is free, but does charge a flat 2.8% for card transactions.
2. Evernote
This should be the entrepreneur’s go-to-app. It allows you to take notes after a meeting or networking event, or just whenever the lightbulb goes-off, and sync those notes across all of your mobile and desktop devices. If you’re not much of writer you can record your thoughts or meeting instead of writing everything down. You can also save interesting articles, documents, or presentations and view them whenever you have a chance. Evernote’s search feature also makes finding these notes fast and convenient.
Evernote does have a free Basic Plan, but for more of the robust features, you may want to consider bumping up to either the Plus ($34.99 per year) or the Premium ($69.99) plan.
3. Google Apps for Work
This is another essential app for entrepreneurs. The main reason is that this is a suite of products that includes everything you need to stay organized and productive. For communication there’s Gmail and Hangouts, for storage and collaboration Drive, and Calendar to schedule important events or reminders.
Google Apps is just $5 per month per user, but for $10/month you’ll have unlimited storage.
4. Trello
This is one of most popular, and awesome, project management tools available. The reason? It’s easy-to-use and relies on placing checklists, due dates, labels and stickers onto cards. These cards are placed on “boards” so that you have a real-time macro view of a project. You and your team can also receive notifications about key milestones in the project and integrates with apps like Google Drive and Dropbox.
There is a free app for iOS and Android devices. The business version, however, costs $9.99 per user per month. This includes additional features like integration with apps such as Slack and Evernote.
5. Zapier
The easiest way to describe Zapier is that it’s an automation app that connects all of your other apps. For example, whenever you have a new email in Gmail from a colleague that contains an attachment that trigger would take action by copying the email’s attachment in Dropbox. You would then be notified in Slack about the new Dropbox file.
Zapier works with you most frequently used apps, like Google Drive, Facebook, MailChimp, Evernote, and Buffer, which means that you can start saving time by stopping the going-back-and-forth between apps.
There is a free option, but there’s also a business plan starting at $20 per month and a $125/month plan for larger teams.
6. Dashlane
If you’re like me, you have dozens and dozens of passwords floating around. That’s when a password manager comes in handy. It allows you to securely store all of these passwords in a convenient location that you can access from anywhere. Apps like Dashlane accomplish that task, along creating strong passwords for you, saving them, and auto filling Web-forms with personal information. All you have to do is remember your master password to open the encrypted vault.
You can download Dashlane for free, but if you want your data to sync across your phone, your desktop, and be accessible online you’ll have to upgrade to the Premium plan for $39 per year.
7. 24me
This app is essentially a personal assistant. Everything from your calendar, to-do lists, personal accounts, and notes are kept in one place, and your day-to-day errands can be completed with just one tap. You can also reminders on anything from billing, events, and birthdays. As if that weren’t enough, the 24me can automatically pay those bills, send a birthday present, and notify you when you should leave for the office based on real-time traffic conditions.
It’s available for iOS and Android users for free.
8. Nozbe
This is an easy-to-use task management system that has been based on the popular based on GTD (Getting Things Done) method. In short, Nozbe assists you in getting all of those thoughts, ideas, and tasks out of your head by recording them externally, and then breaking them into smaller, more manageable chunks. It also syncs with Google Drive, Dropbox, and Evernote.
Nozbe is free for one member, there’s also monthly plans at $8 and $80 if you have more than one member on your team.
9. Proven
If you want to grow your team, then I would recommend used Proiven. It’s an app that lets you post your job opening to more than 100 job boards and then process and analyze candidates in one location. After that, you schedule interviews through Proven’s Scheduler feature. In short, this makes the hiring process as painless as possible.
Posing one job is free, while listing 10 jobs will cost you $40 per job.
10. Tripit
As an entrepreneur you’re likely to do quite a bit of traveling. And, Tripit has made life-on-the-road a bit easier. The app keeps track all you flight confirmations, along with hotel and restaurant reservations, which you can share with your family or travel companions.Any emails regarding your travels can easily be forwarded to the app so that you don’t have to waste time going through your inbox to find your hotel reservation. Tripit also provides real-time flight information and track reward programs.
Tripif is free to download, but if you do a lot of traveling, it’s probably better to spend the $49 per year for TripIt Pro.
