As a business owner, I’m sure that you’re juggling a million different tasks. That’s why you need a calendar tool to remind you of key appointments, events, and deadlines. A calendar can also keep you organized when it comes to other important business tasks, such as when to bill and publish fresh content. So the question shouldn’t be whether or not you need a calendar. It should be what calendar tools work best for your business.
Calendar Tools
I wish I could give you a simple answer. But, the truth is, there are hundreds of options out there that offer a variety of features. Some business owners may just need a basic tool to remind them of their daily schedule. Others may require a more robust option that comes with all the bells and whistles. The key is to compare your options and consider the factors that make the ideal calendar for you.
To get you started, however, here are eight calendar tools that every business owner should use.
1. Calendar
Are your looking for a way to schedule your time in a smarter way? Then you should by using the Calendar app.
This innovative platform will transform the way you and your team work by assisting users in scheduling meetings collaboratively, while also maintaining meeting agendas and tracking projects. In other words, it’s not just a powerful calendar and scheduling app, it’s also a handy productivity tool.
Calendar also uses machine learning so that it can recognize the invitees of a meeting. This helps you determine, when, where, and how your meeting will take place. For example, by integrating with Uber and Lyft Calendar can calculate the most convenient meeting location, along with the best route to get there.
You can sign up for Calendar for free.
2. Google Calendar
The main reason why businesses love Google Calendar; it integrates with other Google products and other apps. This includes Gmail, Drive, and Hangouts. As such, this makes collaboration and communication a breeze.
As for the calendar itself, it’s probably one of the options out there. It’s simple interface makes it easy to create multiple calendars and recurring events that can be color-coded. This way you can quickly see which area of your life an event applies to with just a glance.
If you have an event, whether if it’s a meeting or business trip, you’ll receive a notification via email and text. Additionally, Google Calendar can be easily shared with others and it can be used to invite people to an event.
Plus, because it’s so popular, it syncs with pretty much every popular app available.
If you’re not a Gmail user, you can use Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Apple’s iCloud, and Zoho Calendar. While they all offer unique features, they’re also all fairly similar and quality online calendars.
3. Teamup
Unlike most other calendars, Teamup was designed specifically for groups, as opposed to being a personal calendar that you share. As a result, this calendar is ideal if you want a fast and easy way to schedule meeting rooms, create staff schedules, or organize deliveries. Actually, it can be used for basically anything that’s team related.
Just add, or edit, an event and share it with your team through a unique and secure web URL. Best of all? Teamup works across all devices.
While there is a free Teamup plan, you’ll probably want to go with the $8/month (total, not per user) plan. It comes with additional features like password protection.
4. Fantastical 2
Fantastical is an iOS calendar from Flexibits that delivers just about everything you want from existing calendar tools.
For starters, the app provides a clean presentation of events in daily, weekly, and monthly calendar views in a colorful and underwhelming way. However, it’s most renowned feature is the ability to create events by just saying a brief audio note. For example, “Lunch with Liz at noon at The Grill.”
Another nifty feature is The Day Ticker. This lets users to view and manage their events and reminders instantly. If you own an Apple Watch then you’ll receive push notifications of your events and appointments right to your wrist.
Fantastical two pricing varies for devices as such; $49.99 for Mac (after 21-day free trial), $4.99 for iPhone, and $9.99 for iPad.
5. Business Calendar 2
Don’t worry Android users, we didn’t forget about you.
Business Calendar, which was built by Appgenix, has long been a favorite app among Android users. That’s because it’s you can swipe between a variety of calendars, summaries, and events. Each of these are in different colors so you can view your day, week, or month in-a-glance.
The app also allows you to quickly add events or to-dos. You can then share this information with others linking your contacts. But, if you don’t see the features you need, no worries. The app can be personalized to fit your unique needs.
You can download Business Calendar 2 for free on Google Play.
6. Accompany
Want to improve your meetings? Start by using Accompany.
This app combines calendar and contact management with insights so that you now have a mobile chief of staff. After signing up for the service with your work email account, the app will gather detailed profiles of the people and companies that will be attending your upcoming events and meetings. This includes the last communications you had with them, their social media posts, or news stories about them.
Accompany will also find company profiles, financial reports, and news that can then be emailed to you via an Executive Briefing the night before the event. This way you’ll never be unprepared for a meeting again.
7. 30 Boxes
30 Boxes is one of those calendar tools that has been around forever. Not literally, of course. But since it was founded in 2005, so you can understand the hyperbole.
The reason 30 Boxes has hung around all these years is because it features a simple user interface that comes with your standard features. This includes multiple views, reminders, and the ability to share it with others. There’s also natural language entry, which also makes life easier.
There’s also some distinctive features with 30 Boxes. For instance, it allows your to share blog posts, social media updates, and Flickr photos. Moreover, you can add calendar events to your blog via RSS.
30 Boxes is free. The catch is that you really can’t learn more about the calendar until you sign up for an account.
8. Trello
This isn’t a calendar tool, per say. Instead, Trello is a popular project management tool that can keep you and your team on track of various tasks and projects. This is done through a digital to-do board where everyone is assigned a task and due date via cards that are placed on the board. As a result, you and your team have a visual representation of what needs to get done.
There’s also a Trello Calendar View so that you can see which cards are due that day. Again, it’s a visual representation of your team’s day. This makes Trello the perfect tool for assigning, collaborating, discussing, and tracking todos.
You can even attach files from Google Drive or Dropbox, upload photos and videos, and customize workflows for different projects. Oh yeah, you can create an account for free.
