Five business growth-boosting apps

In today’s connected world, we use apps to help manage our music playlists, measure our heartbeat and translate menus in a foreign language when we go on holidays.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that many of us also rely on apps to help increase productivity and make operations more efficient.

What Are the Benefits of a Business App?

Some of the benefits of using a business app are:

• Improve efficiency
• Save time on small tasks so you can focus on tasks that grow your business
• Convenience and being able to use them on the go
• Increase accuracy because the app will do the calculations for you
• Get organized
• Increase productivity 

After researching and using many business apps, we decided on our top five based on a number of factors, including the tools and features they offer.

1. Xero – for accounting

In 2018, Xero changed its tagline from ‘Beautiful accounting software’ to ‘Beautiful business’ to reflect its positive impact on businesses across the world. Don’t roll your eyes and think it’s too cliché because Xero has indeed successfully helped thousands of business owners who have no prior accounting knowledge to grasp vital concepts like cash-flow and let them have the confidence to perform a series of accounting tasks. 

How can it help you?

The app allows you to manage your account while on the move. From invoicing your clients instantly to approving expenses, Xero makes time-consuming tasks easier and faster to accomplish.

2. Trello – for project management

The ability to manage a multitude of projects proficiently is essential in any growing business. A simple, easy-to-use project management tool, Trello allows you to create a board for each project, which is then further broken down into individual tasks through the creation of lists, cards, checklists and labels, allowing you to organise and prioritise your workload in a proficient but fun way.

How can it help you?

Trello makes project management more efficient by empowering teams to collaborate to achieve a set goal. It also integrates well with Google Drive, Slack and Dropbox, making it easier to manage projects that have data stored on different platforms.

3. Hubspot - for sales and marketing

HubSpot is a CRM platform that was founded in 2005 by two MIT graduates, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. The HubSpot platform is centred around the concept of "inbound" marketing. It is a platform that provides a range of tools for content management, sales and marketing, and social media advertising.

How can it help you?

With its flexible app integrations, advanced contact tracking system, and sales pipeline analysis software, HubSpot is certainly one of the most powerful CRM programs on the market today. But it isn’t just a tool for enterprise companies who can afford the best of the best. It can also be used without a paid subscription, making it well worth considering for small businesses too.

4. Evernote – for note taking

Even if you’ve never used it, you’ve probably heard of Evernote. It’s a note-taking app that can help you organize your digital life, and it’s been around since 2004. You can use Evernote to take notes, organize your files, and take clippings and snippets from virtually anywhere on the web. One of Evernote’s major selling points is its many integrations with popular software products.

Evernote offers add-ons and plugins to integrate with a wide range of software tools you’re probably using at home and at work. Evernote offers integrations with both Gmail and Outlook, which is a big plus. You can also connect Evernote to Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, and Slack.

How can it help you?

Anyone who needs to save a lot of information, access it anywhere, and organize it for reference would find Evernote to be handy.

5. Microsoft OneDrive – for access, sharing and collaboration on all your files from anywhere

Microsoft OneDrive for Business is Microsoft's business-focused cloud storage and file sharing solution and competes with Google Drive Enterprise, Dropbox Business, and other professional-focused solutions.

Microsoft OneDrive can be combined with Microsoft Office 365 for highly integrated productivity, collaboration, and sharing toolset that offers seamless access to the most popular tools on PCs, mobile devices, and on the cloud. It can also be used as a standalone solution.

Key Features:

• Offers convenient file sharing
• Stops lost folders and files
• Provides easy collaboration tools

How can it help you?

One of the biggest advantages for OneDrive for Business is that it empowers users to easily interact with MS Office files. Business users with OneDrive for Business have the full functionality of PowerPoint, Word, Excel and most other Office 365 applications that interact with it seamlessly in multiple ways.