In this day and age, modern businesses can’t go without software to help perform many of the day to day tasks that are required. Software, for many businesses, makes the difference between their competitors and how they dominate the market. If you want to gain a competitive edge, just read on. The following is a guide to the best apps for small business owners that they can try for free this year.

Best Apps For Small Business Owners

App Integration – Zapier

Cloud based program Zapier allows users to create automations or zaps that use actions and triggers. This app allows you to connect supported Zapier apps together to facilitate the flow of information and data between the apps. With this program you have the ability to save Gmail attachments automatically to Dropbox, or for new salesforce contacts you can create a new Trello card. With over 500+ supported apps you won’t go wrong with using Zapier. Some apps it does support include, but isn’t limited to, HubSpot, Gravity Forms, Zendesk, GitHub, Basecamp, Infusionsoft, ActiveCampaign, Slack, Asana, MailChimp, Evernote, and Facebook Pages.

Accounting – ZipBooks

Zip-Books is a cloud based open sourced application which can provide numerous accounting solutions for small businesses and those who are going it alone. It’s also ideal for those who have no accounting experience or limited accounting experience. This app enables you to connect your bank account so you have a constant updated view of your financial records and data in the ZipBooks dashboard.

This application can provide small businesses with time tracking, invoicing, project management, team management, billing, and invoice financing. This enables you to manage your books more efficiently and allows you to pay your invoice the next day while waiting for customer payouts.

Gather insights from your costumers about your small business website – DebugMe is the tool for that

Graphic Design – Canva

A versatile graphic design tool, Canva allows users to create grand projects in minutes. The graphic designs can be utilised for a number of purposes which include presentations, social media posts, resumes, magazines, desktop wallpapers, infographic, flyers and so much more. You can choose customizable templates to get started immediately. You can also gain access to background and other elements which include charts, icons, photos, shapes, frames and illustrations which are on offer for free or for a small fee. So this is the ideal small business app. There is also a tutorial as well for you to use to get started.

Form Builder – WuFoo

WuFoo is a full online customizable form creation tool that enables you to design unique contact forms, invitations registrations, online surveys and so much more. The forms which are created from scratch or selected from the library can be embedded into your website, blog post, Facebook page, and email newsletter through code snippets. You can setup new lead notifications, registrations and dynamic report visualizations so everything is easy to understand.

Productivity – RescueTime

This cloud based application can provide you with rundowns of your daily activities on a weekly basis which involves websites and apps. This small business app allows you to see any inefficiencies on usage of time so you can make necessary changes and adjustments so everything is more productive.

Whether your creating content, responding to email, scanning social networks, or visiting news sites, this app can track your activities then group them together in previously defined categories. Categories and activities are assigned a level of productivity and your productivity score is the time on average you spend on activities on each of the productivity levels.

Ticket Management and Helpdesk – Zoho Support

Web based application Zoho Support helps businesses deliver great customer experiences. This small business app allows you to gain customer interaction from numerous channels which include forums, social media, forms, phone, chat, email, and self-service portals all in the one centralized location. Automated manual tasks can be issued which include notifications, ticket assignment, service escalations.

An unlimited number of agents can be accommodated for, along with unlimited received and sent tickets. This application covers contacts, task assignments, account management, and customizable web portals for customers, along with community forums, language support, and the exporting of XLS, CSV and PDF file formats.

Sales and Customer Management – HubSpot CRM

HubSpot CRM is a free cloud based CRM solution which can give you the tools needed to collect and store company information, contact information, complete team to-dos, manage tasks and track deals in the one application. It allows you to send emails from the CRM system or your inbox due to the client email integration. You’ll also get notifications when the recipient opens the email or clicks on the email link. HubSpot CRM also offers a customizable dashboard, meeting scheduling, deal pipeline, social media profiles, drag and drop interface, email templates and so much more. It’s a great app for small businesses.

Project Management – Freedcamp

Freedcamp is a place for organizing and planning projects all in the one place. It’s a cloud based project management tool and features reporting, resource management, calendaring, notifications, and task management features. It also allows for team collaboration where users can communicate with clients and teammates via forum-like discussions. For easy monitoring, all projects, design notes, group conversations, and to-dos are all in the one place.

Is your small business website performing well enough? Find out from your customers via DebugMe

Rewards and Recognitions – Bonusly

This application can be used by companies to work as a peer to peer recognition platform which is designed for employee recognition of all their hard work and to help motivate them. With this small business app, employees are given bonus allowances called micro bonuses that can be spent in increments. These micro bonuses can be used to buy the organization’s items from the reward catalog which can be customized to suit each business.

Video Capture and Editing – Icecream Screen Recorder

This application can capture on-screen activities as video files or screenshots. This application can be downloaded to your computer and is capable of recording presentations, games, video tutorials, and even streaming videos. It allows you to add comments, drawings, or video and graphic screenshots. It also offers a number of other features which include watermarking tools, around-mouse screen recording, zoom in and step tools, plus so much more.

Conclusion

As you can see there are many different small business apps that small business owners can use to enhance their business operations. So are you going to use any of these small business apps this year?

The makers of DebugMe hope that you like this post and would love it if you follow us on Twitter. We are tweeting about web design, UI/UX and development related topics multiple times a day. DebugMe is an issue tracking, project management and screenshot tool for every website project. Get visual feedback right away and solve front-end problems faster. Try it now for free.