Feeling overwhelmed by the day-to-day grind of running a small business? You’re not alone! Between juggling finances, marketing, and customer service, it can feel like you’re wearing ten hats at once.
It doesn’t have to be that hard, though. There are plenty of apps out there that can help make your life, and your business, easier.
From Calendly for effortless appointment scheduling to Canva for all your design needs, this list has you covered. You can handle everything from engaging with customers to tracking your finances—all with the right apps. Who wouldn’t want that?
In this blog, we’ll dive deep into the 13 best apps for small business. We’ll go over their features, advantages, and how they can transform your operations.
Table of Contents
Our 13 Best Apps for a Small Business
Here is a list of some of the best apps to help your business run more smoothly:
- Calendly
- Google Calendar
- Acuity Scheduling
- Canva
- Slack
- Google Workspace
- Hootsuite
- HubSpot CRM
- FreshBooks
- Shopify
- Microsoft Teams
- Trello
- PayPal
Below, we look at each of these apps in more detail.
Best Scheduling Apps for Small Businesses: Optimizing Your Time
Effective time management is essential to the success of your company. Here are some of the best scheduling apps for small businesses:
1. Calendly: Making Appointment Scheduling Easier
Calendly is a highly popular scheduling app known for its simplicity and effectiveness. It enables small company owners like yourself to schedule appointments without exchanging emails back and forth by sharing their availability with customers, coworkers, or clients.
- Availability Settings: Configure the types of appointments you want to schedule and your availability hours.
- Links for Customized Scheduling: Send out your special scheduling link by email or include it on your website.
- Calendar Integrations: Sync with your calendar to iCloud, Office 365, Outlook, and Google Calendar.
- Automated Reminders: Send email or SMS reminders to reduce no-shows.
- Group Scheduling: Arrange gatherings or events for several people.
- Time Zone Detection: Recognise and adapt to various time zones automatically.
- Time-Saving: Calendly streamlines small business scheduling by eliminating email chains and allowing direct appointment scheduling from clients, freeing up time for other responsibilities.
- Flexibility and Control: Calendly offers customizable booking processes and connectivity with various calendar systems, ensuring flexibility and control over your schedule, even while on the go.
- Increased Efficiency: Calendly’s centralized appointment scheduling system minimizes administrative costs, allowing users to focus on their primary tasks, thereby increasing productivity.
2. Google Calendar: Your Digital Organizer
Part of the popular Google Workspace suite, Google Calendar is a versatile tool for managing your time. It provides an all-inclusive platform for event scheduling, planning, and coordination.
- Recurring Events: You can schedule events to occur on a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual basis.
- Reminders: Get alerts promptly about activities coming up so you don’t miss crucial appointments.
- Event Creation: Create events with ease and include all the information you need, such as venues, names, descriptions, and attendees.
- Task Management: Create and manage tasks within the calendar for better organization.
- Goals: Set and track personal or professional goals with deadlines and reminders.
- Planning and Managing Your Time: Google Calendar excels in time management and organization for small businesses, with tools like color coding, event repeating, and reminders for efficient scheduling and prioritization.
- Enhanced Collaboration: Google Calendar facilitates simple calendar sharing with friends, family, and coworkers, making collaborative project planning, event planning, and meeting scheduling easier.
- Integration with Google Ecosystem: Google Calendar seamlessly integrates with Gmail, Meet, and Tasks, enabling you to schedule Google Meet calls and add event-related tasks, enhancing efficiency and workflow.
3. Acuity Scheduling: Comprehensive Appointment Management
A widely used online tool, Acuity Scheduling simplifies the process of booking appointments for both individuals and businesses. It provides several features to improve client satisfaction and expedite the scheduling process.
- Online Appointments: Your clients can easily schedule appointments using a shared booking link or through your website.
- Customisable Booking Page: Make a booking page that reflects your company’s identity and design.
- Mobile App: Organize your appointments and schedule while on the go.
- Client Management: Keep track of and organize client data for convenient access.
- Payment Processing: Accept payments online through various payment gateways.
Enhanced Customer Experience: Acuity Scheduling enhances customer experience by providing convenience, online booking, and automated reminders, fostering a positive perception of value, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty.
Increased Revenue and Productivity: Acuity Scheduling enhances appointment booking efficiency, boosts revenue, and optimizes services and pricing by accommodating more clients and providing insights into booking trends.
Best Free Apps for Small Business Owners: Maximizing Your Budget
Free apps are an amazing deal that won’t break the bank if your business is on a tight budget. Here are our few recommendations:
4. Canva: Your Design Companion
When we talk about the best free apps for small business owners, it’s impossible not to mention Canva. It’s the graphic design tool of our dreams that empowers anyone to create stunning visuals. It’s like having a professional design team at your fingertips, without the hefty price tag.
Canva is especially useful if you want to become an influencer or a digital creator on Facebook.
- Huge Template Collection: Select from a variety of well-created templates for a range of uses.
- Customization Options: Easily personalize your designs with fonts, colors, and layouts.
- Tools for Collaboration: Easily collaborate on shared designs with your team.
- Print and Digital Design: Produce material for online and offline media.
- Rich Media Library: Access millions of stock photos, graphics, and icons to enhance your designs.
- Versatility and Customization: Canva offers unparalleled versatility in creating social media graphics, presentations, marketing materials, and printed documents, with numerous customization options to match your brand or personal style.
- Accessibility for All: Canva’s user-friendly interface simplifies design for all, allowing individuals and companies to create visually striking images without a design background, enhancing communication and accessibility.
- Collaboration and Teamwork: Canva enhances teamwork and efficiency by allowing multiple users to work on the same design simultaneously, promoting alignment with the design vision.
5. Slack: Boost Your Team’s Productivity
Slack has revolutionized collaboration and communication with its cloud-based platform, making it the perfect app for small businesses. It’s intended to provide a more effective and structured approach in place of email and other conventional communication techniques.
- Channels: You can categorize group discussions into specialized subjects or tasks.
- Direct Messaging: Have private conversations with people or groups.
- File Sharing: Easily exchange documents and files with coworkers directly or through channels.
- Search Functionality: Navigate the platform and find messages, files, and users with ease.
- App Directory: Discover and add apps to enhance your team’s productivity.
- Improved Communication and Collaboration: Slack improves team communication by centralizing conversations, eliminating email clutter, and offering real-time messaging, file sharing, and integration for seamless project collaboration.
- Enhanced Organization and Information Management: Slack enhances organization and information management by categorizing conversations and projects, allowing easy access to relevant information, and utilizing a search function for quick message or file location.
6. Google Workspace: All in One
When searching for apps for small businesses, you can’t overlook Google Workspace, the all-in-one solution. Gmail, Google Drive, Google Documents, and Google Calendar are just a few of the productivity tools available through Google Workspace.
For small organizations that want dependable and integrated solutions for email, document creation, and file storage, this is the ideal app.
- Gmail: A sophisticated email service with high storage capacity, intelligent compose, and Workspace app integration.
- Google Drive: File storage in the cloud with capabilities including version history, real-time collaboration, and robust search.
- Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides: Online tools for creating and modifying documents that allow for real-time collaboration.
- Google Meet: Video conferencing platform for meetings, webinars, and screen sharing.
- Google Keep: Note-taking app for capturing ideas, lists, and images.
- Google Sites: Create internal or external websites and intranets.
- Improved Security and Data Protection: Google prioritizes security by investing in infrastructure, including two-factor authentication, data encryption, and regular security updates, to ensure the protection of your data.
- Cost-Effectiveness and Scalability: Google Workspace offers cost-effective, scalable pricing plans for businesses, reducing IT costs and allowing easy user addition or removal as needs change.
- Increased Productivity and Efficiency: Google Workspace enhances productivity and efficiency by integrating email, document creation, storage, and communication tools, allowing file access and collaboration from any device.
7. Hootsuite: Master Your Social Media
Hootsuite is a powerful social media management platform that has become a staple for businesses of all sizes, making it a key player in the realm of best apps for small businesses. It provides a single dashboard where users can manage several social media profiles, plan posts, interact with viewers, and track their progress.
- Integrated Dashboard: Control every social media platform from a single location.
- Scheduling: To save time, prepare and schedule posts ahead of time.
- Analytics: Monitor performance indicators to learn more about audience involvement.
- Social Listening: Keep an eye on keywords, hashtags, and mentions to follow the reputation of your brand.
- Team Collaboration: Assign tasks and roles within your team.
- Enhanced Social Media Management: Hootsuite offers a centralized platform for managing social media activities, enabling your business to efficiently monitor mentions, respond to comments, and track engagement metrics.
- Data-Driven Decision Making: Hootsuite provides comprehensive analytics tools for your business to track engagement, reach, and click-through rates, enabling you to make data-driven decisions and optimize your social media campaigns.
- Increased Reach and Engagement: Hootsuite’s social media management can boost your business’ engagement and reach by promoting consistent posting, timely responses, and data-driven content optimization.
8. HubSpot CRM: Sales and Marketing Powerhouse
The all-inclusive HubSpot CRM software is made to assist your business in managing and expanding your clientele. It provides an array of tools for optimizing marketing, sales, and customer support procedures.
- Contact Management: Gather and arrange client data in one place.
- Deal Pipeline Management: Monitor prospects for sales from lead to close.
- Email Tracking and Templates: Keep tabs on open rates and tailor correspondence.
- Marketing Automation: Automate repetitive tasks and nurture leads.
- CRM Integration: Link to additional platforms and technologies to improve performance.
- Deeper Customer Insights: HubSpot CRM offers valuable customer insights, enabling your business to tailor your marketing and sales efforts for maximum impact, enhancing business growth.
- Measurable ROI: HubSpot CRM provides comprehensive reporting and analytics tools for your business to track sales and marketing campaign performance, enabling data-driven decision-making and optimized strategies.
- Better Customer Relationships: HubSpot CRM enhances customer relationships through personalized communication, tracking interactions, and exceptional service, thereby increasing loyalty and advocacy among businesses.
9. FreshBooks: Simplifying Your Finances
FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting program designed specifically for independent contractors and small businesses. It offers a range of features and a user-friendly interface to streamline effective money management.
- Invoicing: Establish periodic billing, track payments, and produce expert bills.
- Expense Tracking: Record and classify costs, taking care of receipts as needed.
- Time Tracking: To ensure proper billing, keep track of the amount of time spent on clients and projects.
- Payment Process: Take online payments via several gateways.
- Accounting and Reporting: Prepare financial statements for tax filing and business evaluation.
- Improved Cash Flow Management: FreshBooks improves business cash flow management by tracking payments, sending reminders, and accepting online payments, providing valuable income and expense insights for informed decision-making.
- Simplified Accounting: FreshBooks simplifies small business accounting by offering tools for expense tracking, invoicing, and financial reporting, enhancing efficiency and stress relief in tax preparation and analysis.
Apps for Small Business: The Digital Toolkit
Here are a few more best apps for small businesses we recommend if you’re planning to start a digital marketing agency/ecommerce store:
10. Shopify: Build Your Brand
Shopify is a popular ecommerce platform that offers a comprehensive toolkit for small business owners, focusing on providing the best free apps to enhance their online presence.
- Product Management: Easily add, edit, and organize products with detailed descriptions, photos, prices, and inventory levels.
- Secure Checkout: Provide clients with a smooth, safe checkout process with a variety of payment choices.
- Order Management: Track inventory, handle shipping, and process orders quickly and efficiently.
- Marketing Tools: Includes pre-installed marketing elements that increase sales, such as social network integration, SEO optimization, and email campaigns.
- Analytics and Reporting: Use in-depth analytics to get insightful knowledge about consumer behavior and shop performance.
- Mobile Commerce: Make your store mobile-friendly to attract clients who are always on the go.
- Point of Sale (POS): Shopify’s POS system, which synchronizes flawlessly with your online store, lets you sell in person.
- Ease of Use: Shopify’s user-friendly interface eliminates coding and technical expertise, allowing merchants to focus on product development and marketing without being overwhelmed by technical complexities.
- Global Reach: Shopify offers a global reach for sellers, enabling you to sell products to customers worldwide through multiple currencies and payment gateways, helping you expand your market and increase sales potential.
- App Store: The Shopify App Store provides a wide range of third-party applications to enhance your store’s functionality, including shipping solutions, marketing tools, and inventory management.
11. Microsoft Teams: Team up and Get Things Done
Microsoft Teams is a flexible platform for collaboration created to improve productivity and teamwork. It provides a centralized area for project administration, file sharing, and communication.
- Chat: Have discussions in real time with people or groups.
- Meetings: Host video and audio conferences with screen-sharing capabilities.
- File Sharing: Collaborate on documents and other files seamlessly.
- Teams and Channels: Group discussions into related subjects or tasks.
- App Integration: Integrate with other Microsoft 365 apps and third-party tools.
- Flexible and Adaptable: Microsoft Teams is a flexible platform with customizable chat, video, and file-sharing features, making it easy to adapt to different team needs and work styles.
- Increased Productivity and Efficiency: Teams enhance productivity and efficiency through workflow streamlining, task management, and integration with Microsoft 365 apps, allowing remote access to information and project collaboration.
12. Trello: Simple and Effective
Trello is a popular project management tool that uses a Kanban-style interface to organize tasks and projects. It is a favorite among both individuals and teams because of its simplicity and adaptability.
- Boards, Lists, and Cards: The core elements of Trello which is why it’s the one of the best free apps for small business owners. Lists are categories, tasks are cards, and projects are represented by boards.
- Labels and Due Dates: To improve organization and prioritization, you can include labels and due dates on your cards.
- Comments and Attachments: Collaborate with team members through comments and attach relevant files.
- Mobile App: Manage projects on the go.
- Increased Flexibility and Customization: Trello’s flexibility and customization enable teams to tailor the tool to their specific workflow needs, with Power-Ups providing additional features to further enhance the platform’s capabilities.
- Improved Productivity and Efficiency: Trello enhances productivity and efficiency by providing a clear task overview, enabling efficient prioritization and management, leading to faster project completion.
13. PayPal: Make Payments Simple
PayPal is a well-known online payment platform that makes money transfers easier. It makes it possible for both people and companies to transmit and receive money safely and effectively.
- Online Payments: Millions of online retailers worldwide allow you to easily make purchases.
- PayPal Balance: Hold money for upcoming needs.
- Purchase Protection: Protect your purchases with this feature.
- Seller Protection: Protects sellers from unauthorized transactions.
- Mobile App: Manage your account and make payments on the go.
- Security and Protection: PayPal prioritizes security by using advanced encryption technology and offering buyer and seller protection programs, ensuring financial information protection and peace of mind for all parties involved.
- Global Reach and Flexibility: PayPal’s global reach and flexibility enable seamless transactions across borders, offering options like credit cards, debit cards, or PayPal balance, eliminating currency conversion hassles.
Picking the Right App for Your Business
Choosing the right apps can greatly boost your small business’s efficiency and productivity. Whether you’re looking for a straightforward tool or a comprehensive solution with advanced features, there’s an app that fits your needs.
We’ve done the work for you and highlighted the best options, so you can easily find the tools that will help streamline your operations and support your business growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, it’s entirely possible to run your business without the use of any app. However, using the right ones can make things a lot easier and save you time.
For example, you can use Trello to keep everything organized, almost like a second brain for your projects.
There are many great apps that you can use to schedule meetings with your clients. The one we recommend is Calendly because it lets clients choose a time that works for them from your available slots, so you don’t have to deal with endless email back-and-forth.
