By now you must be thinking that this subject is becoming exhausted. How many more applications could there possibly be to help me run my small business more smoothly and efficiently? In a nutshell, the answer is a lot. Mobile applications are constantly evolving to what works and is user-friendly. Also, as technology changes, the mediums in which they are distributed to the public become different and must evolve as well. It is odd to think that just a few years ago we marveled at how fast the internet seemed to take over our day-to-day activities. From work to personal use, we were in front of a computer for a good portion of our day. We knew, inevitably, that like everything else the internet would go mobile. But I don’t think that it happened the way that we expected. Mobile applications took over. It was a different, more aesthetic and easy-to-use interface for our favorite websites, games and more. I am just the middle-man; here to show you what is available to make your business operate a little easier.

1. Sunrise: A calendar application that you will find indispensable, Sunrise works with Android and iOS stock calendars to make it easier to schedule meetings and respond to event invitations with ease just like you are on your personal computer!
2. Desk: Monitoring your business’ customer service isn’t always easy. With different social media accounts plus e-mail and all of the different ways that your business can interact with people, it is getting more difficult to keep on top of it all. Desk is a great way to have customer service moderation on-the-go from your phone. It is also customizable and free!
3. CamCard: Sick of having to keep all of those business cards in order, or worse, spending valuable time inputting the information into your contacts list? CamCard makes it as easy as taking a photo with your phone! Just point and click over a business card and the information is inputted into your phone for you, easy peasy!
4. MightyMeeting: Need a place to hold and then share your presentations? Once you upload a presentation to MightyMeeting, you can either play it straight from your phone or connect your phone to a bigger screen. Forget the days of lugging your laptop around with you. You can also send the presentation to an employee and play them simultaneously for a remote meeting. In “whiteboard mode” you can write notes, draw and share graphs and charts in real-time.
5. Mailstrom: Organize your e-mail easier with Mailstrom! While it isn’t free ($49.95/year or $4.95/month) it can save you time which saves you money! By inputting your priority on who you receive e-mails from, it can help you stop sifting from hundreds a day and put those pesky spam e-mails in folders that you don’t ever have to see again, unless you want to.
6. Robin: While it is just for Android, Robin gets you. Like Siri, Robin is a “personal assistant” right on your phone and can recognize your voice and set up e-mails and search for you with just one question. However, Robin does go steps further with hands-free messaging, traffic updates and parking guidance and personalized radio!

While some of these apps may be known to you, there is a reason I am adding them in. It is so important to stay on the cusp of technology for your small business. I talk about this a lot but that is because, especially as business owners, we tend to find something that works and stick with it. We don’t think of what could be out there to make it better. While our parents’ philosophy “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” made sense in their day, in ours it can be crippling. I am here to give you that crutch to the outside world and continuous flow of education to small business owners. Who knows what I will be able to show you tomorrow?