On this blog, we tend to write a lot about mobile applications. While mobility is important, more likely for eight hours a day you are stuck behind a desk. Today, I give you web applications and websites that you may not know about. Increasing knowledge is the point, right? Let’s get down to business.
Prosper – An innovative way to get financial help to start your small business. You can create a profile stating your idea and what interest rate you can pay. After reading your profile, lenders may make an offer. Seems easy enough, right? But the big downfall is that everyone knows your business. The lenders can be one person or a group of people. The upside is that Prosper will follow through with the loan, charging a small percentage to manage it, say if you already have a lender and need a third party to conduct the loan process. Prosper offers many services, all you need are ideas!
Wesabe – A financial organization and planning tool that integrates with your bank account. While others offer this same service, Wesabe goes a step further by having a great forum where small business leaders can come together to discuss challenges and give or take financial advice. Wesabe is geared for smaller businesses rather than larger corporations.
YouTube – Yes, you read that right. YouTube has become a great stop for not only business reviews and customer communication, but for informative videos and podcasts too. Social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter get a lot of attention, but YouTube has been around longer than most sites for a reason, the audience will always be larger and the ideas can only get bigger.
Instapaper – A useful tool that allows you to save webpages to be viewed later. This is great for websites that you would like to view later, but don’t want to bookmark. You can also use instagram offline or on other devices such as mobile phones and tablets and even e-readers or (if you’re in the Stone Age) printed paper.
Small Business News Feed – (CNN – Small Business, PR Newswire, Bloomberg) Keeping up with Small Business news can only improve your knowledge and access to others in your field. Read these sites everyday if possible, because knowledge is power.
Space Monkey – Although there are many different “cloud-based” data storage sites, Space Monkey does more for less. At $10/mo. it is among the cheapest of its competitors and you get 1TB of space to work within.
15Five – Have you ever wanted to be in your employees’ brains just for a few minutes a day to see what’s really going on in your company? 15Five is here to help. 15Five allows managers and owners to receive a 15 minute weekly report from their employees. These reports can give feedback, project updates and generate conversation and ideas throughout a company.
Pinterest – So, you’re advertising your business on Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn. Now, I give you Pinterest!! Pinterest is different in that it is mostly visually-based. Meaning, you can’t really update a “status” as much as you can “pin” a picture. These are helpful in that millions will your see your categorized picture and decide instantly to “repin” or just keep on moving. It’s new, it’s exciting and its millions of user’s right at your fingertips.
Hireflo – Hireflo is a great way to organize all of those job applicants. In this economy, one job may get dozens of applicants, if not more. Hireflo allows organization of applicants in the way of prioritization and lack of printed applications and e-mails. It’s all in one place, for your hiring convenience.
While there are dozens of websites or applications out there for use, finding new ones isn’t always an easy task. Keep your eyes open for other’s innovative ideas. They are all made for one reason, to make your life and business easier. I recommend not using every application available to you or even every application that is cheap or free. Choose several in one category and choose first on interface and user-friendly ability. If it doesn’t work out after a “trial run” then move on. Not every application will be suited for your needs.
There are so many out there that you can allow yourself a few minutes a week to try something new and to be judgmental about them. That’s the fun part, isn’t it? So, if some of these applications don’t meet your needs go look for those that do. Or, you can always contact me and give me your own ideas and comments to work from, as constructive feedback is always welcome. Hmm, maybe there is an app for that too!
