In the State of South African Small Businesses report, released in 2016 by World Wide Worx and Xero, 55% of small businesses reported that smart devices and cloud apps have made running their business easier. However, while most entrepreneurs may be open to the idea of using cloud-based apps to help with everything from their sales and marketing to finances, finding the perfect app for each job is no easy task.
To help with this, Ernst Wittmann, global account director of MEA and country manager at Alcatel, Southern Africa shares his pick for Android apps that can help improve both productivity and efficiency.
Below are his 8 suggestions to take you from the startup phase right up to an established business.
1. Business Plan
This app allows you to create a business plan with ease, either alone or in collaboration with your business partners. The app helps you by:
- Teaching you how to think about each section of your business plan
- Giving you the tools to map out your business plan and share it with friends and co-founders
- Enabling you to ask an online entrepreneur community for advice
2. Weebly
Weebly makes it easy to create and edit a website, blog, or online store from its app interface. Use the intuitive drag-and-drop website builder — designed for touchscreen — to create an attractive and customised online home for your business. You can:
- Monitor site activity in real-time, for example, blog comments, site traffic, store orders and more from one interface
- Process and fulfil orders, add products, check inventory, and receive notifications when a new order is placed
- Instantly accept payments from Stripe, Square, or PayPal
- Create a blog and stay connected to your visitors
3. Evernote
Evernote gives you the tools you need to keep your work organised:
- Write, collect and capture ideas as searchable notes, notebooks, checklists and to-do lists
- Take notes in the form of text, sketches, photos, audio, video, PDFs, web clippings and more
- Organise your receipts, bills and invoices
4. Free Invoice Generator
Free Inovice Generator enables you to instantly create invoices on the go. All you need to do is complete the invoice and print or download as a PDF file. There’s no need to sign in or sign up to use the app.
5. Slack
Slack is a collaboration platform that brings all your communication together in one place. It is real-time messaging, file sharing, archiving and searching for modern teams. It’s a great way to drive collaboration when employees aren’t always in the same building. It also integrates with many tools that businesses already use, such as Dropbox, Trello and Zendesk.
6. Google Docs, Sheets and Slides
Apps included are word processor Docs, spreadsheet editor Sheets, and presentation maker Slides. Managing even complex documents is relatively simple and the suite is compatible with Microsoft Office files, so you can transition between your desktop computer and your mobile device.
7. Zoho
Zoho is an online customer relationship management (CRM) software for managing your sales, marketing and support in a single system. The CRM Mobile Edition lets you access your CRM data anywhere, anytime from your mobile phone. This enables you to stay on top of the latest business developments, collaborate with your team and make business decisions.
8. Business Card Maker
This app allows you to create, save and share your own professional digital business card. The business card can also be used as your digital identity and an e-card.
