Written By: Andy Ogg, Editor and Marketing Director – Travel Professional NEWS
Whether it be for your phone or laptop, these apps can help ease your work days!
Need help in staying organized, focusing on day to day lists, or keeping consistent content for your website or social media platforms? Don’t worry, as you are not alone! For most entrepreneurs and travel agents, running a business can entail dealing with so many things at one time. That is why it is essential to use applications or tools online that can help you have an easier and organized work schedule that will improve your overall productivity.
By using these apps for work, you get to experiment what works best for you and your work style. And the best part of it all is that, there’s an app now for almost everything! Whether you want to focus on communicating easier or having a to-do list that doesn’t look overwhelming, these 10 applications will surely help in growing your business.
Slack
Slack is one of the most recommended internal messaging applications available to businesses with a huge group of employees that need to constantly communicate. It allows employees to effectively collaborate with each other through different “teams” which can be compartmentalized by topics of discussion. Furthermore, it also provides a fine-tune notification system wherein you only get an alert when a particular keyword is mentioned. You may also customize the notification sounds for each team member so you know which message it’s from beforehand. The app with complete features starts at $ 6.67 per month, but the basic version is free.
Monday.com
Monday’s main feature is streamlining teams and departments to perform and create the best output for business. If you are an end user of this application, you will be able to have a well-organized and easy access monitoring for each team’s goal or group task. For instance, if you need to reach a particular quota or finish a project within the week, it will track each employee’s progress through checking to-do lists, making synchronized timelines, and even knowing the priority of each task. The app starts at $25 – 118 per month, depending on your preferred features.
ClickMeeting
Need to communicate with your members or clients through video conferences? ClickMeeting is an easy to use platform that features high-quality video and audio streaming good for meetings, interviews, online conferences, and even webinars. The app features in-meeting polls and surveys for your audience while you conduct webinars, screen sharing for better delivery of presentations, and even a fun a whiteboard function where you can brainstorm and draw during the webinar. ClickMeeting also has a feature where you can record and store your videos, so it can be viewed after the live session. The app starts at $25 per month for 25 attendees, and $55 per month for 100 attendees.
Canva is a free design tool that is good for beginners. So if you need help in creating posters, flyers, or even business cards for your business, this app will allow you to do it yourself without any hassles. With its convenient drag and drop feature for mobile and desktop, library of free images, and even variety of templates, you can definitely use this for your everyday marketing collaterals. Canva is free for 1GB storage for photos. However, if you decide to add unlimited storage space you will be billed $12 .95 per month. You can view more at https://www.canva.com.
Planoly
Need to plan your marketing content on Instagram? If you want to manage your feed and visually see your content or campaigns before it goes live, then Planoly is an app that you should check out. It has a drag and drop feature so you can arrange photos to manage the look of your feed. Furthermore, you can schedule content in advance and manage and reply to your comments in one place. This app is free, but if you want unlimited uploads,price starts at $7 a month.
Focus@will
Do you get distracted easily while working in public such as coffee shops or open-office spaces? Focus@will is a tool that personally creates a sound profile based on your preferences, so you can be more productive and focused while working. According to the developers of the app, the music given to you is based on the way you think, and how easily distracted you are, so it can be great if you use music to help you focus. Focus@will offers a two-week free trial, but you’ll have to pay $9.95 per month afterwards.
Airtable
Are you constantly updating your spreadsheets? Whether it be for taking track of your expenses or your clients’ contact info, Airtable will be a good app to try as it gives a more modern and organized look to data columns. With each spreadsheet, you can easily add attachments, long text notes, checkboxes, and even photos. The app is for free, however if you need more records and storage space, it starts at $10 per month.
Hootsuite
If you’re handling multiple social media accounts, it can be a bit tricky to keep track of them all. Hootsuite is an all-in-one platform where you can post different content on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Googleplus, in one place. Plus, you can also easily respond to messages and mentions for each platform, as it appears in your dashboard. Hootsuite has a free trial, however, you’ll need to start paying $29 per month.
Freshbooks
Need some help in accounting? Spend less time on calculating and figuring out how to work things digitally with FreshBooks. This app has an accounting software that allows you to create digital invoices easily, accept credit cards on your invoices, send reminders to securely charging your client’s credit card, and more! If you want your business invoicing and billing to be simple yet easy, this can be a great app to invest in. Freshbooks has a free trial for a month, and you have to pay $15 – 50 monthly depending on the number of clients and features you want to add.
PandaDocs
Do you want to streamline your sales workflow in one app? Pandadocs is a document management solution with features that allows you to create, send, eSign and track documents. Furthermore, you can create modern and interactive sales documents with custom design themes and rich media elements that will be visually appealing to your clients. This app also features workflow automation, content management, and document insights. PandaDocs starts at $15 per month depending on the amount of users and features you want to include.