5 productivity tools that will simplify your life as a small business owner
As a small business owner, you may sometimes feel like the wrathful patron deity of your company. There’s no need to feel bad about it. The amount you have on your plate is enough to make anyone’s internal wiring run hot. Luckily, there’s some external wiring that you can use in order to make your world a simpler and thereby happier place. These are just five of the utilities you can use to make precisely that happen for you.
5pm
If you’ve familiarized yourself with project management systems, you may have come to the common conclusion that they frequently do more harm than good. 5pm is a web based project management system that actually decreases the amount of work being done rather than increasing it. For your employees, the utility will enable scheduling, project sharing, and a simple as Zen structure that is instinctive to use. For you, 5pm will provide report generation software that allows you to see exactly where employee time is going, what the pitfalls seem to be, and how the ebb and flow of productivity is behaving in your company.
InDinero
InDinero specializes in, you guessed it, money. More specifically, they provide a web-based solution to managing your company’s finances. Since you are likely to have your resources divided out among bank accounts, business credit cards, and your PayPal account, you may already be familiar with the headache of diverse financial management. InDinero acts as the Excedrin to that migraine.
Box.net
If you work in a technology heavy industry, it’s likely that you’ve had issues with file sharing or document collaboration at one point or another. Box.net replaces your standard file transfer protocol with a cloud based internet application that allows you to share your documents and larger files more quickly and easily. Box.net shows even more versatility by providing the ability to manage projects around files, create virtual workspace, and view documents in your browser.
Jotnot
Jotnot is a virtual scanner application for use with your iPhone. You start by taking a picture of any word or text based item, including white boards, receipts, and printed documents. The application then converts the file into a PDF document which can be shared, uploaded to Google Docs, or otherwise manipulated or stored.
Microsoft Exchange
Exchange hosting is one of the most thoroughly tested ways to combine efforts on any file based project. Exchange allows you to access your business email from any web browser, share and collaborate on files, synchronize schedules, and otherwise stay eye to eye with your employees. You will be able to use the advantages of Exchange on any device that can access the internet, including tablet computers, mobile devices, and standard computers. This collaborative environment can be used for communication purposes, storage, project management, and more.
Productivity is about more than just profit. It’s about creating something viable and positive that you can feel proud of. Following that same line, productivity tools like these do more for you than simply making life easier while increasing your lucrative possibilities. They make your company, and thus your presence, more meaningful.
BIO: Selena Narayanasamy is an SEO/Social Media Analyst with a passion for writing. Aside from SEO, social media and internet marketing, she spends her time writing on Search Engine Journal, working on her personal website, Esvienne and building up her personal brand. You can find her on twitter, @Esvienne.
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