Owning a small business has never been easy and a sluggish economy has made the road especially tough.
But in some ways, these are the best of times for entrepreneurs thanks to a host of apps and tools that help you do everything from improve productivity to amp up your social media marketing, for a nominal cost, if at all.
Figuring out which are the best isn't easy. There are tons of apps out there vying for the attention of small business owners and many aren't worth your time.
Here are five cool ones you should know about:
HootSuite
Small business owners have too much to do to manage their daily social media interactions.Enter HootSuite, a one-stop tool that does it all.
"This social media management system allows small business owners to centralize all of their social media networks in an easy-to-use web-based dashboard," said Scott Gerber, the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council and author of "Never Get a 'Real' Job."
Use HootSuite to schedule your messages and tweets, track brand mentions and analyze social media traffic.
The social media manager already has 7 million users in over 175 countries. Last week it raised a whopping $165 million to further expand its business.
"It's the easy way to keep in touch with all of your social media followers," Gerber said.
Speek
Sick of the old school method of doing conference calls? Speek does away with those annoying dial-in and PIN numbers.
Instead, you get a simple personal link, i.e. speek.com/phyllis. Share that link with others via email or any calender tool you like.
Everyone clicks the link with the device of their choice and, voila, they're on the call.The service is free for small groups. Or you can opt for a $10 a month package that provides more bells and whistles.
"It will make conference calls less of a pain, in the click of a button," Gerber said.
TripIt
This trip management tool helps business owners turn travel booking chaos into order.
"TripIt organizes all of your travel plans in one place," said company spokeswoman Amy Jackson. "You forward your confirmation emails from any airline hotel, car rental etc. to plans@tripit.com and you will get an instant mobile itinerary."
A version for businesses called TripIt for Teams, lets one person organize trips for an entire group of employees and keep everyone informed.
Use it to keep track of who in your company is traveling, where they're staying, whether reservations are complete, and how much the trip will cost.
"I travel quite a bit," said Ramon Ray, the editor of SmallBusinessTechnology.com. "It's an awesome tool."
Asana
The days of endless email threads and multiple meetings are history thanks to shared task management tool Asana.
Started by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his business partner, Justin Rosenstein, Asana lets users set a goal and then seamlessly track the progress of their project.
"It's a single destination for all the work that matters to you and to your colleagues," said Asana spokeswoman Emilie Cole. "It's where you go every day to see what you should be working on."
This digital office organizer is free for up to 15 team members. "My business runs on it," Ray said.
Square
No cash register, no problem.
Square turns you into an instant shopkeeper with a system that gives even a tiny business a way to accept payments using a smartphone or tablet.
"It's disrupting the credit card processing space," Gerber said.
Sign up and Square will mail you a free, one inch-tall, card reader that you'll use for card swipes. Download the free Square Register app and link your bank accounts.Get going and you'll be accepting payments on your smartphone or iPad in minutes. The cost is a minimal 2.75% per swipe or a flat monthly fee of $275.
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