The apps small business owners can't live without
Posted: Tue 7th Jul 2020
Smartphones are an essential tool for modern business owners. But what are the best apps to use? We asked some Enterprise Nation members for their favourites and this is what they told us.
This article is part of the Scale-up Series with O2 Business, a series of events featuring top entrepreneurs discussing how they've scaled their businesses with a particular focus on technology.
Minal Patel, Marketing by Minal
TextSwag
I typically use it to create images with text overlaid for Facebook and Instagram. It has an integration with Pixabay, which means you can search for royalty-free images to use.
You can upload your own images too. It's a paid-for app but if you're on Android and sign up to Google Rewards, you earn money for surveys you take, which you can spend in Google Play.
ColorPop
This lets me single out a part of a photo and add colour to it so it pops from the picture and stands out. Again, great for sharing on social. This one's free.
Snapseed
This helps you enhance any photos you've taken. It's great if the light wasn't good or you want to give the photo a bit more oomph. Again, it's free.
Isil Simsek, Social Thyme
Adobe Express Social Media Images
I use it daily to create social media graphics. It has an amazing library of ready-made templates and stock photos.
You can save your logo to add to your images. You can easily resize photos for different platforms and you can also create animated images. It is just brilliant. It is an app but works on desktop as well.
Jennifer Corcoran, My Super Connector
Undoubtedly my favourite social media platform, so having the app allows me to keep on top of things with connections.
It's got some nifty features too. You can create a longer headline on the app versus the desktop, generate your QR code, and save interesting posts on the go.
And the new live chat feature is amazing. This is when you see a green light by a connection meaning that their app is open.
CamScanner
This is a really useful app for when you need to scan documents on the go (single and multiple batches).
Charlotte Moore, Smoothie PR
RecurPost
I use it to create lots of tweets and it adds them into a repeating loop of content, which removes the need for constant rescheduling.
As Twitter no longer lets you send out the same tweet twice, RecurPost also has a 'variation' tool which helps you to quickly and easily tweak your original tweet into lots more variations, saving you time from writing everything again from scratch.
Toggl
When I'm working on content for PR clients, I can easily track the time spent on each project and share it with them if needed.
Lisa Brennan & Majida Burch, Brennan and Burch
Shapr
We've had our business for over 17 years. When we started up, we were young, childless and could work till crazy o'clock seven days a week. Nowadays getting to networking events at 5am or schmoozing at a bar late into the night can be tricky. Shapr enables us to network on our own schedule.
If you use LinkedIn, you can quickly pull in your picture and bio. You can also upload a picture from your phone. I created a custom Shapr biography to make it ultra effective, as a well-crafted bio is your chance to sell yourself.
The app uses your interests to make suggested matches more relevant, so it's worth putting some thought into the hashtags you choose. Once you start matching with dream contacts, you can refine tags based on the ones your target matches are using.
We've been using Shapr since the summer of 2017, and have had countless meetings and calls leading to great connections and opportunities.
Simon Cox, Poppy Design Studio Limited
Motivation Quotes
I receive a motivational quote every day by push notification. In business, times can get tough so having a quote can redirect mindset.
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