business

By James Dorian

In today’s world, your business might experience unprecedented growth virtually overnight. A viral video, a well-positioned ad, a successful presentation at a conference — all could contribute to a sudden influx of customers. The question is: Are the tools your business relies on robust enough to handle it?

Below, we’ve compiled 10 essential apps that any business on the verge of change would benefit from using right now.

1. Setapp

When you run a business, there’s no shortage of tools and utilities people seem to need — whether it’s writing notes, brainstorming, uploading files to a server, or converting a PDF. For most companies, all of these turn into unpredictable costs and time sinks.

Setapp offers businesses access to more than 130 top-notch apps across all categories, from productivity to maintenance, at a small monthly fee. Now every time your employees need some extra functionality, all they have to do is search Setapp for it. The easiest solution to a whole range of everyday problems.

2. Trello

If your teams still track tasks and projects by assigning due dates to a single task list — it’s time for a change. Embrace kanban, a lean project management system created by Toyota for their just-in-time manufacturing program.

Trello is the most approachable representation of kanban philosophy in a simple web app: create columns indicating the task’s progress through your workflow (e.g. To Do, In Progress, Done) and move tasks along to immediately see where bottlenecks are being created. Never before have your projects been so visual.

3. Buffer

Today, every business owns a media company in terms of its clout in social networks. But how much time does it take for someone from your team to check what’s happening on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc.?

Buffer lets your marketing specialists manage all your social media channels from one place. Post in the moment or schedule in advance, see analytics, and engage in conversations from the same panel, which in turn makes it easy to see the most performing platforms and types of messages.

4. Slack

There were times when emails could de facto be the preferred mode of communication. But tracing hundreds of emails for a deadline, a certain file, or an agreed-upon deliverable has become next to impossible.

Slack is a unique instant messenger made for businesses right from the start. With group as well as individual chats, conference calls, quick archive search, and notifications from any web service you use, Slack is bound to become the most essential daily tool among your employees.

5. Grammarly

When all communication is practically instant, it’s inevitable that typos, repetitions, and unfinished sentences will proliferate. That might not be the end of the world when the messages are internal, but sending erroneous emails to customers or clients should be avoided at all costs.

Grammarly checks everything you write just as you type, automatically suggesting ways to improve your grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary. The app works as a simple, lightweight extension in your browser and is only active when required. Now that your writing is properly eloquent, you and your sales team will be able to close more deals than ever.

6. MailChimp

Given that you’ve acquired your email list organically over time, it’s likely to show the highest engagement levels amongst all other outreach channels. But how do you manage it effectively?

MailChimp is the world’s leading email management platform. Its intuitive interface supports custom drag-and-drop designs, list segmentation, A/B tests, marketing automation, and more. Leverage the power of a newsletter now to fuel business growth.

7. CoSchedule

As your marketing team grows, they require more and more integrated tools for cohesive work. Getting approvals on time and passing it on becomes paramount.

CoSchedule is the first full-featured marketing suite your team would actually be excited to use. Start every day by looking at a marketing calendar, which outlines all your efforts, schedule work for each team member depending on their availability, and keep projects on track — all in one place.

8. Google Analytics

It’s a well-known fact that you can only optimize what you can measure. So when it comes to trying to improve a certain aspect of your business, you need to know how it’s been performing historically in the first place.

Google Analytics is by far the most popular data-gathering solution for websites of all sizes. Easily identify the source of your traffic, technology used, and other important stats at a glance. Create custom reports for any date range and instantly compare them to past results.

9. WordPress

How your website looks to others is only one side of the coin. What’s also crucial for your business is what it takes for your team to update your website on their own via CMS.

WordPress is so widespread that it currently supports around 30 percent of all websites worldwide. Its design is straightforward and familiar to anyone working on the web, minimizing any necessary training to operate it. True web-first content management.

10. PandaDoc

As a successful business owner, what do you spend most of your time on? Probably hiring (people management) and high-level sales. While there are lots of tools to help with the former, what’s the app that will help you close more deals right now?

PandaDoc is a beautiful creator of proposals, contracts, and quotes. Once the document is out the door, your sales team can easily track it and even have it electronically signed with no extra tools involved. Finally, your sales process made frictionless.

These days, technology and business go hand in hand. New apps that solve age-old problems appear every day, so it pays to be nimble and in the know. The top-10 apps described above are just the tip of the iceberg, but using them in your business is a way to make it so much more effective with minimum upfront investment.

James Dorian is a technical copywriter and a blogger. He is great at solving modern business issues and applying tech innovations. James knows how to be extremely productive at work. Read his article about uninstalling apps on Mac OS.

Business tech tools stock photo by phipatbig/Shutterstock