5 Great Web Apps BusinessOwners NEED to Know

About.

Technology is changing our businesses and the demands for

the rapid management and accomplishment of tasks and daily

goals is higher than ever. However this is driving higher

workloads and strain to business owners which eventually

leads to information overload, missing key communications

and engaging in way too much multi-tasking. Eventually this

may lead to a decrease in effectiveness and a constant

increasing demand in completing mundane, routine tasks.

Fortunately with the huge variety of productivity apps that can

be put to work we can also use technology to manage our

routines, schedules and responsibilities in an orderly fashion.

Let’s look at 5 of my personal favourite web apps for my

business – while not a criteria for selection, it’s worthmentioning these are all free in their basic forms.

Inbox by Google

Emails are the biggest drain on any business owner’s precioustime. Amongst the hundreds of emails a business owner will

receive each day, only a handful will actually require

immediate attention. The disease which is the CC email is only

going to get worse as everyone seems to want to copy the boss

into every damn email!

Inbox by Google changes the way you handle emails, with the

ability to filter and group any particular set of emails, which is

really nice as you no longer have to delete promo emails or file

away your travel details and purchases. But by far the best

feature is being able to ‘snooze’ emails to be addressed at alater time or date with the option of ‘someday’.

On a recent trip interstate I was delighted when Inbox by

Google texted me letting me know that the flight I had booked

was delayed by one hour, all from reading the flight number

and booking confirmation in my past emails.

Check it out here – https://www.google.com.au/inbox/

Asana

Asana is a project management tool that doesn’t hold yourhand, but allows you to use it however you want. Asana allows

you to manage your teams, projects, tasks and deadlines with

ease and streamlines communication.

Asana streamlines the communication and project

management of over 100 individual projects we have running

at any given time. Without it, we would be entirely reliant on

an individual’s record keeping and countless meetings.

I can be anywhere and get a notification about a project on my

phone, pull up the recent conversation and task history and

within a minute be fully briefed on the project history, I can

then provide an answer and direction on the spot, and attach

any relevant emails or files to the reply.

Asana also integrates with many different time tracking

applications that can report on how long each individual task

has taken within a project.

See more about Asana here – https://asana.com

Calendly

This wonderful scheduling app allows people to book

appointments directly into a free space within your calendar.

Not only is it super easy to use for both the account owner and

the appointment setter, it has great reminder features to ensure

both parties are aware of the appointment.

How many back and forth communications does it take to find

a good time to set a meeting? This app removes that process

entirely. You also have the ability to set parameters around

your appointments with both lead and lag timing, lengths,

maximum appointments per day and the collection of

information by custom form fields.

I use this now for all appointments, both external and internal,

but if I decide to manually put anything into my calendar or

accept another invite I know Calendly will adjust

automatically.

More at their website here – https://calendly.com/

Google Keep

Another great tool from Google; Google Keep in its simplest

form has similar functionality to stickynotes, with the added

benefit of being able to be accessed anywhere and on your

phone.

You can take notes, dictate memos, create checklist, and save

images all with the ability to set reminders along with possibly

the best functionality for business owners – the ability to share

the note to an email address.

Like many business owners I find myself working at some odd

hours and Google Keep allows me to get my ideas out of my

head and into the hands of relevant staff members.

More on Google Keep’s features here –https://www.google.com/keep/

IFTTT (If This Then That)

IFTTT basically connects your apps together by creating

recipes that perform and action – basically if this (parameters)

then that (action to be taken). The uses for this app are really

only limited by your own imagination.

Here are some of the tasks I get IFTTT to perform

automatically for me

Save my photos to Google Drive

Text back any missed calls

Search my unread emails for key phrases and texts me a

notification

Keep a call log

Remove silence from my phone when I get to work

Keep a spreadsheet of contacts made

The possibilities are endless and the more ‘wired in’ you arethe more uses you will find for this app with real world

applications like being able to manage your home lighting and

thermostat settings.

Check out the available premade recipes for inspiration here –https://ifttt.com/recipes/if

Working Smarter

More than ever these days, it’s vital to be continually strivingfor efficiency and effectiveness when operating your business.

Technology is making it easier than ever to automate the

routine and mundane to allow us to focus on what is really

important, working on the business not in the business.

What web apps do you use to help you be more effective in

your business? I’d love to hear about them.