Five free apps to make your business life simpler.
We all know how out-of-hand subscriptions can get. You sign up for a free trial of something and before you know it your accounts have been subtracted by some random business you totally forgot about.
The good news is there is a lot of native or free apps you probably are not utilising to their full potential. Here are some of my favourite free apps that I think your business bank account and your brain will thank me for.
Apple Notes
Now this one is mainly for my Apple uses. I am sorry about the android friends, I am not really sure if your android phone has this feature I would assume so.
Do you know you can talk directly into your app Apple notes and it will dictate whatever you are saying . In fact that is how I am writing this blog post right now. I am simply talking to my phone like I’m talking to you, knowing very much that my brain would be completely blank trying to type this on a white screen with the cursor blinking at me. Being able to speak directly into your phone is an excellent way of writing reminders or blog posts like this one or even social media captions or emails that you may not know how to express.
And the best part of speaking into your phone? It means your keeping your written content on brand which is even more important for those who have a personal or niche business. As humans we tend to type in a different tone to how we really speak, this can sometimes be of putting to our audiences who hear us talk on social media stories or in person.
2. Meta Business Manager
Formally known as Facebook pages manager the Meta business manager is where all of your Instagram and Facebook pages are housed. The beauty of this app is one, you can access all of your business accounts from open screen (great if you have multiple business pages) and two, it’s really really user-friendly on mobile.
This means you can take photos or video with your iPhone, add hashtags and my personal favourite schedule both the platforms right from your device. This makes life so much easier, especially when you’re trying to transfer files from your phone to your computer to then schedule in some other scheduler. This is free. It’s simple to use. It allows you to add your hashtags and generates a visual of your post on both Facebook and Instagram so you can see how it’s going to look on the different platforms. Now my favourite feature: you can even schedule Instagram reels and stories right from this platform. It is an absolute must have for small business.
3. Lastpass
Lastpass is a free (at it’s base level) password and important information storage app. LastPass allows you to save your passwords in the vault, including important access codes even your credit card details.
The beauty of this is it also generate custom passwords when you’re signing up to anything new, which means you only have to remember the master password to access any of your platforms. Making your life online so much safer, especially with the current climate of hackers and cyber security being such an important factor to consider in small business.
Most small businesses or just anyone using the web will know that you probably have hundreds of passwords and accounts for all the different parts of your life. Chances are your using the same password for most of them. *Ive been guilty of this too* but here is your friendly reminder that its unsafe!
If you sign up for LastPass you can add the chrome extension to your browser as well as the app to your phone for easy access, storage and auto filling features. If your someone who manages a team or works with other remote consultants LastPass also allows you to share selected passwords with people via email, asking them to access the accounts then cancel their access once complete.
4. Canva
By now most people have discovered Canva. And as a graphic designer most would assume that I wouldn’t recommend anything other than that Adobe suite. But truth is, Canva is so quick and easy for business owners to design Instagram tiles, promo emails and so much more. Canva has really opened up the world for small business owners when it comes to them taking control of even the smaller day-to-day parts of marketing. There is a free and paid tier which both work great.The paid option does give you a lot more flexibility to remove backgrounds and add stock images to your designs making it especially cost effective for online retailers. Canva does have web access, a computer app and a mobile app to make designing on the go easier.
If you would like to save some money use my code here to get a discount!
5. Todoist
My favourite checklist I can take everywhere! I haven’t been using Todoist very long, in fact i myself am still using the free version, but so far I am loving what it does for me when it comes to reminders, tasks and brain dumping. Todoist is a simple to do list style app that lets you organise your Lists by projects and even group those into files. I love being able to add deadlines to tasks, reminders and even invite others when working on a project.
In the past I have used applications like notion, Monday and asana which are by far more flexible than Todoist, but without a doubt the simplicity makes me use the tool more and get more out of my day and productive flow states.
So that is my current top five favourites. What are you loving right now? I am always on the lookout for new apps to make my business life easier. Leave your thoughts or suggestions in the comments below. Better yet try out one of my top 5 and let me know what your thoughts are!
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