These days, entrepreneurs don’t need to hire a team of experts to help them run their business. There are probably hundreds of apps that can help, but here a few that highly suggest, especially if you are doing your own PR.
Evernote
This handy little app has gone beyond the function of just keeping notes. You can create notebooks for different clients and projects, collaborate with others on certain notes, share links to your notes and since it’s also accessible online, you can write, read and edit notes on the go, between your mobile device and desktop computer.
Feedly
This is where I connect all my news sources so I can read everything in one place. Mind you, not every website has an RSS feed that will allow you to stream their news to Feedly, but most of them do and Feedly can help you gather all their latest and greatest in one place so you don’t have to browse 10 different sites to get your news fix.
Quora
This is where I keep my ear to the ground on what people want, what keeps them awake at night and all their burning questions about PR, branding, social media, marketing and more. Quora allows you to show your expertise by responding to questions from users around the world and you can also pose your own questions. The greatest value in this app, is in being able to know what your audience could be asking about and because you can search for questions by topic, you can pretty much get first hand research or feedback on any industry or subject.
Dropbox
I know there are many cloud storage apps, but Dropbox has been evolving and coming out with new features which is always a good sign. Developers who make critical updates to their applications within a reasonable time score high points with me. With Dropbox you can store files that you might need access to while you’re on the road, but you can also share files and images with colleagues or create direct links to files, so people can download documents direct from your website or anywhere you place the link.
Instapaper
I don’t always have time to read every story behind the headlines in Feedly, so I save some for later using Instapaper. This app connects to your browser so that when you are on a certain webpage, you simply click the ‘Read Later’ button in your browser so the next time you login to your Instapaper account, all your recently saved news is there waiting for you.
Gmail
Do I even need to say anything about this one? I prefer Gmail over other email applications for it’s sorting and labelling functions. It’s the best way to keep your emails organized and keep email anxiety low.
Google Calendar
Or any calendar application as long as I can connect my Google calendar. I love being able to create different calendars for each client and color coding them so I know which clients are which. Needless to say, that fact that Google calendar integrates with Gmail scores huge bonus points for me.
Please share! If you know any other good business apps, let me know in the comments below.