If you and your friends are preparing to launch your latest start-up, it’s good to find out what are the most useful tools out there that can help you in your exciting new venture and that includes the type of applications or apps best suited for your needs.
With thousands of new apps being introduced every day, perhaps it’s more productive to start identifying the categories of apps to keep in your smartphones or tablets, instead of worrying about which specific apps to adopt.
This week, let’s take a look at these seven categories of apps to consider for your start-up.
1. Storage
Apps such as Google Drive and Dropbox will be essential not only to keep your own data but also for sharing data with your colleagues or even clients. Some of the services are free but you may need to pay a fee to increase your storage space or access more features. Some of you may be worried about how secure your data will be but the companies that provide these cloud storage services usually put these kinds of issues as a top priority.
2. Communication
One of the most downloaded categories of apps is communication. Email apps and messaging apps allow you to communicate with your team members and clients. Best of all, most of these apps, such as Gmail and WhatsApp are available free of charge.
3. Marketing
It is considered as a ‘must-have’ for businesses to be on popular social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The apps for these platforms will allow you to showcase your products and services effectively and conveniently to specific target groups.
4. Financial management
Ideally, you should get an accountant to help you with your financial records but you could also opt for financial management apps to do it yourself. Some of these apps can even be connected to point of sale (POS) systems that can automatically produce invoices and receipts to help keep your accounts in order.
5. Navigation and transportation
Apps to help you navigate and apps to get around town or the city can save you time and money, especially when you need to travel to unfamiliar places. Best of all navigation apps such as Google Maps are free, while transportation apps, such as those by ride-sharing company Uber usually get you to places at lower rates than taxis.
6. Publishing tools
Most of us are familiar with desktop publishing software such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, however you will be charged a fee to get the full functionality of the apps for use on your smartphone or tablet. Fortunately, there are also other options in the form of apps that do almost the same job. Most of them offer the same functionality and documents can be saved in formats that can be edited in other publishing software.
7. Smart Virtual Personal Assistants (SVPAS)
Operating a start-up can be hectic and it is natural to sometimes be overwhelmed especially if you have to do a million things on your own. With Smart Virtual Personal Assistants (SVPAS) such as Google Now or Siri, you can get your weekly schedule in order, set your alarm, and even check weather conditions. You may not be able to rely solely on these ‘assistants’ but at least they make life a little bit easier for you.
This is a weekly column by SarawakYES! – an initiative driven by Faradale Media-M Sdn Bhd and supported by Angkatan Zaman Mansang (AZAM) Sarawak – to provide advice and stories on the topics of education and careers to support Sarawakians seeking to achieve their dreams. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
This article first appeared on The Borneo Post, visit this link: http://bit.ly/2pp7A8J
