Starting a new business is a ton of fun, but it can be overwhelming. Luckily, there are thousands and thousands of apps specially designed to help—which isn’t overwhelming at all…
We’ve rounded up a few of the best so you can focus on actually running your business. Here are some common problems entrepreneurs face and the apps that can save the day:
You’re Not Sure Where to Start
If you know you have a great business idea, but you have no idea what you’re doing, fear not. Hopscratch pretty much does everything to help you start up a business. Either you can get them to handle all of the initial logistics in two weeks, or you can use their comprehensive guides to DIY. They provide step-by-step information on how to register a business, design a logo, open a business bank account and way more.
You Have Nowhere to Host a Meeting
A potential angel investor is interested in your business! S/he wants to come meet you! Cue angels singing!
Except you’ve been running operations from your bachelor pad in the bad part of downtown/your local coffee shop/your girlfriend’s spare closet. And those locales don’t really fit with the clean, professional aesthetic of your brand. Crisis averted! You can rent beautiful office space and meeting rooms by the hour with Breather. So far they operate in 10 major cities in Canada, the United States and the UK.
Design Isn’t Your Forte
Your idea is fantastic, but you can barely choose socks in the morning, let alone design a nice business card. That’s okay! You can turn to Canva, a free, easy-to-use online graphic design tool. It has tons of templates for common projects like brochures, ebooks, infographics and more.
You Can’t Afford a Store
Nowadays you can run a lot of businesses completely online. But if you’re selling physical things to physical people in person, you’re going to need a way to process payments. Instead of fretting about a cash register or hauling around debit machine, you can use Square. It’s a cute little… square… that plugs into your phone or iPad, and allows you to swipe credit cards. Cha-ching!
You Hate Dealing With Finances
You have some savings to put into your business, but you’ve known since Day 1 that you have no head for numbers. Trouble keeping track of expenditures? Keep tabs on everything with a free app like Mint, which can help manage your budget. Or, if you’re looking for something a little more comprehensive, check out Wave (also free!) for a way to centralize invoicing, accounting, payments, payroll and more.
You Have Nowhere to Keep Paperwork
People keep giving you paperwork. And asking for copies of things. But you don’t have an office filled with filing cabinets or photocopiers or scanners. Cut the clutter with Tiny Scanner, an app that (surprise!) allows you to turn your phone or tablet into a tiny scanner. Just snap a picture of that document you were supposed to send last week—it will clean it up and convert to PDF so you can email professional docs to stakeholders.
You Can’t Afford Any More Coffee
Free wifi and a comfy chair are good perks. But if the barista at your local coffee joint has been giving you dirty looks because you keep hanging around and not buying anything, never fear. If you prefer this work environment, Coffitivity can help you pretend that you’re in a coffee shop from the privacy of your basement suite. It plays a soothing background track that sounds like the ambient noise in a coffee shop—you’ll have to provide your own coffee, though.
You’re Feeling Overwhelmed
Calm down. You’ll be fine, we promise.
Not calm yet? Download Headspace, a free app that will teach you to meditate in just 10 minutes a day.
Need more help? We’ve got you covered. Here are 70 tools to help run your business.
If it’s website designing you’re worried about, give our drag and drop website builder a try now.
Photos: Julian Fernandes, Reddit.com, blog.giphy.com, imgur.com, HBO.com
