Best Apps For Small Businesses
Overview
Online tools and apps can really transform your small business in many ways – from getting your staff in sync, increasing productivity, business intelligence and profitability to improving, simplifying and revolutionising the way your business is run. Below are some of the best business apps and online tools available in South Africa for entrepreneurs.
Slack-This is a small business collaboration and real-time messaging tool that has gained enormous popularity around the world over the past few months. In fact, it is so well-liked and trusted that even though it is ideal for small businesses, it is also used by some of the most progressive companies in the world. Slack allows companies to create various communication channels within their businesses, be it marketing, sales or operations, and to use these channels to effectively communicate with their teams, or even suppliers and partner businesses. It is very simple to use, all communications are easily searchable, and channels include messages, file and comment sharing, and image and video sharing.
MS Office 365 -If you run a Microsoft reliant company, and need a deck of business software to run your business and team collaboration, this is the tool for you.MS Office 365 is ideal for the entrepreneur and allows access for up to five users via PC, Mac, Tablet or smartphone, you get up to 1TB of cloud data storage, 60 minutes of Skype calls per month and access all your trusted programmes including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access. It makes it easy for your team to stay on the same page, across various programmes, and to keep all your files secure in one place.
Pastel – Pastel My Business Online is a fully fledged online and integrated accounting application that is loved by small businesses and start-ups the world over. It is really easy to use and offers dashboards, graphs and drill-downs to any transaction to give you and your accountant an overview of your business finances at any time via the Internet or via your smartphone. You can track customer sales history and supplier purchases, you can upload bank statement to help you manage your banking and cash flow, or process quotes and send directly to customers. The system allows you to search for and contact your clients directly from your smartphone and contains map links that can help you find your way to your customers’ offices – it really is built for business people on the go.
iKhona – iKhokha is a nifty mobile Point of Sale (mPOS) system. When you join iKhokha as a merchant, you will get The Edge, a tiny, compact card reader that plugs into your Apple or Android smartphone. Once you’ve made a sale, your customer can swipe his or her debit or credit card, input their PIN safely and securely and pay for your product right there on the spot. iKhokha also offers a value added service to small businesses by allowing merchants to sell mobile airtime from the iKhokha app using the Edge card reader, for Vodacom, MTN, Virgin Mobile, Cell C, Telkom Mobile and World Call.
GetApp -There are millions of brilliant business apps out there, and it can be a daunting task to choose the right one for your business. And once you’ve signed up for an app or service, on-boarded your staff and customers, only to find out it wasn’t right for you, it can be tricky to backtrack.This app is home to a wide selection of reviews, previews, comparisons and industry articles on more than 3 000 business apps and helps you find the app that’s best suited to your business through its business app search function.
WeChat – WeChat allows businesses to set up Official Accounts for their users to share marketing content, highlight promotions and connect with fans of their brand. The mobile messaging service supports text and video chat, video calling, photo or video and location sharing, and allows users to broadcast messages to wide audiences or send smaller group messages. You can also use your company’s WeChat official account as a mini brand website, it’s just more interactive.
