3 Apps to Help Mobilize the Solopreneur

When you are wearing many hats it’s important to be organized in your operations. When you’re an entrepreneur whose a solopreneur, staying on top of client business while at the same time making sure your business is running properly can be challenging. You have to be able to switch gears and exchange hats quickly when something arises that requires immediate attention and focus.

In my business I assist other entrepreneurs and small businesses organize their back office. Doing this means I have no option but to stay organize and mobile in my business. For me, having the ability to do work, give work, send work, and or share work immediately is critical. Here are 3 great applications that I use every day all day.

Freshbooks

If you are wanting an application that will take care of both your bookkeeping and accounting, then Freshbooks is your best teammate! Freshbooks is a cloud accounting app that allows you to send invoices, record billable hours, monitor billable hours, organize expenses, and securely accept online payments. You can access Freshbooks using your desktop or mobile device. Having it on your mobile device allows you to create a client profile and then send an estimate or invoice in moments. My favorite use of the application is the ability to record my billable hours when I’m working on a project down to the second from anywhere just by opening the app on my iPhone. You have the option to enter what work was completed during any logged time. Freshbooks has a secure online portal where clients can log in to their profile and view detailed billable hours, previous invoices, and unpaid balances. It’s a great addition to your business.

Evernote

Next up is Evernote. If you haven’t heard of Evernote by now, then you have been missing out a true one stop shop. Evernote allows you to record notes and then organize those notes into labeled notebooks using tags. You can get very creative in how you organize your notes. You can separate your personal notes from your business notes. In Evernote you can take down meeting minutes, save articles for training and development, file client documents, store photos for an active project, jot down ideas for a future project, scan business cards, and much more. Each note can be shared with and viewed by clients allowing for collaboration. One of the features I really like about Evernote is their Work Chat. It allows you to instant message other Evernote users and share notes directly in the chat. This makes it more efficient to communicate with clients. You can access and use the features of Evernote from your mobile device and get the same user experience.

OmniFocus

Do you have a running to do list? Are you task oriented? Are you goal oriented and understand it’s important to know what tasks needs to be completed in order to meet the goal? Then OmniFocus should be apart of your regular routine. OmniFocus is a task management application that allows you to keep record of things to do and manage tasks while helping you stay balance. The application allows you to customize the due date, frequency of the task, create projects for associated tasks, and even organize in context. It’s a great way to compartmentalize your work load. My main use of OmniFocus is to organize my tasks before creating the scope of my projects. It’s a great way to organize tasks associated with different clients by creating task projects for each client. If you need to rearrange or reassess some of your tasks, OmniFocus allows you to review your tasks by the projects they are assigned to.  It’s a good feature. Entrepreneurs need to be able to adjust quickly when plans change.

These applications are a great way to help keep you and your operation organize as well as mobile. What are some efficient applications that you use?