There is a nearly unlimited number of tools available for businesses to help maximize productivity. Whether you want to save time, make goal-setting more manageable, or make your operations more organized, there are plenty of options you can use to meet your company’s specific needs.
Victor Mitchell, as the founder and CEO of Lead Funding, has reduced red tape and accelerated loan decisions on behalf of homebuilders and developers by providing innovative financing solutions. Below, he shares some of the most trusted and popular tools that a business owner can use to optimize their organization.
1. Trello
If one of your goals is to improve collaboration and teamwork across your employees, Trello is an excellent option. This application features an interface that’s easy to use, with boards used to keep track of projects and specific tasks within those projects. You can effectively prioritize and determine which employees will complete each task. While Trello’s free version offers a variety of useful features, the Business plan provides improved security along with team overviews. The Enterprise version is ideal for larger businesses managing multiple teams across a wide range of projects.
2. GSuite
Google offers plenty of resources to help companies to make their operations more straightforward and more efficient. Their GSuite includes a variety of helpful tools that companies can access from any device or platform and any location across the globe. Their $5 Basic edition provides businesses with the complete office suite, including 30GB of storage, video, and voice conferencing, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and shared calendars, among other features. Ultimately, this is a great way to replace and consolidate other more expensive and inefficient services and apps.
3. Todoist
To-do lists are one of those tools that have been around for a long time, and Todoist makes creating them simple and straightforward. You can use Todoist to share projects and measure success, and it’s compatible with all devices via their app. You can even integrate it with a variety of services including Zapier and IFTTT.
4. Adobe Creative Cloud
If your company publishes PDFs, videos, or image files, you likely rely on Adobe products of some sort. If you need a more efficient way to manage these programs, including Photoshop and Illustrator, the Adobe Creative Cloud offers a collection of apps that can make organization easy, serving as a dashboard to handle all of the programs you regularly use. It will also grant you access to specific new apps you may have neglected to use in the past.
5. Scanbot
Scanbot is an app that makes it easier than ever to scan all documents, business cards, barcodes, and nearly anything else using your smartphone. You can save your scans as JPEGs or PDFs, and then upload them to the cloud or even fax them internationally. It’s particularly convenient if you need to provide a digital signature on a document. It’s available for both Android and iOS for around $10.
6. 1Focus
Regardless of where you work–at home or in-office–you’re likely to experience distractions that decrease productivity. Many of those distractions are present on the same devices you use to work, with social media, YouTube, and other outlets likely making you less efficient. 1Focus is an app that can help you avoid these distractions by programming it to block the websites that distract you the most.
It’s cheap and easy to use, but the one drawback is that it’s only available on iTunes. If you use another operating system, there are plenty of alternative tools available, including FocusMe, which works on Mac, Windows, and Android devices.
7. IFTTT
If This, Then That, or IFTTT, is a free service that allows you to connect a variety of apps. You can set up several commands for devices and services without the need to be a coding expert. You can do this by setting up simple programs called applets that can complete the actions you want.
There are millions of applets on IFTTT today, but you can also customize your own. For instance, if you use a verbal command with Amazon Alexa for scheduling something, you can make it connect the command to your Google Calendar. It may take a while to get comfortable with the app, but you’ll find it to be invaluable once you get the hang of it.
8. Ninja Reports
Ninja Reports allows users to generate automated email reports for online applications of all types, with the ability to schedule on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. You won’t need to worry about wasting time looking through data and reports with complete automation that simplifies these processes. It’s available with a free package that allows you to send as many as 15 reports every month, at no cost to you.
9. Expensify
Businesses often have a difficult time keeping track of all of their expenses, but Expensify is an excellent choice for many companies, particularly for individuals who go on frequent business-related trips or those in the travel industry. The app lets you enter all expense data into your smartphones, with real-time expense reports, advanced tax tracking, unlimited uploads for receipts and expenditures, and much more.
10. Timezone
Individuals who work remotely with others located in different locations, tracking time zones can bring an inconvenient challenge to your operations. Employees halfway across the country or around the world can make scheduling phone calls difficult when dealing with time differences. However, you can keep things smooth with Timezone, an app that allows you to calculate time zones instantly. There are also plenty of other instant time zone converters available, so you never need to be in the dark regarding what time it is regardless of where your clients or co-workers are.
Each of these ten tools makes a part of your business easier to manage, from goal setting to scheduling to management of all of your data. With one or more of these tools implemented, you’ll be able to optimize your personal and professional productivity and make operations more efficient overall. Obviously, not all of these apps and services will pertain to your business tasks, but using any of these can provide you with certain benefits that make them worth utilizing. You’ll see a clear difference in your company’s efficiency and performance when you implement these products and in your systems.
About Victor Mitchell
Victor Mitchell, Colorado businessman and life-long entrepreneur, has founded or turned around varied companies ranging from wireless to technology to real estate services to finance. Currently, Mitchell is the CEO of Lead Funding, a specialty lending organization that provides innovative private financing solutions for homebuilders and developers, reducing their red tape and speeding up loan decisions. Lead Funding has experienced near-100% annual growth since its inception in 2009, serving clientele in several states.
Mr. Mitchell is a graduate of SDSU and obtained his master’s degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Ever the entrepreneur, at only 21 years of age while attending college, Victor Mitchell started his first enterprise. Subsequently, he has never worked for anyone else. Mr. Mitchell is also a former Colorado State Representative and served in Colorado’s 66th General Assembly representing a population of 80,000.
Victor Mitchell Around the Web
https://www.crunchbase.com/person/victor-mitchell/
https://twitter.com/search?q=%40_VictorMitchell
https://medium.com/@victormitchell
https://about.me/victormitchell
https://patch.com/colorado/denver/victor-mitchell-describes-10-ways-entrepreneurs-can-stay-focused
https://www.levo.com/victor-mitchell
Informative article. Very Helpful. I recently started a startup business of mine and I use most of the free tools mentions in the list. I specifically like IFTTT a lot because it has so many applets that make handling my social media easy.