New technology is evolving and already exists right in the palm of our hands. For business owners, there are some awesome new apps to download and use every day. Here are a few of my favorite ones that make life, and business, just a little more mobile.
Square
This little app lets you accept credit cards with your phone or tablet. There is no charge for the app, and you can set it up quickly and use it right away. It will accept cards with a Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express logo, and they can be either credit or debit cards. There is no monthly fee, no merchant account required, and no contracts to sign. There is a charge of 2.75% and the swiped amount deposits the next day into your account. You can take credit card payments wherever you happen to be. No computer or internet connection needed.
Splashtop
Splashtop is a cool remote desktop app, and it is so popular it has over five million users. You can take your tablet anywhere with full access to your PC and everything stored on it. You can use all of your desktop programs, like PowerPoint, Outlook, Quicken, Word, and Excel without downloading them to your tablet. It is like having a portable version of your desktop computer, and the app streams everything to the tablet smoothly.
Go To Meeting
This cool app lets you attend online meetings, on the fly! Now you will not have to stay in your office when there is a virtual meeting planned, so you can handle pressing things that require you to be mobile. This means you can attend those meetings and webinars from a coffee house, your back deck, or sitting on the beach. (Use ear buds, though; you do not want to make everyone jealous when they hear the seagulls squawking.) There is no charge to attend meetings from remote locations, and you can easily join a meeting just by tapping an email link. Viewing PowerPoint presentations and reports is possible, and you can pinch and zoom to enlarge.
Leadership Quotes
Ever had to put together something inspiring to say to your employees or a group of associates at the drop of a hat? If you have, you know how hard it can be to think of something meaningful off the top of your head. These quotes can give you something to say, and something to ponder and expand upon. The best quotes can get many great discussions started. Great leaders help people focus on their goals and develop their values, both things that discussions of these quotes can help with. Ask the group what the quote means to them, and you will find out a lot about how they feel.
World Card Mobile
This cool little app lets you snap a picture of a business card and it scans it using OCR technology to upload the information to your contact file. You do not have to manually type anything or risk typos. It recognizes just about all text, and sorts the data into your file instantly. It can even recognize multiple languages. Once the information updates into your contact files, you can instantly call, email, or message the new contacts. You just use your phone or tablet’s camera to auto-focus and take a picture of anybody’s business card, and the app will recognize the information for you and transfer it to your files.
Denise Gabbard writes often about small business, branding and online work.
15 Comments
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Jessie Borman
January 1, 2012 at 7:00 am
Are these available both for Android and iOS phones?
Mohd Akbar
January 2, 2012 at 7:33 am
Hi Denise, great apps here, but I like Square application because it’s very interesting. And thanks for posting excellent apps. Great job, keep it up.
MPS
January 4, 2012 at 2:09 pm
Are these only for iPhones? I actually have a droid mobile because of a porn related issue i had with iPhone.
DeniseGabbard
January 5, 2012 at 12:16 am
Hi everybody and thanks for reading my post. Jessie and MPS, all five of these apps are available for both Android and iPhone. It seems that app creators are finally beginning to understand they’ll double their revenue if they offer apps to both platforms!
Mohd– Actually have a friend using Square in his barber shop business, and it is very handy!
Danny
January 5, 2012 at 6:43 am
Interesting apps Denise.
For the square app don’t you need a small device? as you say “swipe” the card.
I don’t know about your phone or tablet but mine doesn’t have a magnetic card reader 😛
Nonetheless a great app that creates a lot of possibilities and freedom.
DeniseGabbard
January 7, 2012 at 6:41 am
Hey Danny– Yes, you do need a small “square” device…when you sign up on the site, they send it to you, and it plugs in to the spot on you phone where you would put headphones I believe… it is pretty cool.
tanyahuch
January 6, 2012 at 11:40 pm
Hi Denise,
the mobile apps are about building a connection with with your customers that is helping to establish credibility. I think that it is better to create your own app? It is really bring this sort of apps to a large variety of users.
Regards. Tanya
DeniseGabbard
January 7, 2012 at 6:44 am
Yep– building your own app is very cool, and I actually have a friend who builds them also. It is all about making it easier for customers to reach you… and people are using mobile devices to access the internet in record numbers.
bilal
January 12, 2012 at 4:12 pm
I LOVE SMALL BUSINESS THIS POST IS VERY BENEFICIAL TO ME DO SHARE MORE POSTS ON THIS
Pierre Davis
January 26, 2012 at 4:47 am
Hey ! Denise !
Great article, very cool applications, I like the square apps for it is so convenient. Thanks for posting this.
Stanley Davies
March 21, 2012 at 3:08 am
I would probably use the world Card Mobile. I was sick of using other data filing systems that required manual typing of information, especially business cards. I have been looking for something like that, that enables me a quick and painless way to store information about business cards.
Jake
August 22, 2012 at 3:20 am
Thanks for sharing these useful apps with us. I personally prefer using World Card Mobile and Splashtop on my android phone.
kijiji kingston
September 27, 2012 at 3:06 pm
All five applications are very cool and i like all very much. Thanks for such a nice addition into our info. Keep providing us such a nice post.
Richard
December 25, 2012 at 1:46 pm
Hi Denise, some great ideas here for small businesses and are easily accessible, I’ve seen the Square website and it looks fairly straight forward but I heard something about tech whizzkids being able to download card information via the audio jack of a smartphone, I don’t know if they have fixed that yet.
You forgot to mention ‘NFC payments’ and they are easily obtained with Ingenico card machines now. Thanks Again for writing this article.
Donald Quixote
January 24, 2014 at 12:45 am
I thought these apps were some really great apps for business usage. I especially liked the world card mobile app. I think that many people can really take advantage of being able to save all of there contacts business cards.