26 Jul The Best Productivity Apps for Your Small Business
Productivity in the workplace is a fairly commonplace struggle. Staying focused and on task can be difficult with all of the distractions surrounding us. Thankfully, there are productivity tools out there specifically designed to help businesses get the most out of their employees from a productivity standpoint.
We’ve compiled a list of the best productivity apps for small businesses. This includes time-tracking apps, project management apps, note-taking apps, and more. Here’s to increased productivity all around!
RescueTime
RescueTime’s tagline is, “take back control of your time” and they have features designed to do just that. RescueTime is a revolutionary productivity assistant that lives in your computer’s taskbar. The program creates a daily focus work goal personalized to you, nudges you throughout the day to keep you on track, and blocks sites that negatively impact your focus.
RescueTime will help you understand what is pulling you away from your focus work! With over 2 million users, it’s definitely worth checking out. You can get a free two-week trial to see if you like the functionality, and plans start as low as $6.50 a month.
Toggl
Toggl is time-tracking software designed to help boost employee performance. They have three products: Toggl Track, Toggl Plan, and Toggl Hire. Today we will focus on Toggl track, which is the time-tracking product.
Toggl Track delivers insight into time and how your team is spending theirs. It can track everything from probability projections to earnings-per-client, ROI, and milestone setting. It uses 360-degree visibility to keep your whole team accountable. You can create reports, send reminders to log hours, and more.
Toggl Track allows you to have a bird’s-eye view of where your team spends their time and will enable you to reshuffle employees as needed.
Toggl does offer a free version for up to 5 users. If you want to go beyond that, there is the starter plan at $9/month, premium at $18/month, or enterprise, which is tailored to large corporations.
Trello
Trello is a productivity product that “brings all your tasks, teammates, and tools together.”
Trello boards are there to keep tasks organized and timelines on track. Trello lists are for different stages of a task – start as simple as To Do, In Process, and Complete or customize to your team’s specific needs. Trello cards represent tasks and ideas and hold all the details and information. You can move cards across lists to show their status as you progress.
Trello has pre-built solutions for design teams, engineering teams, human resources teams, marketing teams, product management, remote teams, sales teams, startups, and more! The platform also has integrations with other apps and has a no-code automation tool designed to make your life easier.
Several plans are available, ranging from a free version up to an enterprise version for $210 per year per user, which offers more security and controls than the other versions.
Asana
Asana is a software developed to help companies with product and project management. Asana allows you to drive cross-team efficiency, automate processes, get real-time insights, protect sensitive data, manage permissions and settings, set goals, and drive alignment.
They have templates for marketing campaigns, product launches, operations projects, and more, so you won’t need to start from scratch. You can use Asana to keep track of ongoing work and long-term projects, as well as to coordinate teams and distribute the workload across your employees.
A free version of Asana is available for individuals or small teams just getting started with project management. The Premium version will run you $10.99 per user per year, giving you access to features and resources like timeline, workflow builder, unlimited dashboards, etc. The Business version is $24.99 per user per year and is designed for larger companies that need to manage work across initiatives.
Monday.com
Monday.com is a cloud-based project management tool that uses color-coded boards to manage projects. You can centralize all of your work, processes, tools, and files into one place with Monday.com.
It all starts with your color-coded boards, but then you can customize your views, dashboards, integrations, automation, apps, and docs. Multiple views are available, like calendar, Gantt chart, timeline, and more.
As far as pricing goes, the free version will only get you two seats. There is a basic ($8/month), standard ($10/month), and pro ($16/month) plan based on your company’s needs.
Otter.ai
If you’re looking for a speech-to-text platform that is above the rest, you will want to check out Otter.ai. With OtterPilot, you can get an AI meeting assistant that records audio, writes notes, automatically captures slides, and generates summaries. Think of all the time you could be saving!
Otter allows you to collaborate with your teammates in the live transcript by adding comments, highlighting key points, and assigning action items. You can connect Otter to your Google or Microsoft calendar, so it automatically joins and records all your meetings on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. And after the meeting, Otter will generate and email out a summary that allows the team to quickly recall what was discussed and share critical information without revisiting meeting notes.
Otter has a basic free version for individuals. The business version costs $20/month and includes enhanced team features like analytics, the ability to assign action items, 6,000 monthly transcription minutes, and more.
OnceHub
OnceHub is a scheduling tool that is great for busy professionals. You can share your availability with a booking link set to your specific scheduling preferences, leave it up to your digital assistant to start the dialogue and gather more information to determine the next steps, or you can start a dialogue on your website through the chat feature.
Their meeting journey builder tool allows you to automatically manage scheduled meetings according to your availability and set preferences and streamline information sharing and collection, reminders, follow-ups, and more.
OnceHub’s in-depth analytics tool will let you spot trends, manage your team, and continuously improve your customer experience. The platform also offers integrations with Zoom, Google Meet, Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, Microsoft Teams, iCloud Calendar, and more.
The free version gets you up to 3 users. If you need more users than that, you are looking at the Growth version ($10/month) or Enterprise version (custom pricing).
Bitrix24
Bitrix24 can replace a multitude of business apps and services within a single platform. The platform is a collaboration hub and virtual office for your company to work and communicate through video calls, chats, worktime tracking, and more. It can also serve as your CRM and is packed with client management and customer support tools like lead acquisition, lead management, and sales automation.
Bitrix24 also helps with tasks and projects with its workload management, task templates, automation, and visual project management tools. The platform has its own contact center that allows users to set up their own call centers, customize chatbots to communicate with customers, and contact forms to collect lead information from your website.
And if that wasn’t enough, Bitrix24 has a template-based website builder that can help you create a beautiful site for your business. Need help with HR? They’ve got you covered with an online automation suite that includes an online time clock, employee performance reporting, an employee directory, and more. To top it off, Bitrix 24 has integrations with Mail Chimp, Slack, Skype, Office 365, Intuit Quickbooks, Google Docs/Drive, and others to add additional functions and features to your account.
There is a free version of Bitrix24 available, but the paid versions offer more users, customizations, and features.
Now that you have the tools to ensure maximum productivity, it’s time to think about office space. If you want a new office space to lease for your business, check out Prime Storage Commercial’s office listings. With various options, from small single rooms to large office suites and standalone buildings, Prime has spaces available to meet your needs.