5 Apps for the Creative Business Owner

As a creative business owner, I have to wear multiple hats throughout the day. It’s not uncommon for me to work on new designs, marketing plans, spend time on photography and images, and then end the day working on expense sheets. I feel like most days I am using all of my brain power to manage details of my business from the creative side to the practical business side, but luckily for me, my one woman show is made easier through the use of some powerful tools in the form of smartphone applications that allow me to manage my workload from home or the coffee shop without missing a single beat. So here are the apps I recommend for the creative business owner.

DocScan: I have written before about my love for this workhorse of an app that basically turns your phone into a scanner. For a few years, this was the only scanner I actually used because it was easy enough for me to use the app to take a picture of a document if I needed to email it to a customer, sign it for a client or just store it for my record keeping. As a creative business owner, I use this handy app to save images of business related receipts, and to open and annotate PDF documents regularly, in order to keep my business working wherever I am.

Followers +: There is no doubt in my mind that my number one favorite social media platform is Instagram, and I consider my community on IG to be a major priority of mine. It’s not just about creating excellent images to keep my followers inspired and informed, but I also get great insights into the way my business in performing by watching in real time my communities response to my images. Followers + is a great app that helps you track your IG photos so that you can see how your customers are interacting with you on Instagram, which photos they are liking and to help you pin point gaps in your community.

Analytics: Analytics is another app that I have written about before because it is a great way for me to manage my website’s statistics on my smartphone. If you use Google Analytics to track your website or blog, you should definitely have this companion app on your phone for those moments when you want to see how well specific content is performing. And if you aren’t yet signed up for Google Analytics to track your site, you need to make that happen asap!

Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a very handy little app that really helps me to batch my work and stay on top of my social media marketing campaigns by scheduling tweets and Facebook posts. Although, admittedly, I am more involved with my Instagram account, I still find Twitter and Facebook to be valuable marketing and community building resources at my disposal and for me, I do best when I am executing in those platforms through marketing campaigns that I can pre plan and preschedule through the use of Hootsuite.

Dropbox: Cloud based storage systems are a godsend for the creative entrepreneur who may need to have any number of media files, documents or images in their hands at a moments notice. Dropbox really helps me to organize important or frequently accessed business and marketing tools from not just my smartphone but also from my iPad or any other computer I have access to. It’s like having a filing system that just floats around in your system where you can refer to items or share them with clients or contacts at a moments notice without having to waste precious storage on your device.

If you are a creative entrepreneur, I highly suggest checking out these apps to help you with your workload so that you are spending less time on the business and marketing of your creative business and more time creating, which if you are anything like me, is your favorite part! Let me know down in the comments if you have ever used any of these apps or if you have any others that you consider a lifesaver for your creative business. If you are looking for more tips for creative business owners and entrepreneurs, make sure to check out my new series, Plan Like an Entrepreneur on YouTube for some behind the scenes action and insight into how I plan for my business! If you are not a creative business owner, feel free to check out this article I wrote called my Must Have Apps for Working Professionals!

xoxo,