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Top 10 Apps Solopreneurs Need by @DONNAAMOS

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Top 10 Apps Solopreneurs Need

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Solopreneurs enjoy countless benefits, but one of their struggles is handling every aspect of their business themselves. managing appointments, paying bills, creating proposals, sorting out taxes, following up with leads, and managing stress. Thankfully, there are numerous business apps available, many of them with free versions, to help busy solopreneurs. Here’s a list of 10 that we recommend.

Assistant.to

Just because you are a solopreneur doesn’t mean you want to do every single task for yourself. You may have to, but you sometimes don’t want it that way. Assistant.to is like a personal secretary that sets up your appointments by working with your email recipient, automatically adjusting time zones and even rescheduling meetings if something comes up.

Calm

Calm is the #1 app for meditation and mindfulness. Enjoy 100+ guided meditations to help you manage anxiety, lower stress and sleep better. Have trouble sleeping the try their Sleep Stories. What Solopreneur does not need to learn how to relieve their stress?

G-Suite (Google)

Half of G-Suite revolves around communication—we are talking Gmail, Google Hangouts and Google Calendar. The other half is a set of apps that will help you create and collaborate. This includes Docs (documents. Think: Word), Sheets (Spreadsheets. Think: Excel), Slide (Presentation. Think: PowerPoint), and Forms (surveying tool). All of the tools are stored together on a cloud called Google Drive.

Evernote

Evernote is the ultimate note-taking and archiving tool for collecting information, keeping it organized, and collaborating with others. Evernote is a cloud-based software service designed for creating, organizing and storing various text and media files. Whether a text document, a photo, a video, an audio file or even a web page, Evernote stores everything so you can access it on any device when needed.

Grammarly

Solopreneurs often do everything themselves, including writing their own copy for practically everything. Make sure that your text is free from typos and that you are using commas correctly usually with this handy desktop app. As you type, Grammarly checks your text for hundreds of common and advanced writing issues.

Mailchimp

Bring your audience data, marketing channels, and insights together so you can reach your goals faster. With Mailchimp, you can promote your business across email, social, landing pages, postcards, and more — all from a single platform. Populate different audiences for various uses and message them all from one platform for any reason. A free version is great for solopreneurs just getting started, with paid versions scaling up offerings.

Shake

Shake is a web and mobile app that creates legally binding agreements in seconds, which is an ideal way to create quick contracts for freelance jobs. You can also create loans, leases, sales and non-disclosure agreements, saving you time as you take on new projects.

Sighted

Sighted is an online invoicing app perfect for freelancers and solopreneurs. The free plan is perfect for a small business, offering 20 invoices per month in multiple currencies, for up to 10 clients. As the business scales, paid plans allow for unlimited invoices, expenses and 100 or more clients. All plans feature the ability to accept online payments and include a profit and loss report to make tax chores much less of a hassle.

Square

Square gives you the ability to take secure payments anywhere you are and has zero fees to get set up. The company will send interested individuals the hardware that attaches to a smart device for free and then keeps 2.75 percent of any transaction that is completed. This gives solopreneurs the ability to accept debit and credit cards from wherever they have the opportunity to make a sale.

Trello

Trello is one of the best project management tools. It works with boards and lists, and helps individuals and teams stay on top of a project from start to finish. No matter where you are, Trello stays in sync across all of your devices. Collaborate with your team anywhere, from sitting on the bus to sitting on the beach.

What are your favorite apps to simplify solopreneur tasks? Share your recommendations with our readers in the comments below.

 

5 Time-Tracking Apps For Freelancers #VZWBuzz

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5 Time Tracking Apps For Freelancers

by Melissa Stewart

Disclosure: I am a Verizon Wireless Lifestyle blogger. I receive products free of charge to review. This makes me happy. All opinions are my own.

RescueTime

Find your ideal work‑life balance. With so many distractions and possibilities in your digital life, it’s easy to get scattered. RescueTime helps you understand your daily habits so you can focus and be more productive. The browser extension watches over how long you spend on particular websites and web apps, while the mobile app does the same for Android devices. Desktop apps are also available. Information is gathered quietly in the background and can break it down in all kinds of ways. RescueTime is great for individual freelancers who want to know how they’re spending their time but don’t necessarily need to report back to any manager.

Price: Free for RescueTime Lite / $9 month for Premium

TopTracker

TopTracker allows freelancers and teams to effortlessly track their time, productivity and performance and it is completely FREE (without any version limitations). TopTracker gives you full control over what you keep track of and how often, with options including simple time tracking, screenshots, or webcam shots. Effortless Time Tracking From Any Device. Centralized View Of All Projects. Full Privacy Control For Freelancers. Detailed Productivity Reports.

Price: FREE

Timely

Schedule your hours, and you’ll spend no time tracking them. You’re already planning – whether it’s weekly, daily, or even just a few hours ahead. Move your schedule to Timely, and you will be logging hours simultaneously. Scheduling and time tracking, simultaneously. Integrates with your existing calendar. Log hours directly from your favorite calendar! Timely integrates with all major calendars, which means any event or meeting you add there will be auto-imported into Timely as estimated entries.

Price: Free for Basic / $14 month for Regular

Harvest

Spend less time tracking and more time doing. Harvest is another great time-tracking option for freelancers. You can use it to track a number of different projects at the same time, even if they contain different tasks and charge different rates. One-click Time Entry: Start and stop timers with a simple the click of a button, or quickly type in your time on the weekly timesheet. When working with a team, you can assign various tasks within a project to specific team members. It’s also easy to integrate if you’re working with other apps that help with remote work, like Basecamp.

Price: Free  / $12 month for Solo / $49 month for Basic / $99 month for Business

Toggl

One-click time tracking. With Toggl you track time in real time. Just launch the web app, and Toggl will ask you what you’re working on—you type in your current task and press enter or click the Start button, Toggle immediately starts timing your work. If you forget to switch it on, then enter time later on. Organize your time by projects or tags, and mark it as “billable.” Toggl is built for teams. Your entire staff will be set up and running in minutes. It’s as easy as Twitter – no training required. Start out simple, and drill deeper with user rights and project setup later on.. Toggl also has powerful reports, giving you an accurate breakdown of how you’re spending your time.

Price: Free for Basic / $5 month for Pro / $49 month for Business

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Melissa Stewart is a purveyor of possibility, community builder, entrepreneur advocate and coffee enabler. She’s had a “home office” since age 5 (just ask her) and one of her first magazine subscriptions (paid from her piggy bank) was Entrepreneur Magazine. She is passionate about business, addicted to coffee and eternally optimistic. She Owns It is her passion project, dedicated to empowering women entrepreneurs through resources, support and inspiration. Do you tweet? She does (a lot!). Follow her at @melissaonline.

4 Apps For Freelancers and Solopreneurs #VZWbuzz

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by Melissa Stewart

PocketSuite

PocketSuite

“The easiest way to schedule clients, send invoices & get paid. Run your business over text, sync your calendar, take appointment requests online, and accept credit card payments.”

PocketSuite is free to download  that lets self-employed professionals manage nearly every aspect of their business. In minutes you can schedule appointments, accept credit card payments and even charge a cancellation fee when a client cancels with less than 24-hours notice.  The app allows you to send quotes, book appointments, automatically remind clients of their commitments via SMS messages, synchronize with your calendar and even integrates with your website and Facebook page.  Plus, it’s all secure!

ShoeBoxed

Shoeboxed

“The fast, easy way to turn receipts into an organized, IRS-accepted archive online.”

I have a confession. I’m not the most organized person. Trying to keep track of paper receipts is just annoying. Shoeboxed makes it easy to keep track of your receipts because admit it, you’re not going to tackle all those receipts piling up until tax time. So mail them to Shoeboxed. The service will scan, organize, and archive your receipts in a searchable database. Better yet, download the mobile app and you can capture receipts on the fly as well as track your mileage from your iOS or Android device. Plus, you can even connect it to your Gmail account so receipts you receive via email are automatically imported. Best of all, your Shoeboxed receipts are accepted by the IRS thanks to the Shoeboxed’s verification system.

1Password

1Password

“1Password creates strong, unique passwords for every site, remembers them all for you, and logs you in with a single tap.”

1Password makes managing multiple passwords easy and secure (because coffee can only boost your brain power so much). Up your security dramatically with a password generator that keeps everything stored for you. 1Password is user-friendly and syncs across your browser and mobile devices. All you have to do is remember one strong password to keep your password vault safe and secure. Once you login to your vault, you have access to all of your logins.

Shake App

Shake

“Create, sign and send legally binding agreements in seconds.”

It’s inevitable. At some point you will run into a conflict with a client over payment, ownership of work, or some other legal issue. Contracts are the easiest way to avoid conflicts like these, but hiring an attorney can be expensive.

Shake is a web and mobile app that creates simple, legally binding agreements in seconds. It’s a handy way to create quick contracts for freelance jobs, but you can also use it to create many other things, including non-disclosure agreements, leases, loans, and sales.