Aside from the few favorites for connecting with your customers – like Instagram and Facebook Pages Manager, there are quite a few options to keep track of your efforts and expand them easily.
I find apps useful only when they’re for everyday things.
I’m not a huge fan of clogging up my phone with anything besides photos and useful bits of information, so I’m pretty selective on what I have in my hands.
On a daily basis, these are my HAVE to tasks:
- Product Photography
- Sending invoices
- Organizing information & content
- Creating copy & designs
- Bookkeeping
Having apps that help me manage these tasks and are easily accessible makes my day a LOT smoother. I can pop in and handle quick tasks in the in-between moments throughout the day, especially if I’m out of the studio.
It’s a matter of efficiency, but I also try to be pretty aware of how I spend my attention and intention in my off hours and during family time.
Here are five+ apps I use on a near daily basis to keep myself and all of my varied projects in order: (and a bonus one, too!)
Photography – SnapSeed or Lightroom
Both of these are incredible tools to edit product photos. I tend to favor SnapSeed for quick, one-off edits, and use Lightroom to quickly batch edit sets of content. Learning to use one or both of these will add a more polished look to your photography, and is such a valuable skill to have.
Financials: Quickbooks
The integration as many steps into something automated saves so much time, effort and internal energy. Quickbooks makes it easy to evaluate where money is coming and going, and it makes the dreaded tax time even easier.
Invoicing: Square Invoices or Paypal Invoice
The thing about square? This app gives you the ability to create invoices, book paid appointments, sell in-person, and online – and likely more – and the fantastic customer service makes it an easy app to want to use. Paypal Invoice is a great option if you’re already using the service.
Design: Adobe Spark or Canva
I love Canva because it’s incredibly user friendly, with a ton of easy-to-share options for those of us who aren’t really designers, but want to create content. It’s also free! Adobe Spark offers a similar option, but has templates and tools that aren’t available in Canva. Either one is a solid choice to create quotes, design social media headers or to add watermarks to your images.
Airtable & Trello: aka How I Organize My Entire Life
If you’re a spreadsheet person and haven’t used Airtable, you’re missing out. It’s a place to organize and curate lots of information at once, through multi-layered spreadsheets and ‘bases’ that help keep all my projects in order. Trello offers a way to communicate and strategies in collaborative products, and is an invaluable resource for my digital client work.
Bonus: Check out The Pattern if you’re into astrology. It provides personalized daily updates & notifications based on your natal chart. It was recommended by a fellow creative small business owner, and I personally appreciate the breaks for insight throughout the day!
