By : Sheryl Jean
Source : http://www.charlotteobserver.com
Category : Small Business Grant
Nowadays, an application and a mobile device can help you start a company, share spreadsheets and process credit card payments. The mobile app revolution makes it easy and inexpensive - or even free - for entrepreneurs to manage their entire operation with or without an office.
Entrepreneurs are increasingly turning to the more than 1 million mobile apps available to meet their business needs. Forrester Research estimates that revenue from customers downloading mobile apps will reach $38 billion by 2015.
Apps can save time and money, boost sales and productivity, and help small-business owners improve efficiency. They can also give consumers new ways to interact and communicate with companies.
Mobile apps save small businesses 725 million hours a year, for an estimated $17.6 billion, according to a survey by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.
More than one-third of U.S. small-business owners surveyed by Intuit said annual business growth was the biggest worry keeping them up at night. Nearly half said it's important to be able to run their business on a mobile device.
Here are some examples of how entrepreneurs are using mobile apps.
Pinterest: This popular e-pinboard discourages self-promotion, but some savvy small-business owners use it to showcase their products or services.
Shelley O'Donnell, an event and party planner in McKinney, Texas, has used Pinterest to help promote and expand her business in the last six months.
She used to tear out images she liked from magazines and save them in a giant spiral binder. Now she uses Pinterest to "pin" and share favorite items on the Web.
O'Donnell pins images of themed parties she planned so people can see her work. She also creates "vision boards" of ideas on Pinterest and shows them to clients on her iPad.
If people like what they see, they'll re-pin it. A woman from Alabama asked O'Donnell to plan a party based on what she had seen about her company, Divine Party Concepts, on Pinterest, she said.
Pinterest is driving traffic to her website, divinepartyconcepts.com, as people see images sourced to her company. Monthly hits to the site from Pinterest quadrupled to 4,500 in the last five months or so, O'Donnell said.
"It's been amazing," she said. "It's shooting up rapidly every week."
Pinterest is best for businesses with a visual side. For example, an interior designer could use it to pin photos of redecorated rooms or a landscaper can share pruning advice.
It's an invitation-only site, but people can follow each other as they do on Twitter.
Dropbox: Dallas entrepreneur George Mavromaras works out of a virtual office, so being able to access his documents from his iPhone is important.
The 24-year-old founder of Mavro Inc., a Dallas developer of Spanish-language mobile-based translation services for five health care and public-safety professions, has used the free Dropbox app for more than a year to do that.
Dropbox lets Mavromaras take documents, photos and videos anywhere and share them with 12 groups of people.
"It prevents having to email documents back and forth," he said. "That's huge. My inbox gets flooded. Dropbox lets me send someone a short link to a document."
Remote document access apps are the third most popular (used by 41 percent) among small businesses, according to the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council survey.
Mobile payments : Mobile payment apps are designed for anyone who sells products and services on the go. They can also cut payment costs. Food vendors, photographers, hairstylists and even the Dave Matthews Band use these apps.
A variety of apps are available with small card swipers (mostly free) that fit into the audio jack of a mobile device. Authorization of a credit or debit card is done as the payment is processed. Customers sign with a finger.
Small-business apps
Dropbox
Cost: Free up to 2 gigabytes of storage
Devices: Apple, Android, BlackBerry
Users can take documents, photos and videos anywhere and share them. Dropbox Pro ($19.99 a month) upgrades the free 2 GB of storage to 100 GB and provides access to a service copyright agent.
Evernote
Cost: Free
Devices: Apple, Android
Users can take notes, record phone calls or reminder notes, capture photos, create to-do lists and share data. Evernote also categorizes and tags items. It syncs with Facebook and Twitter. Users can pay more for more features, such as a lock system and extra storage.
Expensify
Cost: Free to download (basic version)
Devices: Apple, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Palm
It automates the entire expense report process. It links to a credit card, uploads receipts, reimburses via PayPal and syncs with Evernote. Most purchases under $75 are eligible for automatic e-receipts. There is a pay option for more receipt scans after the first free 10.
Intuit GoPayment
Cost: Free to download with free card reader
Devices: Apple, Android
A pay-as-you-go version charges 2.7 percent per swipe or 3.7 percent per key-in. High-volume users can pay a monthly fee of $12.95 plus 1.7 percent to 2.7 percent per transaction. Issuer Intuit released a newly designed, smaller card reader last month.
OfficeTime
Cost: Free
Devices: Apple
It's designed for freelancers, consultants, lawyers and others who bill by the hour. The app, which links to Excel, tracks billable time, projects and expenses.
Pinterest
Cost: Free
Devices: Apple
It's a virtual pinboard to save and share products and services. Businesses such as architects and bakers can showcase their work. If it's liked by others, it will be shared repeatedly. Dallas Morning News
Source : http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/02/12/3002163/starting-a-small-business-these.html#storylink=cpy
Source : http://www.charlotteobserver.com
Category : Small Business Grant
Nowadays, an application and a mobile device can help you start a company, share spreadsheets and process credit card payments. The mobile app revolution makes it easy and inexpensive - or even free - for entrepreneurs to manage their entire operation with or without an office.
Entrepreneurs are increasingly turning to the more than 1 million mobile apps available to meet their business needs. Forrester Research estimates that revenue from customers downloading mobile apps will reach $38 billion by 2015.
Apps can save time and money, boost sales and productivity, and help small-business owners improve efficiency. They can also give consumers new ways to interact and communicate with companies.
Mobile apps save small businesses 725 million hours a year, for an estimated $17.6 billion, according to a survey by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.
More than one-third of U.S. small-business owners surveyed by Intuit said annual business growth was the biggest worry keeping them up at night. Nearly half said it's important to be able to run their business on a mobile device.
Here are some examples of how entrepreneurs are using mobile apps.
Pinterest: This popular e-pinboard discourages self-promotion, but some savvy small-business owners use it to showcase their products or services.
Shelley O'Donnell, an event and party planner in McKinney, Texas, has used Pinterest to help promote and expand her business in the last six months.
She used to tear out images she liked from magazines and save them in a giant spiral binder. Now she uses Pinterest to "pin" and share favorite items on the Web.
O'Donnell pins images of themed parties she planned so people can see her work. She also creates "vision boards" of ideas on Pinterest and shows them to clients on her iPad.
If people like what they see, they'll re-pin it. A woman from Alabama asked O'Donnell to plan a party based on what she had seen about her company, Divine Party Concepts, on Pinterest, she said.
Pinterest is driving traffic to her website, divinepartyconcepts.com, as people see images sourced to her company. Monthly hits to the site from Pinterest quadrupled to 4,500 in the last five months or so, O'Donnell said.
"It's been amazing," she said. "It's shooting up rapidly every week."
Pinterest is best for businesses with a visual side. For example, an interior designer could use it to pin photos of redecorated rooms or a landscaper can share pruning advice.
It's an invitation-only site, but people can follow each other as they do on Twitter.
Dropbox: Dallas entrepreneur George Mavromaras works out of a virtual office, so being able to access his documents from his iPhone is important.
The 24-year-old founder of Mavro Inc., a Dallas developer of Spanish-language mobile-based translation services for five health care and public-safety professions, has used the free Dropbox app for more than a year to do that.
Dropbox lets Mavromaras take documents, photos and videos anywhere and share them with 12 groups of people.
"It prevents having to email documents back and forth," he said. "That's huge. My inbox gets flooded. Dropbox lets me send someone a short link to a document."
Remote document access apps are the third most popular (used by 41 percent) among small businesses, according to the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council survey.
Mobile payments : Mobile payment apps are designed for anyone who sells products and services on the go. They can also cut payment costs. Food vendors, photographers, hairstylists and even the Dave Matthews Band use these apps.
A variety of apps are available with small card swipers (mostly free) that fit into the audio jack of a mobile device. Authorization of a credit or debit card is done as the payment is processed. Customers sign with a finger.
Small-business apps
Dropbox
Cost: Free up to 2 gigabytes of storage
Devices: Apple, Android, BlackBerry
Users can take documents, photos and videos anywhere and share them. Dropbox Pro ($19.99 a month) upgrades the free 2 GB of storage to 100 GB and provides access to a service copyright agent.
Evernote
Cost: Free
Devices: Apple, Android
Users can take notes, record phone calls or reminder notes, capture photos, create to-do lists and share data. Evernote also categorizes and tags items. It syncs with Facebook and Twitter. Users can pay more for more features, such as a lock system and extra storage.
Expensify
Cost: Free to download (basic version)
Devices: Apple, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Palm
It automates the entire expense report process. It links to a credit card, uploads receipts, reimburses via PayPal and syncs with Evernote. Most purchases under $75 are eligible for automatic e-receipts. There is a pay option for more receipt scans after the first free 10.
Intuit GoPayment
Cost: Free to download with free card reader
Devices: Apple, Android
A pay-as-you-go version charges 2.7 percent per swipe or 3.7 percent per key-in. High-volume users can pay a monthly fee of $12.95 plus 1.7 percent to 2.7 percent per transaction. Issuer Intuit released a newly designed, smaller card reader last month.
OfficeTime
Cost: Free
Devices: Apple
It's designed for freelancers, consultants, lawyers and others who bill by the hour. The app, which links to Excel, tracks billable time, projects and expenses.
Cost: Free
Devices: Apple
It's a virtual pinboard to save and share products and services. Businesses such as architects and bakers can showcase their work. If it's liked by others, it will be shared repeatedly. Dallas Morning News
Source : http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/02/12/3002163/starting-a-small-business-these.html#storylink=cpy
