Mobile, as we know, is growing exponentially and app growth is right behind it. The best content for any industry can now be found in mobile apps across any platform. This change by Google allows users to find the best results for their query, regardless of whether or not the app is on their device already. Today’s news takes is the next level of App indexing (the ability to see search results on an app you already have on your phone).

Think of how it will benefit you, as an SMB owner or an app developer: a user is searching for information on a local restaurant and Google’s search displays not only the restaurant’s website but a link to its app. The install button will be right next to the search results and it will take the user to the Google Play store to install the app.

Mobile app developers rejoice! App promotion and “being found” are some of the biggest hurdles for new apps and Google have essentially solved this problem for Android developers. It’ll be interesting to see how Apple responds and what type of support iOS will provide for its search parameters and Safari.

Social Business Apps
Social networks have gone a long way in boosting the performance of different businesses across the globe. Statistics indicate that the largest percentage of people in the world use social media at one point or the other. Business owners should, therefore, take advantage of social media and use it to reach their potential clients. Here are some of the social apps that are considered ideal for any business:

1. Whatsapp
Out of the many messaging apps, Whatsapp leads in a couple of ways especially for those in business. First, the app gives room for free messaging. This means that you are spared the cost of messaging. Moreover, instant dissemination of messages is assured.
Secondly, you can create a Whatsapp group for your clients and any other person who has an interest in what your business offers. That way, the burden of forwarding a single message to each client at a time is lifted.
Thirdly, you can make free audio calls using Whatsapp. In fact, there are rumors that a video-call feature will be integrated on Whatsapp soon. Direct contact with your clients is therefore made easy, thanks to Whatsapp.

2. Vine
As a businessperson, you should go to any extent to ensure that you get the best returns in the end. Video demos are always considered a very effective way of marketing products. If you do not have funds to air adverts on television or any other live media, you can always use Vine to achieve your marketing goal. How? Vine allows you to upload short videos, which are then shared among your followers. All you need is to create a video that is very clear, and one that communicates your message in the best way. You can as well create pictures that communicate your business interests and upload them on Vine. With a large number of followers, you have the assurance that Vine will work well in marketing your products.

3. Instagram
While most people think that Instagram is all about fun with photos, others see it as a great marketing tool for their businesses. Consider a case where you have uploaded your business flyers Instagram. You can even go ahead and upload photos of the products that your business deals with. Such cases only mean that your business will garner more clients. You can simply download Instagram App to your smartphone for free and use it to the advantage of your business.

4. Twitter
You can place your business on top of the game with the help of Twitter. Some people may wonder how this is possible. The ‘Trending ‘feature on Twitter is meant to help people search for topics that tend to dominate others. Such topics are traced with the help of hashtags. Your job is to download a Twitter App for free and install it either on your smartphone or computer. You should then do your research and identify the hashtags that are trending in your business niche and use them accordingly. Several tweets with powerful hashtags everyday are enough to market your business effectively.

5. Facebook
Facebook still stands as the fastest growing and most dominating social site. Both online and offline businesses have already endorsed Facebook as a prime tool for marketing and selling their products. The introduction of Facebook App came as a point of convenience especially for those who are business oriented. With the App, it is easy (by far) to post details of your business without necessarily loading your timeline through a web browser. The best of all is that you will be constantly receiving messages, comments, or any other notification based on your previous posts on the same App.

To-Do Apps

There is great need to ensure that all operations in your business are done in an organized and timely manner. Technology has brought forth some apps that are considered best in helping businesspersons organize their activities efficiently. Needless to say, it is through organized operations that goals in any business are achieved easily. Some of the best To-Do Apps include:
6. Checkmark
The app allows you to set reminders of upcoming events based on time, location, contacts, and even your favorites. You will therefore be receiving reminders of the upcoming event or activity with regard to the criterion you have selected. For instance, you can set a remainder based on location. Anytime your smartphone detects that you are close to that particular location, a notification will come up reminding you of the scheduled event in that particular area. You can download the app at a cost of no more than $5.

7. Fantastical
Mac users can consider Fantastical in scheduling upcoming events. The best thing about this app is that you can opt to speak or type details of the upcoming event. The former is always considered better than the latter. Needless to say, speaking is easier than typing. Upon feeding the event details, the app will schedule everything for you and send occasional reminders with regard to the upcoming event.

8. Evernote
It is a note taking app meant Android, Blackberry, and Mac users. The app has features that give room for typed and spoken notes. Aside from that, the app is able to save all your notes for as long as you wish. Yours is just to schedule dates for a certain event and save them in your Evernote app whereby you can retrieve the details at your own convenience. You can even set event reminders on the same app.

Financial and Billing Apps

Your business will, of course, need financial regulations and general billing. This is where financial and billing apps come in. They are the kind of apps that are used in helping business operators calculate figures, prepare financial documents, and perform other billing activities flawlessly. Unlike in the past when such tasks could be done manually, things have changed today. Here are the key billing and financing apps that you should consider:

9. Expensify
The primary role of this app is to log expenses, manage reports, and also capture images of different receipts. Companies that operate on corporate accounts are considered a perfect match for this app. If you must know, Expensify has other additional features that can facilitate easy and smooth preparation and storage of financial data and reports. The app is available for android, iOS, Windows, and Blackberry and it is usually free of charge.

10. Square Register
If your business works more with credit cards, this is the app that you should consider installing in your smartphone or tablet. Square register allows you to accept credit cards with a very friendly swiping fee of 2.75%. Most business runners consider this app ideal since it does not limit them to liquid cash transactions only.

11. Spendbook
Looking for the easiest way to monitor your income and track your expenses? Spendbook is the app you should get. It is fully compatible with iOS devices. With this app, you can tell the much you have spent within a certain duration. As a matter of fact, users can add pictures of items bought (alongside their receipts) into this app and use the information to calculate overall expenses. You can also tell the much you have earned using the same app. In short, Spendbook gives you a clear picture of your financial behavior. It is a perfect app for both big and small businesses and also for personal use.

12. FreshBooks
Professionalism in any business is definitely something worth embracing. This covers even the financial documents that you present to your clients and other involved parties. The kind of invoices you present to your clients greatly communicate your image. To create professional and appealing invoices, you will require FreshBooks app. It has all the features that can enhance the appearance of your invoices. What’s more, the app is also able to set up a reliable credit card payment system. This we must agree is a perfect app for both small and large businesses.

13. FreeAgent
It is an advanced version of apps that are used in creating professional invoices, tracking of expenses, chasing particular payments, and many other things. The best of all is that FreeAgent performs all its roles from an intuitive interface. One more thing… accuracy is fully assured for FreeAgent users. This is made possible by the Time Tracking feature that app has. FreeAgent is able to record the specific time that certain data was fed.

14. QuickBooks
Quickbooks app allows you to perform accounting, billing, and invoicing tasks online. All features in that regard are integrated under one app. For businesses that deal more with online banking and wire services, Quickbooks is the ultimate app in handling the respective data. Notably, you can download all details created using the app and print out hard copies.
15. Xero
Accounts management in both small and large businesses has never been this easy, thanks to Xero. It is among the most efficient yet sophisticated apps that are designed to manage accounts in a flawless manner. Xero has the capacity to import financial data into its database and later link everything to the respective accounting transactions. In the end, you will be able to have a clear and precise view of all your accounting transactions. Xero is considered ideal for large businesses.

Scanning and Printing Apps

Sometimes you might require hard copies of important documents in your business. Better still, you might want to transform hard-copy documents into soft-copy. Either way, printing and scanning is something that cannot be overlooked in any business. Thankfully, new apps have been introduced to enable computer and smartphone users scan and print documents conveniently. Here are some:

16. CamScanner
It is easy to turn your smartphone into a scanner with the help of CamScanner. It is designed to scan and turn hardcopy documents into softcopy. As long as your smartphone has a high quality camera, you can be assured of clear and high quality scans. You can use the app to scan receipts, invoices, quotes, business cards, and other documents.

17. ePrint
You can use your smartphone to print important documents with the help of ePrint. This is an app that is designed for android and iOS users. It does not matter if you are close to your printer or not. All you need is a Wi-Fi signal to link your phone with the printer. Documents are sent to the printer through Wi-Fi, after which a hardcopy is created.

18. PrintBot
It is a perfect printing app for android users. One of the prime advantages about PrintBot is that it supports over 2800 models of printers. Moreover, the same app is able to print different file types including PDF, Jpeg images, and many more. Basically, its versatility is the core reason why most people prefer it over others.

17. Epson iPrint
The benefit of using Epson iPrint is that it is compatible with all android devices and it has the capacity to print a wide variety of document types. The downside is that Epson iPrint is restricted to Epson printers only. This means that businesses that use other models of printers cannot benefit from this app.

Business Apps

It goes without saying that security is imperative for any business, especially if it is anything that has to do with critical data. Here are some apps that you can use to beef up virtual security in your business:

18. Apps Developers
Apps Developers is an affordable way for any small business to easily build a mobile app for their customers. You can enable a loyalty program, mobile food ordering system, geo-location messaging, and more.

19. LastPass
There is great need to have secure passwords to your computer, smartphone, or any other crucial information storage device. Instead of using a common password all over, you can use LastPass to generate new and secure passwords. The app will even go a step further to store your passwords and retrieve them automatically when needed.

20. Call Blocker
This is a free app that works well for any businessperson who wishes to keep his personal phone number private. You can lock away unwanted callers and respond to them using an auto-text. The app also has the capacity to back-up your contact list for future reference.

Any edge your small business (SMB) can gain to stay in the ring with your heavyweight competitors is crucial. In a world full of millennial customers, your advantage is your mobile presence. Bottom line—if your business is not set up to serve the mobile population, look for a knockout punch to come from the competition.

It’s no secret that SMB is the backbone of the American economy. It’s also no secret that technology is a major factor in an SMB’s success. You would think that as technology continues to evolve that SMBs would have greater opportunities to compete with their larger competitors. This is the case on some occasions, but for most, modern technology is evolving faster than businesses can keep up with, thus leaving many scrambling to understandCOW_1.20.16_Blog_Slideshow_622px the changes they need to make.

There are two basic approaches that SMBs can use to begin entering the mobile market, apps or mobile websites. Both options have pros and cons, and depending on your business, you will need to do some research. One thing remains certain, if you can afford to build both, you will certainly come out on top with more avenues to reach customers on the platform that they use the most.

Mobile Customers

In a recent study conducted by BuzzBoard, researchers learned that approximately 47.3% of SMBacross the nation were not prepared for the shift to mobile (2).  The study further reported that 49% of consumers looking for information about local SMB use their smartphones to do so, and of that 49% of consumers, 18% of those searches resulted in customers arriving at a brick and mortar store to make a purchase (7).  Simply put, customers shopping and searching techniques are evolving faster than SMBs can keep up with.  What that means to you as an SMB owner, is that you cannot afford to postpone developing a mobile presence.

Smartphones have dominated the mobile market as of lately.  In fact, 64% of Americans or 2/3 of the population own smartphones, and 19% of those people rely on their smartphone as their primary means of staying connected online.   Again, as an SMB owner, you have no choice but to begin developing your mobile presence.  By putting it off and assuming that people will just find your website, you are easily losing 19% of the population as potential customers.

Additionally, 68% of all emails are read on smartphones or tablets, so not only do SMBs need to reevaluate their websites and their app market existence, they also have to begin creating mobile friendly emails (8).

Because Google Says So…

Due largely to the giant shift towards mobile, Internet giants such as Google have begun revising their business strategies.Google recent announced that it would begin changing its ranking criteria by awarding sites with a stronger mobile presence higher rankings (9).  The bottom line is when Google says you need to change your online presence, you have to follow suit; otherwise, any ground you’ve gained developing your digital existence will be lost.

Your business cannot afford to ignore the rules that Google sets for search criteria.  It will end up costing you way more money in the long run.  If you wait, not only will you have to spend money developing a mobile website and/or a mobile app, you will also have to pay marketing and advertising experts to help you regain the ground you lost by holding off development.  It’s one of those penny smart dime stupid scenarios where businesses often find themselves struggling to make decisions.

In the case of developing a mobile presence, the decision is abundantly clear.  You need to find the budget to get yourself a smart phone friendly existence.  There are many open source websites options you can use such as Joomla or WordPress that offer built-in responsive capabilities for a mobile site that can come at a very low cost.

In fact, open source content management systems are simple to learn to use of you have some technology skills.  They require no coding skills, and they offer many step by step tutorials that you can use to begin building.  The same is true with app development.

There are also many “build a mobile app” options that can help you cultivate an effective and affordable app without any coding knowledge.  With a little legwork, you can have your business

competing in the mobile market for relativity low cost.

Apps as a Mobile Option

Without a doubt, you have to have a mobile friendly website.  First of all, a mobile-friendly website offers a much simpler screen experience, potential customers.  When a page is easier to navigate on a mobile device, customers are less likely to abandon the page and find one that is easier to view on a mobile platform.

If you don’t begin developing your mobile existence with a device responsive website, you are losing out on opportunity after opportunity.  You need to be able to contend with your competitors, and without a mobile presence, SMBs in your niche will steal your customers.   But in most cases, the mobile website is simply not enough.

As more and more technology platforms shift focus towards apps, it is in your business best interest to invest in app development as well. Apps offer mobile capability, but they also offer many additional innovative possibilities.  Because an app can work directly with the device on which it is downloaded, it has the potential to allow customers and clients a more interactive mobile experience.  Customers like simplicity.  They like to go to the app to, book appointments, order supplies, get reminders, check status, etc.  Simply put, an app offers a much more user-friendly experience.

Additionally, apps engage users more.  If your SMB niche offers or requires any of the following, and app is most certainly the mobile market you want to begin using:

• Regular customers like coffee shops, hair salons, nail salons
• Extensive research before purchasing like car dealers, real estate
• Continued communication like contractors, event planners
• Vacation or entertainment like a casino or a resort
• Location reminders like a restaurant or a concert venue
• Valued reminders like a car garage or a dentist (13)

Studies indicate that 90% of media time is spent using apps instead of browser technology (12).  Again, what that means to you as an SMB, is that you need to invest in app technology.

Conclusion

A mobile existence is going to be your SMB’s next lifeline, and if you wait too long to invest in the shift, you are going to end up spending more money trying to rebuild the online presence you’ve already built.  Watching how the trend unfolds is no longer an option for your SMB.  You have to begin adjusting to the change.