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10 Tech Apps We use for Flexible Working

1. Google Apps for business

 Google Drive

There are a few other cloud storage options such as Dropbox, but for me as I use Google for my business email it made sense for me to go with one provider for what I needed.  Google Drive is free for up to 30GB of storage which is a free limit shared across both your Google Drive and Gmail accounts but it's only a tiny monthly fee of $1.99 to increase this to 100GB.

I also have Google Drive installed on my desktop so I save everything directly into it as if it were my desktop. These folders and documents can be opened directly from my desktop or accessed anywhere from a web browser on any device.

Custom company email - Gmail

I pay  £3.30 per user per month which I used for both Littlefisheventmanagement.com  and Mumsenterprise.events domains.

Pretty cheap if you ask me and it is accessed via Gmail, so it is a familiar set up.  You get all you would expect from a business email account – categories, folders, forwarding, out of office, email signatures and it can be accessed anywhere on any device.  Of course you can also set it up as a mailbox on your smart phone for easy access out and about.

2. Insightly CRM

This is a free (payable options available) customer relationship management tool which I use to save my leads, customers and suppliers.  This is a cloud based application which can link to your gmail email account to store emails to specific contacts.  This helps to keep track of conversations.

The free version gives you up to 2 users, 2000 contacts and 200MB of storage. It would then be only $15 to upgrade to unlimited users, 25,000 contacts and 1GB of storage with many more options above that.

I like Insightly as for us it is free at the moment, it is easy to use with similar functionality to say Salesforce or any other professional CRM and it allows me to add a limited number of custom fields which is always helpful.

3. Mailchimp

This is quite a popular choice for an email marketing tool.  It is free to use for up to 2000 contacts in your lists and you can pay-as-you-go when adding further contacts which would take your total contacts over 2000.  The bad news is that is you go over 2000 contacts then they charge you from 0 and it can be quite expensive, as in $100 for 5000 credits or a monthly cost of $55 for 5001 - 5200 contacts.

The functionality is easy to use and is a basic drag and drop to help you customise your email templates.  I know it does have marketing automation and many other tricks it can do but I just use the basics.

4. Trello

I have just started to use Trello which is a helpful free tool for project management and team collaboration. There are payable options but I am pretty sure any business up to quite a high level would do just fine with it's free version.

I am getting to really like Trello.  As I  work on so many different projects at once, each with so many tasks I need to be able to see my tasks at a glance.  Whether I want to see my tasks set for the day, the week, for one project in-particular or for all and this allows you to do that.  There is colour coding, notifications, calendar, team members, everything you would expect so I would certainly give it a try if you are looking for something to help you manage your workload.  This is also going to be great as we work with more ambitious mums to grow our  business which who will also be working remotely.

5. Webflow

This is what I used to set up my Little Fish website back in June 2014 and I am so glad I used Webflow from the get go. I just love the modern style, feel and back-end which is simply drag and drop.  I am no code master  so it was important for me to make my own edits, amends, add text, upload images and do whatever  needed to be done.

Webflow is also the host for the Mums Enterprise website and again we  have been very happy with it.  They are fully responsive so work across all devices, are easy to use so long as you have some basic understanding of CMS or have an idea of how these tools work.  If you have little to no experience there are plenty of tutorials you can do and it’s pretty easy once you know how.

However I must admit I have used the support of a web designer.  Yes I can edit text, some formatting and make changes and updates but  I have no clue how to add effects. So far I have spent around £300 on the Little Fish website and about the same again to create the Mums Enterprise website.  But you can pay a hell of a lot more for something to look just as professional.  That money has been in dribs and drabs and often only costs me £30 - £50 when I need to update it or create new template pages.

You will need good designs and graphics to provide to your web designer unless they can design for you but this will add to the cost.  Not many designers were in the UK for webflow 18 months ago but I am sure there are many more in the UK now and you can contact designers through the webflow forum.

You can also purchase templates which other professionals have designed and made available for free or to purchase for around $20.

6. Adobe document cloud

Now this is a good one! For only £9.50 a month I pay to have an account with Adobe document cloud.  This for me is very important as we send a lot of booking forms out for Mums Enterprise and we need our proposals and contacts signing for Little Fish.  Gone are the days of posting, scanning and why take photo’s of signed documents when you can simply upload the documents for signing and send direct to your clients for digital signatures. Easy as pie and I find the contracts are often signed much more quickly.

This is the tool which was once named Ecohsign.

7. Skype

Although it needs no introduction I am finding I am using skype so much more than ever. Lucy Chaplin is based from home in Staffordshire and I work from home in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire so we use it quite regularly (although she is on a break as she just a baby awww).I am also arranging Skype calls where possible as an alternative to meetings. I know some face-to-face meetings are needed and are important but sometimes a Skype call can do just the trick.

8. Hootsuite

Again another web based tool so you can access your account anywhere on any device. This tool helps you manage your social media accounts. There is a free version which allows you to link up to three platforms to it or of course there are paid versions which allow you to link much more. For me I am no social media genius but I like this tool as it allows you to schedule tweets or posts ahead of time.  So if you are in meetings for the day or on holiday you can still post content without even being logged in.  You can also download the Hootlet app if you use Google Chrome which means you can surf the web, see content and send or scedule a tweet sharing what you have found.  It does many other fancy things I am sure and you do really need to buy credits to access multiple reports for your activity but so far it has done for me what I needed it too. (I am sure you are getting a feeling for how many tabs I must have open each day :-)  

9.XERO

An online accounting platform which is really easy to use. Get a free trial, link your bank accounts and this really helps you keep on top of expenses, quotes, invoicing and you can set up automatic reminders to help you chase payments. 

10. Canva

How can I forget, Canva.  This is a fantastic web tool which allows you to create images to standard social media templates or a custom size of your choice.  I have found it very helpful as Lucy, our designer has just had her baby but I have still had to deliver banners, continue with social media and create on-line event listings with branding and images.  I have all the different assets I just needed to create PNG's or Jpegs!  This is perfect and as always we use the free option. Definitely worth a look.

So there you have it just some tools which are helping us with our flexible business approach whilst keeping costs to a minimum.  Do comment if you have any other suggestions others may find helpful to look into.