Running a home based-business can be filled with challenges. Loads of paper on your desk, many passwords to keep track of, overseeing your employees at their desks, shipping products, printing, emailing, calling—there is simply so much to do. It doesn’t surprise if at the end of the day you feel exhausted from all the work.
Luckily, as the number of home-based business is growing, a lot of useful tools are appearing along the way as well. From apps to websites, there are many utilities right at your fingertips that can assist you in optimizing your home office and streamlining your work processes.
Here are some of them:
Quickbooks
Quickbooks allows you to manage your home office in many different ways. With this app, you can make online payments, calculate paychecks, track expenses, send invoices, check profit and losses, and get ready for tax time. It is useful both for entrepreneurs running a single-person business and smaller home-based companies with more than one employee.
Shyp
If you’re running a home-based online retail business, Shyp could be an extremely useful tool for you. It is a convenient and hassle-free app that allows users to order a courier from their mobile phone at a very affordable price. The courier arrives at your doorstep to pick up and pack the items that need to be shipped so you can go back to your regular business activities. Streamlining product delivery in this way not only saves you time, but it can also give your business a competitive advantage over a growing number of online retailers.
SignEasy
SignEasy is a practical tool for salespeople, accountants, lawyers, realtors, freelancers—basically any small business operating from a home-based office. It allows you to import documents from your email or cloud service, electronically sign them and then deliver completed documents to your clients or employees. It works with PDF files, Word documents, web pages, Excel spreadsheets and even JPEG images. Apart from faster document management, which is one of the main benefits of going paperless, SignEasy can also help you eliminate expenses associated with document shipping and declutter limited office space.
DeskTime
If you have other employees who are also working from their own homes, you can keep track of their tasks with the DeskTime App. DeskTime reports on the status on your company’s progress, allows you to keep record of your employees’ time without being offensive and gives you the ability to track current projects. This is a much more efficient way to receive updates and get insights into your employees’ productivity than constantly phoning them or sending them emails.
Cold Turkey
Everyone is prone to getting distracted. Checking Facebook, browsing the Internet, emailing a friend—all while working on a project that has a very tight deadline. Distractions are more than common in today’s multitasking, technology-driven world and they often lead to procrastination and missed deadlines. Cold Turkey can help with that interference by giving you access to features that block anything on the Internet so you can focus on what matters.
1Password
If you use many different passwords, you can reduce the mental stress of remembering all of them by getting an app that can memorize passwords for you. 1Password stores all of your passwords and PIN codes and allows you to sign into all of your online accounts with a single click. Apart from speeding up your online activities and providing a useful memorization feature, 1Password also helps you to improve the security of your data by using an advanced encryption system that safeguards all your information.
Lifehacker
This useful weblog was originally introduced in 2005 and has since then expanded into several international websites—Lifehacker UK, Lifehacker Japan and Lifehacker Australia. As the name suggests, Lifehacker offers a large number of lifehacking tips and tricks that can definitely come in handy for home-based professionals. You can find tutorials for all sorts of office software and apps, as well as tips for decluttering, sorting out office gadgets, creating easy home office storage solutions and more. With these ideas, you can make your office more functional and your work more productive.
Postmates
Have you or any one of your employees ever had to stop a project to go to the store for computer paper or any other office supply? If you have, you may be happy to find out about Postmates. Postmates is a 24/7 on-demand app that allows you to order anything and have it delivered to your doorstep within minutes.
Houzz
The part of your apartment or house that has been adapted into a working area will need management just as much as your business does. That’s where Houzz can help. It is a very large online community focused on home improvement and it is accompanied by a handy mobile app. Both are a source of useful information about maintaining your home office and the app can also help you stay in tune with some important home maintenance tasks. This way, you will be able to focus on your work instead on possible distractions in your working environment.
Author: Taylor Moore is a freelance copywriter with a passion for small business and retail marketing. For more talk on content marketing, conversion optimization, branding and customer service, follow her @taylormtweets.
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