9 essential tools and apps for every starter

1. Teamleader

   Teamleader is a first-class Belgian product that has set out to win over international markets. This online tool for customer management, project management and invoicing saves times and makes sure business leaders do not drown in a sea of information.

2. Basecamp

   Working on one project with various teams and colleagues throws up a host of challenges. Keeping track of all the schedules, documents, actions and communications and making sure everything is up to date is often a huge task. Basecamp takes care of all this for you and also replaces the traditional flow of e-mails between team leaders.

3. Timely

   Entrepreneurs paid by the hour know how long it takes to keep time sheets up to date. Timely is a cross between a diary, a task planner and an app to enter time sheets and it can record exactly how much time you spend on a given job. The program calculates the fee automatically, as well. As a starter, it gives you a clear idea so that you can make your quotes more accurate.

4. Mint

   Every startup business leader needs to keep a careful eye on the finances. This is certainly not the most enjoyable aspect of doing business, but it’s absolutely essential. Enter Mint. The program – both on line and for smartphone – helps draw up budgets, keep track of expenditure and costs and make estimates. And it reminds you which bills you still have to pay, making additional costs due to late payment a thing of the past.

5. Audible

   Reading is a great way to keep up in your specialist field. But… how many entrepreneurs have the time? With Amazon’s Audible you can download audio books to your smartphone and listen to them wherever and whenever you wish, at your convenience, for instance in the car or on the train. The range is very wide but it does focus mainly on English-language works. You won’t find any books in Dutch.

6. Winstreak

   Winstreak – for iOS and Android – is a sort of digital coach that encourages you to achieve your goals and push back your boundaries. You choose three ‘wins’ to achieve every day and in the evening you can tick them off, so that you can go to bed with a positive feeling and start a new day with the right attitude.

7. Snapchat

   For the over-30s, Snapchat is often a mystery, but entrepreneurs who are trying to reach young people need to work with this app. Challenges, competitions, quizzes, stories behind the scenes, etc. – there are scores of ways of coming into contact with this group. You have to persevere to figure out how the program works, but once you’ve done so, the fun can start.

8. Asana

   What do General Electric, Dropbox, Tesla and Samsung have in common? They all use Asana, a project management cloud app that began life as an internal Facebook tool. With Asana, you can keep total control of a project and see instantly who is responsible for what and how far the work has progressed. You can also combine Asana seamlessly with Slack, for instance to post certain task updates in a Slack channel.

9. LinkedIn

   LinkedIn once had a definite reputation for being mainly an HR tool (and it still is), but these days it is far more than that: a place to promote your personal brand, network, read fascinating articles and opinions and find new ideas. So setting up a personal page on LinkedIn is definitely a good idea, but a company page is just as appropriate.

Finally

Of course, there are many other apps and tools that you can certainly consider using in your business, as well.