Skip to content
Productivity Apps for Small Business Productivity
Making use of productivity Apps for your small business can help you get much more done in your day.
As a small business owner wearing many hats, efficiency is key to success and there are a plethora of productivity apps designed to streamline your tasks and make your life easier. We’ve selected them based on affordability and efficiency potential, with the small business owner who DIY’s their marketing.
Let's dive into our top picks and tips for small business owners looking to maximise their productivity.
Chrome Profiles: Efficient Account Management
Small business owners often find their personal and business lives intertwined. Chrome profiles are a game-changer in managing different Google accounts and logons attached to them seamless. As a productivity app, the Chrome profile makes for a huge time saver, as it allows you to have a dedicated profile for your business, allowing easy toggling between personal and professional accounts. This keeps your logins organised, especially when dealing with multiple users and Gmail accounts.
Cost: Free
Here's a step-by-step guide to help you set up a new profile in Google Chrome:
Step 1: Open Google Chrome
Step 2: Access the Profile Menu: In the top-right corner of the Chrome window, you will see your profile picture or the initial of your Google account. Click on it to open the profile menu.
Step 3: Click on "Add": In the profile menu, you will see an option that says "Add." Click on this option to begin creating a new profile.
Step 4: Choose a Name and Picture (Optional)
Step 5: Sign In to Your Google Account so that you are signed on whenever you open the profile to save you time
Step 6: Customize Your Profile (Optional)
Step 7: Start Browsing with Your New Profile
Switching Between Profiles: To switch between profiles, click on the profile picture or initial in the top-right corner of the Chrome window and select the profile you want to use.
Time Tracking Productivity Apps: Harvest, Clockify, and Pomo Focus
Effective time management is crucial for small business success. Harvest and Clockify are excellent productivity app tools for tracking and allocating time to projects or clients. For focused work sessions, try Pomo Focus, a proven method for boosting efficiency with timed work sprints and breaks.
Harvest: Integrates with Asana and other project management tools and allows you to have teams or staff. You can also generate invoices and take payments directly via the app.
Cost: Free for one user
Clockify: Tracks times for clients, or projects with reporting available.
Cost: Free for unlimited users
Pomofocus: Set work period and break periods, as well tasks that you allocate to the set time.
Cost: Free
Content Creation: ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, Grammarly, and VoicePen.ai
Content creation is time-consuming, but these productivity app tools can significantly speed up the process. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are AI chatbot tools that you can use to generate content ideas, outlines, and content output.
The key is to be effective and precise with your instructions (ie your prompt link ).
Cost: All have free versions. Other options are Microsoft’s Chat and Google’s Bard.
Grammarly improves writing quality by checking not only grammar and spelling but also the tone and clarity of your writing and whether it would be flagged as plagiarised.
Cost: Grammarly starts at US$15 per month.
We have a comprehensive review on whether Grammarly Premium is worth it.
VoicePen.ai is another great productivity app for those of you who are not great at writing but know your stuff when you can talk to it! It’s a transcription tool with built-in AI that firstly will let you record or upload an audio or video and transcribe your speech, and then it can turn it into a blog for you. It is an absolute game-changer if you struggle with writing!
Cost: US$6 for 16,000 credits which is about enough for 2-3 articles, depending on length of your article.
Keyword Research: Keywords Everywhere
Use the Keywords Everywhere plugin for your Chrome browser for cost-effective keyword research. It provides data on search volumes, competition, and cost per click as you browse, helping you optimise your content for better visibility. If you are looking for content ideas for your socials or blog, then this is a great way to constantly find them!
Cost: US$10 for 100,000 credits which gets you a lot of searching (usually it lasts me for about 5-6 months)
Social media: Time saving management tools
Social media is one of the biggest time sucking activities there is for a small business. Efficiences should be able to gained with the right tool in:
- Scheduling content
- Using AI to help you find the best time to publish
- AI assisted vetting, scoring and improving content
- AI Drafting of content
- All in one place for commenting and messaging
- AI recycling of best performing content.
The following tools bring one or more of these benefits to the table:
Meta Business Suite
This free tool from Meta allows scheduling of content and provides you with the option to let it choose the best time to schedule content. It also brings all comments and messaging together for Facebook and Instagram.
Buffer / Feedhive
Both of these tools have AI built into them providing the ability to get help to vet and improve your content from AI.
They will also surface best performing content for you to repurpose for a future time.
Buffer also has the benefit of inbuilt integration with Canva, Zapier, Mailchimp and Google Analytics.
It also has a handy Chrome Extension to save ideas for content or to schedule content you find from the wide world web:)!!
Feedhive pricing starts at US$19 per month and Buffer has a free plan to explore.
Ocoya
This scheduling tool leverages AI by connecting your e-commerce product catalogue to the tool and then drafting product posts for you you to review before scheduling!
Video Editing Tools
In the age of video as the preferred format for people to consume content, it seems right to include some tools that make the job of creating and editing video easier and quicker.
My top picks are:
- Opus video, which will turn one long video (think Youtube) to multiple vertical short videos
- Veed.io is an AI-enhanced editor with autotranslation to other languages and filler remover (a real-time saver!)
Both have a free version.
Automation and Third-Party Integrators: Zapier, Make
Connect different platforms seamlessly with Zapier or Make. These tools make automation smooth to transfer information between email, spreadsheets, CRM, and more, saving you time on manual data handling.
When a trigger is fired such as a form completed on your website, it fires a ‘zap’ or task and the targeted system will then capture the information and perform the task that you specify.
No coding required, all you need to do is connect up the two systems via a wizard, making use of pre-determined recipes.
What are some examples of automation for these productivity apps?
SOCIAL MEDIA
- Summarise website content > create social media posts with an Ai chat bot > schedule to LI/ FB or X
- Summarise RSS feed items > Schedule to LI/ FB
- Create Facebook ads copy with Google Sheets and ChatGPT: Hero's Journey formula
- Post new FB page posts to another page
- Save FB posts to a Google sheet
- Save analytics from FB to a spreadsheet
MARKETING
- Metric reporting eg. reach, sales, sentiment
- Webinar registrants to email db > triggering sequences
- Lead captured in form > CRM > triggers sequences
- Create tasks from form submissions
OPERATIONS
- Email with subject line / keyword > enter in Google Sheet > Triggers to-do
- Email with subject line > auto draft response with ChatGPT
- Appointment made in your calendar > automates a task in Asana
- Save email attachments to Google Drive
- Automatically upload new files eg. from Dropbox files to Slack or Google Drive to Soundcloud
- Save stripe charges to Google sheets
Cost: Both have free versions for a small number of transactions.
Screen Capture and Recording: Snagit and Loom
Use screen capture tools like Snagit and Loom for effective communication and instruction. These productivity apps allow you to annotate, record, and share videos to convey information clearly and efficiently. Whether it’s helping a client or making it quicker to pass on instructions to your web developer or marketing assist, this can be a real time saver.
Snagit cost: $106.84 AUD for a once off purchase.
Loom cost: Free for up to 25 videos/person and up to 5 mins/video
Meeting Notes and Transcription: Fathom and Otter.io
Another great time saver are the productivity apps for meeting note-taking. Apps like Fathom and Otter.io, provide automated transcription and summarisation. These tools enhance productivity by organising discussions and action points seamlessly. They also provide you with a searchable transcript and the ability to pass these onto your clients / or participants in your meeting.
Otter.io provides all the bells and whistles with transcripts, automated summaries, recordings to share with your meeting attendees. It’s robust and has a free trial period.
Cost: Free with 300 minutes transcription per month and basic features.
Fathom: Offers meeting transcription and summaries with the ability to highlight as you go, to create action plans at the end. Recording and transcripts available almost immediately on finishing your meeting.
Cost: Free
Email Signatures: Simplify Responses with FAQs
A simple productivity hack is to use the tools already available within your Email program. You can speed up email responses with pre-created email signatures for frequently asked questions (FAQs). Create multiple signatures in Outlook or Gmail to quickly address common queries and save time.
To do this in Outlook:
- Open a new email message.
- On the Message tab, in the Signature group, click Signature > Signatures.
- In the Choose signature to edit box, click New.
- In the New Signature dialog box, type a name for your signature, and then click OK, then type in your ‘template’ in the edit signature box.
- Click OK to save your signature.
- You can then manually add your signature to a new message by choosing Insert signature
To do this in Gmail:
- Open Gmail.
- Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the screen.
- Select See all settings.
- Scroll down to the Signature section.
- Click on Create new.
- Enter a name for your signature.
- Enter your signature text.
- Click on Save Changes.
Organizational Tools: Asana, Trello, and ClickUp
Stay organised with productivity apps for task management like Asana, Trello, and ClickUp. These platforms help prioritise tasks, assign activities, and collaborate with your team efficiently.
Asana is a comprehensive project management software that helps teams organize and track their work. It has great flexibility to create a list or board view and to invite others to work with you on tasks, as well as putting in due dates at a project or individual task level.
Cost: Asana offers a free plan.
Trello is a kanban-style project management tool that uses boards, lists, and cards to organize work and can be used in a similar way to Asana.
Cost: Trello offers a free plan with limited features.
ClickUp is an all-in-one project management tool that combines the features of Asana and Trello.
Cost: ClickUp offers a free plan as well.
CRMs
Customer Relationship Management tools can be helpful at providing productivity lifts with tasks such as:
- Lead and contact management
- Contact management
- Email tracking and notifications
- Meeting scheduling
- Live chat and chatbots
- Reporting dashboard
- Workflow automation
- Visual sales pipeline
The key thing to be aware of when selecting a CRM is be clear on how easy it is to extract data to migrate away. Often once you get started with a CRM it's hard to move away. So make sure you check on the following key things:
- Ease of use
- Integration points required
- Check next level price point
In terms of CRMs that are worth a look at, it's a busy market, but:
Zoho CRM is very flexible and with a free plan, but the real capabilities to tailor and automate tasks is in the paid plan, which starts at $22 per month.
Pipedrive is a sales focused CRM with an easy to drive interface. Pricing starts at US$14 per month.
Booking Apps: AppToto, Calendly, Acuity and Picktime
If you are a business that runs on bookings or appointments, then a productivity app that will help to automate appointment scheduling, rescheduling and reminders is an absolute must. Apps like AppToto, Calendly, Picktime and Acuity work very well. You can simplify the booking process for clients, reduce email exchanges, and save time on appointment management.
AppToto is an automated appointment reminder solution that connects with existing calendars, extracts contacts, and sends reminders via text, email, or voice. It also allows you to sync multiple calendars which most booking apps don't offer.
Cost: Starts at US$19 per month
Calendly is a comprehensive appointment scheduling solution that offers a variety of features, including scheduling pages and group bookings, as well as upfront charging.
Cost: Free plan with limited features.
Picktime is another great option if you are on a budget. It has a generous free plan with multiple types of 'meetings' able to be set up.
Session Buddy: Quick App Reopening
Save time every day with productivity app Session Buddy. This is a Chrome plugin allows you to save and reopen all your essential tabs with a single click. This means you can open up your last session or saved tabs with one click to help you get up and running fast.
Cost: free
Password Vaults: 1password Bitwarden
The final productivity app suggestion is about not only enhancing security (a must) but helping you easily and quickly access the right password for the right app. Password vaults like 1Password, or Bitwarden allow you to easily create and record securely unique passwords to increase security on the internet and then auto-match with the right credentials as you pull up the logon page. These tools offer secure password management across devices, eliminating the need to remember numerous passwords.
Cost: all of the above have free plans.
In conclusion, integrating these productivity apps into your daily routine can transform the way you operate your small business. By saving time and improving efficiency, you can focus on what matters most—growing your business. If you're interested in other apps that use AI to bring efficiencies to your work, take a look at our list of vetted for small business AI tools.
Embrace the power of technology to work smarter, not harder.
