Just over a year ago, when I decided to start my own company, I knew that I would need some good tools to keep me organized and professional.
The nature of my work takes me on the road a lot, so over time I have developed a pretty good toolkit of iPhone apps, gadgets, software etc. to keep me on track and productive. I thought that I would share some of my favourite apps with you, in case you find them handy as well!
COMMUNICATIONS
Facebook & Instagram: I like to stay connected to my family even when I'm far away from home, so I love taking pictures of my travels and sharing them via social media.
Twitter: I really love how Twitter can be such a handy networking tool at conferences, where you can follow the conference hashtag and see what other people are saying. At last year's FCM conference in Vancouver, there was a pretty rousing conversation about community engagement that happened via Twitter.
Weebly: Obviously, this is a handy one to keep this website updated. I appreciate that the app lets me write blog posts and check on my site stats.
TRAVEL
Kayak: A lot of my trips require multiple flights, car rentals, and various hotels. I LOVE the Kayak app on my phone, which helps me figure out where I'm going and how I'm getting there! I just email my booking confirmation emails to trips@kayak.com (which is set up to recognize my email address) and then it organizes everything neatly for me, in chronological order!
Yelp!: I hate ending up in a new city and not knowing where to find a great meal, or drugstore. I totally rely on Yelp! (particularly the "search nearby" function) to point me in the direction of local amenities (it even shows me what places are open, and their location on a map) and restaurants are rated by other Yelp! users.
BOOKKEEPING & INVOICING
FreshBooks: Keeping track of hours for various clients, expenses on the road, invoices that I've submitted, etc. can get pretty complicated. I've seen some super impressive spreadsheets, but for me, a program called Freshbooks has been a lifesaver. It's got a great web interface and iPhone app (which lets me take photos of receipts to accompany expense claims!) and is overall very user friendly. It even exports all of your information to an excel file, which is a time saver now that it's tax time! There's a free version, if you only have a couple of clients, but I've upgraded to the paid version and it's worth every penny.
CIBC: I'm excited that this app now lets me deposit cheques with my camera phone! A lot of banks are now offering this feature. Online banking on my phone means I never miss payments, even if I'm stuck in an airport in Winnipeg.
TurboScan: There are a lot of different document scanning apps out there, but this is a simple-to-use and reliable one that I use to scan receipts for travel claims.
MISCELLANEOUS
Onavo Extend: This is a handy (and free!) little app that compresses incoming and outgoing data so that I don't go over my limit, no matter how many hours I spend on Pinterest.
CardMunch: This app scans business cards, and then takes it one step further by finding that person in LinkedIn and showing their profile. Super handy for conferences and other networking events.
Google Drive: Handy for sharing files with clients - I like to set up a folder for each community that I'm working with , and google drive is nice because files are editable online. I also like to keep copies of files I want access to even when I don't have cell service, like current knitting patterns for plane rides.
So, do you have any favourite apps that help you stay organized?
-JH
The nature of my work takes me on the road a lot, so over time I have developed a pretty good toolkit of iPhone apps, gadgets, software etc. to keep me on track and productive. I thought that I would share some of my favourite apps with you, in case you find them handy as well!
COMMUNICATIONS
Facebook & Instagram: I like to stay connected to my family even when I'm far away from home, so I love taking pictures of my travels and sharing them via social media.
Twitter: I really love how Twitter can be such a handy networking tool at conferences, where you can follow the conference hashtag and see what other people are saying. At last year's FCM conference in Vancouver, there was a pretty rousing conversation about community engagement that happened via Twitter.
Weebly: Obviously, this is a handy one to keep this website updated. I appreciate that the app lets me write blog posts and check on my site stats.
TRAVEL
Kayak: A lot of my trips require multiple flights, car rentals, and various hotels. I LOVE the Kayak app on my phone, which helps me figure out where I'm going and how I'm getting there! I just email my booking confirmation emails to trips@kayak.com (which is set up to recognize my email address) and then it organizes everything neatly for me, in chronological order!
Yelp!: I hate ending up in a new city and not knowing where to find a great meal, or drugstore. I totally rely on Yelp! (particularly the "search nearby" function) to point me in the direction of local amenities (it even shows me what places are open, and their location on a map) and restaurants are rated by other Yelp! users.
BOOKKEEPING & INVOICING
FreshBooks: Keeping track of hours for various clients, expenses on the road, invoices that I've submitted, etc. can get pretty complicated. I've seen some super impressive spreadsheets, but for me, a program called Freshbooks has been a lifesaver. It's got a great web interface and iPhone app (which lets me take photos of receipts to accompany expense claims!) and is overall very user friendly. It even exports all of your information to an excel file, which is a time saver now that it's tax time! There's a free version, if you only have a couple of clients, but I've upgraded to the paid version and it's worth every penny.
CIBC: I'm excited that this app now lets me deposit cheques with my camera phone! A lot of banks are now offering this feature. Online banking on my phone means I never miss payments, even if I'm stuck in an airport in Winnipeg.
TurboScan: There are a lot of different document scanning apps out there, but this is a simple-to-use and reliable one that I use to scan receipts for travel claims.
MISCELLANEOUS
Onavo Extend: This is a handy (and free!) little app that compresses incoming and outgoing data so that I don't go over my limit, no matter how many hours I spend on Pinterest.
CardMunch: This app scans business cards, and then takes it one step further by finding that person in LinkedIn and showing their profile. Super handy for conferences and other networking events.
Google Drive: Handy for sharing files with clients - I like to set up a folder for each community that I'm working with , and google drive is nice because files are editable online. I also like to keep copies of files I want access to even when I don't have cell service, like current knitting patterns for plane rides.
So, do you have any favourite apps that help you stay organized?
-JH
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