14 Apps Every Entrepreneur Needs in 2014 For entrepreneurs to maintain their continuous juggling act, they are going to need a little assistance with multi-tasking. Here are 14 apps that will help you survive.
By Erica Bell and Katie Finnegan Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Entrepreneurs are known to be the masters of efficiency, right? The secret? We don't do it alone. Besides having an amazing team to support our endeavor, we also utilize cutting edge apps to keep us on our A-game. (When you're heads down building a business from scratch, your time is extremely valuable.) With that in mind, we've rounded up the top apps that will help any entrepreneur take 2014 by storm.
Faster is better.
In our app rundown, lets first focus on efficiency -- a necessity for the entrepreneur that is constantly juggling various tasks. The faster you can access information and execute, the faster you'll build your company.
1. TrackMaven: This app streamlines your ability to monitor data on your competition, without going through the hassle of consulting multiple sources. Filter the marketing activity you want alerts for and erase all the extra white noise.
2. EchoSign: There's no longer an excuse to delay the closing of a deal (You never know when Mark Zuckerberg will call with that $3 billion dollar bid.) This Adobe app allows you to electronically sign documents easily and securely. It also records and stores each document's history, so you have automatic audit trails -- saving you the time and trouble of backtracking in case the need arises.
3. Free Wifi Finder: A definite game-changing app for the entrepreneur and tech guru who needs to be plugged in 24/7. In the early stages of a startup, every situation and opportunity is high stakes and you can't afford to allow a poor Internet connection to get in the way of your company's success.
Related: 4 Hot Tech Startups to Watch in 2014
4. Uber: This app never lets us down. For any on-the-go entrepreneur, this service is essential to ensure you always have a way to get to that last minute meeting -- even when every cab in the city is full.
5. MobileDay: For those frequent occasions when you're too busy to be sitting in the office, use MobileDay to coordinate all of your in-person and conference call meetings. With this app, you can dial in automatically, email with participants and even get directions to your meeting place.
6. Skitch: Screenshots are second nature in the business world these days, but it's a tedious task to make notes directly on them. Enter Skitch. A product of the ever popular, Evernote, this desktop and mobile application allows you to get directly to the point through different annotations, shapes and sketches.
7. FedEx Office: This mobile app is one of the most helpful on-the-go apps for entrepreneurs. Easily send files, documents or photos through the app to your nearest FedEx location to be printed or made into a beautiful presentation. You can even upload files directly from Box, Google Drive and DropBox.
Related: Building a Productivity App? Learn These 5 Productivity Methods.
Get a Life.
Optimizing efficiency at work can be difficult enough but figuring out how to strike a work-life balance can be even harder. The good news? There's an app (or seven) for that.
8. Hukkster: Looking for work attire but need to spend less due to a limited budget? No time to browse the sale racks? Let our app Hukkster do the dirty work for you and track your most coveted products so you can easily get your hands on the items you want, the moment they go on sale.
9. Hinge: Single and no time to mingle? Hinge is a great app that allows you to scope out other single men and women in the area based on your personal network.
10. Power 20 Fitness Trainer: Sometimes it's hard to find the time to stay fit, yet exercise is essential to staying energized and focused. We love the Power 20 Fitness Trainer, an app that provides 20 minutes of body weight movements you can literally do anywhere -- in your apartment, a hotel room or even the office.
11. Venmo: is the perfect app for nights out with friends. Don't waste quality time doing math on the back of a napkin. Simply link Venmo to your bank account and then easily exchange cash virtually with friends anytime, anywhere.
Related: How to Fund a Startup When Your Bank Account Has Seen Headier Days
12. Mint: An entrepreneur probably knows a thing or two about managing finances, but it's always good to be able to easily access information about personal cash flow. Mint allows you to record expenses, create budgets and manage savings plans, all from your phone.
13. Pocket: As entrepreneurs, we're full of great ideas, so much so that they hit us when we least expect them. Enter Pocket, a phone-based bookmarking app which can save all types of content - anything from a lengthy article to a work report -- to all your electronic devices.
14. Unroll.me: There is nothing we hate more than a crowded email inbox. Thankfully, Unroll.me was created to fix that exact problem. Simply sign up with your email address and let Unroll.me find all of your subscriptions for you. Then easily scroll through and unsubscribe from the ones you'd rather never hear from again. You can also make sure the right emails break through all the noise.
Related: 3 Mobile Apps to Help You Make Good Habits -- Or Break Bad Ones
