7 Must Have Apps or Platforms for Your Small Business (2024)

Effective marketing is essential, and Canva makes designing professional graphics straightforward. Whether you need social media posts, flyers, or presentations, it is an all-round superstar! With great options for both free and paid versions, there are not really any notable faults. Canva is a great resource to enforce branding and consistency for your business overall and additionally creates aesthetic potential on your social media.

Here at AUZi we are big fans of Canva Pro and we truly believe it is a worthwhile investment. Within the last month, Canva Create has released its latest update with more revolutionary features for Pro users! Despite the additional features that Pro presents, do what you believe is right for you and your business – the free version is still a great resource.

Another noteworthy organisational tool is Notion, similar in the way it follows the same premise of organising “everything that could matter.”

Hubspot is a platform for small business success, with tools and resources it is an all-in-one for marketing, sales and customer service. It offers advice, skills and resources for email marketing, social media management, lead tracking, and customer relationship management (CRM).

Hubspot is divided into 5 main modules

1. Service Hub
2. Marketing Hub
3. CMS (Customer Management System)
4. Sales Hub
5. Operations Hub

When looking at the website it may be confusing to navigate through paid options, however, there are great free resources available or you can upgrade to a paid subscription for individuals and small teams if you see advantageous for your business.

Square is perfect for businesses & market stall holders that need reliable point-of-sale (POS) solutions. Through Square Dashboard you can easily manage your business from anywhere, and monitor your business performance with live reporting.

Reach more customers with centralised data and insights, promote your business with email marketing and can track inventory through the connected website.

With sales analytics, inventory management and more Square allows optimised sales processes.And also has the ability of various website plug-ins such as Shopify.

The ATO app arguably is not the most exciting app on the list, but it truly has its benefits, useful in managing your tax and super. With features such as ‘tax withheld’ calculator and ABN lookup, staying informed and compliant is easier than ever.

The ‘myDeductions‘ tool lets you upload and organise receipts, making tax time an absolute breeze (cause we know how tedious it is). You can monitor and consolidate your super accounts, and it has been designed for small business owners including a business performance check and the ability to calculate fuel usage with Google Maps!!

Talk about free resources! What could be better than your city or state library?! They offer free access to a wide range of business information which is a goldmine for anyone wanting to plunge into small business or expand their knowledge. What’s even cooler is that you have options for in-person or online interactions (I know the title of this blog is Apps & Platforms) but it truly offers the best of both worlds; Online and Community, Local and State – you are spoilt for options. For example, AUZi is based on the Gold Coast, Queensland and we have access to multiple city libraries and the QLD state library resources.

Do you need to up-skill? Some libraries even provide access to online courses, workshops, networking events and more. It is a fantastic opportunity to tap into the free available and local support, tailored for your specific niche, offering advice and business development.

Libraries are truly more than just bookshelves!

Meta Business Suite centralises social media management. It allows users to manage multiple accounts simultaneously. Some of its most beneficial features are its social media insightsand content planning.

Plus, you can create and manage ads, keeping up to date on how the track and schedule future posts, all in one place.

Incorporating this platform into your posting rhythms will result in social media growth, as it is easy to track what’s working and what maybe isn’t, helping you to make smarter, statistical-driven decisions on how to reach your Avatar. Whether you are juggling to manage one page or multiple this tool makes social media management simple, keeping you on top of the game and focused on continual business growth!

These are only a few of the range of apps and platforms that help simplify your business processes.Was there anything else we missed that deserves a mention?