Home-based businesses offer low overhead and the opportunity to work in your pajamas, among other benefits. It is important for businesses from home to manage their resources effectively and to ensure high productivity at all times. A great and handy tool for maximizing productivity and utilizing resources to a great extent is your smartphone and the use of e-tools.

Mobile apps can in turn boost your small business productivity and increase efficiency as well. Businesses from the comfort of your own home will not only cut manpower and travelling costs but also unnecessary spending on hiring other people to do certain tasks for you! It can be done with the use of productivity apps, software and interacting with other individuals online! Excellent communication is also key when handling clients and working with other businesses.

What are some of the useful e-tools and productivity apps that can be utilized to ensure a smooth running and the efficient operating of your business on a day-to-day basis?

The use of Skype in small home businesses will allow home owners and their clients to communicate online whenever necessary without the urgent need to physically meet; especially if time, convenience and location poses as an issue. This is apparently beneficial for frequent travelers or those wishing to communicate with business partners and clients. This saves on long distant phone charges and a method of free communication both for personal and business uses.

The video conferencing function allows up to 3-10 participants and is useful for having multiple individuals sit in on a seminar or product launch.

The use of Screen Share, on the other hand, facilitates real time presentations, meetings, tutorials and distant learning.

Dropbox is somewhat popular among mobile app consumers for its ability to share documents, files and photos seamlessly both from the mobile folder and desktop. It has provided countless benefits to business owners through its file-sharing software. It allows users and businesses to easily sync important items to all devices and access them conveniently with the installation of the app. Collaboration is made easy and intended members are able to access links and folders shared.

Nozbe is a task management app with a simple user interface that really stands out. Nozbe tracks the work that you’ve delegated to others, including what you’ve assigned to yourself as well. Email is used in order to add tasks to it. Another factor that really makes it stand out among other task management apps is its ability to integrate with Dropbox.

One way for small home businesses to keep check of their business cheques and ensuring if it has been approved and cleared by the bank is with Mint. Mint collects your financial data, all in one place. Keep an eye on your savings and investment accounts whenever you want, and also track business spending on a day to day basis.

It is a highly efficient financial tracker, however, the only thing Mint is unable to do is transferring funds to another account, which alternatively, can be done with iBanking.

Timeful is a smart calendar app that is merged with a to-do list. The app’s algorithm understands how you get stuff done and cleverly suggests ways of taking a fresh approach to getting things done, all at your own convenience and your own terms. This would be helpful in the running of small home businesses as it monitors your tasks and improves the way it is being done, making work constructive and productive at the same time.