For small business owners, efficiency and cost are key attributes of the applications chosen to run their organization. Recently, Mavenlink revealed an infographic that highlights the preferred applications of small business owners and the trends on the horizon.
The first portion of the infographic focuses on the most popular apps being used for everything from email, customer relationship management, and social media, to the finance and payment processing. With the small business owners being strapped for time and manpower, there is no surprise that most of the popular applications they use are simple to deploy, easy to manage and are cost effective.
Google Apps takes the front runner position for office email, Salesforce for CRM, Paypal for payment processing, Quickbooks for accounting/billing, and Facebook/Hootsuite tied for social media management.
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The trends portion below reveals that small businesses are quickly adopting cloud and mobile apps. According to the highlighted AT&T survey, 30% of small businesses use mobile apps for their business while 50% say they can’t survive without them- which overall is 31% higher than last year.
One of the most interesting results of his infographic shows that education is the leading industry in adopting mobile apps.
Summarizing the results and trends, it is all consistent with the “profile of the small business owner” and their need/desire for scalable solutions that provide efficiency and mobile options with a low cost. Every business needs tools that will empower them to grow. However, small businesses have a greater need for applications that will provide an “all-in-one” option to simplify their day to day operations so they can focus on marketing and promoting their business, as well as ensuring optimal customer satisfaction.