The ten best apps for auto entrepreneurs in 2018
Have you recently set up your own business as an auto-entrepreneur, or are you thinking of doing so? What applications can help you professionalize your business and get it off the ground? We've selected ten tools for you, along with all our tips and advice on business IT tools.
CONTENTS
You're a self-employed entrepreneur. How do you get your business off to a flying start?
Step by step, for a smooth start-up...
Your needs
Whatever your status and tax regime, whether you've opted for a micro-enterprise or a sole proprietorship, as a self-employed worker you have needs. Because being self-employed means... managing everything! And with the best will in the world, even if you're a jack-of-all-trades, without a minimum of organization it's impossible.
Getting started
To begin with, you contact the CFE (Centre de Formalités des Entreprises) to which your business belongs. Register your company. You receive your K-bis extract and NAF (Nomenclature des Activités Françaises) code from INSEE (Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques). That's it: your company is created.
Getting started
Now you just have to get started. Priority: intensive prospecting and canvassing. Then it's time to produce. This is when the emphasis on sales often disappears. The auto-entrepreneur becomes absorbed in satisfying existing customers. Then there are the few support functions to manage. And you're quickly overwhelmed.
Ten applications for entrepreneurs
Identify your time-consuming tasks. And quickly equip yourself with tools to take the pressure off.
Pipedrive for salespeople
To keep your prospecting going, you need a structuring tool. The challenge is to generate leads (sales contacts) over time. To avoid bottlenecks on the production side, you need to feed your business pipeline with different degrees of maturity. For real-time visibility and sales follow-up, you need a high-performance CRM (Customer Relationship Management) such as Pipedrive.
Sarbacane for your mailings
While there are many different ways of making your presence felt, emailing remains a classic. As soon as your contact base becomes interesting, boost your marketing actions. Address them to :
- Former customers,
- current customers
- potential prospects
- your ambassadors,
- partners.
Keep them up to date. The newsletter is an opportunity to talk about your successes, developments and news relating to your sector. To send it out and measure its impact, use a tool like Sarbacane Desktop. You'll be able to track the performance of your mailing, its open and click-through rates, and adjust your strategy accordingly.
iPaidThat to manage your accounting
iPaidThat automates part of your accounting, thanks in particular to artificial intelligence. The application centralizes your accounting documents for efficient accounting follow-up. It automatically retrieves your invoices from your mailbox and extracts the information you need for your accounting. You also have access to a mobile application to manage your expense reports much more easily. Finally, synchronization with your bank account gives you real-time visibility of your cash flow. In short, iPaidThat simplifies your accounting and saves you time!
Factomos for invoicing
As a micro-business, you don't need to open a business account at the bank. A simple personal account is all you need, as long as it's dedicated to your business. As a sole proprietorship, however, you do. In all cases, you'll need to issue invoices. To do this, and to structure at least your incoming and outgoing flows, you'll need invoicing software such as Factomos.
Trello for organization
The day-to-day life of a micro-entrepreneur involves juggling a thousand tasks. You're not invincible: you may forget a deadline, or not manage everything on time. You might as well anticipate them and get organized. The Trello task manager lets you manage all your to-do lists by setting reminders: ideal for making sure you don't forget a thing.
appear.in for your conf calls
Likewise, you can't be everywhere. Fortunately, there are solutions for exchanging information at a distance. For an appointment or a work session, conference calls are useful. Without having to install any software beforehand, with appear.in you can launch a multiparty conversation by simply clicking on a link.
WeSend for your large files
The weight of documents to be transmitted is often a problem. The maximum size of attachments is quickly reached on mail servers. You need a tool. WeSend makes it easy to send large files: a fast, efficient solution.
RG Backup for your data
You're starting out "with what you've got" in "system D". Realize how important your data and tools are to your business. What would happen if they were to disappear due to material damage or hacking? Back them up with a dedicated tool. That's what RG Backup is for.
Netvibes for your monitoring
Even though you have your hands full, you still need to keep up to date: on the market, your competitors, your customers and partners... But how can you stay on top of things without it taking up too much time? A highly visual tool like Netvibes lets you receive and structure information, so that it's always in the background.
Webikeo for training
Get your business off the ground!
A well-equipped auto-entrepreneur is a more efficient entrepreneur. But what's sorely lacking when starting up a business is time. Optimize yours by relying on high-performance tools that add value to your business.
Article translated from French