12 Apps to Scale Up Your Business in the New Year

Thinking big, acting bold, establishing key networks and dynamic relationships and evaluating your financing options for the purpose of expanding are a few of the “hands-on” methods for scaling up a business in 2015. Since it is the season to reflect on the past and get ready to move forward into the New Year, I wanted to give a gift to my followers. Here are 12 apps that I find essential to helping others ScaleUp. Some of these apps have costs involved, but I find they are worth it for the benefits they provide. I’ve put links here, although many of these are better found in the app store for your mobile device. A more effective and less messy gift than a partridge in a pear tree!

1. Asana

For keeping your tasks organized when working on projects with multiple individuals, Asana is a great tool that also provides updates from group project members and captures all project activity in one place. Also, Asana was developed by some really smart guys who helped build Facebook, so it’s gotta be good.

2. Blinklist

Think of Blinklist as a kind of Cliff’s Notes for the mobile age. The Blinklist app provides snippets of knowledge from excellent nonfiction works that you can read in two minutes or less. Each book on Blinklist is composed of eight blinks so you can actually “read” a book in 15 minutes.

3. Buffer

Manage multiple social media accounts simultaneously with Buffer by consistently streaming curated content meant to establish your brand. You can also collaborate with others and analyze metrics that describe how your posts are performing.

4. Foreflight

Stuck at an airport due to weather issues? Access Foreflight on your smartphone and view all flight-related weather information as well as the weather forecast so you know how long you’ll be grounded.

5. Flightaware

Get all your flight details, inbound ETA and when flight plans have been filed so you know if your plane will load soon. The Flightaware app also gives you interactive maps, airport diagrams and flight status alerts.

6. Mailbox

Mailbox is a superior, one-of-a-kind tool for prioritizing Apple Mail App vs. inbox. Features of Mailbox include a “remind me later”, a “put it on a list”, archives, trash, spam and enhanced security supported by OAuth.

7. Pulse

Pulse keeps you current on all the news by providing easy-to-read news bytes concerning information that really matters. If you want more details, Pulse is ready to take you to the complete source article. You can also personalize feeds by choosing from many different sources, such as LinkIn Influencers to see what is trending all over the world.

8. RideScout

When you are traveling, you want to know the best, most reliable ground transportation solution based on your destination, especially in unfamiliar locations. RideScout is the perfect app to give you all the essential options–public transportation, taxis, car services, rideshare and even walking options. So get from point A to point B as quickly and safely as possible with RideScout.

9. Sunrise

The Sunrise app is a robust, versatile calendar system that provides the use of multiple Google calendars with ties to social media sites. For example, before attending a meeting, you can check Sunrise to review the Twitter or LinkinIn profiles of those who might be at the meeting. Great for scaling up a business in 2015!

10. Wickr

Do you worry about the NSA tracking your every move on the Internet? With Wickr, you can virtually eliminate your cyber-presence by sending and receiving top-secret videos, messages, documents and pictures. Wickr also lets you erase deleted files from your device and choose a specific time for your media or messages to expire.

11. Wiredoc

Wiredoc is a secure document delivery system ideal for any business that regularly sends or receives confidential documents. Wiredoc also protects information from being hacked by encrypting data before it leaves your smartphone or PC.

12. Yesware

Anonymously track sent emails and find out who opened them and who replied to your emails. Yesware also has a “Secret Squirrel” tool that prevents others from knowing you are tracking your email activity and is a great way to encourage customer engagement. Other features include send later, email templates, click-to-call and mail merge.

And there you have it! Wishing you and your loved ones a peaceful and Happy New Year. I look forward to sharing more with you in 2015! May we all Scale Up to new heights in the coming year!

About Jonathan
Jonathan B. Smith is an entrepreneur, Scale Up Expert, High Growth Business Strategist, Speaker, and Certified EOS Implementer. He is a former Inc. 500 COO who scaled a business from $500K t0 $15 million in five years. Founder of ChiefOptimizer, Jonathan works with entrepreneurs who have “hit the ceiling” and need help in scaling up their businesses. He can be reached on Twitter or LinkedIn anytime.