I’m a parent and an entrepreneur, so I get a kick out of occasions that recognize either of those two characteristics. That’s why I’m chiming in for Parents’ Day, held annually on the fourth Sunday of July.
Being a parent may not be the easiest thing ever but it is the most rewarding. Seeing your kids grow up to be responsible individuals brings a glowing pride to a parent’s heart. Taking on being a parent while running a business is asking for trouble, but it’s a challenge that lights a fire in entrepreneurs. I did it, and so can you. Here are three apps that I use for productivity to balance successful entrepreneur ventures without taking away from my family’s time with me as a daddy and husband.
1. Sendible
For parents, social media can be an outlet about the day ahead or the day that just ended. It can also act as a journal. When you’re an entrepreneur, social media can be a journal of sorts, too. You can talk about the day’s tasks ahead or engage customers. When it’s hard enough to manage a few personal social media outlets, how do you manage a bunch of social media channels for business, too? Sendible.
Sendible is a powerful, cloud-based social media management software. With app or web-based access you can post, tweet, or pin just about anything. Best of all, you can schedule it to do it for you. Sendible has intelligent solutions that help you tailor your social media profiles to act like you when you don’t have time to post on your own. Set rules to automatically like certain types of people or posts. Set keywords to trigger Twitter to follow someone if they mention a specified word or phrase. Schedule your week’s posts ahead of time so it looks like you are constantly engaging your audience when really you’re cleaning up spit-up off your shoulder.
Sendible is the ultimate social media management platform. Yes, it is like Hootsuite. Yes, I have tried Hootsuite. Yes, I like Sendible better. Much, much better.
2. Dropbox
I love pics of my kids. I also love sending and receiving large files for work. Dropbox lets me do both and do it well.
My kids and my wife mean everything to me. That means my memories that I share with them, pictures and video, are worth a lot to me, too. With a few taps on my phone, I can make sure that all my pics get backed up to Dropbox. It’s nice to know that if I get busy and can’t manually download and backup the pics off my phone for a month or two that they’re safely backed up in Dropbox.
Work-wise, I don’t have time to wait forever for large files to download for me to view. My customers don’t have time either. I use Dropbox to share files on a daily basis. If I have a large file that I need to send to a web design customer, I drop it in Dropbox and send a shared link. No need to wait forever to attach and send an email and no need for an even longer wait on the receiving end.
3. Doodle
I’m new to Doodle, but it is long overdue. I’ve long needed a scheduling app. With everyone’s busy schedules these days it seems like you need meetings to schedule meetings about meetings. You send a meeting invite to four people. The proposed time works for two of them and not for the other two. They send an alternate meeting time, which works for everyone but you. So repeats the cycle. Not with Doodle.
Doodle is an online scheduler that lets you sync your calendars to it. Send your fellow meeting attendees a link to your Doodle calendar and they’ll be able to see your availability without seeing the personal details of your other obligations. By letting others pick a time around your already-visible schedule, you’re able to skip the time-wasting back-and-forth of scheduling meetings and stick to what’s important, family and productivity.
