Sean Lund-Brown

Struggling to balance work, client invoicing, and your personal life? You’re not alone. Freelancers and contractors around the world face the same battle. The good news is that automation can help. Advanced apps designed for contractors and freelancers can help you invoice clients faster and more accurately, so you can get paid with less effort. We’ll walk you through the top-rated invoicing apps and help you understand the lay of the land.

With access to the right data, even small businesses can compete on a global level. However, getting the information necessary to make informed decisions has been traditionally problematic. Form builder apps let SMBs create compelling forms that entice customers to share important data quickly and easily. These apps can even integrate the resulting data into your CRM, providing a seamless experience and direct access to organized information for your decision-making process. Which form builder apps should you consider? We’ve created a list of the best options for small businesses on a budget.

Today, almost no one is a stranger to working remotely. Thanks to the pandemic, industries and companies that never anticipated such a switch have now experienced remote work at, least temporarily. The market is ripe with opportunities in the form of apps that are looking to help make remote work easier, more efficient, and more agile than ever before.

Even a single year ago, the remote work tools that we had were starting to improve, but there was still plenty of room for innovation and advancement. The basic whiteboard, a simple staple, has taken quite a leap into the digital space and there are plenty of tools waiting to help you pair the conveniences of technology with the benefit of visual collaboration, training, and brainstorming. We’ll go over the details of the best whiteboard apps for small business below to help you narrow your options.

As a new or growing business, you never want to miss out on the opportunity to gain a new lead or potential client. However, you also have to remember to take time away from work. The leads and possible clients that are trying to reach you don’t have any kind of a relationship with you…yet. Without clarity, you can find yourself picking up the phone and responding to messages all night and weekend long, and after a while, your customers will expect it from you.

In the early days of social media, it was often frowned upon for businesses to attempt to communicate with customers or market their brands through the platforms. However, as time has passed and social media has evolved, it has now become more of a multifaceted hub where everyone can connect—people, businesses, colleagues, organizations, groups, and most recently, even kids, thanks to Facebook’s upgrades for family-friendly messaging. What was once a major faux pas is now the very thing that is stumping many brands and keeping them from moving forward effectively.

Keeping track of video calls and virtual meetings is easier if you know how to record on Zoom, Teams, Skype, Hangouts, and other IOS and android apps. Click here to learn more.

Thanks to AI and software platforms, along with outsourced virtual services, contact centers, and customer communication are easier and more efficient than ever before. An answering service is a third-party or AI-powered (automated) phone service that provides your clients or customers with a place to go when they have concerns, questions, or needs outside of normal business hours. However, to make the most of this new technology, you’ve got to understand what it is and what it offers, as well as which elements will benefit your business.

In the call center and customer service world, there are two types of transfers that take place when an agent can no longer serve a customer and needs to send them on to the next person in line. The blind, or cold, transfer is when an agent simply transfers the call without speaking to anyone on the other end of the line. A warm transfer means a conversation takes place first. A warm transfer is often more helpful because it allows agents to have a conversation before transferring the caller. This means you can share valuable information about the caller’s needs, including the background, what solutions or issues have been discussed already, and why you are reaching out for further assistance. This article will help further explain the benefits of a warm transfer and its uses with virtual receptionists.

Universities and colleges focus on providing students with knowledge — surfacing information that helps them learn, grow, and develop. However, that process does not stop at the classroom door. The right university call center can help connect students, parents, alumni, faculty, and others with the information they need quickly and easily. Of course, staffing your own call center can be immensely challenging. It can be a challenging proposition, certainly. However, with a little guidance, it doesn’t have to be as frustrating as it might seem at first glance.