January blues are nowhere to be seen here. The start of the year is always the perfect time for us to regroup and set aside our goals and achievements for the year. Running a business means you're always putting on many different 'hats' from 'accountant' to 'marketer' which can be a difficult task to manage. Fortunately, due to the constant enhancements in technology, there are many helping hands right at your finger tips to help smoothen your journey.
Whilst there's many apps available to help with the productivity of our business, there are also many which will ensure you're achieving that all important work-life balance and can help you to switch off when you aren't in work mode, getting that all important self-care that we all crave.
We believe in having the right balance and we offer our some recommendations that will help you kickstart 2020 with whatever you want to achieve!
Buddhify If you are like us and always on the go, you may struggle to find that calming half hour to take some time out or just have a moment to yourself. Mindfulness and meditation can be a great way to switch off the mind but dedicating the free time isn't always easy. Buddhify is a great app which allows you to take those all important moments to yourself when ever you may need it. It separates the mediations based on what you are doing or what you want to achieve. Select from the wheel where you need a 'work break' or 'can't sleep', you'll then be offered a choice of meditations that can range from as little as 4 minutes up to 15. We'd highly recommend this app for those who are new to mediation or are short on time.
For those using Instagram for business, you may already be singing the praises of this beneficial app and if not, we can enlighten you on how it has changed the way we 'do Instagram.' As a visually led business, ensuring our grid is as aesthetically pleasing as possible is a high priority of ours and there is a significant amount of work which goes into achieving this. Plann allows us to easily see our grid in place before posting to ensure all the images compliment each other and offer a coherent visual that is strongly representing our brand image and values. To build a brand online it's important to follow these disciplines when posting on Instagram and we put a lot of effort into curating our shots as collections and have a base of set colours we will follow. Plann allows us to easily chop and change images when they aren't working and offers that extra bit of organisation that is needed when it comes to our schedules. We can set out copy for the captions and hashtags and simply post direct from here to our Instagram account.
Spotify isn't exactly a new app to indulge in, but due to it's constant investment in development the popular music streaming service, it offers an array of features that can help give you that all important switch off from a busy lifestyle, or give you that morning boost you might sometimes need. Having tried Apple Music, Spotify is waves above in terms of its algorithms and offers a far better user experience. We love to discover new music and when we're working late in the shop or early in the morning, it's very often our music (and coffee!) which will help to keep us going. It allows you to select your mood or activity and will suggest playlists for you, leaving you to just sit back and listen. We'd love to know if you have any recommended playlist we can try?
VSCO brands itself as being "for creators, by creators;" it's an amazing photography app we've been using for a while now. With Apple constantly developing the spec of their iPhones, their cameras are fast becoming an important tool for the small business owner, allowing us to be able to market our business in an affordable and simple way. We regularly take images with our iPhones and this photography editing app gives those images just that little bit of life they sometimes need. With a number of presets already available and new ones constantly being developed it offers a simple solution to photo editing direct from your mobile. It allows you to simply copy and paste particular edits which have been used across to other photos and create collections.
Pocket Pocket is a handy app which allows you to save things you want to view later. We probably know too well that occurrence when something grabs your attention on-screen during your scroll but you just don't have the time to read or view it in that moment. We're always looking to absorb new information and Pocket allows us to immerse ourselves in great content, anywhere, and at a time that suits us. Save articles, videos and stories from any publication, page or app. Curate your own space filled with everything you can’t wait to learn.
