Choosing Apps for Your Home Business

I’m having fun with a new toy these days, an iPad I won by making sales through a product I market as an affiliate. Had a good month with them and won an iPad. It’s my first time using something that runs apps. My cell phone is more basic, not smart. Obviously, the first thing that came to mind was “how can I use this for my business?”

I kid. The first thing to come to mind was “how much will I let the kids use this?” Next was deciding how many game apps to download for them. Angry Birds was a long promised first choice. What can I say? They’ve been hoping we’d get a smart phone or iPad one of these days.

But I have the iPad, obviously I want to take advantage of it for my home business. Checking out how my websites look on it is only a small part of the deal.

The hardest part for me is figuring out what I can do better on the iPad than on my laptop. The iPad is certainly smaller and lighter, and so better for going places. This means one thing I want to think about is what I’m going to do when I’m away from home. Apps that come to mind immediately include…

Facebook

I don’t market heavily on Facebook, but I’m definitely there. Being able to log on from whatever machine is nice, although in this case I have to be aware of when my husband has used his FB account.

Apps for other social networking sites are a good idea too, such as HootSuite, the LinkedIn app and so forth. Pick by what you use.

Mindmapping Apps

I’m still figuring out which I like, but one of my sisters recommended that I get a mindmapping app, as she says it’s one of the things that really hooked her on her iPad. Mindmapping is a great way to come up with ideas for your home business. Right now I’m trying out SimpleMind+.

Evernote

Evernote lets you take notes on things that matter to you. You can type them in, record your voice, note things on the internet, take photos… a nice variety of options. You can also sync your notes between devices.

Dragon Dictation

This was one of my early downloads, as I’d heard of it before. This is Dragon Naturally Speaking’s little cousin. Not quite as powerful, but still pretty good. Just talk; Dragon Dictation will type what you say, and allow you to send a text message, save it as a note, etc.

Dropbox

Need to access files on the go? Dropbox allows you to store files for use across devices. You start with 2 GB free, but of course you can buy more space or earn it through referrals.

Kindle App

If you like reading ebooks, the Kindle app is a good way to read Kindle ebooks you buy on Amazon. This is an easy way to read on the go.

Adobe Photoshop Express

Adobe Photoshop Express is a free little app with some basic Photoshop tools. You can buy better filters from within the app if you need better tools, but the free version will let you get started. That’s pretty nice if you take photos with your iPad and want to do some basic editing of them.

ColorBlast! Lite

ColorBlast! Lite is a fun little app. It makes your image black & white, then allows you to add color to just part of it. Not just the original color, but whatever color you choose. I can think of some fun ways to use this one.

I’m still learning a lot about what I can do with the iPad and what I want to do with it. It’s kind of an interesting learning curve since this was a prize won, not a planned purchase. Which makes me curious… what apps would you recommend I consider?