What to look for in apps for small business owners.

When you run a small business, you need to be fast, agile and flexible. See how the right apps can help you do it.

A business owner leaning on a counter while holding a tablet device

The perks of being a small business.

It can be a challenge to run a small business, but small firms and startups have an important advantage over more established organisations. Large and long-standing businesses usually have to contend with older systems that don’t keep up with current technology or business practices.

Small businesses can streamline from the start and keep their technology, team members and desktop and mobile apps up to date. Startups and small firms can approach tasks with a spirit of adventure and gusto, whether it’s time to put a team together or create online forms.

Mobile, agile and on-the-go business apps.

If you’re a small business owner, you wear a lot of hats. A small business owner might routinely leave the office or shop front to meet with contractors, customers or potential partners. However, you still need to be available. Flexible managers need to jump into action, even if all they have is an iPhone or tablet.

A business owner checking their phone in their establishment

Small businesses (and their owners) are everywhere, so their apps need to be as well. The apps you rely on need to move with you and they need to work on desktops, iOS or Android smartphones and tablets or iPads. Leaving work to attend a meeting shouldn’t interrupt workflow. Everything you use should be purpose-built for mobile devices, capable of working in the cloud and staying up to date in real time.

How Acrobat fills small business needs.

Small business owners and managers need to stay in touch, stay organised and stay secure. Acrobat helps them do all three, with functionality and features created for an agile entrepreneur.

Communication

Managers need to be available throughout the workday for their team and every business relies on forums that foster collaboration. Acrobat is as much about communication as it is about documents. Multiple users can leave comments, track feedback and note changes right in a document.

Collaboration makes every team project easier and it isn’t limited to just who’s in your organisation. You can also bring in contractors, freelancers, business partners, vendors or other parties who need to collaborate on a document and know your work is secure.

Management

A big part of project management is keeping everyone on a team on the same page. Logistics, scheduling, time tracking and staying on top of important documents gets complex fast. Even small teams need to keep everything organised so they don’t miss due dates. Everything needs to be categorised and searchable and the best apps let you categorise documents in multiple ways.

Adobe Document Cloud shops and organises essential small business files. Create folders and systems for projects, departments or employees and quickly find anything you need by searching based on file name and filtering by date modified or file size.

A graphic of adding a password to a document on a mobile phone and laptop computer

Bookkeeping and security

Financial matters can take up an immense amount of a business owner’s time. And any records that reference cash flow, monthly fees, pricing, an accounting app or payment apps must be safe and secure. That’s even more true for particularly sensitive information, like W-9 tax forms.

With Acrobat, you can protect sensitive information like bank accounts and credit card payments in a variety of ways — and protecting documents with passwords is only the beginning.

Acrobat empowers small business owners with customisable security features to protect their private financial information and records. You can restrict printing, editing and copying access for important documents, redact sensitive documents such as expense reports or revenue statements and make sure that people who need to view your financial documents don’t see more than you want them to.

Speed up student success with digital transformation.

California State University, Fullerton, has been teaching students about technology since 1957. Unfortunately, many of the documents that the school relied on were not high tech and the school still relied on paper documents and physical signatures.

By adopting e-signatures powered by Adobe Acrobat, CSU Fullerton was able to reduce paper usage by 50%, increase efficiency and support their students, even in the grip of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Make Adobe Acrobat a partner in your small business.

A daily task for small business owners is to create, edit, share and manage documents. Those tasks need to flow as smoothly as possible to reduce friction, save time and let you focus on what truly matters to your business, rather than wrangle problems with software or tech.

Acrobat is the smooth, multi-device document app that’s as nimble as you are and that’s ready to handle just as many essential tasks.

Explore Acrobat’s capabilities