We’d all love to have a PA. Someone who could take over the mundane, time-consuming, yet unavoidable tasks necessary in running a modern business. Imagine how much time this would free up to focus on the most important thing – growing your company.

Unfortunately, the reality is that not many of us can afford this luxury.  

Thankfully, tech is here to help. There are a number of fantastic apps that can turn your phone into a pocket-dwelling personal assistant. Win back your vital time with a few of these apps. 

WeQ4U

Dealing with customer service teams is a necessary evil when running a business. Not only are you forced to listen to the mind-numbingly repetitive ‘on hold soundtrack’, but waiting on hold for what can feel like days is a huge waste of your valuable time.

The good news is that you can outsource this time drain. WeQ4U does just what it says on the tin; they queue for you and ring you when you’re off hold, allowing you to spend your time on the things that really matter for your business.

Available to download for free on iOS and Android.

Doodle

Organising a meeting or catch up can be stressful. Trying to find a date everyone is free is a painstaking process – so much time is wasted in the endless and unproductive back and forth of WhatsApp or email chains. Perhaps the meeting you’re trying to organise is with potential investors or new business opportunities; this precious time could be much better used for vital pre-meeting preparation.

Doodle helps you reclaim this time. Easily create polls by suggesting possible dates and places, let others vote, and Doodle will do the rest, selecting the time and place that works for everyone.

Available to download for free on iOS and Android.

ToDoist

Entrepreneurs have to juggle a lot of tasks – because of this, it’s easy for the less urgent ones to get pushed back, and eventually forgotten. This becomes even more of a problem when working in teams – it’s tough to track the progress of a project, not to mention time-consuming as multiple catch ups are required.

ToDoist allows you to create personal and shared task lists, set priorities, track everyone’s progress, and receive notifications when each task is complete. To make sure that each person is pulling their weight, you can assign specific tasks to individuals. Whether you’re working on your own or as part of a team, ToDoist gives you the peace of mind and frees up your time.

Available to download for free on iOS and Android.

Harvest  

Although being a business owner is exciting, it doesn’t mean you get to sidestep the dull, mundane, yet necessary tasks that most of us are guilty of trying to avoid. A great example of this is timesheets. No one likes doing timesheets.

Harvest lets you manage timesheets with quick to use drop down options. It also helps you auto-submit invoices and log expenses through one straightforward and user-friendly platform and even has a handy app for posting on the go.

Available to download for free on iOS and Android.

CityMapper

Whether it’s for meeting new business prospects, clients or attending an industry event, owning a small business comes with a lot of travelling. Planning your routes across big cities while trying to get your head around confusing timetables and tube maps can cost you a lot of time. This is especially true when there are unexpected delays or cancellations which only compound your problems as you try to figure out how and if you’re actually going to get there on time!

Thankfully, CityMapper will do everything for you in a matter of seconds. It shows you the quickest route and a number of alternatives, will reroute for you if a train is cancelled, shows how much it’ll cost you and for the fitness gurus amongst us – how many calories you’ll burn in the process.

Available to download for free on iOS and Android.

See also: 10 free apps every entrepreneur needs