Dan Kranjcic is a newcomer to small business but he's already found his smartphone invaluable.
The former head chef at Cecconi's restaurant started his own catering business aimed at schools last year after securing a contract for Camberwell Girls Grammar School.
"Seeing what was on offer, I saw there was a real opportunity to raise the bar of what is being served to school students," Kranjcic says.
Kranjcic started Pinwheel & Co with an investment of $50,000 to purchase commercial kitchen equipment and stock.
He says setting up and running the business has been a steep learning curve but being able to use familiar technology has made life easier.
"It's a whole new set of skills running your own business," Kranjcic says. "I was used to working with an iPhone, so it's not like I had to learn new complex computer programs. I'm always on the go so now I can work on the go."
Free apps that Kranjcic uses include the Wordpress app for maintaining Pinwheel & Co's website, Instagram and Facebook for marketing the business on social media, TinyScanner for scanning receipts, MailChimp for sending out newsletters, and Asana for project management. Spotify is also essential for music in the kitchen.
"We have laptops but when it comes down to it we could run the business off a mobile phone if we wanted to," Kranjcic says.
So what are the most popular free apps to help your small business run on the run?
MySmallBusiness asked Apple and Google to provide a list of the most popular free-to-download apps for Australian small businesses. This list includes apps that are free but have in app purchases and is not listed in order.
1. Canva
An Australian graphic design and photo editing app that allows anyone to create beautiful designs, choosing from more than a million layouts, stock photographs and illustrations and using simple drag and drop tools.
I'm always on the go so now I can work on the go.
Daniel Kranjcic
2. Evernote
Keep everything together with Evernote. You can create notes and to-do lists, save voice memos, save photos, scan documents and sketches and share it all with co-workers and friends.
3. Invoice2Go
Makes it easy for small businesses to create professional invoices and quotes from anywhere. Works with 3D Touch on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to allow you to create invoices even faster. You can also send invoices straight from your Apple Watch after clocking in and out of a job.
4. Genius Scan
Use your smartphone as a scanner in your pocket to scan receipts and documents on the go and export them to PDF files.
5. Deputy
This staff management app lets you communicate with your team, swap shifts with your colleagues and lets managers schedule staff, approve timesheet and find replacements, directly from your smartphone.
6. Weebly
Makes website creation easy, simply drag and drop images, logos, and maps into beautiful templates, then add your text. Publish your new website quickly and easily, right from your tablet.
7. Makr
This app makes designing and printing custom creations easy, fast and fun. Build your brand with Makr, customising your logo, then printing paper goods for your business, including business cards, stickers, labels, postcards and stationery.
8. Quickbooks
This app offers small business cloud accounting to allow you to access your accounts from your smartphone and tablet. Using QuickBooks you can invoice your clients and get paid from anywhere including creating invoices and estimates, seeing overdue invoice notifications to see who owes you money and doing businesses in multiple currencies.
Learn how to start or grow your business by participating in online events. The GoToWebinar app lets you see and hear webinars and take part in them as well. You can listen in, ask questions and take part in polls.
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