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5 Awesome iPad Apps for Small Businesses

Dina Spector Business Insider

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September 30, 2010

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FedEx Global Brand Management Director Monica Skipper shares a cost-effective way to build a bigger brand for your small business.

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“I have only used the WebEx app. But look ...”

AC Foster

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Apple’s latest addition to the “i” family, the iPad, is not just a fancy piece of hardware — it was built to transform small business into efficient mobile operations. Emerging from the growing tablet market standing just 9.7 inches tall and weighing in at 1.5 pounds, the iPad's size belies its incredible computing power.

Become a champion at work by following our picks of the top five iPad applications for small business owners.

What It is Good For: Task Management and Productivity

Price: $19.99

Application: Things for iPad

Things from Cultured Code is one of the more expensive applications in the iTunes store, but consider the return: a 24-hour on-call digital assistant that does pretty much everything you ask it to — no complaints, no questions asked. Thing's categories include Today, Next, Scheduled, Someday, Projects and Logbook. Check items off your list, organize your workload, and schedule meetings and appointments in one program.

What It's Good For: Business News

Price: Free

Application: Bloomberg for iPad

If you run your own small business, it is not a bad idea to keep up with of what is going on in the business industry. Bloomberg for iPad helps you stay on top of news, stocks, equity index futures, bonds, podcasts, and more from one of the world's leaders in finance.

What It's Good For: Spreadsheets

Price: $9.99

Application: Numbers

Eating lunch is more fun than crunching numbers in your office— leave this task to iPad's Numbers, an easy-to use spreadsheet application. In addition to a full virtual keyboard, Numbers provides 16 different spreadsheet templates, including Mortgage Calculator, Invoice, Employee Schedule, and Travel Planner. Each spreadsheet is edit and drag, drop, and resize images in. Numbers is simplistic without minimizing its capabilities — there are over 250 functions! We suggest you get cracking.

What It's Good For: Transcribing

Price: Free

Application: Dragon Dictation

The average person speaks 125-150 words per minute. The average workplace typist, on the other hand, reaches about 50 to 60 words per minute (slice that number in half for your typical Web surfer). Small business owners can increase work efficiency and avoid raw fingertips by downloading Dragon Dictation by Nuance Communications. The voice-recognition application allows users to transcribe their voice as an e-mail, text message, or document. Sounds pretty good, right?

What It's Good For: Web Conferencing

Price: Free

Application: WebEx

Everyone has those days when puffy slippers and last night's TV programming sound better than schlepping into work — whatever your reason for phoning it in, WebEx makes teleconferencing from your iPad easy. Simply invite others to participate over e-mail, IM, or text (they do not have to subscribe to WebEx) and have the ability to host online meetings, share presentations and documents, and brainstorm in real-time. The WebEx application also includes WebOffice, a program designed for small businesses that offers a group calendar, document organizer, and task manager.