Five Apps that will change how you do business

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Recently I finally upgraded my phone. It was really sad how slow my “old” Droid X was acting. If dog years are 7:1 with us, where dogs dies 7x sooner than us, I would say that cell phone are probably on a 30:1 scale. My Droid was the equivalent of being 90-100 years old, in cell phone years, it was 3+ years old gosh darn it!

So I upgraded to the iPhone. We’ve been a Mac family for a while, except the phone. So I started checking out some apps. I’ve been interested in app development for a while and maybe someday I’ll design one. But for now, I’m going to just share with you the five best apps for your business. All of them are free and bound to help your business explode!

Before I started writing this article, I decided to apply to be an affiliate through the iTunes store. I figured I could bring in some revenue if folks bought other apps through my link. In future Monthly Income Statements you’ll get to see if it paid off at all. But my bottom line is that these apps are really helping me, especially the last one!

Let’s get started.

App #1 Therapy Buddy


I just discovered this app when I was at a LPCs of Northern Michigan meeting. A local counselor had started using it, so I downloaded it to take a look. The features are pretty good. It’s aimed at clients in their counseling sessions. A client can record the session, take notes, set up appointment reminders, and write down things to talk about in the next session. Overall, it’s very useful. I thought to myself, “Why is this free? Someone’s losing money on this one!”

Not so fast.

ThriveWorks, a franchise for counselors is behind the app. Since there are direct links to their practice it will substantially help their SEO, referrals, and publicity. I’m sure they have an option to buy it with your practice name on it, but I don’t think I’ll do it. That’s the only annoying part, that my clients would be on another practice’s website a lot.

For that reason I give it a 4/5 stars

App #2 Evernote


I really like Evernote because it can help in your personal life and in your professional life. I was shopping at IKEA with my wife a while back. We don’t live close to an IKEA. I wanted to keep track of all the things we liked that we couldn’t fit in our car, so I took pictures of the tags and saved them all in my Evernote under “Home stuff.”

If you’re like me, you have lots of ideas. It’s a great way to sort and store ideas, meeting notes, and “to do” lists. It’s not always the most user-friendly, but for what it is, it’s pretty darn awesome.

For that reason I give it a 4.5/5 stars

App #3 Square Register


If you don’t take credit card, you have to do this right now! Open a new tab and register with Square. They have a great online marketplace, where you can embed the items. If you haven’t checked out the new Practice of the Practice Store, you can see what it looks like.

Here’s how I figured out just how much it is worth it. So Square takes 2.7% of each transaction. My session prices are $150. That means that every time someone pays with credit card it cost me $4.05. That’s quite a hit. That’s a fancy coffee every time they swipe. So why even take credit card?

If I divide $4.05 by my session rate ($150) I get 37.03. That means that if I get an extra session every 37 swipes, it’s worth it. If not, it is not worth it. So, is it worth it? Here are some reasons I may lose one session:

1. Someone forgets their wallet and doesn’t schedule another session out of guilt or lack of money.

2. People are willing to pay more for something if they don’t have to handle cash.

3. It is easier to pay with a HSA or FSA credit card than to get reimbursed.

So I think that I actually have retained clients and had more sessions as a result of the credit card at a rate above every 37 times.

For that reason I give it a 4.5/5 stars

App #4 HootSuite


Hootsuite is a great way to manage social media outlets. You can post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and a number of other sources all at once. Also, you can schedule them when you are on vacation, out of town, or just don’t want to think about it. It’s really amazing!

I actually heard about Hootsuite a while ago, but never got into it. Then I was at a music festival. I have a friend that gets paid to travel with celebrities to developing world countries. The goal is to get these musicians and bloggers to talk in their media circle about their experiences. He knew I had been blogging more and asked if I was Tweeting from the festival. We were hanging out with this other blogger that has 6,000 followers just on his Facebook page.

Both of them were tweeting.

Also, they had set up automated responders ahead of time so that even when they weren’t tweeting, they were tweeting! They went through their schedule and said things like “Headed to hear _____band_____, can’t wait!”

They both used Hootsuite. I tried it and was hooked.

You can have 5 social media profiles for free, which is what I have. I automated it so that when I post on LinkedIn, it feeds into Twitter and then posts on my Facebook, so I just have to post on my LinkedIn. Since you only get 5 for free

For that reason I give it a 3.9/5 stars

 App #5 IFTTT

By far this is the very best and most amazing app I have seen in a long time. I am still learning about it, but thus far it is mind blowing! IFTTT stands for “If This Then That.” For example:

“If it is going to rain, text me to bring an umbrella.”

“If I add someone new to my contacts connect with them on LinkedIn.”

“If someone follows me on Twitter, tweet ‘thanks for the follow @______.'”

The “recipes” as they call them are amazing, you can create your own or add what others have developed. It has already helped me to automate a number of things that I was doing “by hand” in the past. It’s really blow me away!

For that reason I give it a 5/5 stars

Here’s the list of all of them, but keep scrolling I have a few others that counselors have recommended:

Here are other apps that counselors have recommended, but that I have not yet explored or written about:



headshot fromhttp://kalamazooportraits.com/

Joseph R. Sanok, MA, LLP, LPC, NCC is a licensed counselor and owner of Mental Wellness Counseling in Traverse City, MI. What have you learned from this? Will you comment on the LinkedIn Group?

To link to Joe’s Google+ follow the link.

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Thanks for the photo Jason A. Howie