Time and money are often two resources small business owners lack. To be successful, you must combine your personal and professional life to run your business and serve your customers. As a result, you need state-of-the-art gadgets that function in both worlds. Technological advances have led to an array of gadgets for the small business professional. Choosing the right gadget can increase your productivity in the office, on the go or while having dinner with friends or family. Never before have small business professionals had a more powerful arsenal for connecting and communicating. Here are a few must-have gadgets that help save time, space and money.
Square
Co-founded by Jack Dorsey, creator of Twitter, Square is the ideal gadget for the small business professional. This creative application and device accepts credit card payments via an Android, iPad or iPhone. Sign up through Squareup.com to receive a free card reader that plugs into the audio jack of your device. Once connected, you can swipe credit, debit, gift and prepaid cards with the American Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa logo. Accepted funds go directly to your personal or business account. There are no hidden service fees or contracts to use the service.
Car Checkup
This little device tracks your mileage and keeps an updated log of engine performance. Simply plug the device into your vehicle diagnostic port and drive. Car Checkup does the rest. When your trip ends, plug the device into any Windows-based PC and upload your trip summary. Trip summaries provide hard and extreme acceleration and braking occurrences so you can monitor your driving habits.
Wireless Charging Pad
Stay charged with a wireless charging pad. This handy gadget charges your laptop, cell phone and other mobile gadgets without bulky wires. Never worry about overcharging your device. The pad stops charging once the device attains a full charge. The compact and sleek design enables easy transport, storage and fits into small workspaces.
Portable Hard Drive
Whether you are tech savvy or prefer to keep it simple, an external hard drive is essential. Computers often crash due to viruses or memory overload resulting in the loss of important information. Back up your documents, customer information and system files on an external hard drive. External drives come in a variety of sizes and connect to your computer via a USB cable. The amount of space needed depends on what you want to store. A 20-gigabyte hard drive provides enough space to store documents, emails and small backup files. If you want to back up your entire system, opt for 100 gigabytes or more.
Smartphone
Stay connected with a Smartphone. Smartphones do more than make and accept calls. You can synchronize the phone to your business calendar and email so you never miss a meeting or memo. Post Tweets and Facebook updates on the move to keep customers informed of up-to-the-minute company news and reports. Smartphones have greater information sharing functions that allow you to transfer large files and attachments from the palm of your hand.
Tablet
Tablets provide the functionality of a laptop in a small, handheld package. These devices have a longer battery life, user-friendly interface and can be easily tuck away in your briefcase or carry-on. The large storage capacity of a tablet allows you to store business-related reports, graphs and videos. Added accessories such as a wireless mouse, detachable keyboard or stylus pens turn this gadget into a valuable secondary computing device.
