Mobile Banking Tools Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners Should Use

While sharing some of my favorite mobile business apps at the Power Circle Conference, I was surprised to discover how few women entrepreneurs at the event knew about these free tools and were actually using them. While I admit, it took me a little time to get into mobile apps and even mobile banking, I soon discovered these tools are great time savers and life savers too!

Do you use the Paypal App?
I couldn’t believe how many ladies in my circle were using Paypal online, but had no clue about their mobile app, which I use several times a day.

I get mobile alerts for all transactions; at the conference I mentioned how great it is to here ‘ping’ sounds of sales being made!
I can easily send and withdraw money on the go, which is handy when you want to transfer funds but you are not in front of your computer.
The best part is that it helps me test out the effectiveness of my social media marketing campaigns. I can essentially go on Facebook or Twitter, post a an offer and within minutes see the sales come though via my PayPal App.I actually shared an example of how this all works during my “Get Paid for What You Know” session at the conference, you can watch the video replays here. And if you use the code POWER13 to access all the replays, I can essentially track all the transactions via the Paypal iPhone App anywhere I go.
I also mentioned the Free Paypal Mobile Payment Card Reader, which comes in handy if you want to take credit card payments at an event booth, table, etc.
PayPal also offers a free debit card, which you can easily sign up for via your account. I didn’t think much of this option for a while, but decided to finally get one with my card reader last year and it’s great! Now that I have a debit card, I can make business purchases directly from my Paypal Account without having to wait 3-7 days to transfer the funds into my checking account.The debit card is also an easier way for me to keep my business transactions together. I use PayPal for all my sales transactions, but often had to use my personal checking account to handle expenses, which meant I was tracking my profit/loss for taxes on multiple statements. But now that I can use directly use the Paypal Debit Card, that makes taking care of expenses much easier.

Do you mange a team of employees?
Now that I have a BBWO Content Manager and Small Business Experts Team, I am working on building a network of service professionals I can employ on a regular basis, so having the ability to track employee payments on the go is another area of interest. In the midst of doing some research I learned about a useful mobile payroll app that can help you keep up with bookkeeping for businesses with employees. I’m sure this might be of particular interest to not only me, but the small business owners in my circle.

Do you use the mobile app for your bank?
I used to ignore all the banking commercials raving about their great new mobile apps until I got into the habit of using the Paypal App. It was like a whole new world of convenience opened up to me, so I decided to download the mobile apps for my personal banking accounts. I soon discovered several features that prove themselves to be very useful to me as both an entrepreneur and a work at home mom:

Mobile Check Deposits – When I relocated from NY to NC I discovered my favorite bank was not local to the area. Rather than close the account, I settled for doing most of my transactions online, which works fine except for checks. For years I had no way to deposit checks into that account, but now I can do so easily with mobile check deposits directly from my phone. I just enter the deposit amount and take a picture of the check and in minutes the deposit is processed. This feature has been a life saver, but it’s also a time saver. Now you don’t have to find the time to go to the bank, just to deposit your checks.
Account Balance Alerts
In the age of technology, we no longer have to pine away at our desks balancing checkbooks or get caught with overdraft fees when unexpected payments get processed. I now get daily email alerts with my account balances and have setup to receive text alerts when my accounts go below personally set amounts, so I am always aware of how much money goes in and out of my accounts.With all the credit fraud and identity theft happening today these alerts are not only useful, but vital. You always want to be able to catch any unusual activity on your accounts as soon as possible.

I know that it is easy to get stuck in your old routines, but the mobile banking tools that we have today make it well worth your time to try something new. Be sure to go search for and download those apps today, go watch the Power Circle replays for more great tips, and let me know if you have any other web business questions you want answered.