For some people, the smartphone can be a time waster, a tool for social networking or playing Candy Crush. But for many small business owners on the go, it's an essential tool for keeping track of tasks and getting from point A to B.
We recently spoke with Roman Stanek, the CEO of big data analytics company Good Data, who was briefly in New York with a packed schedule of meetings with potential clients and journalists. For him, tools on his smartphone are essential for staying productive during a busy day.
He shared the following three apps that help him stay on task and on time:
"When I travel, I forward all of my reservations to Tripit," Stanek says. "So anything I get from hotels, rental cars, airlines and so on, I get from Tripit. They parse it and build an itinerary for you, so I don't need to enter anything. All I need to do is forward them my Virgin email. It's amazing."
It means no flipping between emails, or tasking an assistant with hours spent copying and pasting things into an email. The app is available for free or as a paid service, which includes mobile alerts about gate changes and flight delays.
"Tempo is now my main app if I have a busy day in New York," Stanek says. "I see what meetings I have, it goes through my LinkedIn, my calendar, and my email, and it collects all of the information about a meeting in one place. I can look at it and know where I need to go, who's going to be there, see my notes — all the important stuff."
From Tempo, you can jump to a company's website, get directions, and if you have a conference call scheduled, see the dial-in number and passcode.
"I'm a big fan of Evernote. Anything that I see that's kind of interesting I always put it in Evernote," Stanek says. "I'm not saying that I'm actually going to read it all, but when I get on an airplane I have it synchronized on my iPad, and I can go through many things that I typically don't manage to get through during the day."
In Stanek's down time, he uses Evernote to keep on top of trends in the industry and to help him think about the company's long-term strategy.
SEE ALSO: Tim Ferriss's Top 3 Productivity Tips For Small Business Owners