small businesses

Apps make our personal tech worlds go round, and they've also become a crucial part of how small businesses function. Palmaz Vineyards in Napa, CA, a family-owned winery we recently visited, is one such example of where apps available to the public in the App Store have changed the way the company does business. To balance the small staff and the 55 rolling acres of vineyard, Christian Gastón Palmaz, director of operations at Palmaz, told us he coordinates nearly every aspect of the business from his iPad command station.

Many of the essential apps Christian uses are wine and agriculture-related such as Field Assets ($17), which captures data from across the vineyard plants and has saved the winery "tens of thousands of dollars alone." Since most of us won't need farming-related digital tools, we asked what other apps make the running of a small business smooth, and included those, along with some of our personal favorite task management apps below as our required apps for small business owners.

• CloudOn (free) — Since Microsoft Office software still isn't available as native iOS apps, CloudOn is how to create and edit Excel, Word, and PowerPoint documents for now. Manage the documents via Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, or SkyDrive, and share files updates to colleagues by sending projects via link or attachment through email.
• Delivery ($5) — With dozens of packages of wine being sent to customers on any given day, Palmaz uses this app to track goods. Support for over 30 shipping companies (including Amazon and Google Checkout) guarantees however a shipment is sent, it can be tracked within the app. A must for product-driven businesses.
• Adobe Reader (free)— With documents needing signature or corrections at any hour, Reader gives the power of electronic signatures and editing of PDF documents from your device.
• iTeleport ($20) — When caught in off-site meetings or accessing a document from home, iTeleport brings your work desktop to wherever your business has taken you. Other apps require in-app paid monthly subscriptions, but all remote features are included in iTeleport without new purchases required.
• Milestone (free) — Christian uses Milestone to access the winery's security camera system, with access to the cameras' live and historical views.

Read on for the best note-taking apps and how to manage all those moneymaking invoices.

Starting a business ain't easy, especially if you're working on it alone. Thankfully, there are a lot of handy tools on the Internet that will make your work life easier. Here are a couple you should check out:

BookFresh: Referred to as the OpenTable for small business owners, this online scheduling website lets customers schedule their appointments on the web and even make payments online. Using this tool will help you keep track of other details, such as client history and calendar syncing, and it will help you customize emails for customers.

Dropbox: Dropbox lets you store files such as photos, docs, and videos online, which means those large files won't take up space on your computer. It makes it easier for you to share files with others as well. Other benefits include accessing the files from anywhere in the world and the ability to access it when you're offline.

FreshBooks: Not to be confused with BookFresh, FreshBooks offers up a different service. The site helps manage invoices and automates several steps in the record-keeping process, making it easier for you to keep track of and create professional-looking invoices.

Read on for more helpful tools.