5 Smartphone Tools for Your Tutoring Business

Evernote App
Evernote is an application that is available on all major smartphones as well as for desktop computers. Evernote's goal is to help you "remember everything" and it does this by enabling you to take pictures using your smartphone and then being able to type keywords and it will pull up all of the images you've saved with those keywords. Evernote's technology enables it to recognize letters in photographs, which allows you to do a text search for words in your photographs. For tutoring companies Evernote is useful for recording business cards, receipts for business expenses, marketing materials from competitors, or anything else that you want to remember for later.

TutorPanel Mobile
TutorPanel Mobile is a web app that gives you access to your students' contact information, lets you view your tutoring calendar, allows you and your tutors to reconcile tutoring sessions, and lets you quickly view account balances and past transactions for each of your customers. TutorPanel Mobile is used in conjunction with the full TutorPanel system, which is a popular business management system used by tutoring companies of all sizes for managing students, scheduling, tracking tutor hours, invoicing and finances.This tutoring software can be used on any modern smartphone platform including iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices. TutorPanel Mobile is great for tutoring companies that have tutors working in multiple locations because it allows them to easily view details for upcoming tutoring sessions and allows them to reconcile tutoring sessions after they occur.

Dropbox
Dropbox is a file storage system that keeps files in sync between all of your computers and smartphones. It also allows you to access files from any computer by logging in on the Dropbox website. Dropbox is available for iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry as well as desktop software including Windows, Linux and Mac. As the owner of a tutoring company your work likely goes where you go, and Dropbox lets you access your up-to-date files from anywhere. Plus, with Dropbox you can share folders with other users, which is a great tool for sharing documents with your tutors.

PingChat
Need to get in touch with a tutor, but don't want to be charged high text messaging fees? Download PingChat to your smartphone and have your tutors do the same. PingChat is a free messaging system that allows you to send text messages to other PingChat users while avoiding over-priced texting fees. If you need to quickly reach one or all of your tutors you can do this quickly and effectively with PingChat. PingChat is available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

Skype Mobile
Skype is another useful, money-saving tool for tutors and it is available on all major smartphone platforms including Android, iPhone and BlackBerry. With Skype Mobile you can call other Skype users for free or regular phone numbers at a very low-cost without using minutes on your phone plan. Generally Skype requires a relatively high-speed connection in order to work well, but if you're in an area with wi-fi and need need to make some phone calls, Skype is the way to go.

There are more and more smartphone apps available to help small businesses operate more effectively. Some of these tools have not even been designed specifically for tutoring companies or even for businesses, but they can be adapted in useful ways. Let everyone know what smartphone apps you find useful for your tutoring business in the comments below.