If you’re running a small business, finding great resources to support the back end of your shop is vital. Being a small business, however, typically means that you don’t have mountains of money to devote towards buying the biggest and the bestest. Luckily, though, there are several business-friendly apps that you can incorporate into your budding enterprise such as PayPal, Google Apps, and DropBox that won’t empty out your coffers and won’t leave you with security vulnerabilities or unpredictable support.

Mavenlink examined what apps small businesses are using and created the following infographic with their findings. In each category, whether it was accounting or office documents, there was a clear leader that a large majority of businesses prefer over all other services. More revealing is that the growth of cloud-based apps being used by small businesses is a tidal movement, with expectations of that market to rise from $16 billion in 2010 to $56 billion by 2014.

As more bigger, higher profile organizations make the switch to using cloud technology, that show of confidence in the services likely assuages any apprehension felt by smaller organizations. Even several state and city governments are switching over to Google Apps these days, so if it’s good and secure enough for governments to put their faith in the cloud, why shouldn’t a small business?

With your own small business, how do you feel this infographic reflects on the way you run things? Have you made the jump into the world of cloud technology yet? If so, do you agree with the popularity of the apps selected below? Feel free to join the conversation in the comments.

Small Business Apps