Small business tools and tips (updated)

This is version two of what I’m planning to become an ongoing update of small business tools and tips.  Each update will replace the last, which means it will represent the full scope of my thoughts on the subject. This is a “living” article, so there may be sections that are in “planned” stage for upcoming content.

The purpose of this article is to provide reviews and tips regarding tools and web services that exist to support freelancing and small business organizations.  I will plan to provide best practices on how to tie it all together into a simple and cohesive whole.  My intent is to also provide more in-depth reviews from a small/micro service business perspective in separate articles, which will be linked to this summary article.

Invoicing and Time Tracking

Harvest.com

I had been struggling with having invested myself in MS Project training in the past, but feeling it was just too cumbersome for what I needed. Harvest provides me with an effective time tracking system so that I can ensure I’m spending my time on the right things, according to my priorities.

Also, Harvest actually kills two birds with one stone by also providing me with a very effective and elegant solution for estimating and invoicing. I was previously using QuickBooks Online for managing my invoices, but was never quite satisfied with it. The feeling was always “well, it’s an industry standard, and maybe I just need to get used to it”.  That’s not the case with Harvest.  I actually enjoy using it.

Financial / Accounting

Quickbooks Online

Currently, I am still using QuickBooks Online for my ledger, asset tracking, and reporting, but I’m considering whether I really need it any longer since I now prefer Harvest.  Also, I am using Mint.com for my personal finances, which is also tracking my separate business checking account transactions.  I may be able to say goodbye to QuickBooks (at least for now)!

Project Management

RememberTheMilk.com

As I mentioned before, I have experience with MS Project, but feel it’s overkill for my purposes at this time in freelancing. I’ve considered Basecamp, but just can’t seem to force myself to like it – I really don’t see what the fuss is all about with that product.

I’ve chosen to use RememberTheMilk.com for my task management needs. As I learn more about its organizational capabilities, I feel less and less of a need for a project management system. The only thing that I think I’d benefit from that RTM doesn’t support well is dependent tasks. But as a one man shop, it’s not a show-stopper for me. RTM’s interface is clean and easy to use – and it’s free.

File Management, Collaboration and Sharing

DropBox.com (NEW)

In my prior article, I noted that I use MS Office Live for online document storage.  However, my recommendation is now DropBox.com.  Why the change?  Well, for some reason, Microsoft can’t seem to figure out how to (or doesn’t want to) allow people to interact with their files natively from within Windows.  You have to go to the Office Live site and manage the files through the web browser interface, which works but I couldn’t escape always feeling that ‘there has to be a better way!’.

DropBox gives me exactly what I hope for.  A free account with 2GB storage (paid accounts can get as big as 100GB), and a file management interface that I’m used to for my local files (Windows Explorer and Finder for Mac).  It needs to be installed to your computer, but the great thing is that since I have the program on multiple computers, I can interact with that shared folder just like it’s on my hard drive or local network.  For computers which I don’t  (or can’t) install to, the DropBox.com website provides an elegant interface for interacting with the files.

And to top it off, sharing folders with others (collaborators, clients) is a piece of cake.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is my current choice, mostly because it’s free and it will give me good context for what I like or don’t like in a CRM when I have greater need for a potentially more advanced system.  So far, it is serving all of my needs as well as providing valuable features that I didn’t even know I needed.

Marketing

Facebook and Twitter

Facebook and Twitter have been obvious choices to get up and running and begin building a network on. It will take some time and effort, and it’s not quite priority right now, but they are obviously important tools for social networking.

I provide online marketing consultation and management.  Let me know how I can help.

Productivity

Delicious

Delicious is a social networking bookmarking service.  My objectives in using Delicious are two-fold: 1) keep a single bookmark list that allows access from any computer in the world, and 2) the ability future to share my bookmarks in the hopes that others will benefit from the online resources I have compiled.  It’s organizational features are average, using tagging functionality, which has been a bit cumbersome but not a deal-breaker.

Learning

Lynda.com

One service that I have discovered that I must mention before wrapping up this article is Lynda.com.  Although the investment may seem steep, I have been extremely pleased with the value I have received from this service just with the trial period I received with my purchase of Adobe Web Premium CS4.  I will definitely be subscribing for their premium service (there’s also some coupons available out there on www.RetailMeNot.com).

SitePoint.com

Details to come…

Web Design

WordPress

Details to come…

Adobe Web Premium CS4

Details to come…

UltraEdit

I have just started to look into this text editing software.  Details to come…

Firebug

Details to come…

Hosting

GoDaddy.com

Be careful about how you go about selecting a website hosting service.  Performing a Google search on hosting (or similar), you’re likely to wind up with some very misleading information.  I have come to find that many of the so-called hosting review sites are actually sponsored by the sites that they review.  The web hosting sites pay for these review sites to send them visitors.  You simply cannot trust someone providing you with truth, when their paycheck depends on them not.

Despite what I would consider to be questionable morals in their marketing tactics, GoDaddy has met and exceeded my expectations in terms of ease of use, price, stability, as well as information and guidance for the technically inclined.  In providing administrative support services to my clients, I currently choose GoDaddy as my preferred partner.

Other notes

Credits

Credit goes to appstorm.net for a great article that identifies a number of online tools to support your freelancing needs. It’s where I started, and I recommend it highly to get a feel for what’s out there to support your freelancing business.

I’d love to hear from you

Feel free to comment to request review of software or a webservice, or to just tell me that I’m crazy (but you have to tell me why!).

Wishing you the best of success…