Online tools to help small business owners

The Internet has a wealth of handy online tools that can help small business owners run their business. Here are my tips on where to find software, much of it free, that will enable soloists to work smarter.

The huge array of online software out there can help you to:

Detailed below is a collection of online tools that will benefit small business owners looking for simpler ways to run their business. I use many of them each day in my own business, while others are simply the industry leaders in their category. Many are free, or at least provide a way of trialing the service without outlaying any money.

"To-do" lists

Stay organised in your small business with one of these free, online “to do” lists.

Gootodo: www.gootodo.com
Only in beta stage, so you will need to apply for an early-adopter account.

Taa-da List: www.tadalist.com 
A simple yet elegant way of recording your daily tasks.

Voo2doo Lists – www.voo2do.com
Track time spent and remaining, and even add tasks by sending an email.

Calendars

Calendars have come a long way since that first diary you were given back in primary school. Both the online calendars listed here are free.

CalendarHub: www.calendarhub.com
Ditch the Filofax and move online, with this functional, easy to use calendar.

HipCal: www.hipcal.com
HipCal has been getting some strong reviews on Internet forums. Try out their demo account to see why.

Text collaboration

Need to share and collaborate with another party on the text of a document? Stop sending Word documents back and forth and move online with these free alternatives.

WriteBoard: www.writeboard.com
I can personally recommend this one as I once used it in a consulting project that required the review of over 400 letters. Simple to use and extremely powerful, Writeboard is an indispensable online tool.

Writely: www.writely.com
Another solid online tool to create and share online documents. With an interface similar to MS Word, even your Mum will get the hang of this one!

Invoicing

Paperwork is tough enough to follow up on at the best of times. Make life a little easier with one of these cost effective invoicing solutions.

2nd site for business: www.secondsite.biz
Includes online invoicing, recurring billing, employee timesheets and automated reminders. Deliver invoices via email, or allow your clients to log on and review their invoice history.

Blinksale: www.blinksale.com
Create service, product or time-based invoices which are automatically emailed to your client. For the more technically minded, use CSS to ensure that the invoices reflect your existing branding.

Project Management

If you are completing work for a client offsite, you could use an online project management tool to keep them informed of your progress.

Basecamp: www.basecamphq.com
I use this in my own business every day. Integrate it into your own website and your clients need never know that they are leaving your site. The software comes with Taa-Da List and Writeboard already built in. Designed with web developers and small agencies in mind, but adaptable enough to be used by anyone. Small monthly fee, but worth every dollar spent.

File Storage

While hard drive space is cheap these days, we can always do with more. Try an online service for storing files that you need to access while at a client's place of business.

Xdrive: www.xdrive.com
Store, access, share and backup. Use Xdrive to send those large files to your client that won’t squeeze through email filters.

Openomy: www.openomy.com
1 gigabyte of storage for free, which should be ample for most people who need to share files online.

OmniDrive: www.omnidrive.com.au
Although this service has not yet officially launched, the buzz around town for it has been so extensive that I included it here just in case you want to check it out. It is Australian after all!

Do you use any of the online tools listed, and do you find them useful? Have I missed any online tools that you use regularly in your business that would help others?

• Published 20 February 06
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10 comments | Add your own 1 2 | Next» View all»

• I checked out Basecamp and it looks pretty good indeed. Do you use this with your clients? Or just team members of web projects? I would love to let a project loose on it and see how it works. Thanks for the tip. Justin from Sydney

• Thanks Scott, great list - you know your stuff! Those billing/invoicing systems look interesting.
  I would add Backpack - it's a cut-down version of Basecamp. I use BC for client projects and BP for personal projects, to dos etc - www.backpackit.com,
  www.australianintranets.com offers great collaboration tools and lets you set up your own online databases - a really useful feature. Australian pricing at $30pm for 5 users is cheaper than the US product on which it's based - gotta love that.
  Finally, for sales/lead tracking www.salesforce.com is very powerful (and expensive at around $1000pa for 5 users) but they have a free single user version which lets you automate email campaigns etc. And I'm sure there are other good online sales tools out there!
  Cheers Adam G from Sydney

• Thanks Scott for your wonderful information. Some of these freebies I knew about and some I didn't!
  I will certainly pass on your suggestions to my clients.
  Amanda Sarden from Sydney

• Justin, you can try out Basecamp for free by signing up for a trial and it will let you manage one project. This is an ideal way for you to get a feel for it. Robert and I used it when setting up this website, it was a great help. let us know how you get on! Sam Leader from Sydney, Australia

• Adam - yes agree re: backpackit. We use it sparingly, and tend to focus more on basecamp with our clients. Those guys at 37signals (www.37signals.com) really know how to churn out a decent product :-)
  I see they have another new business related app out now - www.campfirenow.com - an online chat program.
  Justin - yes I use this with EVERY client I have. If you spend 15 minutes with them at the start of a project teaching them how to use it, that is the only help they will need. I have never had any complaints about the software, as it is really easy to use. I have used it with solo business owners, as well as large corporate clients. The reaction is always the same (I love it!).
  Sign up for their free account and give it a go mate.
  Scott Handsaker from Melbourne | Read my articles

• Hi Adam - I love the internet for the freebies it provides, which does spoil us when we are "forced" to cough up for a product or service. I think the misconception of the internet being "free" is slowly being turned around, which is great for e-business. A few of my favourite sites are: Web-a-file www.web-a-file.com for online storage and system back-up; Backflip www.backflip.com for storing bookmarks; Freewebs www.freewebs.com for hosting my web site; and Humanetrics www.humanmetrics.com for personality profiling - all free! For online surveys, I use Free Online Surveys http://freeonlinesurveys.com, which does have a wonderfully simple interface and a very reasonably priced upgrade option. Oh, and for excellent quality business cards, nothing beats Click Business Cards at click.com.au - I'm still investigating email newsletter software that doesn't recognise the email as spam - this one's trial and error I think! Diane from Adelaide SA

10 comments | Add your own 1 2 | Next» View all»

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