Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time testing out various software and programs to management my online projects. In that time I’ve learned there are many great tools and it sometimes takes a little playing around to find out what is best suited to your project and your business.
With that being said, here are a few tools that I find essential when working on my own business projects:
1. Gmail – I’ve mentioned Gmail many times on this blog. Like here and here and here. There are so many great ways Gmail can help you keep organized. Two of my favorites are the ability to label your incoming mail before it gets to you by the use of ‘filters’. If you work with clients this is especially useful because you can ‘label’ your clients emails and then filter then into that clients category until you are ready to look at it. Anyone overwhelmed by email MUST get a system in place for getting rid of all non-essential stuff and then another in place for handling all the legitimate mail that comes in.
2. Google Calendar – Information overload is abundant on the internet. Every day I read so much, do so much and think so much. Without my Google Calendar I would never remember anything! I schedule everything I need to do into my calendar and then get it to send me reminders. A great feature is you can create multiple calendars for different projects.
3. Basecamp – I HEART Basecamp! This is an excellent program for anyone who needs to collaborate with virtual assistants, partners, peers, clients and more. If you are working with anyone on a project don’t rely on email to keep organized. Basecamp has many features including messages, to-do lists, time tracking, scheduling, multiple users on one project and more. I wrote more on Basecamp in my post Keeping Track of Projects Online.
4. Freshbooks – As a service provider Freshbook saves me hours and hours each month. It is also a really important tool when working with a team. You can have all your team members track their time in Freshbooks and then create invoices at the client of a button to go out to your clients. Freshbooks has many options for reports and even allows you to send out ‘snail mail’ invoices at the click of a button!
5. Google Documents – This is another great program that is free to use for collaboration. Google Docs does one thing that Basecamp doesn’t let you do yet – collaborate on documents without having to upload new versions. This is important when doing projects that require you to update spreadsheets or work on documents – it’s very difficult when trying to keep track of the latest version of a document. Google Docs also lets you do quick and easy surveys that are automatically added to a spreadsheet.
6. Roboform – Ever try to remember a password for a site you really need to get into? With Roboform you’ll never have to worry about it again. As a virtual assistant I couldn’t have done my job nearly as well without this program! It not only saves passwords but it also fills forms. If you could shave 15-20 minutes off your day by NOT looking for logins to important sites why in the world wouldn’t you?
So those are a few essential tools I don’t see myself running my online small business without – ever.
I’d love to hear any tools you find essential to your own business and what you use them for – post your comments below!
p.s. Need someone to help you get programs like this set up and have no idea where to start? My free mini-course ‘Outsourcing Explained‘ can help!
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