Top tools for any entrepreneur - hands down!

Quite a few people over the last months have asked which tools are helpful for entrepreneus, start-ups, and the like, so we have compiled a beautifully written and very useful article originally printed in DynamicGraphics Magazine and written by Professor at School of Visual Arts in New York, Daniel Schutzsmith, so you too can make life both simpler and easier (the list has been slightly changed to fit the questions we’ve received). The following tools are merely suggestions - some of which we use ourselves in this office, others we have tested and recommend. The list has been compiled from a completely neutral and unbiased point view, and we receive no endorsements for these mentions.

Source: http://www.dynamicgraphics.com, written by Daniel Schutzsmith

Fax:
www.faxitnice.com
$5.99/month, an intuitive, simple and quick online fax system. You do not need a phone line for this and you get your own dedicated number. Most people have their desktop printer/scanner which is all you will need to get going. Emails will be received via email (PDF) and/or via the controlpanel inside the Faxitnice easy-to-use-backoffice. Very intuitive and simple to use - and the quality is of course crisp and clear.

Telephony:
www.grandcentral.com
(free) A new Google service that is a service that provides you with one central numer that’s not tied to a phone or a location – but tied to you. When someone calls the Grand Central Number, it will ring all of your phones, home, cell, work and so on. If you then pick up any of those phones, Grand Central will tell you who’s calling and you can choose to accept or not…

Phone systems (virtual receptionist):
Gotvmail (www.gotvmail.com)
$9.95/month, Phone system designed for entrepreneurs. We use this system (a more expensive version, though) personally use this system in our office. You sound like a Fortune 500 company for under a ten’er a month. You can have a Voice Talent from Gotvmail make your greeting for $50 (one time fee), and you are sure to sound great. Entire system is computerized so you can set your “receptionist” to pick up the phone at the right time (closed on weekends, closed after 5 P.M. etc. etc.)
 

Messaging:
www.jott.com
(free) You’re driving on the freeway and you get a great idea or just remembered something important! This is a free voice-activated messaging system – call, speak, hang up. Integrates seamlessly with e.g. Twitter and Blogger. With one call, you can send a message to any of these services, have it posted instantly, or delay it until a selected time.

New Biz & Sales:
www.highrisehq.com
$24/month, Highrise helps you keep track of the communications and conversations you have throughout your day. It’s a great new business tool because it can also help you set up specific leads to follow, tasks to complete and meetings to be at. For example, you get an email from a client about a new project, you can forward to a special email address that your Highrise account checks. Then, by logging into Highrise, you and other users on your account can see the conversation you’ve been having with that client. Similar software you should check our is Relenta, SugarCRM and Salesforce. Personally we have now settled with Freshbooks because we have spread our stuff on software we have made ourselves. Freshbooks is great for invoicing, proposals, etc. I highly recommend it!

 

Finances:
www.lessaccounting.com
(Free) Wonderful tool! This is a web application that makes handling invoices, documenting credits/debits, estimating proposals and determining cash flow so much easier – the simplicity of this tool is amazing. It imports files from Peachtree or Quicbooks.

Again, Freshbooks is also a great alternative to this.

Online meetings:
Vyew (www.vyew.com)
(Free) Can be used with any operating system – runs on Flash and Ajax, so nobody has problems with this… No third-party are needed to install and it is very straightforward. The best part about View is that you can have a meeting in real time, or hold a meeting over a longer period of time – like a month. As each member of the meeting logs back in, they’ll see what others have said and contributed to the meeting. Excellent for project management.
 

Email:
Google’s Gmail (www.google.com/gmail)
(Free) ‘nuff said – everybody knows this…

 

Of course there are many other tools and systems out there that can both make your life easier and save you time/money, however, these are mere suggestions and recommendations. All of them have been tested and they are all excellent in each their own unique way. Experiment with it, do some research yourself and see what fits.

Should you have other very useful tools or news concepts that have recently seen the light of day, let me know via email - we love new gadgets and noteworthy software/concepts, and we love to share this with everyone.

Hope this helps - and have a prosperous day.

Soren Grau
CCO/Lead Designer, SorenGrau.com