Tools to run a business with the cloud
December 6, 2009
This past year I have been getting busier and the amount of work that I have, has more then doubled. I needed to come up with a solution that would allow me to manage my daily tasks of running a web business and
having to be at multiple places.
Here are some of the problems that I ran into:
- Needed to answer business emails on the go
- Needed access to all of my clients files on the go
- Internet goes down at home and I still needed to meet a deadline
- Needed a clients name and address while I was at the post office
- Needed a secure storage solution for Passwords
- Needed access to my notes where ever I go, making the notes actually usable.
- Wanted to be able to search through my notes (It would be nice to search through PDF's and images)
- Needed Automatic file backup in case of hard drive failure
- Wanted an easy way to backup photos taken on my phone during a meeting
- Needed to access my chat logs from multiple computers and iPhone
- Needed to access to thousands of bookmarks on any browser and my iPhone
- Needed to track time spent on a project from multiple computers and iPhone
- Wanted to view a website that's on my computer, on my iPhone with limited effort. And Vice Versa
- Needed to make a To Do task/checklist when an idea or task is mentioned or comes to mind
- Needed to send files to a client while out of the office
- Wanted a business phone number that I can use with any phone
The list is pretty big as you can see and these are only the tip of the ice berg of the things I needed. Basically it came down to; I need to have everything with me, wherever I go, all of the time.
After I did some research and plenty of testing(nearly 6 months and hundreds of tools) with trial and errors I came to use the following tools which allow me to work from anywhere.
- Bookmarks
- Notes (text, audio, video, images and PDF's)
- Business checklists from Notes
- Website from PC to Phone instantly
- FREE or $5/month
- Secure passwords and notes
- Send a password to email
- FREE for $1/month
- Automatic online file backup
- Send files to a client while away from the office
- Send client a link to a large file without requiring them to login to somewhere
- FREE for 2GB
- Access to personal and business emails
- Quick searches in all email
- One place for all contacts
- FREE
- To Do Tasks with notes
- Due dates and Notifications
- FREE or $2/month
- Microsoft Office replacement on the go
- Quick form creation
- FREE
- Web based Instant Messenger client
- AIM, MSN, Gtalk, Yahoo, ICQ and more
- FREE
- Meeting Dates
- Email, Text Message and web based notifcations
- FREE
- Web based phone number
- Voicemail to text transcripts
- Emailed transcript of voicemail
- FREE
- Web based photo storage
- Send photos from mobile phone to online storage for backup
- FREE for 1GB
- Time tracking
- Task management
- Billing
- Email notices of new project/tasks
- FREE
- Web based access to my computer (terminal service)
- Version on iPhone makes it possible to connect to my main computer on the go
- FREE or $69.95 for Pro
- Access to all of the above tools on the go without a laptop
- Hands down, the best tool for anyone running a business
- $99.00-$299.00
I've been using most of these tools now for over 6 months and it has dramatically reduced my stress and increased productivity. I can't imagine what it would be like if I didn't have these tools, but I am always
looking for tools to help streamline my work flow.
If you have a tool(s) that you find useful please feel free to share it so that others who read this can choose the tool(s) that works for them.