Ever wanted to work on the go, or take a permanent working holiday? Perhaps you have just been thinking about how you can get away from it all, but still keep your income? Well here are 51 essential tools for work from anywhere entrepreneur’s to consider, that I will be sharing with you.
But before we dive into the resources, keep in mind that in today’s globalised and online economy, all of us are being forced to adopt web based tools for our work on a daily basis. As travel and business expansion continues to grow – in order for entrepreneurs and business leaders alike, to achieve their work objectives they have to take advantage of the technology and tools available to them.
For those sharp enough, there are a number of new web based opportunities that are also cropping up at an exponential rate. These opportunities will of course be missed if one lacks the correct tools of work.
For this reason, we will discuss a list of 51 essential web based tools which all entrepreneurs need to be familiar with. The primary focus is for the web and mobile since it gives a means for people to work anywhere. The list has also been categorized so as to make it easier to read through.
Schedule Management Tools
An entrepreneur will always have a lot of things to do, but limited time. Hence it is essential for them to have a schedule management tool to help them to; keep track of time, keep lists of goals, prioritize the goals, and even share the schedule with third parties. The following online tools fit the job requirement.
1. Time Assistant – This is a time sheet software designed specifically for use by business executives and entrepreneurs as well.
2. Toodledo – Web based to do list.
3. Harvest – A simple and reliable time tracker.
4. MonkeyOn – A tool for management tasks that have been delegated to other people.
5. FunctionFox (http://www.functionfox.com/) – Similar to Time Assistant, but with an additional benefit of some project management functionality.
Project management Tools
Entrepreneurs rely heavily on principles of project management to achieve their goals. Listed below is a list of the most important project management tools.
6. Proposal Kit – Used for managing project proposals.
7. ConceptShare – A tool that facilitates sharing of designs.
8. Wridea – This is an idea generation tool that entrepreneurs can use to help generate project ideas.
9. ActiveCollab – This is a fully fledged project management tool, that can handle everything related to the projects at hand.
Financial Accounting Tools
This set of tools will help in keeping track of financial operations (invoices sent and payments received or made), then based on these data, generate any required statements and balance sheets. Some even go ahead to support financial analysis.
10. SimplyBill – A simple invoice generator software.
11. Quickbooks – Fully packaged financial software designed for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
12. Freshbooks – An invoicing tool that is designed for freelancing and independent entrepreneurs. It automatically generate invoices and sends them to respective clients based on a time tracking mechanism.
13. LessAccounting – This software tool is designed for entrepreneur who are not well versed with deep accounting concepts, or simply don’t have the time to spend concentrating on the books. It simplifies all accounting operations. People tend to think of it as a lightweight version of quick books.
Legal Tools
Understanding the law of the land in your work location is of vital important. Several tools exist to ensure that you do not breach certain rules while on your entrepreneurial pursuits.
14. My New Company – Provides general information required for startups.
15. Docracy – Is a free online library of legal documents from several countries.
16.Copyright – This tool outlines the copyright law as written in the US constitution. The same law is somehow universal, since most countries have a similar version of it.
17. AIGA Form of Agreement – This is a standard form of agreement put in a template for use by design service providers.
18. CreativeCommons – This is a central location for acquiring licences on pretty much any idea, service or product.
Job Delegation Tools
Mobile entrepreneurs will often need to delegate tasks to third parties whenever they need it done quickly and efficiently. Listed below are some popular channels that may be used to outsource labour.
19. We Work Remotely – Here you will find full time web designers and programmers at affordable rates.
20. SlashDot – You can hire IT professionals from this portal.
21. Guru – Freelancer listing service with job board
22. Elance – Here you can hire a freelancer for any type of task.
23. ODesk – Similar to Elance.
24. I Writer – You can hire writing experts from this portal.
25. Fiverr – Here you can get almost any service for only 5 USD.
Business Process Management Tools
This set of tools help in managing daily business processes and transactions. One key process in a business is communication.
26. HighRise – Keeps track of communications with potential clients, clients, your own staff, re-distributors and your suppliers.
27. Campfire – A platform for group chats and file sharing.
28. Central Desktop – Provides a shared work-space for group projects. It also has a teleconferencing feature.
29. Google Apps – This is a platform for acquiring hundreds of communication and collaboration tools which the business needs.
30. Breeze – This tool manages your emails and newsletter campaigns.
31. Business-Paper – Tool for generating business cards.
32. GoToMeeting – A platform scheduling and conducting online meetings.
33. Google Forms – Used to generate survey forms for clients to respond to.
34. Work – Provides guides for running SMEs.
35. SBA – Small Business Administration, provides consultation service on how to run businesses.
36. Paypal – An online payment system. Can be used to either send or receive payments for products or services online. Paypal doesnt work in some countries due to operational policies.
37. Skrill – Similar to Paypal. Their policies of use are however less strict.
38. Payoneer – Useful for making bulk payment. It also operates on a global scale hence most suitable way for paying your team of freelancers.
39. Escrow – Online payment system that ensure both buyer and seller of a service are protected from being conned/ripped off by each other.
40. XE – A currency conversion tool. It is suitable for international transactions.
41. Trendwatching – A tool that provides insightful analysis on consumer trends
Revenue Generating and Advertisement Tools
For entrepreneurs who already have web presence, the following tools can provide a good stream of passive income. Some of the can also be used to advertise yourself to the masses.
42. Matomy SEO – They design text ads and distribute the to subscribed advertisers. Through this ads, your product or service gets more publicity and hence more sales.
43. Adbrite – Similar to Matomy SEO.
44. AdEngage – Similay to Adbrite and Matomy SEO
45. Adwords – Similar to the four above, the only exception being that the ads will be posted on google search results. This tends to guarantee more traffic as when compared to all other forms of text based ads.
46. Professional On The Web – Get yourself Listed
Other General Tools
47. Dropbox – This a cloud based storage space facility that all entrepreneurs mus subscribe to.
48. Review Me – Here you can submit your site URL to be reviewed by professional web critics and bloggers. Such analysis can help you know how to improve your it.
49. Cloudmark – This is a tool you can use to block spam messages from your online systems.
50.TechInline – This is a web app that helps you to remotely access your desktop.
51. Protolize – This is a universal directory of web resources.
In conclusion, I have to state that there are many other tools which can do the same tasks as the ones outlined above. It’s up to you to find out what else is out there that can really suit your business need. But I hope this can give you a head start!
