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Copyright 2006 Invent Your Future Enterprises All rights reserved Privacy Policy Conditions of Use |
| SMALL BUSINESS RESOURCES |
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Top Tools for New Business Success
2007 is really the most amazing time in history to be starting a business. There are so many incredible
websites, tools and software programs available to help you be successful, and to make you look like you
are a far bigger business than you actually are. We couldn't help but share some of our favorites.
Please note, this is an entirely biased sample - it is based on what we are using, what our friends are using
and what small business people we know recommend. We fully accept that this is not a complete list nor is it
trying to be.
There are so many great tools out there that we don't know about, we certainly don't mind if you send your
suggestions for things to include. BUT, these have to be tools, websites, etc. that you use and recommend.
Send an email to our editor, Denise Brosseau.
websites, tools and software programs available to help you be successful, and to make you look like you
are a far bigger business than you actually are. We couldn't help but share some of our favorites.
Please note, this is an entirely biased sample - it is based on what we are using, what our friends are using
and what small business people we know recommend. We fully accept that this is not a complete list nor is it
trying to be.
There are so many great tools out there that we don't know about, we certainly don't mind if you send your
suggestions for things to include. BUT, these have to be tools, websites, etc. that you use and recommend.
Send an email to our editor, Denise Brosseau.
Building Your Website
Yahoo! Small Business - After a lot of looking around, we chose to create our website with Yahoo! Small
Business. They have a lot of templates to choose from, VERY easy tools, and a quick learning curve. I built our
entire 20+ page site in 2 (long) days over Thanksgiving weekend. Only warnings - occasional bugs will freeze
the site while you are building it. Luckily, your data is saved when you restart. Add a blog or calendar too!
TO CONSIDER: Google - this is the newest emergent in this competitive field. It wasn't available when we
started our site, but one of my friends says it's quite easy and inexpensive. I found their tools a little too basic.
Yahoo! Small Business - After a lot of looking around, we chose to create our website with Yahoo! Small
Business. They have a lot of templates to choose from, VERY easy tools, and a quick learning curve. I built our
entire 20+ page site in 2 (long) days over Thanksgiving weekend. Only warnings - occasional bugs will freeze
the site while you are building it. Luckily, your data is saved when you restart. Add a blog or calendar too!
TO CONSIDER: Google - this is the newest emergent in this competitive field. It wasn't available when we
started our site, but one of my friends says it's quite easy and inexpensive. I found their tools a little too basic.
Registering Domain Names
There are three places now that seem to be competing for your business when it comes to reserving domain
names.
Their cost as of December 2006 was $8.99/domain with a lot of additional services available. Occasionally
they run specials. Please use our referral link - click on the little red picture!
Yahoo! Small Business - Domain name reservations cost about $9.95. Add an extra $9.00 for keeping your
contact info private. The good thing is that Yahoo! Small Business also offers some great web building tools.
See below for more information.
Google - the latest entrant in the domain name game. $10 registration fee includes the privacy feature that
others charge far more for. Lots of other great features too.
There are three places now that seem to be competing for your business when it comes to reserving domain
names.
Their cost as of December 2006 was $8.99/domain with a lot of additional services available. Occasionally
they run specials. Please use our referral link - click on the little red picture!
Yahoo! Small Business - Domain name reservations cost about $9.95. Add an extra $9.00 for keeping your
contact info private. The good thing is that Yahoo! Small Business also offers some great web building tools.
See below for more information.
Google - the latest entrant in the domain name game. $10 registration fee includes the privacy feature that
others charge far more for. Lots of other great features too.
Ring Central - Portable voicemail and a whole lot more!I'm sure there must be a lot of these services but when I learned about this from one of my small business
friends I got very excited. For only a few dollars a month, you can set up your business with a company phone
number (800# optional), with voicemail. In the Pro version, you even get multiple extensions for everyone in
the company. You can use your phone or a microphone attached to your computer (higher quality) to record
your voicemail messages. They even offer voice talent for a very modest fee to have truly professional quality
for your corporate voicemail recorded messages.
The truly great thing is that you set each phone extension to ring to whatever phone you want - your home
number, mobile number, etc. If you don't answer, the voicemail message is stored and sent to you by email or
instant message. If you do answer, you get a soft voice that comes on the line first to tell you it is your
business line. So if you are at the beach, you can choose to ignore the call and it goes to voicemail. Other
wise, you press 1 to accept the call. All very professional and seamless to the caller. Voicemail messages are
sent as .WAV files attached to an email and an alert is sent to your desktop. Great small business product!
Please use our referral link.
Note: If you want to listen to your .WAV file messages on your Treo, check out mVoiceMail from MotionApps.
Linksys/Skype - One of my friends showed me a cool new Linksys Skype phone he got for his wife's small
business. The idea is you save on your calls from your office by using the internet as your phone carrier
instead of a land line. Skype is only about $15 for a year of unlimited calls in the US and Canada. The phone is
in the $60 range and plugs into the USB drive on your computer. The wireless Skype-only version is available
here . The wireless two-line version is the
The second line can be configured as a land line. There are also versions of this phone that can run off a
wireless network - rather than being plugged into a computer, but my friend tells me these are not yet really
bug-free and new versions should be coming out soon and are worth waiting for. If you have a
, you can also use that with Skype, without needing a handset at all. Please use
our affiliate links (embedded) to order any of these phones. To order Skype, here's our link.
Yahoo! Messenger - I started using this almost-free service from Yahoo! a few months ago to make calls to a
partner in England. You do have to sign up for an account and deposit an initial payment into your account - I
put in $10.00 and have not yet used that up. The quality was usually good but there one call did cut out and
another was garbled. If you are patient, this is certainly a cheap alternative - cheaper even than Skype!
Virtual Voicemail, Internet Telephony & Skype Phones
Online Backup
Without a formal IT department, most of us forget that very basic but truly important necessity - backing up
our computers. There are a few options that have appeared to help make this a more palatable task.
Carbonite - How about automated backup for $50/year? Now, given the price of an external drive, this is
not really a great deal, except when you think about it for more than 2 minutes! What if you buy that
external drive but then never back up your files to it? Or, heaven forbid, what if the office burns down?
Now your backup is gone, along with your original files. So a service like Carbonite looks like a terrific deal,
doesn't it? You set it up once and forget it and there is a LOT of storage space included for that modest
fee. Don't think about it...get it set up now. Use our referral link please!
X-Drive - Another option is to have an online back-up area where you can dump all your files. This one
gives you 5GB of storage for FREE!
More Great Stuff Continued Here
Without a formal IT department, most of us forget that very basic but truly important necessity - backing up
our computers. There are a few options that have appeared to help make this a more palatable task.
Carbonite - How about automated backup for $50/year? Now, given the price of an external drive, this is
not really a great deal, except when you think about it for more than 2 minutes! What if you buy that
external drive but then never back up your files to it? Or, heaven forbid, what if the office burns down?
Now your backup is gone, along with your original files. So a service like Carbonite looks like a terrific deal,
doesn't it? You set it up once and forget it and there is a LOT of storage space included for that modest
fee. Don't think about it...get it set up now. Use our referral link please!
X-Drive - Another option is to have an online back-up area where you can dump all your files. This one
gives you 5GB of storage for FREE!
More Great Stuff Continued Here
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