August 9, 2010

Software as a service (SaaS) and all things related to cloud computing have grown enormously popular for small business use of the last few years, and why not. Many of the services needed to run today’s businesses can be acquired for little of no cost and allow even the tiniest of start-ups to do things once only achieved by much larger organizations.

Access to online tools from virtually anywhere opens up markets, expands access to vendors and talent and makes collaboration something more easily done, even with internal teams.

The list below is a round-up of some of the tools available today. It’s conceivable that organizations could run their entire business with little more than a web browser.

Marketing

• HeapCRM - Very intuitive product built specifically for small business
• Infusionsoft – CRM with ecommerce, email marketing and affiliate modules built right in
• ZohoCRM - Part of the Zoho family and an nice alternative to Salesforce.com for those that don't need all the extras

Graphic Design

• Sliderocket - Powerful way to build and share online presentation
• WebNode – HTML and css editor robust enough to design and maintain entire web sites
• Aviary - Suite of online graphic design tools for image editing, color and effects editing, illustration and even audio editing
• Pixlr - Extremely popular free online photo editor
• Jaycut – online video editing set of tools that also allows you to install video editing on your site for user generated campaigns

Management

• HyperOffice - Project and business management suite that is great for collaboration teams
• Central Desktop - Project management that allows you to easily build wiki style intranets and operation's manuals
• Torch - Integrates nicely with Google Apps and allows project management with bidding and invoicing built in.
• Box.net - Simple file sharing and storage that plays well with mobile devices.
• Mozy.com - Automatic and scheduled online back-ups for all that stuff you still keep on a computer.
• Amazon S3 - S3 is just online storage that is part of Amazon's Web Services offering, but you can store and stream tons of content for very little here.  
• Mindmeister – Online mind mapping and brainstorming tool
• Evernote - Great tool for all your notes, thoughts, bookmarks and web clippings. Syncs well with mobile devices

Productivity

• Zoho.com - Zoho has become the mother of all online offerings. In fact, you could probably run your entire business with their suite of tools alone
• Acrobat.com - Adobe's play in the application word of spreadsheets, docs, and presentations. More useful than Google Apps to me.
• Google Apps - If you are a Google user than it's pretty natural to see how this Officelike set of tools would make sense.
• 30boxes - Easiest way to create and share calendars online.
• Google Calendar - Google's calendar system is free and syncs with other desktop and mobile calendars well.
• Tungle.me - Primarily a scheduling calendar for groups that need to find times that are open for all to meet.
• Time Bridge - Does time tracking, scheduling and sharing well.
• Tokbox – Nice group video chat tool that allows groups large and small to meet via video without downloading software.
• Wobzip – online file compression tool that can replace software such as WinZip and StuffIt.
• Zamar – Upload files to Zamar and convert them to the format you need - mp4 to mov or mov to flv.
• Meebo – online based group chat. No need to download desktop clients as all chat is done via browser (nice way to offer chat to web visitors).

Finance

• QuickBooks Online - QuickBooks, but online. Multiple user options and payroll add-on and a simple, free version.
• Freshbooks - Great time and billing software with lots of personal options
• Mint - More of a personal finance tool, but small businesses find it easy to use. Very nice budget tool.
• Toggl -  Simple time tracking tool

People

• Effortless HR - Employee HRMS/HRIS system online.
• SimplyHR - Personnel management and recruiting tools.

You can even have a cloud operating system with iCloud.

This isn't the complete list of applications. For some of these categories there are dozens of options, but this should getting you started realizing the breadth of opportunities available for small business web apps.

Related Topics

• Marketing

Related keywords

John Jantsch, Article, online apps, cloud computing, Duct Tape Marketing

Join the conversation ( 15 )

• Bob McAllaster 1 year 8 months and 30 days ago

  

  Some new ones for me here. I use Zoho, Evernote, Dropbox and I would add to this list, OpenOffice.org for those looking at a suite of software in place of (and it is free) MS Office.

• Ishaka Greenwell 1 year 9 months and 0 days ago

  

  This is an excellent list and resource. Thank you for compiling and sharing it.

• Espree Devora 1 year 9 months and 2 days ago

  

  You forgot WorkingPoint.com for small business invoicing and Codeita.com for web development... Love love love Box, Evernote and MindMeister. Oh! Also Shoeboxed.com is so rockstar at organizing and maintaining business cards. Its like a Netflix for business cards and receipts.

• Jerry McNamara 1 year 9 months and 12 days ago

  

  Thanks for the helpful article to help our new small business owners--like me! I hope to add more value to SMB owners through my website design business http://www.wowyouwebsitedesign.com. These tools will certainly help me! Thanks again for equipping me!

• Dena Stern 1 year 9 months and 14 days ago

  

  Great list! We use a lot of these to manage our business and some I've never heard of before. Thanks so much.I use WorkingPoint (www.workingpoint.com) as a contractor who's running my own business right now and I work with them writing their blog posts. WorkingPoint is another great financial tool for really small businesses (0-9).WorkingPoint is online, costs $10 a month for premium and offers a way to do Accounting, Invoicing, Expenses management, Financial reporting, Tax reporting, Contact management, Inventory management and bank integration. The best feature is the dashboard, which contains a daily operating report, a profit and loss module, areas that provide feedback on accounts payable and receivable and other customizable options. The premium membership includes unlimited Profit & Loss (Income Statement), balance sheet, bill and expenses tracking, double-entry bookkeeping, contact management, inventory management, cash management, online company profile, customisable business dashboard, data import/export, firewall protection, SSL encryption, data backups, unlimited users, unlimited customers, tax reports, payment collections through PayPal and recurring invoicing plans. Basically everything you need if you're running a small business.

• Jennifer Escalona 1 year 9 months and 14 days ago

  

  Don't forget Outright.com. Free bookkeeping, free integration with PayPal, eBay, Freshbooks, Shoeboxed, etc. and the question and answer community is really invaluable! Outright.com.

• ANTHONY GARMONT 1 year 9 months and 15 days ago

  

  For accounting, I also like http://www.xero.com and http://www.workingpoint.com. In my opinion Xero is a bit more polished and "finished" than Working Point, but if you need something simple, Working Point would work well. It beats going to the "Dark Side" (Quickbooks).

• Peter Osborne 1 year 9 months and 15 days ago

  

  John, Great list but (at least) one quibble: I jumped on the QuickBooks Online link when I saw free, but it looks like it's free for the first month and then at least $9.95 per month from then on. Not sure I'd characterize that as free. Not sure how many more on your list fall into that category.

• John Jantsch 1 year 9 months and 15 days ago

  

  @FileManagement - Zoho Creator, part of the Zoho group I mention has one - http://www.zoho.com/creator/index.html and Intuit has something called QuickBase that I've used a number of times as well

• TRUDY PHILLIPS 1 year 9 months and 15 days ago

  

  I had hoped to see a simple to use , free or small fee, database program on the list. Can;t find one anywhere. Yrs ago used PFS Profiessional File. It was Dos and did not convert to Windows. Access and Lotus are difficult to get programed by non-programers. Nice list however, Thanks for sharing it.

• Bernard Boulanger Afkarweb 1 year 9 months and 15 days ago

  

  Nice list, thank you...Just in Graphic : it's Aviary, with a"a" ;-)

• Rusty Speidel 1 year 9 months and 15 days ago

  

  Don't forget @b2bee (http://www.getthebee.com), a simpler and more cost-effective alternative to Freshbooks and Quickbooks.

• Joe Tester 1 year 9 months and 15 days ago

  

  IE8 logged out comment

• ROY MOREJON 1 year 9 months and 16 days ago

  

  Great list of tools for business owners. I recently published the best states for entrepreneurs: http://roymorejon.com/best-states-for-entrepreneurs-2011/ which should help business owners lower overhead costs even more.

• Rene Power 1 year 9 months and 16 days ago

  

  A blog post that every reader should bookmark for immediate or future use. Fantastic list, we're all indebted! We're conditioned to default to Abobe, Microsoft etc but the truth is you really don't have to. Bootstrapping is the name of the game!