Small Business Tools

As you grow your business you will probably have many questions.

  • What should I put in a contract?
  • How do I keep in touch with my customers?
  • How can I manage invoices?
  • I need an example of XYZ.

Fortunately there are a host of resources available on the internet, mostly for free. A good collection of such resources can be found at the Mashable blog .

Here are a few of my other favorites.

1. Google. There are a host of features that Google offers for free (some of which we will talk about in future posts). Most notably are the email and calendar features. You can use Google to access any POP email account you may have. You can even use it to aggregate multiple accounts. Quite handy. They also offer tons of storage space so it is not likely that you will run out of disk space. The calendar feature also integrates very nicely with the email.

2. DocStoc.com. A great source for documents that you may need; from rental agreements to band contracts. As always you will need to carefully review (and possibly discuss with your attorney) what you find, but a great deal of the legwork has already been done.

3. Morguefile. A huge repository of free stock photos. They are not as slick as some of the pay sites (such as stock.xchng and iStockphoto), but there are some great ones that may help you design a flyer or brochure in a pinch. Usually all the photographers ask for are to let them know how their work is used, and often they are happy to hear that someone has used their stuff.

Hope this helps!

Best of luck in all your endeavors!