My Favorite Business Web Apps

If you hadn’t noticed lately, the web is partying like its 1999. We are back into the thick of web start-ups and entrepreneurs once again rushing to grab cleverly misspelled domain names in the hopes of being the next big thing on the Internet.

The latest craze is software as a service, called web applications. Although they have been around for a while, they have really taken off in the last 12 months. A web application is software that doesn’t reside on your computer, but is hosted through the Internet. Typically, users log in with a user name and password to access the software. The main advantage is that you have access to your software from any computer, anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. In addition, you don’t have to worry about losing your data, since it’s not on your computer.

The biggest problem people have with web applications is that if the site goes down, you cannot get to your information. In some cases, this rules out using a web application for certain things. For example, if you were doing all your documents and spreadsheets using Google Docs, and Google went down (yes, it’s happened) at a time when you HAD to have those documents, it would be completely out of your control. On the contrary, if you have software on your computer, and your computer breaks, you can borrow one and use a backup file in extremely important circumstances. Although it may be tricky, you will at least feel like you have some control.

That said, many web applications are great. With all these choices available, though, do any of them make the life of a small business owner easier? After sifting through, using, and testing a bunch of different examples, here is a list of my favorites. I think that the following applications can and will make the life of a small business owner easier, eliminate some redundancy, and prevent making big mistakes.

Gmail. Are you still using Outlook? See the light and come to the folderless system of email organization. You can have Gmail access all of your email addresses, and searching for anything takes seconds, not hours like in outlook. Gmail can be accessed with any web-accessible phone or any computer connected to the internet. Their calandar and contacts still need some work, but they are much improved. If you want your email life to be simpler, leave outlook for the stuffy corporations. Use Gmail. In three days, you will wonder how you ever lived without it.

Cost: Free

Jott. You always have your cell phone with you, but taking down a note can be a pain. Especially with Text-messaging challenged folks like my self. Jott allows you to call a number and send notes to your self via their voice recognition software. I have found the system to be much better and simpler than I would have thought. What’s more, is you can put contacts into your Jott account and send them notes. If that wasn’t enough, Jott connects to Twitter, Facebook and more so you can Jott your status updates. Finally, Jott connects to a plethora of other web applications (including Tsheets below) to make your life easier. The basic membership is free, but $4/month will get some good extra features.

Cost: Basic, free; Regular, $4/month; Pro, $13/month

Tsheets- I’ve said this before and I will say it again. Even when you are working on fixed-cost jobs, you should be tracking your time. Knowing precisely how much time you spend on a project will help in a boat-load of financial decisions. Then, of course, there are those clients who insist on being billed for time and materials. You will certainly need accurate time record keeping for them. Tsheets lets you “clock-in” from anywhere in the world using the Internet, text messages, or even calling it in with Jott. Reporting is above reproach and the time can be exported to Quickbooks. (You may need a little help with that, but after the first time, its a snap). Tsheets now works with Freshbooks, described below.

Cost: Basic, free (no reporting); Freelancer, $10/month; Business, $20/month; Platinum, $100/month

Freshbooks- Quickbooks has an online version, but it doesn’t exactly get rave reviews for simplicity. Enter Freshbooks, a new way to approach bookkeeping. It was built around freelancing professionals for easy, accurate invoices. They have improved their offerings, so it provides much more reporting and capabilities. They steer clear of all conventional accounting terms and keep it simple. The point is to make it simple enough that you WANT to keep your books and feel better about managing your business finances.

Cost: Free for “moped”; $39/month for “private jet”; $149/month for “time machine”; other options between.

These are just a few of the many web applications available to the general public. Many of them are free, and others are minimal. Do some exploring and see if there are any innovators in a type of software you need. Let me know what you find!

Mike Freeman
Maine Small Business IT

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