the Portal

image by Adrienne Mierzwa on PhotoBucket.com

Is the “cloud,” like Bali Hai in South Pacific, calling to all of us? I wanted to make this post mostly about Internet-based applications — freeware and some “freemium.” As it turns out, I’m not sure cloud computing works for every small business scenario. Mainly the choices are between software you access online or software you buy and install on your own computer. Think about it: think about the times you’ve lost Internet access versus the times you’ve been on the road and away from your office network. What are the biggest issues for you right now? Where are your capability gaps?

The main thing to ask about any free software is: what’s the catch? Are they just offering it to us free for awhile and, when we’re all hooked, they’ll decide to up the ante? Or, for the “free,” we have to put up with a lot of ads from companies who underwrite the free part? For these apps we do embrace, I recommend we all have a Plan B — because sometimes “free” turns out to be “too good to be true.” At a minimum, if you visit a prospect app’s Web site and you see a big flag that says “free 30-day trial,” you need to investigate what the rest of the year will cost you and analyze the return on investment (ROI).

Let’s take a look at some specific tools for small business and my personal favorites in each category — some are free, some aren’t. The ones that aren’t free, however, are well worth the price.

Office Suite (documents, spreadsheets, presentations)

For small businesses, the best alternative to Microsoft Office is, hands down, Google Docs. It offers the three basics: word processor, spreadsheet and presentations, and quite a lot more as well. Like Office, Google offers calendar and e-mail programs and collaborative file-sharing. These programs, Calendar for example, are incredibly adaptable. You can set them up for multiple projects or clients and sync to your mobile phone. From working with a few client teams using these tools, I’m a convert. In fact, I’m a zealot!

I bought my last computer, however, before I had those choices. I needed a full-bodied office suite and chose Microsoft Office 2007 Professional. I bought it as much for Access and Visio as for the basics: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. And it has served me well. But here’s the deal: there is no “upgrade” for Office 2010. For me to get the latest release of programs I bought three years ago will cost me $499. (Or only $399 if installing onto a new computer.) My plan is to enjoy the functionality of Office as I begin to phase into Google and these other great applications.

Productivity

A lot of things fall in this category. These are my favorites.

For time tracking, I like Toggl. For the basic product, five or fewer users, this time-tracking software is free. If you run a slightly larger operation, a variety of plans are available from $5 to $79 a month. I’ve found this program to be a real eye-opener for me in terms of how I think I spend my time versus how I really spend it. If you want to track, professionally, all your workday activities, this tool will help you identify all your billable activities and all the time you waste as well.

Looking for inspiration? Start tracking all your article ideas, business brainstorms, Web sites you’d like to emulate in Evernote. Here’s the caveat: Evernote may lure you with “free,” in order to tempt you into a paid subscription later. Maybe the paid subscription is worth the money. For me, still a licensed owner of Microsoft Office, there’s an alternative: OneNote. OneNote loads with many Office suite configurations. If so, use it. It’s synchable, it has many if not most of Evernote‘s capabilities, and you can still access your data when, on those rare occasions, your Internet connection fails. At a minimum, do your research and then decide for yourself. I find the programs very similar. I’m attracted to Evernote for its cachet but continue to use OneNote because, frankly, I’ve already paid for it and it’s “almost” identical in functionality.

For anti-virus protection, without a doubt, my money’s on AVG. For the last year, I’ve had one PC on Norton (for $40-some a year) and two laptops on AVG for free. My protection, the number of reportable incidents, is essentially the same for all three. And, given a choice between free and $50+ a year for the same protection, which would you choose?

Meeting

Gag me with a spoon — whether it’s real-time, in-person or “virtual,” they wear me out. But, if they’re as unavoidable in your world as mine, here are two great tools to cozy up to. Skype. I was not an early adopter of this software, but I’m now an avid convert. Skype affords the opportunity to video-conference and, the secret of success in this medium, you get to set the ground rules. Do so — then use it. I think you’ll find, as I do, that sometimes video conferencing saves you (or your client) money and (if so) what’s not to like?

If your meetings involve white boards or complex charts and schedules, you maybe need to check out Go To Meeting. The sweet thing about this software is you can share documents, on screen in real time, with whoever you’re in a meeting yet. This is, however, one of those applications that’s free for the first 30 days and then it’ll cost you. Some $468 a year. Fortunately, up to now, I’ve been invited to other people’s meetings, and have been spared this outlay. If you’re in a lot of meetings, looking to save some travel dollars, $468 may not seem that high a price to pay. It’s a great product if you can afford it.

Internet

We’ll talk about e-mail next time. But for now my, and most smart people’s, Internet browser of choice is Mozilla Firefox. Given all the assaults on Internet Explorer (and other Windows applications) this is a no-brainer. Firefox delivers the goods without a lot of bugs and glitches and — a hint for next time — it’s sister app Thunderbird for e-mail is not too shabby either.

PDF Creation

Four or five times a week, I fax a document to someone or send them a .pdf file. I use Adobe Acrobet 8.0 because I’d already paid for it — before I’d identified viable alternatives. If you’re still on the fence and deciding, check out Cute PDF. It’s gotten great reviews from a number of freelancing and small business Web sites. It’s available as freeware or a slightly more robust version for $49.95 a year. Either way, it’s probably cheaper than Adobe’s barest-bones version of Acrobat.

Project Management

I learned project management functions (tracking, planning, etc) in Microsoft Project. And, frankly, someone will have to pay me a lot of money to ever get me to use it again. Project’s newest competitor is Basecamp. It too comes with a free 30-day trial and then goes for $288 to $1788 a year. If you manage a lot of projects (event planning, publishing schedules, etc) with tons of moving parts, this software will more than pay for itself. It is SO much more adaptable and user-friendly than Project, there is not comparison. If you later need to “graduate” to something more robust, I’ll be surprised. In any event, the sojourn through this application will not be a wasted exercise. You’ll be smarter and more efficient in all your planning exercises (to include your day-to-day time management) and in how you think through the components of a project.

Business Bookkeeping

A lot of people I know and many more online are talking about FreshBooks for their invoicing and billing. They offer a free version that may be sufficient for your needs but this isn’t a full-service accounting program. Another online program getting a lot of buzz is FreeAgent, which has more capability and goes for $240 a year. Or you, like me, can buy a copy of QuickBooks Pro for $159 and use it for longer than a year. With QuickBooks Pro, you can have up to 5 authorized users and access over 100 custom reports. This is one instance I have trouble seeing why anyone would pay more for less product, other than needing an Internet-based product accessible from varying locations. If so, you might want to look at QuickBooks’ online version. It comes in two editions: the Basic for $120 a year (2 users, 40 reports) and Plus (4 users, 65+ reports) for $420.

Social Media

To be continued. This is an entire topic in itself — not so much an “essential” building block for small businesses. Later, guys. I promise.

Meanwhile, here are some other great small business resources.

• Cool PC Apps: the Top 50 PC Applications for Freelancers, from Freelance Switch
• The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Web 2.0: Top 25 Apps to Grow Your Business
• The Five Best Small Business Software Applications

Be sure to check out Part 1 of this series, below. And then let me hear from you! What tools are you using that weren’t covered here? What challenges have you not yet cracked the code on? Someone out there is bound to have the answer.

• Part 1, a Backup System That Works