Feel free to follow JD and Wage Slave Rebel on Twitter @jdbentley
IN my 2+ years since leaving a regular 9-to-5 I’ve been able to create a pretty slick list of tools I use daily that help me get things done. These are tools (either physical or online) that I believe will help aspiring online entrepreneurs (and possibly established online entrepreneurs) to be more productive and more effective at growing their businesses and expanding their opportunities.
1. MacBook
Photo Credit: Steve Keys
If you need to be on the computer, chances are your goal isn’t to use a computer. Your goal is to write a post, email a client, outline a novel, hire a designer, update a sales page. This is the problem I’ve always had with Microsoft Windows. Windows is an operating system for people who want to use a computer (that is, wrestle with errors and fight off viruses). Mac OS X is an operating system for people who want to do things. Apple has created a highly polished, nearly transparent environment for just getting shit done and I know that it’s a huge reason I’ve done as well as I have. While Windows is utilitarian enough to do what you need to do, the experience of actually doing it ranges anywhere from absolutely miserable to okay. For whatever reason, developers of most Mac apps are very detail oriented and create beautiful and efficient interfaces that do what you want them to do 99% of the time. Using a MacBook just means one less thing to worry about. (And yes, you can right-click.)
2. Notebooks
Photo Credit: MoleskineUS
I love Moleskine notebooks. I have three. One is a sketchbook which I use for brainstorming, one is a regular ruled notebook which I use to collect ideas for business projects, and the third (my favorite) is a panoramic weekly planner that helps me keep track of todos as well as weekly goals and contacts. Now, while I enjoy the design of the Moleskines, for what I use the sketchbook and regular notebooks for any notebook would suffice, but the panoramic planner is the only I’ve seen of its kind. I generally have a problem keeping track of details and big-picture stuff at the same time and I’m also the sort of person who needs to see some kind of physical evidence of their goals and accomplishments. If you’ve tried lots of GTD stuff or lots of different apps like Things or Hit List and you still feel overwhelmed, I’d definitely recommend that you pick up a planner. It’s a lot faster and much more convenient than tracking things on a computer.
3. Google Reader
Google Reader
If you’re going to blog you need to be reading at least a few other blogs just to stay on top of things. Even if you don’t blog, you’ll probably need to follow some blogs within your industry. Google Reader is the single best way to do this primarily because not only can you view your feeds on the Google Reader homepage, but it also allows you to sync all your feeds across multiple devices. For me that’s its single best feature. Until recently I had always hated feed readers because I would end up reading the same things from my MacBook, to the desktop, to my iPhone. And even worse, each of these devices had a different app for reading feeds so I was actually maintaining three different lists. Needless to say, it didn’t last long. I’d religiously read blogs for almost a week at a time, then I’d get overwhelmed and not read any of them for months. Google Reader fixed this by consolidating all of my feeds into one place and syncing read and unread posts across all devices. The only thing I don’t like about Google Reader is its interface. I find it clunky, but that’s easily fixed. If you have the GreaseMonkey extension for Firefox, you can find different styles at userscripts.org. The screenshot I’ve used is what my Google Reader looks like.
4. Reeder
Reeder for iPhone
Google Reader wasn’t enough to keep me reading feeds though. To be honest I’ve only very recently been reading blogs on a daily basis. This is mostly due to Reeder for iPhone. Reeder is a feed reader that syncs with Google Reader to display your subscriptions and it does this really well. It also lets you tweet posts, add them to Instapaper or Delicious, share them, make notes about them, and on and on. My favorite thing about it is that, besides working really well, it looks damn good. If you’ve ever seen feed readers on the iPhone you’ll know that most of them look like really ugly lists. Not so with Reeder as you can see from the screenshot. The reason Reeder keeps me reading every day is because it’s pocket-sized. It’s a lot more convenient to read blogs on a screen the size of a small book than it is to read it on a laptop screen. Reeder makes the entire experience a lot smoother.
5. Outright
Outright
I hate bookkeeping. It’s tedious. It’d definitely not the reason I got into this whole business owner thing, but it’s absolutely essential to success. The good news is, there’s an online tool that makes bookkeeping less of a hassle. It’s called Outright and it’s free! It does so much. It lets you track your income (including invoices from FreshBooks and PayPal) and your expenses (including reminding you to send 1099 forms to contractors and freelancers). It will send you reminders about quarterly tax deadlines and show quarterly profits. For a financial idiot like myself, this is the best tool I could have found. It does everything I need it to do without bothering me much.
6. PayPal
PayPal
Before I was seriously into internet business, I just assumed that PayPal was a service that only really offered any benefit if you used eBay, and since I didn’t use eBay I didn’t bother with it. But if you plan on accepting money from clients or customers, PayPal is the single best option when you’re starting out. There are other services you can use to send and receive money online, but PayPal is probably the most popular, the easiest to use, and best of all it’s free to sign up. After you sign up, PayPal only charges you a small percentage per transaction. I have used (and will continue to use) PayPal for any project I do that requires someone paying me, whether it’s design work for a client or selling ebooks. PayPal also integrates easily into most popular shopping cart and invoicing software.
7. FreshBooks
FreshBooks Invoicing App
PayPal brings us to FreshBooks. FreshBooks is a web application that handles time tracking and invoicing for projects. It’s great for if you are just starting out as a freelancer or even a service-based business owner. The great thing about FreshBooks is that it’s one of those sites that pays for itself. You can sign up for a free account that allows you to manage up to 3 clients and then, of course, after you reach the three client maximum, paying $19/month won’t be a problem! FreshBooks comes with time tracking tools if you are billing by the hour. These come in the form of Gadgets for Windows, Widgets for Mac and mobile apps if you’re away from the computer. You can also keep track of who has paid and who still owes you. Besides PayPal, the site can accept pretty much any payment service you would want to use. You even have the ability to send your invoices by snail mail. It’s just a really great service and I highly recommend it.
8. WordPress
WordPress Open Source Publishing Platform
WordPress is hands-down the single greatest app for running websites. Of course it is great for blogging, but you can use it to create, edit and manage every page of a website. You don’t even need to run a blog on your site to use it. It is the most popular blogging software in the world and is probably used by many of your favorite bloggers. As a freelancer or a business who needs to cultivate an online presence and interact with clients and customers, using a WordPress blog is one of the greatest things you can do. WordPress comes in two varieties. There’s WordPress.com which provides you with a blog hosted by Automattic (the folks behind WordPress) and there’s WordPress.org which provides you with the software to set up WordPress on your own server. WordPress is open source so you are free to add or edit anything you want or even fork it and create your own open source product. There are literally no limitations. WordPress is also really easy to use. If you’ve ever used Microsoft Word or OpenOffice, there’s really not a lot of difference except that things are in different (but logical) places. WordPress also has thousands of awesome free (and paid if you want) themes that can make your site look absolutely beautiful. Simple to use, free to use, beautiful, sign up at WordPress.com today or set it up on your own server.
9. Headway WordPress Theme
Headway Premium Theme
I’m very much a fan of open source projects. I never cared much for closed source premium WordPress themes that limit the rights of the user (think Thesis) because the people who put out such themes seem to be parasites to the WordPress community. And while I still feel this way in general and still wish that all these closed source themes would go open source, I was so blown away by the Headway theme that I actually bought it about a week ago and now use it to run this site. If you are setting up a site to promote your freelancing or to promote your business and you don’t want to screw around with themes that aren’t exactly what you want them to be, I highly recommend Headway. Although I’ve been designing and developing WordPress themes for two years, I was never completely comfortable with programming. I have more of a designer’s mind and designing was always my favorite part. With Headway’s visual editor, editing your theme is a lot like dragging and dropping things in Photoshop. You can add a custom header, add content boxes and widgetized sidebars, even custom design every single page. It is a really fantastic product and definitely worth what it costs.
10. Basecamp
Basecamp Project Management
This one is especially helpful if you are a freelancer who usually works with other freelancers or a business owner trying to keep your employees or contractors organized. Basecamp helps you manage the projects you are working on by creating milestones and todo lists for the project, assigning those todo lists to certain people, keeping track of when things are due and when they are late, uploading files related to the project, allowing clients or managers to comment on the files, and on and on. Unlike most project management solutions that focus on charts and numbers, Basecamp focuses on people. It is a tool that facilitates the communication and collaboration between everyone involved in the project.
What do you think?
- What are your essential tools for aspiring online entrepreneurs?
- What would you remove from the list?
- What would you add to the list?
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Hey, I'm JD. I'm a writer, web designer and contrarian entrepreneur. Wage Slave Rebel is a place where I (and others) explore alternative and ethical ways to earn a living apart from the corporate hierarchy. The goal of this site is to help people escape wage slavery and start reaping the full rewards of their skills and passions. 
Hey J.D.,
Thanks for the Reeder recommendation. Right now I just use the Google Reader website on my iphone but I’ve been looking for something better.
I also usually do all my feed reading in Google Reader on my desktop – totally necessary. I like to use Google Gears to download all my feed items and browse them in offline mode – really fast, and helps prevent the temptation to keep clicking over to check for new items in my reader =) .-= Sid Savara´s last blog ..7 Common Procrastination Excuses =-.
I like reading on the iPhone better, but it sure does make commenting a pain so on the desktop (I use a Mac) I’m trying to figure out what app to use. It would be an easy choice of NewsFire had syncing capabilities, but I’m sad to say it doesn’t. Anyway, the way I’m doing it now is I have feeds I want to read and retweet on Google Reader and the feeds I want to be sure to comment on loaded in NewsFire. It works but I’d really like to get a better system.
Checking offline is a pretty great thing. I have this love/hate relationship with the internet when I’m working. On the one hand, it’s so distracting, but on the other hand I feel like I can’t get things done without it. Gears on Reader is an interesting option for at least when I’m writing new posts. I’ll have to try that out.
Thanks!
Hey J D,
Great post as always. I find #5 and #9 to be eye openers. I am blown away with your recommendation of Headway, having heard you rant against paid themes. I am going to seriously look into it. I am not happy with anything out there, and I am not up to par on all the programming, heck, I am still in the dark ages of HTML, so your enthusiastic thumbs up for Headway is good to know.
Do you have an affiliate link for the Headway? I mean, I have known about Headway since it came out, directly from Michael, but if I am going to buy it on your recommendation, I want you to benefit from it.
Rasheed .-= Rasheed Hooda´s last blog ..The Magic of Commitment =-.
Yeah, I feel almost like a sellout for recommending Headway and ideally I’d like to see it open sourced. I would even say that WordPress should have this Visual Editor built in by default. That would kill 99% of the closed source themes out there.
As a designer, though, I’m sold on being able to add things without messing with code so I do recommend it, especially for people who are less geeky than me.
If you want to use an affiliate link, just click the link in the footer of this page where it says “Powered by Headway”. If you do click it I’d really appreciate it! You’re too kind, Rasheed!
JD,
Awesome ‘freakin post, man! I have been using some of the tools that you suggest here, but now I am going to start using Outright, too.
I have also started some budgeting in preparation for a Macbook purchase. I want to “go Mac” so badly and it’s only a matter of time!
Thanks so much for the recommendations.
-Dena .-= Dena´s last blog ..My Journey to Financial Freedom | Part 1: The Fall =-.
Outright is pretty much a lifesaver for me. I don’t know nearly as much as I should about bookkeeping. It makes it manageable.
As for the Macbook, I don’t want to sound like an Apple shill, but I love mine. Plenty of people complain that you can get a PC with the same hardware specifications for a lot cheaper, but until those computers run Mac OS X it’s just not worth it. People who develop for Mac tend to put a lot more care into their apps. I think you’d be happy with it.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hello fellow Mac user! I swear by my MacBook and try to convince anyone who will listen: once you go Mac, you never go back (to PC, that is)! One other things I find is essential for me is not exactly a tangible tool. Something to drive me, such as a motivational minute of meditation or at the extreme, some heart pumping sounds to get my mental juices flowing. .-= Lisa´s last blog ..Queen & Rodgers =-.
That should definitely be on a list like this. Motivation is really hard to come by on some days. Personally, I keep a “motivation” folder that has images of places I want to visit or things I want to do and articles that were written by people already in the position I’m working to get to.
Music is a great way to get motivated unless you tend to listen to indie folk (as I do), then music is kind of a reason to stay in bed. Haha.
Meditation is great, though. Sometimes I have to just stop and think about what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. Just slow down and get focused. It’s a great way to keep things on track.
One day, I promise to eventually fall into the lap of Apple and let them cradle me to web development peace. Just not today. My PC lives to fight another day.
David Damron LifeExcursion & The Minimalist Path .-= David Damron´s last blog ..Pray LESS & Do MORE =-.
Haha. My main problem is with Windows. I prefer, in this order:
I like not having to screw with viruses or adware. Windows PCs get the job done though.
Great selection of tools. Right there with you for the Macbook Pro, Moleskine, and Google Reader. Will have to check out the iphone app. I’ve just been using the mobile version of Google Reader.
For anyone always on the go and running between their phone and computer, I’d also add Evernote as a must have catch all. I write all my blog posts on there since it syncs automatically and I can write and edit offline for when I’m commuting or flying anywhere. .-= Kristin´s last blog ..tools for turning tricks =-.
I’ve been using plain ole TextEdit for writing posts before putting them in WordPress. Evernote is brilliant. I’m going to download it right now. I’ve been meaning to try it.
Fantastic post J.D. and not because you recommended us (though, sure, that helps). I’m glad we’re helping you succeed; do me a favor, and let me know what more we can do at Outright.com
Glad you could stop by, Paul. I’ve only been using Outright for about 3 weeks or a month now and right now I only really know enough about bookkeeping to get by so I don’t have any suggestions for what more you can do. For where I’m at Outright does everything I need it to do! But as I learn more, I’ll be sure to drop you a line if I find it lacking a particular feature.
Great list of tools.
The only thing I would change is using IAC-EZ instead of Outright for bookkeeping. It does have a small monthly fee of $20, but it’s has a lot more features.
The application I would add is HootSuite if you’re utilizing twitter. You can do everything in one place using HootSuite and if you have multiple twitter accounts it’s a must have.
.-= Heather Villa´s last blog ..Weekend Reading: My fav’s from this week: 3/5/10 =-.
IAC-EZ should probably go on the list for more ‘advanced’ users. Where I’m at, Outright has all the features I could want. It’s easy for me to get overwhelmed in the bookkeeping world (QuickBooks gave me a stroke), so for me the simpler the better.
You know.. HootSuite should be on there, and by extension Twitter itself. I use these two every day and I’m guessing they are such a part of my routine I stopped thinking of them as “tools.” It would be like saying, “To be on the internet, the best tool you can have is the web browser.” Of course, Twitter isn’t web browser level and might not be obvious to newcomers, so I’m glad you pointed it out. Twitter and HootSuite… Essential!
Gotta agree dude!
Buying my Macbook Pro (I got the classic silver bastard) as the best thing I ever did. After years of frustration with w*****s it was like someone blessed me with insane powers of productivity. At least it felt like it.
I actually left South Africa in part just so I could FINALLY use Paypal for business. It seems they don’t trust the banks there. Lame. They love Thailand though so I’m happy.
I’m definitely gonna check out Outright and Freshbooks though. Nice. Mint is also pretty damn cool but it’s a pity you can’t track cash expenditures with it easily yet though.
Cool post!
Yeah, I left Mint off the list because I’m not sure how useful it is for entrepreneurs. However, I use Mint to track all my personal finances so I definitely recommend it.
Macs are great, though, aren’t they? It’s really the detail that gets me. Like, when you print a multi-page document the Mac sends it to the printer in reverse order so you don’t have to do that page flipping thing to get them organized. And not having to worry about viruses or adware is a huge benefit.
Yeah JD.
It’s like the older Mercedes cars. They’re totally over-engineered so we never have to worry about anything. It creates peace of mind. Every rough edge and detail is buffed to a high sheen.
People are always telling me “Oh man, Macs are so expensive though!”
What?
In the 80′s maybe. How much did you just spend on that shitty plastic PC laptop that will die in 2 years, that fan cooler stand thingy, your antivirus, busted USB hard drives, down time from viruses/blue screen of death etc.
DOUBLE!
My brother and I used to even fight about MAC vs PC. His classic argument was: “Macs are for stupid people”. Well guess who’s saving up for a Mac as we speak?
Hahahaha!
I even managed to convert my mom (that was a nightmare) but she can’t believe how much better her work life is now.
There just aren’t any more excuses.
It’s obvious other peoples’ definition of expensive and mine are WAAAAAY different. LOL
You gotta love a bit of the ‘ol Mac fanboy ranting…
Whew! .-= Wilding Penderis´s last blog ..3. “Bangkok: Down The Rabbit Hole…” =-.
You make a good point about the price of antivirus, etc. I’d never thought about that before. The issue for me was always that however much the hardware would cost, you couldn’t buy Mac OS X for a non-Apple computer and Mac OS X is what makes all the difference.
You can get pretty damn close with Ubuntu, though. In fact, if I had to switch to Ubuntu I wouldn’t mind it. The only difference is that it lacks the little bit of polish that makes OSX so great, but they improve that more and more each year.
So, I’m much worse than a Mac fanboy. I’m a Mac/Unix fanboy. Ha.
Hahaha!
Good times… .-= Wilding Penderis´s last blog ..3. “Bangkok: Down The Rabbit Hole…” =-.
That’s a good list. It’s strange because in the old days, you needed a computer to run more and more programs to do more “stuff”. The past few years, I’ve been finding I really don’t need a lot of the old things that I thought I couldn’t live without, and am using fewer and fewer programs and applications. Of course much has shifted to the web-based apps, but even taking those out of the equation, it seems I do and need less. .-= James Schipper´s last blog ..Simply Car-Free: Living Without a Car =-.
Yeah, I agree. I really love that everything is moving toward web based. I’m curious about the effect it will have on open source, but WordPress has built a good model for that.
I do like when a tool manages to strike a balance between effectiveness and the number of features it has. Like Outright. It does what I need it to do and it doesn’t overwhelm me.
You are my hero. I need something exactly like Outright, I just didn’t know where to look. Ah! I’m so happy you wrote this post! .-= Mary´s last blog ..48 Hour Launch: Inspiring Business Beginnings =-.
Glad I could help, Mary. By the way, your domain name is (dare I say)… awesome.
You forgot a large quantity of sugar in any form.
In all seriousness though this is a great collection, egotistically because I use 8 out of the 10 but still. I am off to check out the heading way theme. Cheers pal. .-= Jonny | thelifething´s last blog ..Decision Making In Real World Sucks =-.
Sugar helps. It should probably be up there. Haha. I sleep at 4am almost every morning so I know about the sugar.
Thanks for the accounting suggestions. Doing it all on spreadsheets (and often ignoring it) has become tiresome and problematic. .-= JC Hewitt´s last blog ..The Losing Streak =-.
I was in the same boat. Spreadsheets lasted me two weeks and after that I just ignored everything. At least Outright makes it manageable.
Good list, though I don’t use mac personally. I dual-boot Ubuntu and Windows.
While I’m almost completely anti-Windows (7 seems to be the exception, but I’ve never used it to say for sure), I love Ubuntu with a passion. I dual-boot it with Mac OS X.
If Ubuntu supported multi-touch gestures for my trackpad (which I use for switching windows most of the time) I’d use it almost exclusively.
By the way, have you seen Ubuntu’s redesign and rebranding for the upcoming version? Beautiful! Really excited for that. It gets better and better with each release.