Top Small Business Tools

Small Business Tools to Take Your Business Further Faster

A landline with some basic phone services lets you make and take phone calls, but a smartphone can do so much more. Take, for instance, Apple's iPhone. The multi-touch display truly lets your fingers do the walking to make calls, listen to voicemail, zoom in or out on a piece of a web page, flip through photos, play a tune, take a picture – this small business tool is an impressive multifunction work and entertainment centre.

No business can survive long without proper money management, making small business accounting software a must-have small business tool. Intuit's Quickbooks Pro lets you track the money flowing in and out of your business, manage your inventory and your employees, analyze your financial performance, and more. It's a great "all-in-one-place" financial management tool.

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Microsoft Office is my small business tool of choice because of its combination of features and applications integration; I find it really useful to be able to keep a database of contacts within my email application (Outlook with Business Contact Manager) or import data from a database (Access) into a spreadsheet format (Excel). This suite includes Excel 2007, Outlook with Business Contact Manager, PowerPoint 2007, Word 2007, Access 2007, Publisher 2007 and Accounting Express 2007.

I know some people don't like it, but I think MS Outlook is the greatest thing since the invention of the Day-Timer for organizing, managing tasks, and communicating with groups of people. It's the integration that sells me on this small business tool. Calendars, task lists and upcoming appointments are all directly available when you're reading a specific email message, making staying organized easier, and there are scads of information-sharing features that you can use to share anything from calendars through contacts with others. And, of course, it's an email program. The version with Business Contact Manager is the best choice for small businesses.

Backup software is another small business tool that no small business should be without. If you're not doing regular data backups, you run the risk of losing all your business data. My pick for this small business tool is Retrospect Professional; it's designed to provide data backup protection for a single Windows computer and up to two additional networked computers and is easy to set up and use. Once you have this top backup software set up, backups are automatic, fast and accurate, providing full data protection. You'll also be able to perform Smart Restores and Automatic Disaster Recovery.

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When the power goes out, you'll wish you had put an Uninterrupted Power Source (UPS) at the top of your must-have small business tools list. A good UPS does two things; protects your electrical equipment (such as computers) from power surges and outages, and protects your business data by keeping your computer up and running during an outage. APC's RS 1300 UPS is very good at both of these things and its LCD display that displays status information makes it easier to see what's going on.

A multifunction printer is a great small business tool because it's like having an office in a box – a printer, fax, copier and scanner all in one, saving both office clutter and expense. And getting a multifunction color printer is best of all because then you can print your own marketing materials, too. My pick, Brother’s MFC-9840CDW Color Laser Multifunction Printer, provides fast, quality printing (up to 21 ppm in both black and white and color), and, thanks to its built-in automatic duplexing, two-sided printing, scanning, faxing and copying. It also has built-in networking and wireless capability, and even a toner save feature.

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Digital voice recorders are handy small business tools to have if you need to know what you thought or what they said. I find them ideal for recording ideas on the go. They’re also great for recording business meetings. The Olympus DS-30 is one of the company's most sensitive recorders and is a great pick for those looking for quality sound recording. The built-in stereo microphone has three sensitivity settings and you can add an external mic if you like. The DS-30 digital voice recorder has up to 67 hours of recording time in LP mode, voice activation recording, and five different recording modes. DSS Player Software for easy editing of your voice files is included.

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