
Entrepreneur Mom
with Aliza Sherman
If you own a business - home-based or otherwise - this is the blog where you'll find practical tips and smart ideas about entrepreneurship. I've started and run 4 different businesses so "been there, done that." I'll also invite successful entrepreneurs to share their best advice with you.
To learn more about Aliza, check out her profile on Work It, Mom! and her website, www.mediaegg.com.
Web-Based Conveniences for the Small Business Owner
Categories: Business Essentials, Tech & Net, Uncategorized
I’m all for anything that makes my life and work easier, and I still believe - after over 20 years online - that Internet access to information and applications truly provides convenience to help cut down on all that busy work, wasted time and superfluous spending.
Here are some online services that can help you perform business tasks more cheaply, more easily, or both.
Stamps.com - I did a review of Stamps.com on the CBS Morning Show in the 90s, and their service is still solid today. The Web-based service let’s you calculate and print postage directly from your computer and printer. Since they work in conjunctino with the Unites States Postal Service, the postage labels you print are official. For small businesses that need to track their expenditures, Stamps.com offers a detailed record down to client codes.
Avery.com -I’ve been buying Avery labels since the beginning of time, or at least the beginning of my first business. I shouldn’t have been surprised last year to find that the label company has a nifty template that generates your labels as a PDF file that you can use to print your labels right off your printer. I’m starting to play around with it for mailing labels to make my business mailings a little more professional as well as printing last minute custom business cards for special events. I’m still having a little trouble aligning the output to the actual labels, but once I get it figured out, I can see this application saving my company some money.
YouSendIt - I always have the need to send big files via the Internet. With YouSendIt, you don’t have to attach the files to emails and clog up your email and the recipient’s email. Just upload to YouSendIt and the recipient receives an email with a link where they can download the file to their computer via a Web site with no email interruptions. This really saves on the old fashioned burning files to CDs and DVDs and delivering or mailing them in order to get big files into someone else’s possession.
Spinvox - This site captures voice mail messages and converts them into text, delivering them to your email inbox, your blog, or other online spaces. I haven’t tried this service yet, but know some people who are using it and who seem to like it. Instead of having to check your phone messages while you’re on the road, you can check emails and get all of your messages.
UPS.com, FedEx.com, USPS.gov - And don’t forget that all the shipping companies and entities offer free, online, 24/7 package tracking. Take advantage if you aren’t already and check out what other features and conveniences they offer.
There are so many other online applications that can truly save you time and money, and for small business owners, time IS money and every savings, no matter how small, can really add up.
What are some of YOUR favorite Web-based apps to get tangible business tasks done?






In addition to this great list, I LOVE my Accessline phone service (http://www.accessline.com), which enables me to route incoming business calls among me and my virtual staff. Plus, if you are a CostCo member, you get a discount on the service fees.
Michele Dortch | August 8th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Here are my votes right now for making entrepreneurial life a little more simple:
Cozi http://www.cozi.com - online calendar, lists for the whole family plus my biz appointments
T-mobile @home - VOIP phone service for t-mobile customers and a high-speed net connection. $10 a month including long distance!
Calliflower http://www.calliflower.com - free conference calls with extras like notes, agendas and call recording capabilities via the net.
Quicken Online http://www.quicken.com The web version of Quicken for $2.99 a month.
FreshBooks http://www.freshbooks.com invoicing, time tracking and more
So far loving all of the above!
Alycia de Mesa | August 8th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I don’t know what I’d do without efax.com for sending and receiving faxes straight from my desktop. And salesforce.com is a pretty robust web-application for the mobile sales team.
Kristin D | August 9th, 2008 at 4:40 am
I’d like to add to the list …
myfax.com is the service I use to receive and send faxes. I didn’t want to invest in fax equipment, so I found this service. Instead, I invested in a scanner. The service is extremely reasonable.
ironmountain.com is the backup service I use. I am freaky paranoid about computer crashes (even more so as a start-up business!). I love that its virtual, so I can back up to them, and I back up to an EHD monthly at home.
Zixmail.com is my encryption service. Because I am working with extremely confidential personal information, I needed a service to encrypt the information if I needed to send it via email.
Lovin’ technology! Becci
Becci Hall ... | August 9th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Those are all great resources for the small business owner, and I use most of them. I might suggest finding a local office supply company though, it has saved us tons of money on shipping costs and they are happy to work with a “local” business. The biggest mistake I see (and I did it) women that start a business they don’t buy wholesale, or in bulk - take advantage of that license and don’t be afraid to ask for a discount, or where the price break is.
Jamie R Lentzner | August 11th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
My business will definitely see the new curve from following the help and guidance that you have given to me from your post, you saved lots of my time.
I am very thankful to you…
My thanks to Becci Hall also …
Dicor | August 14th, 2008 at 5:43 am
I use Dymo Stamps instead of Stamps.com because there’s no monthly fee - you only pay for what you use:
http://www.dymo.com/stamps/
Malkmus | September 16th, 2008 at 8:54 pm