Free Business Bootstrapping tools

Hard to believe but Webex was a revolution in its day. We all rushed to deliver webinars for our clients, we all struggled to work out how to monetize this new medium, and we all paid the costs fo doing so.

Today you can still get all of the benefit - but without the costs!

DimDim.com has launched a free tool for webinars of 20 people and less. If you want to have more than this then there are subscription type fees - but they are affordable.

I almost want to pay them money just for the value they provide. Fantastic product.

In DimDim.com you will find everything that goes into a successful webinars product. Video conferencing, use of microphones, the ability to share your desktop or just share a power point or other document. As well as the ability to draw freehand and mark up presentations that you are reviewing.

I use it almost once a week depending on my webinar workload. Actually - I try to run more webinars because I have access to this product now.

A fantastic way for you to start engaging with your clients in a different way - merely because now you can!

If you are still paying for Microsoft office then stop right now! Sun Microsystem has for a while published a free suite of software which is very Microsoft office-like, but with one gigantic difference.

It is free, and it is open office.

This means that you can download and run it right now, without any further adieu. The site is www.OpenOffice.org. And second, it is supported by a virtual army of programmers who are busily writing additions and enhancements for the program.

I love it. We use it at home and the moment and work is next.

I used to use Zoho.com for a while. It was pretty good, and it gave me what I needed and seemed to be okay.

But Google does it a heck of a lot better....

I actually turned back to Google Docs because of the email functionality. When you get any document attached to a Gmail conversation it asks you if you want to open it as a Google Document.

This is a time saving device, and also immediately captures a copy of the document in Google Docs.

But as you dig further into it the power of Google Docs is immense. Things like the interactive charts for you to use on your website and blogs, you can use it to build online web forms for various reasons, and it is by far the best way (presently) for collaboration on documents.

The combination of these functions, along with the availability of a spreadsheet, word processor and presentation package, make Google Docs the clear leader of online productivity applications.

Oh yes, cost = FREE!

Whatever you do... get on Skype. Get on Skype today and use it incessantly. I can see no good reason why people insist on paying exorbitant rates for telephone calls. Particularly given that the world is getting smaller, and our consultants are traveling further afield.

Make a very small investment in a half decent web cam, and then start talking to the entire world. Easy, very lightning fast way to cut down your office costs.

Marc Benioff and his team have created something truly amazing in Salesforce.com. Over the past few years I have used this a number of times. And I have also used a few of he older "SAP style" architecture systems.

That is to say, systems that are on premise and not online.

For me there is no doubt. Salesforce.com is the (very) clear market leader in terms of functionality, ease of use, seamless integration with products that you use every day, and cost effectiveness.

In fact, I paid for the last license on Salesforce.com out of my own pocket. (And would do so again)

The whole idea of CRM and account management is a no-brainer. You must do it, period. And if you are going to do it then do it for a fair price and in the most time effective manner you can.

I really love this system.

I have used PSPrint a few times and will never go back to standard cornor store print shops. (Sad for them, but great for me)

PS Print takes orders, and produces very high quality prints delivered to your (or the clients) door. This sort of thing is part of the innovation that is making life for consultants a lot easier.

Cheaper advertising materials means more money to spend elsewhere in the marketing budget, or even more money to invest in other revenue producing areas.

I like these guys, and I recommend them strongly.

It's not too long ago that eBooks, the good ones not just the PDF conversions, were actually pretty expensive to create.

Today you can make your own for now charge at all from MyeBook.com. I haven't done one of these yet, but I am dying to I have to admit. Maybe a monthly consulting magazine online...(?) (Anyone want to write a column?)

MyeBook will let you embed audio and video, and from what I can see from their site it seems to be a pretty impressive output. I am still not sure that eBooks like this are ready for the big time though. It all seems too much like trying to copy the real world with no real reason to... but they do look pretty good.

If you have a go please come back and let us know what you think.

LuLu.com was the first company I heard of that had entered the market as an on demand publisher. They will help you to format and package your book, then they will help you to create it, and then you pay a percentage of each book sold.

They print on demand so there is no stockpile for you to find a home for. Wonderful concept. If you want to be an author today, and if you are a consultant you should consider it, then you can be.

It is a choice, there are no more gate-keepers!

ProjectOffice.net is an online Gantt chart and PM program. I have used it for a couple of projects and it is both affordable and great value at the same time.

For me it is particularly good because it allows me to see what all of our consultants, no matter where they are in the world, are doing and to get a birds eye view of all projects at once.

No matter where I am in the world and without any expensive IT infrastructure to run off. Not only that - but if they want to see it and check up on whats going on the clients also have the ability to log in and check out specific projects.

Great program, great idea and a great way to manage work in an ever shrinking world.

Someone left a link on his site about a company called Saasu.com. So I checked it out during some found hours today.

And what a surprise. They are featured as one of the ten leading web entrepreneurs in Smart Company magazine, they are web savvy with a pretty good blog, and they have built connectors for all of the mainstream social networks and tools.

Fantastic. Also this company, which has the tax regimes of thirty countries built in charges is from Australia. So their pricing is in Australian dollars, making it extremely affordable if you are paying in USD or GBP.

I intend to check this one right out. I am sure the functionality will be what I have come to expect from leading SaaS companies and I am looking forward to finding out further.

Okay, so I really get annoyed reading all of these Web 2.0 bloggers who talk a lot about programs to fritter away your time - and paying no attention to the basic requirements of business. So this isn't going to become one of those sorts of pages!

But having said that I think it is important for everyone to at least know about Ning.com.

Ning is pretty cool, I "discovered" it about 8 months ago I think. In a very small nutshell it is a site you can use to create your own social networks.

My attempts with it so far have been pretty narrowly focused but I am pretty keen to really ramp it up in the very near future.

My thoughts are that you could use it internally, as a meeting place for your team and a place to post videos etcetera. (Particularly useful for far flung consultants)

But also, you can use it as a place where you can get your clients, customers or raving fans together.

I am in the Triibes network on Ning. I can't for the life of me get it to work yet, but I am really looking forward to getting in there when I do.

Again, any attempts or success please let me know. We all learn...

Discovered Primo PDF about three years ago I think. And I have been using it pretty regularly since then.

recently they upgraded the entire package, giving over a whole range of additional controls like document locking, and deciding whether you want the document to be able to be edited after you publish it.

You can also restrict printing of the document, I really like it and have yet to work out its true limits. Another part of my no cost desktop suite.

I discovered Drop Mind via a post in our forum on LinkedIn. (Look for the Consulting Pulse group) Spent some time with it and it seemed okay, but when I really put it to work on a project I realized that it was a really neat tool.

it has all of the functions that you would expect, and there is absolutely no catch to it at all. Fantastic stuff. Especially for consultants and other related knowledge workers.

No idea how these guys intend to make money from it, but it works, and it is an integral part of my no-cost tool set now. They have a desktop version, which I use, and an online version which I have yet to try.