Small Business Hardware and Software / Web Application Recommendations

Hardware, software, tools and gadgets for the virtual, computer-based small office/home office business - with mini reviews from Turtle!

Software and Web Applications

The info products that are sold on SOHO It Goes are powered by Quick Pay Pro. What I love about this service is that I could set up ALL my online marketing in one place - from the main newsletter, Increase Your Reach, to my digital downloads, autoresponders and affiliate program. Plus it was pretty easy to set up and integrated instantly with both PayPal and my existing merchant account.

Are you a small business or organization with a great logo, and clients or members who would wear it with pride? Then you really need to check out CafePress.com! Create all sorts of merchandise or your own custom designs - and much more. Read my mini review here to find out what is possible.

Quite possibly the SMARTEST thing I ever did for my business and cashflow was start accepting credit cards from my clients. After much research, I selected Practice Pay Solutions for this service a year ago. Practice Pay Solutions delivers personalized, convenient, and reasonably priced credit card, electronic check, and e-commerce processing solutions. What fascinates me about this company is that I'm often treated like their ONLY client - I'm that important - and yet, I know they have many, because they are endorsed by a number of very large professional associations. Their integrity and dedication in delivering these business services to independent professionals and entrepreneurs is outstanding and I've never regretted my choice for a moment!

I am madly in love with the AmazingMail.com service, and design and send postcards through this site all the time. What an incredible boon for relationship marketing - a fast, easy way to prospect, stay in touch, remind, make offers - you can't beat this! Read about all the ways you can use postcards.

FedEx Kinkos now has a cool little FREE software application that lets you print directly to any of its 1000+ stores nationwide. Just create your document in any application and print - go through an easy wizard (want it collated? hole punched?) - pay online and in less than four hours, it will be ready for pick up or delivery. An awesome tool for Small Office Home Office businesses without mega-printing and copying facilities, and terrific for the travelling person who wants to send their handouts on ahead and pick them up on arrival.

Aweber is probably the most popular auto responder package on the market today and is used heavily by all the great info-gurus of our time. I tried it out - and ended up not using it only because I wanted to tightly integrate with my merchant account and an affiliate program, but it was VERY powerful. If delivering marketing, courses and training through autoresponders is your goal, you can't go wrong with this one.

Microsoft XP
I think they finally got it right, or darn close to it. Incredibly user friendly, real plug and play, and rock solid.

Phone Shark
I use Phone Shark calling cards for all sorts of things - love how I can place an order (or quickly rebuild a past order) and have a # and pin # to call with some obscenely low rate within seconds. Very handy for reaching overseas clients without paying the usual international rates

Powermarks
This is one of the greatest little pieces of software I've ever owned. Its a database for saving bookmarks of web sites, which allows you to search them by keyword. Totally indispensible!

BizPlanBuilder®, MarketingBuilder®, Contract Templates [Mini Review]
These software applications are an industry standard for business planning, marketing planning, public relations planning and much more... check out the award winning
business planning software from JIAN

W3Data: Prospect411
In order to market you need people and businesses to market to - Prospect411 is where you can go to get marketing lists and sales leads quickly and easily.

Trillian
If you're like me, you've tried every online messaging service in the universe going all the way back to iRC. This nifty little tool allows you to chat through AOL IM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, and ICQ, in one interface -- thwarting all the foolish blocking that these services do to each other.

Fire
If you like the sound of Trillian but are on a Mac, I have it on good authority that Fire is a good alternative!

Equipment & Hardware

Treo 600 with folding keyboard
The love of my life! I have never owned a piece of hardware that meant as much to me as this little guy does. Read the love letter, er, review that I wrote about it and you'll see why. I've been quoted as saying that I think this kind of technology is the best thing to happen to small office/home office types since the Internet set us free in the first place. Believe it!

Imak Products with Ergobeads
I have owned a lot of mouse and wrist rests -- but I will never own anything but Imak's from here on. They are soooo comfortable, flexible to move with you, soft and cool to the touch which is very soothing. I just hope they start making bed pillows some day!

Microsoft Optical Intellimouse
I LOVE this mouse! Optical mice in general are a wonderful invention, but this particular mouse has a side buttons which propel you Back and Forward in a web site -- if you surf a lot you will wonder how you lived without one of these.

Microsoft Natural Keyboard
After 15+ years of banging on keyboards, my fingers were starting to feel stress -- but since switching to this keyboard, I have been able to resume my 75 wpm typing speeds without pain.