Everything you see in this article is either used for my company or for my clients. So I recommend anyone take advantage of these tools and resources to improve your business. Please do your due diligence before using any of the tools or resources I provided here.
This is an on-going effort to add more tools and resources. Or simply follow me on Facebook.
All resource listed here are used for company reside in the USA. It may or may not work for business in other countries.
Startup
Marketing
Website
Photography
Startup
Prototyping
- Rapid Prototyping – 3 must watch videos from Google For Entrepreneur about speeding up your process to launch your next startup idea.
- Proto.io – This amazing tool offer more than just mobile app prototyping. You can do a lot more than that and import different art work into your prototype.
Finance
- Alternative Lending – Moneck Capital offers USA merchants fast approval Working Capital Loan and alternative lending options to get up to $1,000,000 in just matter of days, which help small business grow.
- Quickbooks – Best accounting and booking software for small business. Period.
- USA Domestic Merchant Account – Lowest rate possible credit card transaction merchant account my company is currently using. From retail to high risk merchant, this company do all that.
- International / Offshore Merchant Account – The best place to get your high risk merchant account approved through this broker. Period!
Strategy:
- How Startup Funding Works – Very useful infographic that explain how venture capital affect your startup.
- Exit Strategy – Mus read article about why you need to have exit strategy.
Contract
- SignEasy – Signing a contract in-person can’t be much easier than this inexpensive solutions. With a small amount of monthly fee (~ US$4.00), you can sign unlimited documents with your clients on a mobile phone. I now have my sales out there getting the contract signed on-the-spot. There is no excuse not to sign the contract or waiting for emailing the contract.
- Adobe Sign – Adobe Acrobat Document Cloud also includes Acrobat Pro and Adobe Sign, which allows me to send the contract to the client to sign remotely. It also allows me to sign a PDF document on my mobile phone. I was able to get the document instantly signed by client located 500 miles away.
Tax
- Track1099 – If you run a small business in the USA, you know you have to report tax. If you hire a contractor, you will need to file 1099-MISC form every year. It’s pain in the neck to file the 1099 form manually if you have no CPA to help you do so. Track 1099 makes it so easy. You can manually enter all the information once and file on the schedule.
Communication
To be honest, I don’t use traditional mobile SMS app and voice mail that much anymore. I switch to VOIP + Chat app most of the time. It allows me to travel around the world without missing any message. Buying mobile data plan is cheap, so why having a mobile phone number?
- Low-Cost Toll-Free Number – Great low-cost toll-free number to receive a fax, voicemail for any business in the USA. It cost only $2/month to start with a toll-free 800, 866, 855, or 877 number. I currently use this services for receiving Fax. It sends a copy of PDF file in the email.
- Google Gmail + Hangout + Google Voice + Google Calendar – Google has changed my life and business. I use Google Gmail to receive and send my personal and company email in one account. Google voice allows me to receive and send calls / SMS / MMS on a desktop and on a mobile phone. The Google Calendar is now syncing on my mobile phone and integrated with Google Now.
- WeChat – I have many Chinese clients who use WeChat as their primary communication tool. It’s very useful and save lots money on international calls. This is the only mobile app that is NOT blocked in China and they have simplified Desktop version as well.
- QQMail – QQ Mail from China has slowly taken over my Yahoo email as my second favorite email tool. It allows me to access my email from China in the case of Great Wall firewall blocking Yahoo email. Now I can easily setup corporation email on QQ to send company email as well.
- Facebook Messenger – There is no doubt. The largest social network has the most active users on their chat program. I specifically like to use FB Messenger to communicate with my client who I handle their Facebook pages. It’s fast and it has a desktop version for easy typing.
Document Management
- NotePad++ – A FREE text editor that can do a lot more than you need.
- FileZilla – Need to upload files to your web hosting server? FileZilla is FREE too.
- Microsoft OneDrive + OneNote + Office Suite – With $70/year subscription, I got a personal copy of Microsoft Office + 1TB OneDrive cloud storage space and awesome OneNote for my notes. I have all my documents, mobile phone photos and personal backup synced to OneDrive, so I don’t have to worry about lose my hard-drive.
Marketing
Email Marketing
- GetResponse – Very popular email marketing software for small business that needs landing page integration.
- MailChimp – The only email marketing service out there uses conditional merge tags for autoresponder and email campaign. So you write your message once for different listing segment. MailChimp is also one of the most integrated mailing services.
- Amazon SES – Amazon’s simple email service is the most inexpensive way to send email. It is also most recognized mail server to prevent email from being blocked by AOL, Outlook, Yahoo mail and Chinese mail providers. I use SES to send all my email from GMail without a glitch.
Creative Marketing
- Adobe Express – The newest FREE tool for Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber. I started using this tool to create inspirational quotes and promotion materials for social network. It’s really awesome!
- Pixlr – Autodesk’s FREE tool to quickly edit photos. There are free express version as well as paid version. It also has desktop version (Too bad, it’s getting abandoned since Chrome and FireFox don’t support Flash format by default).
- Pexels – FREE stock photo paradise. I’ve found many high quality images to use for personal website and commercial projects.
Local Search Marketing
Search Engine Optimization
Website
Website Development
- Inexpensive Business Website – Setup inexpensive business website in matter of 1 hour to test your market. This is an alternative web hosting solution for non-wordpress site. It also comes with membership, online store features as well.
- Sell Products Online – Join the e-commerce revolution to sell your products online, on Facebook and on eBay. One of the most popular and used e-commerce shopping cart.
- Google Domains + Webmaster + Analytics + AdWords – If you are building a website, Google already offer you tools that you can’t live without. All my business domains are now host on Google Domains. With a flat rate annual fee, you also get FREE domain privacy. Not to mention, Google has world most advance DNS server that get your domain distributed in matter of MINUTES. I only hope that Google offer SSL as well. That will be stop shop. You should also know the rest of tools such as Webmaster Tools, Analytics and Google AdWords.
- Ghost Browser – Ghost browser is based on Google’s Chrome browser with the extra capability to run multiple session in multiple tabs. This allows marketer or web developer to see the website as different visitors simultaneously.
WordPress
- StudioPress WordPress Themes – Professional mobile responsive WordPress theme for modern business. 90% of my clients’ website are implemented with this themes.
- S2 Membership WordPress Plugin – Best membership management plugin to handle large amount of membership levels and content.
Programming Tools
Photography
Photography
- Photoshop – I am a photographer. Photoshop is a must have tool. Period. Yes. I do pay the subscription to get the latest update.
- PTGUI – This is the best photo stitching tool I used to create wide angle and panorama photography.
- irFanView – Simply the best FREE screen capture and image processing tool I use everyday.