However, I’m pretty convinced that in the long run they will indeed help us run a more efficient business.

Here’s what I’ve been sorting out:

1) Highrise HQ – mentioned this a day or so ago. Something I think is an absolute MUST for anyone who works in a small business & has any contact with customers, clients, prospects, suppliers. Pretty much any small business, I reckon.

2) Google Apps – a suite of enterprise/business tools from google which allow you to use your own domain name in conjunction with gmail, google calendar, google docs & spreadhseets & google chat. You can brand it with your own brand instead of the google logo and take advantage of the powerful google search functionality within all the above applications. It may not seem very different – but the ability to use you own domain name is great.

3) A Virtual Assistant – we’ve decided it’s time to outsource all the non-essential tasks in our business to a VA freeing up our time to gad about gaily as we travel the world – just kidding – so we can, of course, spend more time on income-generating activities and also planning & implementing new things for our business. Enabling Google Apps above means sharing our schedules, emails & documents will be that little bit simpler. 

4) Online Appointment Scheduling – giving people access to my online schedule and asking them to schedule in coaching sessions & meetings frees up my time and also gives people control over when they want to schedule their sessions. This may become redundant using a VA but in the meantime it’s been very useful.

5) Efax – this is not new but it’s been really useful whilst we’ve been travelling round. It’s surprising in this digital age how few companies & services are set up to deal with ‘things’ in a digital sense. My bank (Smile) have been excellent – accepting email/faxes to sort out pretty much everything I’ve needed to do. Meanwhile Jonathan’s bank (HSBC) haven’t been so hot so we’ve given up on most things with them.

Other things I want to sort out but have yet to do…

6) Basecamp – haven’t used this personally but it looks fab and as soon as I have a use for it, I’ll be signing up. It’s basically a project management tool to help make communication between remote teams simpler & more effective.

7) Backpack – a great tool to help organise yourself. Again from the cool people at 37 signals (also responsible for Basecamp & Highrise HQ)