Outsource Everything!
If you are thinking of starting a small business, do you really need any software of your own or could you “outsource everything”? There are online service providers for managing most of the processes in business. This book would review what’s available online, and how you can use these “software as a service” providers to outsource much of the day-to-day administrative hassle of running a business.
Here are some thoughts:
Fax
Calendaring
Online document management/collaboration
Task management/project management/organisation
- http://www.hiveminder.com
- http://www.backpackit.com (37signals)
- http://www.campfirenow.com (37signals)
- http://www.basecamphq.com (37signals)
- http://www.planhq.com
- http://www.actionmethod.com
- http://www.actitime.com
Managing timesheets and invoices
- http://www.blinksale.com
- http://www.getharvest.com
- http://www.freshbooks.com
- http://www.timelog.co.uk
- http://freeagentcentral.com
- http://letsfreckle.com
- http://invoicemachine.com
- http://www.roninapp.com
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Accounting
- http://www.fusionaccounts.com
- http://www.kashflow.co.uk
- http://lessaccounting.com
- http://freeagentcentral.com
Telecoms
Backup
Virtual desktop
Outsourcing labour
- http://www.mturk.com – Amazon Mechanical Turk
- http://www.rentacoder.com
- http://www.elance.com
- http://www.scriptlance.com
Human resources and hiring
Please suggest any other tools you think we should be looking at. This title is in the very early planning stages, so we’re still trying to understand the landscape. There seem to be hundreds (if not thousands) of sites competing in this area, so recommendations of services that you have benefited from using in business would be particularly welcome.