10 for 10 – The top ten best tools for entrepreneurs in 2010

As I launched my company Yigdigs in 2009, I was amazed at the number of software packages, websites, plug-ins, and services that are available to startup entrepreneurs on a budget. A few of them were much more valuable than others, so I’ve compiled my end-of-year top “10 for 10″ list. If you are starting a business in 2010, make sure you think about leveraging these incredible tools. It’s an eclectic group, but each tool is valuable in its own right.

I’ve attempted to rank them 1 – 10, which honestly was hard to do given that most of the tools serve very different purposes. Nevertheless, they are ranked by how valuable they are to me personally. You may not agree.

10) Firebug. Firebug is one of two Firefox browser plug-ins I have on the list. Firebug is a free, very valuable web page diagnostic tool that allows you to look at the source code on a web page. By right-clicking on an element on the page you can instantly view a nicely organized, well structured representation of where that code is on the page, and any associated CSS.

You can use this to look at fonts that are being used, font sizes, h1 tags, and any other detail about your website or other’s. For example, if you are analyzing your web page and potential competitors for what they have done for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), viewing website source code directly helps a lot.

9) RingCentral. RingCentral has been around for years and is the name in virtual phone systems. RingCentral allows you to get an 800 phone number, multiple phone lines, voicemail, fax, and everything phone related you need to start your business. And strangely, you hardly even need a real phone, because everything is in the cloud.

The best part about RingCentral is their software phone client. When you get a call to your business phone number, a phone pops up on your desktop that shows you the phone number of who is calling and you can decide whether you want to answer it directly or let the caller go through to the voicemail menu. Plus you can instantly check messages, make calls, and send faxes directly from the soft phone client.

8.) Carbonite Pro backup. Carbonite has a regular personal remote backup service and is now launching a “Pro” version for small businesses. Carbonite Pro automatically backs up all of your PCs and laptops, and pricing is based on total volume, such as up to 20GB, 20GB – 49GB, etc. Right now Carbonite Pro is still in beta so it’s free.

The best thing I like about Carbonite Pro is it is really “set it and forget it” software. After installation, it automatically starts backing up all your files to a server somewhere in a secure cloud. It takes quite a long time the first time, because it is using only a portion of your available bandwidth, and it is a low priority process on your computer so that it doesn’t interfere with other programs. I was backing up about 25GB and it took three weeks for the initial backup. But after that just the changes are backed up automatically and its fast. It puts a little green dot on your file icon for files that have been backed up. Files that are waiting to be backed up have a yellow dot. Pretty cool.

7) FeedBlitz. FeedBlitz is a unique email marketing service that manages RSS feeds and then turns them into automated emails to subscribers. FeedBlitz reads your blog’s RSS feed, figures out what’s new and sends the updates to subscribers by email, IM and Twitter.

What’s really cool about this is it takes the pain out of creating newsletters and other mass emails from scratch, because the content comes straight from your blog. This makes it another “set it and forget it” service… I seem to like this type of technology.

6) KeywordSpy. KeywordSpy has one of those great company names that you don’t even have to explain – you can really just guess what they do from the name. When I first started using KeywordSpy, honestly my first reaction was “holy crap”. I couldn’t believe they had all of that information on competitor’s keywords. They also have a really fantastic Firefox plug-in that instantly gives you a ton of information on SEO, PPC, Google PR, domain age, Yahoo inlinks, and more. The monthly subscription is a little steep at $89.95/month, but ultimately I think it’s worth it. If you are looking for a free solution you can try SEOquake, but KeywordSpy’s interface is much cleaner.

5) Balsamiq Mockups. Balsamiq has become the name in web page mockups. Before I learned about this tool, I’m ashamed to admit I used powerpoint to draw, cut and paste horrible looking mockups. Now with Balsamiq, it allows me to drag and drop a few standard items onto a drawing board. One nice thing is it has the look-and-feel of a handwritten drawing, and this is definitely part of the appeal.

If you are working with a web designer, there is nothing better than to be able to exchange quick Balsamiq mockups back and forth. This tool is a must.

4) Crowdspring. Crowdspring brings crowd sourcing to creative design – logos, website templates, business cards, and more. I found Crowdspring earlier this year when I wanted to get a logo designed for my website. I liked my experience so much I had to blog about it. The founders are great, they have a small team out of Chicago, send very informational monthly newsletters… so it is no wonder the company has caught on like wildfire in the marketplace. Lots of people I know now use Crowdspring on a regular basis.

3) Camtasia. If you ever want to create short, professional looking demonstration videos of your product or service, Camtasia is the product for you. You can easily capture your screen and PowerPoint presentation, add a Picture-in-Picture headshot video, audio, annotate the presentation, zoom in and out to show details… the list goes on. Almost every company I can think of could benefit from a few “how to” videos for their customers. People love it when you simply show them how to do something rather than having to read a 150 page user manual. Camtasia helps you do this easily.

2) Odesk. No top ten tools list for startup entrepreneurs would be complete without Odesk. Odesk is a web service for outsourcing just about anything from just about anywhere. They essentially act as the middle man between you and a freelance IT person, web designer, developer, copy writer, etc.

Just about any job you could think to outsource, they have a list of providers for you to choose from. Providers are all rated from 1-5 by previous buyers. Odesk has tools for you to track the work of the freelancer and handles payment for you. You can pay with your credit card anywhere in the world and Odesk charges only a 10% surcharge. The ease of payment alone is worth the 10%, and when you include the hiring tools and work management tools, the service can’t be beat.

1) Skype. What can be said about Skype that hasn’t been said before? Skype is one of the most useful tools on the planet. Arguably the most useful, since I am ranking Skype number one. Skype lets you talk, chat, or video conference with anyone in the world for free. Additionally you can dial regular phone numbers for a nominal charge. But you hardly ever need to do this because everyone you need to talk to is almost certainly using Skype too.

That’s it! The top 10 tools that I have used to get my company Yigdigs off the ground in 2009. Yigdigs allows you to sell your house For Sale By Owner (FSBO) plus use a real estate agent for services like contracts and closing and putting your house on the MLS for a flat fee. You save thousands of dollars by not paying a full 6% real estate commission. If you are ever interested in selling your house FSBO, please check out Yigdigs.

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Tagged as: Starting a business, Startup, web 2.0