From Tory Johnsons’s “Spark and Hustle”
General Resources
fastcompany.com, inc.com, entreprener.com, success.com
Immerse yourself in smart advice, useful templates and inspiring stories ~ always ahead of the trends
Government resources such as legal, financing and marketing help, along with access to live forums and customized advice.
Delivers industry-specific newsletters to your email every day.
Tools and Services
This is the service I (Tory) use to stay in contact with my email subscribers. Email marketing, social media monitoring and event promotion campaigns.
Provides a fax number to receive faxes which are delivered to you by email.
Work on the same documents with your virtual team, assistant or mastermind group.
Get a free phone number and voice mail for your business
Mobile payment solutions to accept credit card payments on the go.
Send large files easily via the Web.
Online payroll leader for small businesses, plus fresh content weekly on starting and growing a small business with an emplasis on payroll and employee-related issues.
Cloud storage with off-shore servers. Safely store client/session details. Easy to use with amazing customer service. Highly recommended (Jaeleen)
freeconferencing.com and freeconferencecall.com
Host conference calls and teleclasses at no cost.
Coworking
hq.com and loosecubes.com
National resources for affordable options for finding corporate space without investing heavily in your own office, but there are a lot of local coworking options as well.
Funding
indiegogo.com and kickstarter.com
Crowdfunding platforms that allow you to generate cash and buzz for your business or idea by engaging your circle of influence.
kabbage.com, prosper.com and lendingclub.com
With good credit and a solid track record, solicit a loan from peers or online lenders.
Product Development
mominvented.com, jimdebetta.com, edisonnation.com, uspto.gov
Advice and services to take your product idea from concept to shelf.
Website and E-commerce Solutions
paypal.com, constantcontact.com, autowebbusiness.com
Collects payment for events on your website
Solutions for selling products online, especially items available for digital download, like ebooks or audio programs.
wordpress.org, tumblr.com, intuit.com/website-building-software/
Business Cards
minted.com and moo.com
My vendors of choice for quality business cards.
Self-Publishing Resources
pubit.com, mypublisher.com, lulu.com
My favorite sites for self-publishing and printing beautiful photo books to use as portfolios for your work.
Smartphone Apps
SurePayroll
This mobile app means I don’t have to be in the office to pay my team. I can process payroll on the go.
GoPayment and Square
These apps let me accept credit card payments at live events. Receipts are texted or emailed directly to customers.
Evernote
Use this app to clip audio, video, text and images and save them to a central Web repository.
TweetDeck
Connect with contacts across Twitter, Facebook and other social media networks.
Social Media Sites
You should – at a minimum – have profiles created for these major social media sites:
Social Media Resources
Instantly create short videos for promotional purposes using your photos and text.
Shorten and track links, which makes for much cleaner posts (and fewer characters) when you’re sharing in social media.
hootsuite.com, roost.com, tweetdeck.com
Tools to streamline and preschedule your social media efforts. (Be cautious about too much automation.)
Create a professional landing page for your Facebook fan page.
Create social media contests.
Productivity Resources
Keep notes, screen grabs, articles and websites you want to remember in one place.
Online task manager to stay organized and productive.
Allow clients or customers to schedule appointments with you via an online calendar.
Convert paper receipts to digital data to organize it for efficient bookkeeping and tax prep.
Register for a daily email with queries from reporters, editors and producers looking for expert sources.
Outsourcing
Post graphic or other design projects for one hundred thousand creatives to submit their best ideas.
elance.com and odesk.com
Access top talent when you have a specific need
Anything from logos to videos for $5.00