7 Web-based Apps to Stay Lean, Get Mobile and Grow Your Business

Do you find the IT side of business to be a pain in the ass?

I’m talking about the programs and systems that you use to:

• Store your files
• Handle billing and expense tracking
• Send/receive/store email
• Schedule your work
• Track your projects and tasks

The last generation of small business relied on IT workers, and lots of pricey equipment and software, to keep things running smoothly (and prevent data loss). And most of this stuff lived in your office – meaning if your neighbor finally set the building on fire with his foot massager, you were S.O.L.

No more, dammit.

There was a time when I found myself racing home down the Long Island Expressway to get a file off my desktop PC that I needed for a meeting (a meeting I was now going to be late for).

I also recall fondly the day I found a quiet spot in the yard, gently walked my copy of MS Outlook and my USB drive out back and shot them both in the head.

Now, things are better. And mostly because I put web-based technology in place that allows me to be somewhat disorganized, forgetful and flakey, but still look aces.

I use every one of the following services, and every one of them has saved my ass, sanity or both at least once.

1. EverNote

Behold your catch-all for all things random.

EverNote is a service for storing your…notes. And notes can be just about anything – web pages (in entirety or snippets), images, notes you type yourself, handwritten notes you scan, etc. EverNote can even scan the text in images (making its search feature uber-powerful).

I use EverNote as a catch-all for anything I want to save for later, even when I’m not sure why.

Bonus: EverNote built mobile apps so you can sync between your computers and your smart phone. Gnarly.

Evernote offers free and paid versions – but the free version will get you pretty far.

2. Dropbox

Easy, auto-syncing file storage bliss.

Dropbox is essentially a file storage system that works like a regular folder on your computer – but magical. The magic: it automatically syncs between multiple computers. No more trying to remember which version of which file on which machine is the most recent.

As soon as you update a file and save it in your Dropbox, it’s automatically uploaded to the Dropbox server and then downloaded to your own computers the next time they get online.

You don’t even have to think. What’s better than that?

Dropbox is free up to 2GB.

3. Amazon S3

This is the cheapest bulk storage in existence.

I use Dropbox for files more immediately important – like websites I’m working on this week, proposals and other documents I may need at a moment’s notice, images, etc.

S3 comes in for long-term storage (and bigger overall file size).

With S3 you’ll need some way to interface with the storage server (since Amazon doesn’t provide one). I like CloudBerry.

Once you have that, you have access to absurdly cheap web-based storage space for all your files.

To give you an idea, I store all of my website files (for all of my clients) on S3, in addition to everything else of importance to me, and every month I have a chuckle when I get my bill from Amazon: around 50 cents.

4. Google Docs

Google Docs offers simple, straightforward and collaborative document creating software that all lives on Google’s servers.

If you haven’t worked in tandem with at least one other person on the same spreadsheet, it’s an experience. You literally see their cursor moving around the spreadsheet, making changes while you make your own. It’s almost spiritual.

Google has made some updates to Google Docs lately – adding better functionality to all their standard programs and adding a nifty new drawing tool that’s great for sketching out processes and things on the fly.

If you have Gmail, you have Google Docs – and if you’re not using it, we’re not friends anymore.

5. FreshBooks

I want to have FreshBook‘s babies. There I said it.

FreshBooks is a billing/invoicing/expense & time tracking suite for those of us who hate doing this stuff.

I can’t say enough good things about FreshBooks. Not only does it make invoicing painless, but it allows you to track expenses in an easy and organized fashion – and generate expense reports when you need them (I just used this feature for my taxes and it saved me hours).

FreshBooks also has built-in time tracking functionality, which is a handy bonus.

6. Basecamp

Basecamp is, hands down, the easiest way to track your projects and tasks.

Built and maintained by the stellar human beings at 37signals, Basecamp has excellent AJAX interfaces that make it quick and easy to update your projects and tasks and collaborate with a team.

I’ve been using Basecamp for about a year now, and it’s made my life and work a lot easier.

David and Jason from 37signals also wrote the recent bestseller REWORK, which is a phenomenal book, by the way, that you must read.

7. Google Apps

Google Apps is basically Gmail for your business.

I’ve been on this system since I dropped MS Outlook like a bad habit a few years ago.

You get all of the excellent features and spam filtration that Gmail offers, and you get to keep your you@yourbusiness.com email address (so you still look like a quasi-professional).

Access to your email/calendar/contacts from any location with a web connection, and keeping it all stored on Google’s servers, means you can burn down your office and drop your laptop off a 12-story building, and you still won’t lose this crucial stuff.

Without a doubt these seven apps have saved me time, headache and money over the last few years.

How about you? What web-based apps do you love? Share ‘em in the comments.