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After a few years of running my own business – with 2+ of those running it from various locations around the world such as Panama, Thailand and South Africa, we’ve learned a few things about how to run an efficient business without the usual paper entrails that are common in a typical office.

We’ve tried a number of different apps services over this time and have now got a set-up that works well for us, costs us far less than when we first started and keeps things as streamlined and efficient as possible.

I’ve written a few posts about this before but never one as comprehensive as this…which lists pretty much all the tools, gadgets & services we currently use (and the ones we’ve tried in the past) to run and manage our location independent business from the open road:

The Hardware

Both Jonathan and I use Apple Macbooks. He uses an older, Tiger-OS Mac and I have a black, Leopard-OS Mac.

The Mac vs PC Debate

I’ve been a Mac user for a little over a year now, having refused to move to Windows Vista when my old XP laptop died (if you’re interested, I wrote about the transition on my personal blog here).

I would probably be hard-pushed to go back to a PC now, especially since the Mac comes with a few nifty features & software built-in (like PDF creation from documents and software like Garageband & iMovie) that I use frequently. Having said that I have found my Mac to be less physically robust than I might like.

Anyway, I don’t want to turn this post into a Mac vs PC debate but if I were starting from scratch, I’d probably go the Mac route these days, especially if you’re a little less technically savy.

The Software

I use the following software frequently – of course, this will vary for you depending upon what your business is and what tasks you need to accomplish:

Pre-installed on a Mac:

• iTunes – for music & podcast management
• iPhoto – for storing & managing photos
• Garageband – for editing podcasts
• Spaces – to work across multiple desktops
• Time Machine – Apple’s built-in back up software
• Text Edit - for html & CSS editing
• Automator – to automate tasks I do regularly (e.g. image re-sizing & converting png’s to jpg’s etc.)
• Grab – to take quick screenshots

Additional software installed:

• Neo Office – open source office software with a very similar interface to Microsoft Office.
• Flock browser - based on Firefox but with a few built-in features which means you don’t need the add-ons.
• 1 Password – to securely manage password & log-in data.
• Adobe Creative Suite 3 – I’m not proficient in most of The CS3 programs (except Dreamweaver) but it’s useful to have so I can edit & fiddle with documents that Jonathan sets up for me.
• Google Notifier - puts a new email & events notifier in my taskbar.
• iShowU & Screenflow – iShowU for simple screencasts & screen recordings & Screenflow for more complex ones.
• Skype – with a couple of SkypeIn numbers and SkypeOut credit, this is our main phone solution.
• VMWare Fusion – to let me run Windows XP on the Mac.
• Activity Monitor - useful for monitoring bandwidth usage in countries where your internet usage is restricted.
• MAMP – to run a local version of Wordpress on my hard drive.

Core Online Platform

At the core of our business, we use Google Apps. This allows us to use all of Google’s services but with our own domain name so our email addresses don’t look like usual gmail addresses but instead use our domain name (e.g. instead of lea@gmail.com we can use lea@ourdomain.com).

Useful Resource:

• Google Apps Setup Guide

This provides email, calendar, docs (word processor, spreadsheet, presentations & forms) and sites. Some of the functionality provided by these tools also means we can use them for the following tasks:

• Scheduling & booking tool for coaching/consulting clients (Google Calendars)
• Online forms for gathering information from clients, customers & suppliers (Google Forms)
• Sharing & collaborating on documents with clients, customers & supplier (Google Docs)
• Sharing & collaborating project documents/files with clients, customers & suppliers (Google Sites)
• Managing & sharing resources across our business (Google Sites)

Useful Resources:

• Tech Tutorial: How To Manage Several Email Addresses Via One (Google) Inbox
• Tech Tutorial: How To Manage & Schedule Multiple Clients Using Google Calendars
• Tech Tutorial: Using Google Forms To Collect Data Online

Other Online Business Tools

We use a range of other online apps for managing and running our business. I’ve included the current service we use plus other services we’ve tried that we’ve been relatively happy. These include:

For domain registration: Mighty Domain Names – largely because this is what I started with and it’s cleaner & easier to manage your domains if they’re all in one place.

For hosting: Bluehost – because it lets you host unlimited domains on each hosting account. Other hosting services we’ve used include InMotion Hosting & AN Hosting.

For invoicing: Freshbooks – other services used include SimplyBill and Blinksale.

For faxing: eFax – we still maintain an eFax number for the rare occasion we need to fax official documents.

For large file-sharing & online backup: Dropbox – other services used include Mozy.

For more complex online forms with integrated payment collection: FormSpring – another service we sometimes use is Wufoo.

For online payments: Paypal with 2CO as backup

For mailing lists: iContact – previously used aweber & would currently consider moving back if it weren’t such a hassle to move.

For e-products delivery: eJunkie

For membership site software: Amember – also used VisionGate but prefer the one-off payment of Amember vs. a recurring subscription.

For affiliate management: eJunkie & Amember built-in modules – trialled iDevAffiliate & Post Affiliate Pro as more complete solutions but both are more complex than we currently need.

For online slides: SlideRocket & Google Presentations

For online photo storage/management/sharing: Flickr (Premium)

For eBook creation: Google Docs/Neo Office

For online video hosting/sharing: Vimeo

For online image editing: Picnik

For premium (but cheap) Wordpress themes: ThemeForest – also use Woothemes

For stock images: BigStockPhoto, GraphicRiver & iStockPhoto

Other Office Tools & Tech Gadgets

Canon Powershot SD700 IS – obviously for photos but also for “scanning” & storing digital versions of any documentation we need.

Flip Mino HD - a recent addition to our set up for more on-location videos.

External, Portable Hard Drives – we both use 120GB Freecom ones although there are plenty out there which will do the job.

3G USB Modem – usually purchased from a local phone provider to provide wireless internet access on location using local (and not international), no-contract data plans to minimise costs.

Portable Wireless Travel Router – to turn any LAN/ethernet connection into a wireless connection.

HTC Smartphone – with mobile Skype installed; I rarely use this but can check emails & skype from it, if needed.

Compact Office set - the one I use is one I’ve had for a few years now which I originally purchased from Muji. It contains a small stapler + spare staples, post-it notes, a mini-highlighter pen, a roll of tape, a pencil, a pencil sharperner and an eraser – all contained within a small plastic box.

A hard-back, spiral-bound notebook – I’d love to say I use a Moleskine for planning & note-making but my handwriting is far too messy to be worthy of a Moleskine and I’m prone to scribbling notes/to-do lists and then tearing them out when I’m done with them rather than keeping old notebooks & then storing/carrying them round (not particularly suitable for a mobile lifestyle).

Disclosure Notice: I am very happy to recommend all of the services listed since we use/have used them all personally, hence the use of some affiliate links – but if you’d rather not use those links, that’s cool too.