Having an online business is amazing. Having the freedom to choose your own hours, whilst often being paid much more than you would in general employment is a truly liberating experience. However working online has it’s disadvantages too. Working online is very different from working in a normal office, and staying productive, organized and efficient can sometimes be a challenge.

Fortunately thanks to some very useful online tools, running a business from home has become a whole lot easier. Here are some of the tools that we wouldn’t be without.

Remember The Milk

Remembering everything you are supposed to be doing is vital if you’re to enjoy any success and Remember The Milk makes this a breeze. It’s a task management application that allows you to plan your whole working week in advance and makes sure you stay on schedule.

It will give you email reminders when tasks are due and staying bang up to date with modern technology. It’s now android compatible, so even if you’re out and about, you’ll never forget to do something important.

It comes with a free and paid version, but those who are really serious about getting the most from their time would be advised to give the full version a look.

Google Docs

Google has brought out a few stinkers, but the Docs tool is a winner. An alternative to Office, this application doesn’t just let you create documents but also allows you to share them with other Google users.

Now your whole team can access documents together, and you can give people permission to edit documents and presentations as you go along. Google documents is ideal for anyone involved in writing or any other business where document sharing is an everyday occurrence.

Skype

If you are based in the UK and do a large amount of business with people in America you can spend all day on Skype chatting to them and not spend a dime. Imagine how much you’d be paying if you spent a few hours with them on a plain old telephone.

Skype makes communication so much easier, and with online business people based all over the world, this brings everyone much closer together.

Producteev

The best thing about Producteev is that it’s compatible with most other tools you’ll use day to day online. For example Twitter, Yahoo, MSN, Email, and Gmail all work on the Producteev platform so you never again be out of touch with contacts. In fact, Producteev really allows you to be in several places at once. A task that cannot really be achieved any other way.

Free Conference

Free Conference lets you gather at least 30 people into an online meeting room by giving them a free 1-800 number to ring into. Once you’re all together you can discuss your important business without any interruptions or complications. This is vital for businesses where team members are based in various parts of the world.

==== About the Author ====

This guest post is written by Lior Levin, a marketing consultant for a psd to xhtml service  company, and who also consults at the Tel Aviv University’s Political communication graduate programs