As the daughter of two entrepreneurial business owners and the owner of two LLC’s I’ve done my share of paperwork, business management and organization. Here are some of the tools that have kept me sane as I’ve juggled the duties of a business owner, manager, accountant, marketer, draftsman, web developer, tech support and customer service provider.

Thunderbird Desktop Email Client
There are a lot of desktop email clients out there, the most popular of which is Outlook (kinda pricey) or it’s free little sister, Outlook Express. No doubt these are good options, but personally, I find Outlook to be more than I need, therefore a clutter and more often than not, a royal pain. I prefer simplicity. For several years now I have been using Thunderbird to manage my email. I have over half a dozen email accounts ranging from Gmail and Yahoo to those hosted on my own domains and it’s nice to have a place where I can pull everything into one application. Thunderbird is free and is created by the same wonderful Mozilla team that brings us the Firefox web browser.

Google Docs
In the past I’ve been a huge fan of the open source office pack from OpenOffice. It has the equivalent of all the tools you’d find in Microsoft Office, but it’s free. Lately though I’m in love with Google Docs. Why? Because you can do just about anything from word processing to spreadsheets and presentations Google Docs is perfect for any home business. My favorite feature is that it’s available to anyone; no longer do you have to wonder if the person you need to share files with is a Mac or PC user, has Word or Works or OpenOffice.

Google Calendar
The reason I’m in love with this tool is I can access it from my smart phone. While this is far from the only cool feature it is my favorite! Using my phone’s calendar app I can check my schedule or add events and appointments from anywhere. No datebook to carry. I also like that I can sync my Google Calendar with other people’s calendars, my husband for instance, to make sure I’m not scheduling a family function on a night he has a meeting.

Freshbooks Billing Software
Goodbye expensive and complicated book keeping software! After 8+ years of constantly battling one of the most popular ones out there I’ve fallen in love with the simplicity of Freshbooks. I’ve mentioned before that it’s the best accounting software for bloggers, but I firmly believe any small business could use it! Freshbooks allows you to set up clients and projects, track expenses by project, track your time and create invoices based on time spent working, expenses entered, and/or items so you can use it for billing services or for items sold. One of my favorite features as a web developer is the recurring billing I can set up for my hosting clients. I no longer have to remember to bill monthly or yearly for services. Freshbooks is free for up to 3 clients. After that you can purchase packages based on your needs.

Avery Design Pro
This free software helps you create and print everything from business cards to labels, fliers and brochures, CD labels and greeting cards. Every business needs marketing materials and Avery produces some of the best print-yourself custom papers for small businesses. These items are readily available at any office supply store and with their free Avery Design Pro software you’ll be turning out masterpieces in no time!

What are your favorite tools for managing your business?