Small business tools are many, but few surpass the three named below. I use the three I recommend on a daily basis, and am proud to share my findings.

I will point out that one I did not recommend, which is also free, and I see it being used more widely in mid-sized businesses is Google. Gmail and Google docs are a must, even when Google starts to charge for these services (and who knows if they ever will) but these tools are a must for time and money savings.

The first on my list is Join Me, an absolute must have. I use Webex at work, and since I have nothing nice to say here I will say nothing. I have used Go to Meeting - ugh. The latency, whoops, nothing nice to say for either of these paid for applications. Join Me on the other hand, the basic service, is fantastic. This is a great small business tool, as you can share your screen on the fly. So when you’re teaching or being taught, or want to show someone something on your computer, and they could be anywhere, they can see your screen.

A phenomenal tool for collaborating, when you need to do more than share documents: for instance, you want to walk someone through a few screens, or a few slides, to really collaborate. Join Me is fast, easy, and rates high in every regard.

Another great resource is Last Pass. Wow, talk about shoring up one’s inability to recall 20 passwords. Last Pass does the work for you. Remembering all those passwords is an incredible waste of precious short-term memory. And when do we need passwords? In a pinch. On the fly, when the memory closes up a notch. Check out Last Pass and open wide your memory. Interestingly, most companies pay thousands of dollars a month for an interface with Microsoft Active Directory for single sign on. Last Pass is free.

Lastly, Key Grinder, and just like the name says, it grinds out unique keys, or passwords. And it remembers them. Just type in the URL, and Key Grinder creates a STRONG password, and it stores it. I still use Last Pass as it sits nicely on my browser, and click, I’m in. But Key Grinder generates great passwords so you are safe - assuming someone would ever get into your memory and locate the password to your bank account!

Couple of final thoughts: I use the same password for everything. Rather, I did. No longer. I have no idea what my passwords are. And that’s all for the better - going to be hard to decipher my passwords in this scenario. Also, complex passwords that an application creates are going to be far more complex than one that I need to create and remember.

Oh, the word remember reminds - part of the rules are no writing down passwords. Making things more challenging as we go along. And you don’t want a spreadsheet with passwords written on it stored on your mobile. Ugh, that’s all analog. What’s the work around? The two tools above.

So, check out these small business resources. They cost nothing, handle big tasks, and free up the gears in the head to overcome the impossible. And after you check them out, send me your favorites. And for the few of you that fear the cloud, and data storage - you’re already doing it. You just didn’t know it (ask your bank, your email provider, your search engine.)