I travel a lot and so do my partners and employees. We often find ourselves working very far away from each other and we need tools to work just like if we were in the same room. These are my 10 favorite free (or almost free) collaboration tools.
Skype
Skype allows you to talk to people all over the world for free. It also offers chat, video chat and you can also share your screen with other people.
BaseCamp
If you’re looking for a tool to manage your projects, BaseCamp is by far the best option. Create to-do lists, milestones, projects, upload files, assign tasks to people, control the progress of your project and communicate with other team members.
Twiddla
Think of Twiddla as a whiteboard that several people can see at the same time. It’s great to explain ideas, draw arrows, call-outs, etc.
Google Docs
This Google tool allows you to share documents with your team. Just put them in a folder everybody can access and you can all edit the same documents.
Mint
This is a great money-management tool and it’s free.
LogMeIn
Do you need to remotely control a computer? This is a great tool for it. You can use your partner’s computer from Seattle if you’re in New York. You can leave your computer at home and access it from any other computer in the world.
Google Calendar
Keep all your events and meetings organized with this tool from Google. The best part is that you and your team can share the same calendar so you can all see what everyone else is up to and when they all have some free time to meet.
BlueTie
This application isn’t free, but it’s only $5/month, so it’s almost free. BlueTie is a great tool to manage emails and keep your contacts organized. You can share email messages and contacts with your team. BlueTie has a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) engine built-in that I really like.
PamFax
Send and receive faxes for very cheap from your own computer. You can send documents (PDF, DOC, etc.). When you receive a fax, you’ll get the pages as email attachments that you can print if you want. Having fax has never been so cheap.
EchoSign
Isn’t it annoying when you have to print out an agreement, sign it, fax it, have the other person sign it and fax it back to you? There’s a better option: EchoSign. This cool tool allows you to sign documents online in just a few seconds.
