Tools That I Use as a Work at Home and Mobile Business Consultant

I often get asked what tools I use as a work at home and mobile business consultant.

So here are the tools that I use:

• Dell Laptop with Microsoft Office Applications and Vista OS have served me well
• Seagate FreeAgent Backup Disk allows me to backup my documents at least once a week
• Logitech Wireless Mouse allows me freedom from the cord
• HP Photosmart C5780 All-in-One (Printer-Scanner-Copier) gives me all I need in one place and prints well
• Cable Internet that  is fast and now reliable
• Cisco Linksys Wireless Router so that I can me mobile with my laptop around the house
• Backberry Tour Cell Phone so that I can stay connected to email and Twitter while on the road
• Yahoo Mail (and Calendar) is what I live and die with it and allows me to stay organized
• Google Gmail email which I use as a backup just in case Yahoo is down or when I need a 2nd email address
• 1and1 for my website and is was easy to create the site and make changes
• Twitter to communicate with others which I have found to be easy to use for reading and sending tweets
• Hootsuite which I use to monitor Twitter mentions and to schedule Tweets
• Ubertwitter which I use to read and send tweets from my Blackberry cell phone
• Linkedin is a great tool to stay connected with people and the Linkedin groups provide me with great information
• Facebook is an avenue for people to connect with me and I’m still developing my strategy for its use
• Cisco Flip video camera is easy to use and makes it easy to post videos to YouTube
• YouTube is a great place to place videos
• Flickr is where I place any pictures that I want others to see such as group events
• WordPress for my blog posts and have found it very easy to use
• Intuit Quickbooks for accounting
• Constant Contact for Email Newletters to clients and partners

I recommend all of the above.  All are great tools and easy to use.  Many are no cost tools.  I suggest that other consultants do the same in mentioning the tools they use to assist newer consultants coming behind you.  Feel free to send me comments on any of the above tools.  It does take time to learn these tools so make sure that you dedicate the necessary time whenever you select a new tool to learn it.  I’m not looking at adding to the list of tools at this time but you do need to be flexible.  Have fun learning and experimenting.