My Favorite Things to Help Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners

I’ve been covering the world of small business for more years than I want to admit, and have tried out a lot of tools and services designed to help entrepreneurs run their businesses. I’ve seen the good, the bad ... and yes, the ugly. So I’d like to share with you some of my favorite things for small business owners and entrepreneurs. After all, why should Oprah have all the fun?

First the things I use daily which make my entrepreneurial life a lot easier:

Office 365. I would be lost without the online version of Microsoft’s Office suite of products. For a nominal monthly fee, I get instantly updated versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and a host of other Microsoft tools that I can access anywhere on any of my numerous devices. In fact, I’m writing this post on my iPad Pro using Word while I’m at jury duty. Another favorite program from Microsoft is Sway, which helps you more easily create and share interactive reports, presentations, ebooks, and more.

As I mentioned I own several computers, both Macs and PCs. I use a laptop as my primary computer. I like to be mobile, and even though I work from home I find a desktop setup too confining. When I leave the house, portability is even more crucial, and my new favorite is the Apple iPad Pro. I briefly owned the larger version, but found it too big to be called portable—you couldn’t easily use it on an airplane, for example. The smaller Pro 9.7 is great though, and pairing it with the CREATE iPad Pro keyboard from Logictech (which is backlit—a crucial element too often overlooked by other manufacturers) and the aforementioned Office 365 gives me an almost ideal computer experience.

Notice I said “almost.” Since the iPad still offers a iOS experience, there’s still some room for improvement. When I need the power of a computer in a portable package I turn to HP’s Elite x2, which weighs less than three pounds (keyboard included) but yet, when paired with Windows 10 Pro (which includes the incredibly helpful digital assistant Cortana), packs a powerful punch.

I’m a child of the ’60s—I used to sell “Save the environment” buttons in front of New York Public Librarywhen I was in high school—so the concept of “giving back” is ingrained in me. That’s why I was excited to hear about Goodshop’s new goodshopGive program. Run by JJ Ramberg, my friend and anchor of MSNBC’s Your Business, goodshopGive is the world’s first shopfunding site, enabling you to support your favorite causes when you shop through the platform.

Like many of you, I use a lot of web and mobile apps. One of my favorites is Pocket, which allows me to save any article I find on the web, in any browser, for later reading. I’m constantly scanning my Twitter lists (more on that later) and sending articles to Pocket to read later when I have free time. One of the best things about Pocket is that you don’t need to be connected to the internet to read what you’ve stored there. It’s a great way to spend your “waiting” time.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a big Twitter fan. However, you can’t use the social media platform effectively if you only use the native client. But thankfully there are plently of 3rd-party solutions out there that can help you conquer Twitter. (I still use TweetDeck, which is owned by Twitter, but it’s often frustrating and glitchy—if you want to stick with it, try the ColorDeck version). I’m a big fan of Hootsuite, which is great for scheduling. But this year I have two new faves for helping me manage Twitter: Postcron makes it a snap to schedule Tweets as well as Facebook and LinkedIn posts. For Apple devotees Tweetbot is a great app (both for the desktop and mobile devices)—especially for reading posts.

Finally, if you need short- or long-term help starting or scaling your business, I highly recommend checking out your local SCORE office, or heading over to SCORE.org. You’ll get matched with a mentor who can help you solve a problem or overcome a challenge. And it’s all free.

I’d love to hear about some of your favorite things that help you better navigate our entrepreneurial world. Send me a tweet @Rieva with your ideas.