Stuff I Love – Part 1

Stuff I Love is sort of like Oprah’s Favorite Things without the freebies (sorry). This is part 1 in a multi-part series, we’ll post the next one when we have more stuff we love.

Freshbooks

I love Freshbooks because they took the mundane but necessary task of accounting and made it fun and simple. I tested a number of accounting/invoicing systems and before we decided on Freshbooks—I think they nailed it. Freshbooks provides the right amount of features for the right price. Xero was also a great system with a gorgeous GUI, but it was overkill when it came to the needs of our business.Ballpark and The Invoice Machine are elegant solutions, but a little overly simplistic for us. We wanted the ability to run a variety of reports and Freshbooks had a bunch of options. If you decide to try it out, use this sticker below so I get the credit!

Basecamp

Project Management is a major part of my daily work and it is critical that the entire team is on the same page, including the client. Over the years I tested many project management tools including ones that have to be installed on the server, however, nothing comes close to the simplicity and intuitiveness of Basecamp. In fact, I’ve been using Basecamp for over 4 years and are still just as happy with it as the day we signed up. And since it lives in the cloud, they are always making updates and enhancements to the service. If you’ve never used it, take it for a spin below and see what you think.

Website Grader

Have you ever wondered how well your website is doing or if it is search engine friendly? Website Grader from HubSpot offers a great tool that allows you to run a report on your website. It gives you key information regarding your page’s title tags, metadata, alt tags, and more. I ran this on our website a couple years ago and learned a lot about what we were doing wrong. I even use it to help our clients understand how they can make their websites more effective. Click here to try out the demo version.

I have many more things I love, however, I also love my work and must get back to my clients. Feel free to tell me about the things you love and I’ll check them out. Until next time…