If you're running your business as a one man show, it's hard to wear all the corporate hats successfully. Happily there are a plethora (that's a good word) of online websites and applications available to help you wear each and every hat with panache (another good word, I must be in a "p" state of mind today). In no particular order, here is a list of some of the programs that help me immeasurably in my own practice.
Looking professional has never been easier!

Hootsuite - Your social media headquarters, Hootsuite enables you to set up an impressive dashboard from which to control your primary social media profiles and networking. You can send messages from your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts easily and seamlessly, shorten URLs within the application, and check analytics all in one place. It's great and it has an iPhone companion app to boot!

Google account - If you don't have a Google account, go get one now - I'll wait. Oh, the things you can do - create a local business listing (excellent for online visibility and the creation of a Google map to bring your visitors right to your door). You can set up Google Alerts for your key terms (don't understand this? All will be explained in my next post), set up Google analytics on your website, set up an adwords account, and set up a catch-all email account for all your online/social media accounts/profiles. Your Google account can be the place from which all your online functions flow and will prove invaluable to you.

Freshbooks - I have written about the wonders of Freshbooks in my newsletters before but the joy of Freshbooks is worth repeating. This is the Shamwow of online estimates, invoices, timekeeping, and billing. Create them, share them online, send to your clients via email all in one system that organizes the whole shebang. It's set up for customization for branding purposes, and even allows your customers to pay their bill online, straight from the invoice. If Freshbooks were a man, I'd marry it.
 
Grasshopper - "Ah Grasshopper!" Aside from making me channel The Karate Kid every time I access it, this service simplifies my sometimes complex telephone needs for the most modest price imaginable. Get yourself a 1-800 (or 888, or 877) number that relays to any phone number you choose. Complete with welcome message for your callers that can direct them to the various departments or employees in your company (ok, so you don't have departments, imagine the fun you could have with creating some). For those of us who shun telephony for email/online chat, this is the perfect solution to the bloated, overpriced traditional business telephone systems.
 
Batchbook - Contact management anyone? Sometimes it's hard to keep track of all the prospects and people that you met at all those delightful networking events. Batchbook to the rescue! Yeah, you still have to do the data entry (or bribe your kid to do it) but after you've done that, sit back and enjoy the magic of Batchbook. Keep track of contact info, interactions, follow-up items, and to-do lists. The system will even remind you when a to-do item or deadline is imminent (ok, that's a bit irritating, but a necessary evil for those of us who are spinning 100 plates at one time). It's free or cheap, depending on the package you choose.

Mailchimp - Keep in touch with your peoples with style. For the email marketing inclined, this is the program that makes creating and sending newsletters, email blasts, and corporate or product updates painless and professional. Not only does it keep you honest by requiring that you adhere to current CanSpam regulations, but it offers some pretty cool analytics that let you know who is opening your emails and what they're clicking on when they do.

Social Mention - Are your ears burning? Find out what people are saying about you, your company, your products, or anything else in the social media sphere with handy alerts from Social Mention. It couldn't be easier - just go to the site, plug in your search term, your email address, and the frequency with which you would like the alerts delivered and you're off to the races. Why do you want this? To catch media hits, blog mentions, reviews, customer complaints in the forums (that's a fun one!), and prospective customer queries. It all falls under the umbrella of reputation management and its invaluable.

Awardsync - Some people say that awards are old school, meaningless, and unnecessary. Be that as it may, they are great credibility indicators that influence prospective clients and offer endless opportunities for news releases, social media announcements, and general horn tooting. You could do an exhaustive search online for appropriate awards, but that would be, well, exhausting. Awardsync, an Mblast program currently in beta, offers a most excellent service (free of charge) in which you plug in your award parameters (industry, geography, etc) and the program's database reveals those awards that fit your criteria. They'll even send you alerts by email when suitable awards are open for nominations. So cool.

CrowdSpring- Odds are that you aren't good at everything. If web design, graphic design, or copywriting are not your forte, you can get expert help at competitive prices from the pool of considerable talent at Crowdspring. This is crowdsourcing at its simplest - explain what you want, set a budget, and see what the talent comes up with. Economical, fast, and hassle free. It doesn't get much better than that.

Spyfu - Ever wonder what keywords your competitors are using to draw traffic, how they're allocating their Adwords budget and what words in their campaign are most successful? Yes, I am sure you lie awake in bed thinking about just that. Wonder no more! Spyfu is here to answer all those questions and more. Just type in any website (it does need to have a fair amount of traffic to get useful results) and it will spit forth all the keyword secrets you've been dying to know about your competitors.