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.

Oh, how I love a start-up! If they were a person, they would be a three year old. Full of exuberance and energy and far more brave than what a more sensible, mature entity might deem wise. Not yet disappointed and jaded by the inevitable hard knocks of the business world, the excitement of the start-up is infectious. Much like a young child reminds us of our own youth and innocence, so does the start-up renew our optimism in entrepreneurship and enterprise.

Engendering those kinds of feelings in your stakeholders is a powerful thing. Your bigger, more established competitors can't do it and chances are good that your fellow start-up competitors don't know how to do it. Here's a few tips on how to make the most of your distinct advantage!

1. Be Yourself: Let's face it, what makes your company different than it's competitors is you. You can have all the USPs (Unique Selling Propositions) in the world, but it's you (your personality, your integrity, your approach) that sets you apart and makes people want to be a part of your world.

2. Ask for help: People want to help. Hard to believe, I know, but true nonetheless. Asking your stakeholders for help in the form of feedback, advice, mentorship, or referrals shows a certain amount of appealing vulnerability and if help is rendered the helper often feels a sense of protectiveness and investment in your company. This is not a bad thing.

3. Make a New Friend: There's a whole community of prospective customers, complementary service providers, and mavens out there just waiting to meet you and be your friend. Get yourself out on the virtual (Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, Flickr, Ning) and real world (Chambers of Commerce, community associations, industry events) playgrounds and make some new friends who will be eager to share your excitement with their own networks.

4. Act your age: The number one mistake that many young companies make is trying to appear older and more established than they really are. Picture a three year old dressed up in her mom's clothes and makeup. Uh-huh, cute, but not the image you want others to have of you. Don't throw away your most powerful advantage - a freshness and energy that older companies can't touch.

5. Tell your story: It's all about the story. Whether in the professional or personal realm, it's the story that engages and compels. Give people something to relate to (the excitement and anxiety of starting something new), paint a picture that's vivid in their mind (describe how you started your pet jewelry company after Fido swallowed your Tiffany charm bracelet), and leave them with your vision of things to come.

6. Mind Your Manners - In this world of mass communication, "Thank You" seems to be the second hardest word (after "Sorry", according to Elton John). A sincere thank you for kindnesses given is a powerful message. Many bigger companies (and their management personnel) get caught up in their own importance and forget the simple courtesies. Thanking people who reach out to your company, share news, or email you with questions will make you stand out.

7. Sharing is caring - Take the time to offer your pearls of wisdom in your areas of expertise, whether in a volunteer setting, through LinkedIn Answers, or through an industry association. You can be the go to person for questions, advice, or referrals, in your area of expertise without an awful lot of effort. Just be willing to share some of your knowledge openly and freely for the sheer joy of loving what you do and wanting others to benefit from that.

8. Remember where you came from - We all had to start somewhere. It always irks me to run into managers from small-turned-midsize companies who act as if their corporation sprung from Zeus' head fully formed. Come on, we all know better. There are struggles, fear, uncertainties, and doubt for any fledgling company and its coming through that fire intact that makes them successful in the end. As your entrepreneurial venture takes flight, remember where you came from and give those upcoming fledglings a receptive ear and a gracious welcome.

Last night I heard the tale of yet another old school company who thinks that they can act barbaric behind the scenes while keeping up a beatific guise for their public stakeholders. Oh, old school, what are you thinking?

The days of coverups, payoffs, employee abuse, fraud, and general corporate misbehaviour may not be over, but their swan song is getting louder by the moment. Our little global village has a powerful tool with which to spread information, voice opinions, and reveal evidence. Think big names are immune? Tell that to Toyota, the Catholic Church, Nestle, and Tiger Woods. All dealing with PR nightmares of their own making, they are learning the brutal lesson of forced corporate transparency and public accountability.

What force has wrought this corporate hell? Well, it's technology of course. Anyone with a cell phone can capture that lurid glimpse of police brutality. Keyloggers and other monitoring software can reveal an untold number of computing secrets. The real gem in the whistleblower crown however, is the good old Interwebs. How will it trip up down and dirty companies? Let me count the ways....

1. Youtube, Vimeo, Viddler - upload 'em if you got 'em
2. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, Ning - social networking, rage venting fun
3. Forums, Blogs, & Chat Rooms (Oh My!) - nothing goes viral like dirt
4. RateMyEmployer/MyDoctor/Yelp - You could spend your 15 minutes of fame...aflame
5. Review Sites (pick one, any one) - Your reputation will precede you - again and again

On the Internet, a whisper can gain momentum that turns it into a deafening roar. If the big names were taken down by such ubiquitous tools, what makes smaller companies who think they are above the laws of corporate decency believe that they will get away with their transgressions?

Um, delusion and a pathetically small, egocentric world view.

Better start walking the talk, old school, before you find yourself in a ****storm that you are absolutely not equipped to handle.