We have all “Hit The Wall” at some point or another in our daily grind, whether it’s creating a business presentation or effectively collaborating with your team on a marketing campaign, or dealing with the stress of a current “Make This Happen By Yesterday” assignment.

beyond_the_walls

We all need a little help so we can connect with that new business opportunity.

My Philosophy: “The better one’s toolbox is, the better the skill set will become and the greater chance of breaking through to a new business opportunity.”

Here are a few tools that I believe will help you to break through that wall and increase your productivity and make work loads flow like the Pacific Northwest Rain.

Dropbox
When you work online, you have to be able to get to your files. Dropbox is the perfect way to do it. You can share files with virtually anyone, or even make them publicly available. You can get to them on any computer, iPhone, or Android, and because everything syncs, you never have to worry about missing files. The smaller account is complimentary, but even if you upgrade to an account with more space, it’s completely affordable.

Empressr
Empressr is called the world’s first free online storytelling tool, with which you can tell your story and create your presentation any way you like. After adding photos, audio, music, or video to your presentation, you can then have it hosted by Empressr right there and then and choose to share the file publicly or privately. What makes this tool unique is that you can pretty much embed your “Empressr everywhere: Facebook, Web Site, Blogger, WordPress, etc.

GoToMeeting
Collaborating and meeting with others is a must, but the distance involved when you work online can make this difficult to impossible. With GoToMeeting, you can meet and talk with anyone, anywhere in the world, at any time. You can even show your desktop or slideshows to help with presentations.

Free Conference Call
Use this free tool to attend and hold conference calls, webinars and more for free. You can easily collaborate with clients, employees or business partners. One of the best features is the free built in recording capabilities which allows you to save and reproduce the material for whatever you need.

LogMeIn
Sometimes, it’s just better to show someone something rather than just trying to tell them about it. Screen sharing is the best way to go about it. With LogMeIn, you can share your screen, or share someone else’s and easily walk them through

LuckyCal Calendar
LuckyCal aims to make it easier for you to meet up with friends or business contacts. The free Web tool, which launched in December, integrates your work and personal calendars with those of your employees, friends, and business associates (as long as they give you permission).

Remember The Milk
With this free tool, you can manage tasks from anywhere  via your desktop, your phone, etc. And it integrates with your Google Calendar so you’ll never forget the milk or anything else on your To Do list.

OpenOffice.org
Is a great free alternative to Microsoft Office and runs on both windows and Mac operating systems. The software comes with the whole Office-like package that includes a word processor, spreadsheets, presentations creator, and a drawing feature. Installation and setup is straightforward and painless and requires very little time. The interface is very similar to that of Microsoft Office, and it’s very easy to learn and manipulate. If you are looking for an option to save you some serious cash, OpenOffice Office Suite is a great tool to use.