My small business is like many others. I don't use cutting edge technology. But ... I DO rely heavily on key technologies and tools to make my business more effective.

This year I started using five new (for me) technologies or tools that have made a huge difference in my business's productivity and throughput. I've ranked these tools based upon the impact they've had on my business. Here are my 2003 Top Five Tools for Small Business:

5) Wireless network — Who needs to be tied down to a desk? Especially if you have a home-based business. With a wireless network, you can move your "office" around as your mood and need suits you. Make your deck your office in good weather. Or you can join the family with your laptop in the family room, spending time with them and still getting a little work in. It certainly improves the quality of life.

4) Laptop bag with wheels — When you are travelling by air, that laptop feels like 100 pounds by the time you lug it all the way to the gate. A laptop wheelie bag makes business travel a lot more tolerable, and keeps your back from getting out of alignment. I used to hang my regular laptop briefcase on my wheeling luggage, but then it made the whole shebang much too heavy to pull. Better, I've found, to check your luggage and just wheel the laptop by itself.

3) PDF writer — I just re-discovered the benefits of quickly and easily creating PDF documents this summer. Earlier this summer a colleague put me on to a $10 PDF writer program, which works beautifully (www.pdf995.com). With this simple program I can send a document to someone and not have to worry about whether they have on their PC the underlying program needed to read it. For instance, I sometimes create documents in Publisher, Visio or in Microsoft Project, programs which many people do not have. Instead of sending the Publisher or Project document — which they can't open so why bother — I quickly make a PDF instead. With the Acrobat Reader they can access the document. Besides, the PDF is frequently a smaller file size, making it more practical to email.