The beauty of being an entrepreneur is that you can manage your own business from anywhere at anytime. It’s truly a business model that allows you to work from anywhere. These days we’re luckier than ever to have the power of technology at our fingertips to make this possible.

From hosting your documents in the cloud to taking phone calls from no fixed abode, everyday there seems to be a new online tool to help us become more effective at what we do and to create better systems. The trouble is that with technology changing so rapidly it can get overwhelming trying to stay on top of them all, and their new features and updates.

Yet, used correctly, the right tools can save you a ton of time and money and give you a business that you feel in control of. So how do you get started on selecting the right tools for your business needs? Here are three things to consider when selecting the right tools before you invest your time and money getting set up on them:

Is there a steep learning curve?
When you’re running your own business you know how hard it is juggle the role of CEO, marketing genius, sales extraordinaire and financial expert. The last thing you need to do is spend countless hours figuring out to use a complex tool.

You need tools that are easy to set up, install within minutes and are intuitive and user friendly.

Will the benefit outweigh the cost?
Ever had that feeling of regret when you’ve forked out for a premium service online and then wondered if you’re ever going to use it? Well unless you’ve made room for it in your routine, there’s a high chance you will never integrate it properly into your daily activities.

Fortunately many tools have a free trial version for you to test out their tool before you commit to investing. The higher the price the more convenient this free trial is to you, but even without a trial period, make sure the benefits of adopting a new tool or service is worth the cost – both money- and time-wise.

Will this tool be available in the future?
There’s always a fear that you will fall in love with a tool for your business and then find out one day because the company discontinued it to launch something else, or the company itself disappeared.

That’s why it’s good to look at the company behind the tools, and its investors to see if it will be around for a while. You can always rely on the products that have been helping entrepreneurs for years and will never go away.

Where to next?
The reality is discovering one off tools like this still requires you to go out and find them, or get recommendations from your friends. Wouldn’t it be great if the most useful tools were all in one handy place for you to reference at any time?

Luckily, they are. The Ultimate Toolkit for Evolutionary Entrepreneurs features 85 tools to help you streamline your business and save time and money. It’s a handy reference tool that features tried and tested handpicked tools you need to run your business from anywhere.

The concept of this book is simple: To provide you with one free (or as good as) tool and one paid tool for each area major area of business. This includes website build and optimization, marketing, design and PR, social media management, sales and customer service, personal productivity and team management plus much more!

Every tool comes with a short and sweet description of what it does and why that’s useful to you – in real terms you can understand. I’ve covered what it’s best for, who it’s best for and how much it costs.

Of course oDesk is a featured tool because when it comes to changing the future of work oDesk has proven to be invaluable to entrepreneurs and freelancers just like me.

As a result, together we’re offering the amazing oDesk community something special. If you buy a copy of the Ultimate Toolkit for Evolutionary Entrepreneurs by March 28th 2011 you will receive 20% off.

If you’d love to get your hands on this invaluable resource then visit http://womanzworld.com/toolkit Simply enter the code featuredtool at checkout to get 20% off.

Natalie Sisson is a Kiwi Entrepreneur and Adventurer dedicated to finding creating ways to help you run your business from anywhere. She focuses on using online tools, social media and outsourcing to create more freedom in business and adventure in life. Over on her blog The Suitcase Entrepreneur you can find articles on all aspects of running a virtual business, a wealth of resources, biz and travel tools plus a large dose of inspiration, insight and intelligence.