The following is a guest blog post by Matt Mickiewicz, co-founder of 99designs – a multi-million dollar design marketplace, and Flippa. Want to build a business on the cheap, and grow it to multi-millions in revenue? Matt is a jedi-master, so take heed….Below are some of his fave tools.

7 ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR YOUR STARTUP COMPANY

Running a lean start-up is all about efficiency, and making the best use of low-cost or free tools available. Below I’ve highlighted some of my favourite “must bookmark” services that should be in every entrepreneurs toolbox.

1. Google Website Optimizer
You don’t know what you don’t know. Google Website Optimizer simplifies the process of testing your theories and hypotheses against real users using your site or service. Each new day brings new data and knowledge that you can employ to incrementally improve your business. You can also check out my friend Tim Ash’s book, Landing Page Optimization for tips on improving your site.

2. Mockingbird
Face it, you’re no designer. But as the founder or CEO of a startup, your role in product development is super-important. GoMockingbird.com is an intuitive, easy-to-use tool you can utilize to create wireframes and clickable prototypes, which you can then pass onto your designer.

3. UserTesting.com
You need feedback, and you need it pronto. Running a lean startup is all about moving quickly, and UserTesting.com allows you to run your website and apps against real users for just $29 per test. Furthermore, you receive feedback in as little as 24 hours. Use it!

4. UserVoice
Are you seeing a pattern yet? Successful startups are built on customer feedback. UserVoice is a great service that allows your customers to make suggestions and then vote on them. The strongest ideas rise to the top, ready for you to implement. Some of the best ideas at 99designs.com have come from our users — and best of all, implementing these ideas has lead to real bottom-line growth in our revenue.

5. Amazon Web Services and RightScale
Unless you already have racks of servers, you’re going to need to be able to scale your business quickly. After all, you never know when you’re going to land on the front page of the New York Times or Wall Street Journal! AWS and RightScale are super low-cost services that allow you to rent servers by the hour and data storage by the gigabyte. Without them, 99designs would be unable to archive over two million designs created by our design community. Check out Host Your Web Site in the Cloud — available for purchase on Amazon.com from January 2010.

6. DropBox
There is no easier way to share documents and files, period. Dropbox replaces your thumb drive and makes it easy to sync folders across computers and mobile devices. It’s much easier than emailing files back and forth as well. Three million users and counting attests to this!

7. AdWords
This is where most startups begin their media buying, because it’s cheap, easy to start with, and quick to optimize. AdWords allows you to quickly gain targeted traffic to your website while you work on your organic SEO. This enables you to start learning through Google Website Optimizer about what works and what doesn’t with actual site visitors. Best of all, by testing different ad copy, you can quickly determine which value propositions resonate the most with your prospects. You can then roll these into your landing pages, email marketing, PR efforts, and other channels.