Paul Spence is a co-founder of iWantMyName, a next generation domain management service offering 100+ international domains and easy one-click DNS setup on dozens of hosted applications such as Google Apps, Tumblr, Shopify or Assistly through the iWantMyName marketplace,

As recently as a decade ago, setting up an online company required substantial investment to purchase, install, configure and manage internal server hardware and proprietary software to make the business run.

That is no longer the case, with a plethora of low-cost hosted services now available to every budding startup entrepreneur. That means precious resources of money, time and energy can instead be redirected towards building a really great product for your customers and developing a fatter sales pipeline. So, what are the best hosted services to quickly get your business humming?

Make a Name for Yourself

1. Domain Name — Before you do anything, make sure you undertake a domain name search and secure a cool domain for your shiny new business. iWantMyName (shameless plug!) provides almost 100 different domain extensions and easy one-click custom domain setup on dozens of useful hosted services. If your .COM is already taken, consider alternatives such as .CO, .TV or .ME that can serve as your address on the web.

Get Organized

2. Office Software — Google Apps is a ubiquitous, platform agnostic, all-in-one service that offers secure email, calendar and document collaboration. Intuitive and speedy, Google Apps for business is loved by over 4 million businesses globally from one-man bands through to huge corporations.

The Code’s the Thing

3. Code Repositories and Hosting — Need to manage internal code sharing or planning to work on an open source project? GitHub is the social coding treehouse where all the cool kids hang out these days. Git offers both public and private repositories, issue tracking tools, and a wide range of user plans to suit. There are a number of excellent hosting services that specialize in particular programming environments. Heroku is an especially popular venue amongst the Ruby community and provides a fully scalable hosting environment to get your code up and running fast via Github. Heroku also supports Node.js, Clojure, Java, Python and Scala. PHP Fog is a new service also worth consideration. Great for hosting WordPress or Drupal and it automagically brings up new servers as your site grows.

Websites — Easier than Ever

4. Website Builder — Not everyone has a background in web design and development. Fortunately there are a number of highly accessible website builder services available. For as little as $20 per month Squarespace provides a construction framework, gorgeous design templates and secure hosting for simple and attractive websites. All Squarespace sites can be managed from a mobile device and have built in analytics. Artists, bloggers, small business owners and events managers are amongst the many satisfied users at Squarespace. If you want to sell stuff online, then Shopify is the fastest way to get a web-based store going.

Start Right with Analytics

5. Analytics — If you are building your own site then you will need some help tracking visitors. Google Analytics provides a rich source of data including monitoring sales conversion goals and referral sources for both web and mobile. Optimize your marketing campaigns and find out who’s talking about you. You may also be interested in Google Trends which rates the popularity of search keywords.

Wow Your Customers

6. Support Platform — What can we say? Assistly offer the world’s smartest web-based system for tracking and managing customer support and even gives you one seat upfront for free. You only begin to pay once your customer support team expands in line with your growing customer base. Social media, phone, email, web chat – Assistly integrates all of your support channels in one place and streamlines task allocation for quicker resolution and happier customers.

Content Is King

7. Blogging — Establishing thought leadership around your brand is one of the quickest ways to get noticed online and Tumblr is one of the easiest and most attractive blogs to set up quickly. If brevity appeals and you have artwork, photography or product images to share, then Tumblr is the hosted blogging software for you. Tumblr can also be fully domain customised within seconds. You’ve heard of WordPress, check out WP Engine which allows users to quickly set up a professional WordPress blog site.

Track Those Links

8. URL Shortener — It’s important to continually extend and track your reach through social media. Applying shortened links to your site content makes it easier to share important messages through sites like Twitter and Facebook. Bit.ly is perhaps the most well known URL shortener, offering click tracking and a nifty QR code for each URL. But awe.sm goes a step further for event promoters in particular by providing a graphical depiction of key influencers.

Build for Speed

9. Speed Optimization — Faster websites attract more traffic and achieve higher customer conversion rates. Torbit optimizes your website performance through compressing HTML, CSS and Javascript, without having to add any new software. Easily implement Torbit on your website domain name.

Throw Away that Shoebox Stuffed with Receipts

10. Accounting – At the end of the day, your business has to make a buck. Eventually you’ll be needing an affordable and straightforward accounting system. Xero exemplifies design and usability and simplifies managing your business finances and invoicing. Xero learns as it goes and saves you from re-entering repetitive data. You will spend less time and money on compliance and your accountant will love you for it.

Wave Accounting is totally free (that’s right, seriously).  By using smart tools and game-changing technology, Wave is reinventing the way small businesses stay on top of their financial information. How do they do that for free? They get other companies to pay for the software–by featuring exclusive offers for things that matter to your business: business cards, web hosting, credit card processing services and more.

The Rest Is Up to You

The beauty of each of these hosted services is that you don’t need a Masters degree in computer engineering to get your web toolkit up and running. So whether you’ve been day-dreaming about setting up a web-based surfboard wax marketplace or you think that you might scrub up nicely promoting a dog washing business online — these services will help you achieve your goals a lot faster.

Assistly’s First Full-Time Agent Is Absolutely FREE