Happy Indie-Preneur Day! 7 Tools To Help You Celebrate Your Independence.

Indie.
It’s everybody’s favorite power-to-the-people word, especially when you check out the dictionary definition and discover its intrinsically American qualities: free from external control and constraint; “an independent mind”; “a series of independent judgments”; “fiercely independent individualism.

All of which translates so smoothly into a star-spangled new word: Indie-Preneur. Being an entrepreneur is so last century.

On this pivotal Independence Day 2009, it’s time we re-defined ourselves with a word that better represents the burgeoning world of plucky, passionate, indie-innovators who are busily working to rebuild our country.  Our chances of rebounding may be vastly increased by honoring — not resisting — today’s fluctuating and increasingly independent workscape. Indeed, Indie ‘tude celebrates all that made the U.S.A. revolutionary 233 years ago.

An Indie-preneur may be working solo, as part of a team, small business, non-profit or even work fearlessly within a giant organization. Indie-preneurism is a state of mind; a style of being; a scrappy, bootstrapping never-say-die way of life. Indie-ism is finding new solutions to pressing old problems by honoring our inner quirks and creativity; that eccentricity that provokes us to see things in a different way. Indie can scale big or stay small. There is no hard and fast definition of Indie. (Except this: note the word: ‘fiercely’ above.)

And no, Indie is not a synonym for maverick.

Here’s the First Annual Indie-Preneur of the Week Award, which goes to:Socialbees. Here’s why:

Argg! I hate when that happens:   When Facebook abruptly changed the Vanity URL requirements to a 100 fan minimum to claim Fan Page names, small business owners who had expected to nab their URL with just 25 fans were flummoxed. Then Facebook-savvy Socialbees came up with a brilliantly viral solution:  A Fan Page Chat.  Encouraged by Socialbees’ networking pro, Hazel Grace Dircksen, these chatters went beyond chatting and ‘fanned’ each other. I don’t have stats on how many of these Fan Pages jumped to the required 100 as a result of Socialbees’ small business smarts or how many valuable business connections were made that night –but it’s good example of how Indie-Preneurs can rock the rules and win.

Not surprisingly, Indie-Preneurs are fervent do-it-yourselfers. Here are 7 easy online tools to help you celebrate your independence:

Do It Yourself Logo Design: Logoyes.com  LogoYes is the leading provider of do-it-yourself logos and other premium design products to small businesses around the world. Guru’s Note: Logoyes is simple, fun, and even if not the perfect customized logo for which you’d pay thousands, it’ll do in a pinch. Consider it market research and explore colors, fonts and symbols.

Did you drool over that shimmering new box of crayolas every fall? Then prepare. Once you enter this site, you’ll be lost in color lust for hours. Colourlovers.com calls itself a resource that monitors and influences color trends. Check out color palettes, read color related articles and interviews. Guru’s Note: This site is a powerful brainstorming tool. During my Lab360s, each participant creates colors and names for whatever product we’re focusing on that day. Sparks the imagination! Also a valuable tool for banishing writer’s block.

Got new website? Get new feedback. Just launched itself, Launchlyshowcases new websites to an audience to help site owners get the attention and feedback necessary to succeed. Launchly’s big plus: instead of just showcasing a startup and letting it fall by the wayside, Launchly allows apps to resubmit new iterations and build on their ideas. Guru’s Note: Yes, Ms. Website Owner, you do need Feedback– and from more than just the peeps you drink with and their cousins-in-law. Website/app development very quickly becomes a myopic process — a site like Launchly is very reasonably priced ‘insurance’ in a world of fickle marketplaces and even fickler (?) users.

My social-media-genius pal Janet Fouts tested the hot new app Evernote: Always on the lookout for a new app, I couldn’t help but take a look. This, my friends, is a very cool app. In a nutshell, Evernote lets you add information to a database that is accessible through the web, a desktop app, and your iPhone, Blackberry or smart phone. Items are tag-able and fully search-able so you can add pretty much anything, run a search, and quickly find it again wherever you are. Now when I say you can upload things, try to visualize this. You’re at a networking event and you suck at remembering names. With Evernote you can take a picture of a person with your phone, tag them with their name and they’re saved for future reference in your database. Even more interesting, include their name badge in the snapshot, even a handwritten name tag, and evernote will recognize the handwriting and enter it as searchable text!

Small Business meets Big Government: Business.gov is a web portal operated jointly by 22 different federal agencies — a kind of one-stop-resource for small businesses. With links to federal programs, links for various rules, regulations and laws, state-specific and industry-specific links, it’s just what we Indies need to stay within the lines, at least occasionally.

And then there’s the Patron Saint of the Indie-Preneur: TED. “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world” from the landmark conferences have now been translated into 51 languages and counting. After the fireworks this weekend, set off a few more by tuning in to TED.

Thanks to Mashable for the heads-up on Launchly.