(FORTUNE Small Business) – BetterManagement.com Pop quiz! Under the tenure of Jack Welch, before any GE employee could reach executive level, he had to be trained to black-belt status in what? If all you can think of is karate, head to BetterManagement.com to read up on management-efficiency programs like Six Sigma--and find out if such principles might be useful in running your company. The site, while not light reading, will quell management anxiety by taking big-business practices (balancing the scorecards, collaboration practices) and boiling them down to a smaller firm's level. Filled with free content from universities like Carnegie Mellon and Harvard, the site offers online courses and seminars, articles, and technology reviews.

eFax.com In the old days, one of my favorite ways to keep in shape was not to invest in a fax machine: When a client needed something sent over, I got to pull on my running shoes and bolt to the nearest Kinko's, losing ground if the document crumpled in my bag or if someone cut in front of me in line. Once I heard of eFax.com, though, I took up jumping rope. For $10 per month, I can send and receive faxes from my desk via e-mail, and eFax gave me a real phone number to pose as fax digits. The most strenuous part of the process is downloading the viewer to see incoming faxes (think PDF with airmail stripes), and it takes less than a minute--the same amount of time it takes me to get winded with the rope.

HalfBakery.com Some ideas that would make all our lives less stressful: the Self-Cleaning Keyboard, so people could safely eat muffins at the computer without fear of technological failure from greasy crumbs. Or try the Panic PIN--a second number on ATM cards that, if entered, indicates you're being coerced to withdraw money at gunpoint, alerting the appropriate bank and law-enforcement officials. Zany? Maybe. How about fake? Yes, HalfBakery is a forum devoted to fictitious business ideas. But beneath the humor are kernels of truth. Skim it--maybe you'll come up with your next product offering by picking up nuances of market need. Or post something, and get thought-provoking feedback. Free.

OpenTable.com Whenever I have the opportunity to make an important impression, those overly insightful nitpickings that my mother utters run through my mind: "Is your skirt ironed? No runs in your nylons? Did you pick somewhere nice to meet them?" She is, they say, the embodiment of good taste and class, so I was excited to show her the repertoire of posh restaurants at online reservation site OpenTable.com. But she was more enthralled with the site's capabilities: "How will they know I reserved a table for two if I don't get to talk to them live?" You'll appreciate the reviews and ability to search via food type or neighborhood for a four-star place to take your clients. The only problem: a limited choice of places.

MDHub.com The best way to increase the patience of your patients is to find more time to deal with them, right? Well, MDHub says it'll save doctors time by letting them set up their own MDHub.com Web page, a place where patients can click specific boxes to request refills and schedule checkups--things "nonurgent." Sounds ideal ... if patients can be trained not to dial seven digits and instead spend minutes hassling with a Web page. Will MDHub take the time to teach all patients to do that? If not, it seems easier to stick with fax, phone, or e-mail.