[Editor's note: This is the second in a series of practical advice for entrepreneurs -- things you're probably aware of but are likely to forget in the rush of launching a business.] At the outset of starting your business, you're likely collaborating with your cofounders via phone, in-person conversations and tools such as email, IM, iChat, etc. But how will you continue to collaborate into the future?

[Editor's note: This is the second in a series of practical advice for entrepreneurs -- things you're probably aware of but are likely to forget in the rush of launching a business.] At the outset of starting your business, you're likely collaborating with your cofounders via phone, in-person conversations and tools such as email, IM, iChat, etc. But how will you continue to collaborate into the future?

You could continue using rough tools for quite some time, indeed many people and groups do, but there are dozens of great tools and services that have a lot to offer the bootstrapping startup.

The single most important tool for any startup is one that every person involved in the startup uses and refers back to on a regular basis. One startup I'm advising has set up a private, self-hosted mailing list for the founders of the company as well as a network of trusted advisors. Since it is a mailing list, all messages are archived for future reference by the mailing list software, and it's a simple and rapid way for ideas, links and discussions to be shared in a private space. However, a mailing list has drawbacks. While it's great for conversations and easy sharing of information, it's not great for document collaboration or for being a comprehensive and up-to-date record of the company.

For that I would recommend what many startups I work with use: a simple, usually hosted wiki. PBWorks (formerly PBWiki) offers a very easy to use wiki that's free for small group usage. SocialText offers a bit more of an enterprise-centric wiki that I've used on other projects. There are other great wiki providers and open source wikis such as MediaWiki which are options too. I'm friends with the founders of both companies so have used them for my projects.

The key is to pick a simple tool and ensure that every member of the team uses it. As you use the tool to collaborate, you should also ensure that it's building up an archive and collection of resources that you can share with future advisors, board members, investors and new employees.

Google Docs or Zimbra offer alternatives for collaborative document creation. Google Apps for Domains even offers such tools in a more secure and private form. However, though such tools definitely have value and can be useful, consider carefully whether the metaphor of documents is the best for a new startup. A wiki is often more in keeping with the needs of a web-centric startup.

Now, what about tools for managing version control of your development effort? If you're a web startup, there will be elements of your project that involve creating source code -- from customizations of open source projects to entirely new applications. It's easy to just start writing the applications. But you should first take a few minutes to standardize as a team on a single platform for version control.

Again my view is that the particular platform you select is less critical than that you select one and use it. Your development team should be working with a source control tool and, in turn, you should be aware of what they check into that tool as the current, stable application when you go to deploy that app or changes to that app in production. This layer gives you a lot of very important protections and processes.

First, it serves as a record of who changed what part of the application and when they did it. If your developers are using the tools correctly, they should also be noting why they made changes as they check in their code.

Second, it provides a clear definition of what you're running "in production", ideally allowing you to also run development servers and perhaps test platforms. A cloud server provider, even if you don't use them as your primary hosting provider can offer a lot of advantages when you need to test new version of the application or configuration changes to your servers, as you can test them via demand servers.

Finally, a good version control system helps foster communication amongst your developers and the rest of your team. It should allow developers to see who's working on what parts of the application, including contributions from non-developers. Ideally, you should use one tool that everyone on your team can use, even the few non-developers you have initially.

There are many great modern version control tools. Git is the emerging popular one for many open source projects, Subversion is also very popular. SmashingMagazine published a great list of Seven modern Version control systems , which is well worth a quick read. Version control is not just for software developers, either.Many writers have started to use Flashbake (in particular, read the comments on LifeHacker, which note solutions many others have adopted), which is a Git interface customized for writers.

Like all internal collaboration tools, the key is to adopt tools which everyone will use and which will form part of the core of your new venture.

First part in the series - Naming your startup.