As a pro what are the software packages you must have?

For my business these are all necessity...

CS5
Photo Mechanic
Microsoft Word for Mac

lightroom knocked hours off my post processing time.
Its a beautiful thing.
There is not much out there that has affected my workflow as much as it has.

For my portait work:

Photoshop. If I were doing weddings and dealing with much more volume with less retouching, Lightroom might be in this singular category, but with fewer images (only about 100 exposures per client) and pixel-level editing 100% of the time, I need a high-level pixel editor. Photoshop is my irreplaceable editor--not because of its capabilities, but because of its support.

I worked with other editors that are just as capable, but I've discovered that "If you take the road less travelled, you have to wait much longer for help to come by when you break down." Problems or effects I had to spend hours working out myself with other programs I could have Googled or dropped the question to a couple of forums and gotten the answer within minutes with Photoshop. The ubiquitous support available for Photoshop probably saved me enough time to pay for it within weeks after I bought my first copy.

Applictions that have proven directly profitable:
1. ProSelect for sales sessions--It paid for itself during the trial period.
2. ProShow Producer for sales sessions and marketing--It would have paid for itself during the trial period if they didn't have that blasted "trial" banner across the output.

Applications for running the business:
1. Microsoft Word and Outlook for correspondence and documentation
2. Quickbooks for accounting
3. Excel for financial calculations and planning

Workflow programs I use frequently and would miss:
1. Canon DPP
2. Acoustica Label Maker
3. Portraiture
4. Topaz Adjust
5. Shine-Off
6. Downloader Pro

Adobe has me updating every couple years. When they no longer update a program, I update to the next.

Everythings goes into LR for PP editing, PS for pixel editing ( LR3 has even lessoned some of that )

Sometimes with visits to other planets, OnOne suite, Nik's collection, Portrait pro, ImageNomic's set

RDKirk wrote in post #11288636
I worked with other editors that are just as capable, but I've discovered that "If you take the road less travelled, you have to wait much longer for help to come by when you break down." Problems or effects I had to spend hours working out myself with other programs I could have Googled or dropped the question to a couple of forums and gotten the answer within minutes with Photoshop. The ubiquitous support available for Photoshop probably saved me enough time to pay for it within weeks after I bought my first copy.

This summarizes my experiences, as well. Even with Elements. I always found support and tutorials for Elements to be lacking when I needed them.

I use LR3 the most. I also use CS5. CS3 would still be good enough, but 'content aware fill' was enough by itself to get me to upgrade... though I would have gone to CS6 anyway, for economic upgrade price reasons.

I consider LR3 to be essential. I know CS5 is, for the most part, overkill for what I do, but I've always believed in having the best tool I can reasonably afford so I don't hit brick walls when I need to expand my own growth.