Alternative ways to boot

I intend to use my macbook in clamshell mode, and I bought the new alpha numeric mac keyboard to use with it, but I found out that i cannot boot up my mac without opening it and using the power button. Is there any other way I could boot up my mac (not power up from sleep) without opening it? Or alternatively, is it safe to just keep putting my macbook to sleep when I'm not using it?

I ask because I wanted to build a vertical stand and put my macbook out of the way, but it will be a real pain to have to pull it out and turn it on and then close it and plug all my external bits back in.