20 FREE Resources for Businesses

Posted by Jim Otto

20freeStarting your own business can be a serious and daunting task. With so many things to consider (and pay for) it's always a significant bonus to be able to find free resources that aren't just smoke and mirrors - but are truly helpful. Following is our list of 20 free resources for business that you might find beneficial as you work to grow your business. We hope they help you like they have us!

  • 1) shortstack.com: shortstack.com helps design great Facebook pages that include contests, sweepstakes, videos and custom forms.

  • 2) hootsuite.com: Used by the White House, Time, and Fox, hootsuite.com is a leading social media dashboard.  Use hootsuite to manage multiple social profiles, schedule messages and track brand mentions, etc.

  • 3) anymeeting.com: This site can help keep your business moving forward with little money spent.  You can hold meetings, sell tickets to your webinars, share your screen, record those important meetings, collect information and follow up.  All for free (which includes free support).

  • 4) IBOToolbox.com: For independent business owners, this is the fastest growing business network.  This site has a collection of amazing tools that are designed to get your business exposed.  “IBOToolbox is a ‘safe haven’ to build your business”  --Paul Williams, IBOToolbox Creator

  • 5) SMEtoolkit.com: SME Toolkit helps you learn the basics of starting your own business with some thoughtful questions to ask yourself. For example: What do you want to do and how are you going to go about doing it?

  • 6) Freeconferencecall.com: Free conference calls are simple and easy to use.  All you need is an email address and a name to receive an instant account.

  • 7) mozy.com: With your new business venture; you will want to protect your critical business data, financial records, photos and even music.  Mozy ensures your digital life will be there when you need it.

  • 8) Zoho.com: You can focus on your business while Zoho takes care of the rest.  These apps will help you get more sales, get paid, support your customers and make your business more productive.

  • 9) google.com/calendar: Keep track of meetings and appointments in your personal or business life.
  • 10) Expensify: Expensify imports expenses and receipts straight from your credit card, submitting PDF expense reports by email and reimbursing up to $10K online! Completely digital expense tracking and reporting.  Free iPhone/iPad, Android, Blackberry and WebOS apps. Seamless QuickBooks integration.

  • 11) googlealert.com: Generates leads, monitors competitors and safeguards your reputation.  The web’s leading solution for monitoring your professional interests online.  Track the entire web for your topics and receive new results by daily email. GigaAlert was formerly known as Google Alert.

  • 12) Vyew.com: Vyew allows you to meet and share content in real time anytime.  Upload images, files, documents and videos into a room.  Users can access and contribute at any time.  Sign up is Free.

  • 13) Wrike: Free Project Management will rock your team’s productivity with a combo of task list, spreadsheets, Gantt charts and Activity Stream in 1 app.  Wrike brings all data in one place making project management fast, easy and enjoyable.

  • 14) Fresh Books Cloud Accounting: Fresh Books is the fastest way to track time, organize expenses and invoice your clients.

  • 15) CloudHQ: CloudHQ will replicate, sync and backup all Google Apps, files and emails with other cloud services such as Box, Dropbox for Business, Evernote for Business, SkyDrive, Basecamp, and more.

  • 16) Dropbox: Securely share, sync and collaborate with Dropbox. Dropbox is the secure file sharing and storage solution that employees love and IT admins trust. 

  • 17) vitaminCM.com: This website lets you choose from 50 Free Apps to run your small business like a professional.

  • 18) Hubspot: Hubspot's all-in-one marketing software helps you optimize your website to get found by more prospects and convert more of them into leads and paying customers (free trial).

  • 19) Wordpress: Create a free website for your business.

  • 20) Gmail: With 15GB of free storage, you won't need to delete emails to save space!

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