The Best Free Resources to Grow Your Business
Growing a business is different than dreaming about your business, and it’s certainly different than starting a business. At each step in the process, you’ll likely need a village of support. That village doesn’t just include people. It includes resources and tech tools as well. We may all have champagne taste on a beer budget at some point in our business ventures, but that’s what the best free resources are for.
If you’re looking for the best all-around tools, we may be biased, but our blog ranks #1, but with all the free tools available, we wanted to help you parse through them. From accounting to creative, digital asset management to scheduling tools galore, here is a list of our best free resources to grow your business. Remember: Not all free things are created equal, but these are all pretty damn good!
Best Free Tools for Business Operations
Business operations—the inner workings of your business—might not be the most exciting part of your business, but they’re crucial to growing and operating a successful business. If you don’t know what’s going on in your business operations-wise, everything (productivity, profits, employee retention, your sanity, and more) can cost you time and money. But when you’ve got a great arsenal of operations tools in your toolkit, managing your business operations might even get closer to the outer edge of exciting.
For accounting: Wave and Freshbooks. If you’re not closely tracking simple business functions like dollars in and dollars out, or any trends associated with your financial assets for that matter, you will find little success when it comes to your bottom line. We love both of these accounting options because they ease the process by providing booking keeping, invoice services (that you can also design to meet your professional branding), and payroll, among other features. It’s a great free way to organize your finances and free up your time and mental space to actually grow your business in the smartest ways possible.
For project management: Trello. Projects—and all their moving pieces—are another part of your business that can feel overwhelming, especially as we move more towards remote work. When you use a project management app like Trello (our personal favorite!), all of those moving pieces are kept in one easy-to-access place for both you and your team. Trello allows remote team members to work together, without being physically together, provides timelines for projects, and as a business owner, it allows you to see what phase each project is in.
To connect: Free Conference Call + Zoom. I think we can all agree that the days of your team sitting around a conference table with a client on speaker phone are becoming fewer and farther between. Instead of adding to your operation expenses, these two free options offer the hassle-free connection: 0 dollars invested.
To schedule calls or anything else: Calendly. Back and forth emails and other communications to simply schedule a call or meeting can be not only frustrating, but a huge waste of time too. With Calendly, recipients can schedule meetings or calls based on your availability, and everything they need is sent to them. No further interaction needed on your part except to show up!
To time track: Toggl. If you don’t know where your time is spent, you’re probably either wasting time or spending more time than you’re aware of. Especially when your time is billable. Using a time tracking app like Toggl takes all the guesswork, wasted time, and missed profits off the table, allowing you to make the most of one of your most valuable assets: your time. The reporting software will also allow you to see how much time you actually spend on projects so that you can provide more accurate proposals over the long run. Bonus: it also syncs with Trello.
For customer support: TalkWalker. TalkWalker is a free alerting service that sends email updates on any topic you request: Your name, brand, competitors, events, or even your favorite TV show. Since your customers are the lifeblood of your business, it’s crucial to take good care of them and to have the ability to be hyper aware of any customer-related trends.
Online surveys: Typeform or Google Forms. One of the easiest and most customer- and client-friendly ways to grow your business is through online surveys, and these two options are top-notch. Surveys can help to grow your brand identity, engage and better serve your customers and clients, gauge and recognize market trends in real-time, get valuable feedback, and generate new leads.
To keep organized: Unroll.me. Ever feel like your inbox is a zoo? Your inbox can get to overflowing rather quickly, often from things you’ve forgotten you even subscribed to in the first place. So having a tool like Unroll.me to help you keep your email subscriptions in check can be a huge time saver as you’re growing your business.
Best Free Tools for Content Creation
Content is king for any business, especially as you're growing your business. And when you think about it, content is part of anything you use to communicate with clients and customers: Emails, social media posts, blog posts, mailers, marketing…all the things. So when it comes to content, having the tools available to make your content truly king are crucial.
For SEO-optimized blog titles: Blog Title Generator. A blog title is the first thing a human or an SEO bot will see, so using Blog Title Generator to help you choose the correct title can be the difference between getting your content seen or losing it in the 100+ page of any search engine.
For blog subject ideas: Portent Idea Generator. What subjects should you be posting about on your blog? Which subjects will reach the most customers and future customers? It can be hard to answer these questions, so an idea generator, like Portent, can help you figure out what content to fill that valuable space on your blog with. It’s the best way to get unstuck when you’re staring at a blank page and need to get typing!
For asset creation: Canva. Assets are key to optimal content creation, and if you’re not a graphic designer or Photoshop pro, you need an incredible assets creation tool to help grow your business and online brand presence. With an almost unlimited supply of templates, fonts, backgrounds, photos, and more, Canva can be a valuable member of your content team. Bonus: if you’re not familiar with professional graphic design tools, you can also hire a designer to customize templates for you in Canva (using your brand guidelines) so that you have the bones to start creating content yourself.
For free lifestyle stock photography: Unsplash. The right photos can turn okay content into extraordinary content, and since it can be pricey to hire a professional photographer for your content needs, Unsplash can serve as your professional lifestyle photographer—for free. Plus, the lifestyle images feel way more fresh than traditional stock photography.
For fonts: DaFont or Google Fonts. You might not realize it, but choosing the correct font and font pairings for your content can be the difference between that content hitting the mark or missing it altogether. These two options can help all your content hit the marks you’re aiming for, giving you clean and clear typography from the jump.
For photo compression: Compressor.io. Photos need to be optimized for your needs, and the wrong ratios can either make your content look unprofessional or make your site run like molasses. Compressor.io can take the photo optimization worry off your plate and make your photos look amazing, no matter what they’re used for. Pro tip: If you’re looking to keep all of your assets in one place, a pro account on Canva will also allow you to make your photos web ready in no time flat.
For error-free content creation: Grammarly. Next to your employees, your content is key to a successful business. But, when that content is riddled with grammar mistakes, it can be a quick turn-off for your customers and clients. Grammarly is your FREE editor-in-chief, ready to work whenever you are.
Best Free Tools for Social Media Management + Marketing
While SMM may not be your only avenue of marketing, it will likely be an important piece, which is why we are putting marketing and social media management tools into one category. Many of these tools will be a mix of scheduling, asset management, and analytic suites.
Best for Twitter: Tweriod or SocialRank. Tweriod suggests the best time to post on Twitter and analyzes your followers, allowing you to target your audience according to your needs. Social Rank is touted as the “easiest way to identify, organize, and manage your followers on Twitter and Instagram.” Both options can take some of the unknowns out of optimal SMM.
Best for video (+SEO): YouTube or Vimeo. We’re all familiar with YouTube, and it’s still the favorite for making sure your videos are a huge asset for your business. Vimeo might not be as well known, but it’s a solution that shouldn’t be overlooked for your video and video hosting needs. You can use both of these options to gain visibility and grow an audience, but you can also use the embed features to add video content to websites and emails. You really can’t go wrong with either option.
Best for asset management: WeTransfer + an External Hard Drive. Sending and safely storing files, especially huge files, can be problematic and frustrating. WeTransfer can shoulder these problems and frustrations, and a good ole’ external hard drive can also be a top asset for asset management. When it comes to asset management, remember to keep it organized and always back it up. While there are other options, like Dropbox, we prefer WeTransfer for larger files, and Dropbox (plus an External HD) to organize and save your files when appropriate.
Best for scheduling: Facebook Business Manager. This tool works great for both FB and IG, and it gives you the best times of day to post to reach your audience at the optimal times. It also offers an analyzing tool so you can see what’s working and what’s not so you can pivot when needed. Sometimes, the easiest solution is right on the platform you are using. Use FB and IG to post to FB and IG. It’s as simple as that.
Best for trends: Google Trends. Did you ever wonder if more people search for x or y when it comes to understanding how to market your business? Enter Google Trends, which allows you to “Explore what the world is searching” and takes all the guesswork out of trying to understand and decipher those ever-changing trends.
Best social media reach: Buffer. The more people you can reach through your SMM, the more clients and customers you can attract. Having a tool like Buffer that allows you to reach the farthest across all platforms is key to growing your business.
Best for analytics: Google Analytics. Our favorite tool of them all. You need to be able to quickly analyze your advertising ROI to see what’s hitting and what’s missing, and with Google Analytics, you can do this and more, including the ability to track your social media sites/applications and videos.
This may seem like a long list, but when you incorporate any or all of these 21+ FREE resources we’ve shared, your business will not only grow, but grow in the most effortless—and expense-free—ways possible for both you and your team.
Looking for a marketing specialist or agency to help you navigate these free tools and take your business to the next level? That’s where we shine. Contact us to see how we can help you grow your business.