From dainty food trucks and homemade crafts to online teaching and creative web design, small-scale businesses continue to surface around us. But what is it that makes a startup flourish? Is it excellent planning and management? Impeccable branding or clever social media marketing?
It’s all of these and more! Running a small business (or any venture, for that matter) is not a walk in the park. It requires excellent tools for successful operation. The good news is that we have an exclusive list compiled just for small-scale corporations. It includes the free small business tools you’ll need while covering the major business functionalities.
You can sign-up and get started straightaway with these tools because their basic plans are free. However, most free tools require paid subscriptions for upgraded plans, which (of course) offer fancy features and better services.
That said, even the most basic plans for the tools on our list are highly impressive. Once you find the right small business tool, it can take a huge burden off your shoulders. So, are you ready to genuinely grow your business just as you’ve always dreamed?
Check out the following free small business tools.
1. Asana
Essentially a workplace management dashboard, Asana is one of the most powerful small business management tools out there. This web and mobile software allow you to carry out business management, planning, communication, and much more. Everything to manage your venture is available on this user-friendly dashboard.
With Asana, you can create projects and break them into tasks and subtasks. The platform also lets you allocate tasks to team members, keep track of progress, and tackle any problems along the way. Communication between team members is also straightforward and reduces the frequency of emails, memos, and meetings.
Furthermore, Asana can integrate with a variety of external applications such as Outlook, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. All these features are available in the free plan, which accommodates up to fifteen users. No wonder it’s the perfect free small business tool.
2. Canva
The first noticeable thing about your brand is its visual aspects – logo and design. Canva is one of the top free online business tools covering all your graphic design needs. This web & mobile application lets you create innovative logos and elaborate graphics.
There are multiple template choices for any kind of graphic imaginable: Instagram post, Facebook cover, menus, collages, posters, flyers, etc. You can even formulate A4 documents, infographics, and presentations.
Canva’s free version has a massive selection of templates, photos, graphics, fonts, and more. The “Canva Pro” paid plan simply includes a wider range of templates, design elements, and some other extra features.
Even with the free version, it’s the perfect design tool for your brand, especially for website graphics and social media posts. Speaking of websites and social media, let’s explore one of the best small business tools for this purpose.
3. WordPress
Your new business startup needs an online presence, and building a website is the best way to go. WordPress lets you create seamless web pages without needing any web development know-how.
It’s free to sign up, and hundreds of free eye-catching themes and website templates are available. Whether you’re going for a business blog or an e-commerce setup, you’ll easily find the right template here.
This excellent small business tool also includes multiple plug-ins, helping you build a website with the required functionalities. For example, you can add contact forms, create an email subscription list, incorporate SEO, and more.
The best thing about WordPress is you don’t need to learn any coding language to create a website. View some helpful YouTube tutorials and get started on your business website.
4. Slack
Managing a business requires regular communication with employees and clients. Slack is a perfect tool for communication within and outside your business, allowing connections from anywhere in the world. Exchange files in real-time as well as archive and search them.
You can integrate over 1,500 external applications using the Slack premium version, making it one fully flexible, scalable platform. The free plan is ideal for small firms, allowing the integration of ten applications.
This platform allows you to organize tasks and discussions, share files, and have private and group conversations. Advanced search, filters, and sorting capabilities can quickly locate the appropriate files. You can set filters according to variables such as the file type, relevance, or the file’s date.
With all these features, Slack is one of the best free business tools recommended and used by various corporations.
5. HubSpot CRM
Customer relationship management (CRM) is the method of recording and managing interactions between companies and their customers. CRM tools enable firms to serve their clients better and build strong relationships.
With HubSpot CRM, small businesses have access to everything they need to track, manage, and grow leads. It combines sales, marketing, and customer service into one dashboard for easy access by all business departments.
According to research worldwide, customer relationship management (CRM) software totaled $26.3 billion in 2015, up 12.3 percent from $23.4 billion in 2014.
The software tracks sales, monitors campaign results, schedules social media postings and offers many other helpful features. All these functionalities make HubSpot CRM one of the best tools to grow your business.
It has four plans: starter, basic, professional, and enterprise. However, the free plan is more than adequate to give a solid start to new businesses.
6. MailChimp
Email marketing is one of the top modern marketing strategies, many new businesses rely on to promote their corporate. MailChimp is the best marketing tool developed for this purpose.
This email marketing platform is one of the best free tools for small business owners. With the help of such free tools, you can communicate more effectively with your customers via email. With Mailchimp’s free plan, you can send 12,000 emails per month to 2,000 subscribers.
MailChimp comes with several intuitive features for its users. Customize emails with one click, use easy-to-use templates, and track open & click rates using advanced analytics. Whether you own a company or operate as a sole entrepreneur, MailChimp is a great tool for keeping track of your newsletters and marketing campaigns.
Conclusion!
Free small business tools save your precious time and make running a small corporate easier. These tools streamline your business processes and improve efficiency and productivity.
The best thing is all the free small business tools we mentioned here provide tons of features in their free plan, which is more than enough for a startup. As your company grows, you should purchase their paid subscriptions to access more features, which will definitely be more beneficial for your venture.