Starting a new business is an exciting venture, but one often associated with high costs and shoestring budgets. It’s important for owners of new businesses to be aware of all the free services available online so that they have more room in their budget for big purchases. Read on to find no-cost services you can access online that can help get your business off the ground and on its way to success.
Free Accounting
Image via Flickr by Carissa Rogers
Accounting is one of the most important parts of a new business—you must make sure you’re within budget and keeping an eye on your cashflow to keep your business afloat. While it used to be 100% necessary to contract with an accounting firm or hire an in-house bookkeeper, there are now free online accounting services that can take care of everything a new business owner needs. Sage One’s free accounting software not only helps you balance your books with no accounting experience needed, its streamlined and simple design gets rid of many of the complications faced by those who have never used accounting software before. In addition, Sage One has invoice templates to keep your business professional looking, and to eliminate the need to waste time making complicated spreadsheets on your own.
Free Writing Help
If you’re planning on bringing your business online, whether it’s a Facebook page, a website, or blog, you may want to look into some of the free writing help found online to make sure that your content is as polished as possible. Grammarly helps make sure your writing has fewer errors with its free software that finds and corrects issues in your writing that many word processors would miss—its website claims up to 10x better results.
If you’re one of those people who gets easily distracted when composing online text, or even emails and memos, consider checking out free online resources like ZenPen, which is a simple writing tool that eliminates all distractions and has minimalist formatting software, so you can create your entire text without worrying about fonts and spacing before you transfer your work to its final platform.
Free Website Analysis
So you have your website up and running, now it’s time to see your website’s stats. There are the traditional favorites, such as Google’s Analytics, which has both paid and free options, depending on your level of need, as well as their Keyword Planner, which helps you plan your advertisements around what your customers are searching for online. If you’re worried that your website may have some loading issues or timing problems that are leading to reduced online traffic, test your website on Pingdom—just enter the URL and it gives you a full analysis of potential issues, including slow load time and bottlenecks that may turn away traffic. If you’re interested in how search engines pull content from your website, check out Browseo.
Free Image Editing
A beautiful website needs beautiful pictures, and these free image editing sites will keep your page looking clean and professional without your needing to learn complicated programs like Photoshop. Canva allows anyone to create graphic designs for their site, whether they have graphic design experience or not. Filled with gorgeous images and a streamlined system that makes working on the page easy, it’s definitely a great tool for those who don’t want to hire a graphic designer. For fancy mockups and demo videos for your company, look into Placeit, a free and easy tool for all levels of computer fluency. If you want more in-depth free software to edit your pictures with, Pixlr is a great tool that has everything you need to make Photoshop-quality edits without needing to watch hours of tutorials online. With interactive help, should you need it, this website is an excellent resource for pros and novices alike.
With all the free programs available online that eliminate the need for outside help, getting your new business off the ground is easier than ever. Your budget shouldn’t have to suffer from needless contracts and expensive designs when you’re able to get so many services online for free!
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