There are a million of 'top free' lists out there. I know because I have scoured and excitedly, I admit, clicked most of them. I love technology and how it makes complicated tasks easier. Here are my top 5 business tools that I use every day, that so happen to be free:
Google Suite
I have always been a word and excel fan so having a free and compatible alternative has been great. Using Google suite apps you can open (and save!) Microsoft files easily. With Google Docs you can do just about anything you'd do in Word- make a flyer, do a mail merge, or create a contract. Using Google Sheets, you can import data and perform many of the Microsoft excel formulas you already know to help you analyze your data. Another wonderful tool in the suite is Google Forms. You can create forms to collect data on your website or send a direct link to your clients. If your business involves teaching, you can even create quizzes that will assign a score. My favorite feature of Forms is that you can have your submissions automatically exported to a Google Sheets spreadsheet. Another reason the apps in this suite is great is it's mobility. You can create, update or review a file, and save it directly to your google drive so that you can access it from anywhere and on any device. These tools are already connected to your existing Google account for free.
Wave Accounting
Accounting can be intimidating, but it's an important part of running a business. What I love about this online accounting software is that once it's setup, it does most of the hard work for you. Setup your chart of accounts, link your business accounts and it will auto categorize your business transactions. There is a reconciliation feature that makes it easy to balance your transactions and it even offers multiple reporting like Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow reports. You can sign up for free at waveapps.com
Monday.com
If you need to keep up with multiple tasks, projects or deadlines, I highly recommend a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to help you stay organized. While there are a few great options out there, I like using Monday.com because it's easy to understand how to set-up and offers a modern, visual platform. The hardest part is figuring out how you want to use it (how you want to organize and analyze your data). To help you decide your best setup, they offer videos that were submitted from other businesses demonstrating how they use it and they even offer a free template to duplicate their setup! If you want to upgrade to the paid option, you can setup automations that are very useful when moving items from one phase to the next of your workflow, and integrate outside apps so you can have all of your information in one place.
*Updated 8/13/21* The down side to the free option is that you only get 100 items. Depending on how complex your business and processes are, this may become an issue just as your getting comfortable with the platform, so it's worth considering when choosing the CRM and project/task management software that is best for you.
Buffer
Everyone is on social media and it's important that your business has a presence there too. Outside of word of mouth, social media is the best way to reach your audience and keep them updated on your latest products and services. As important as content is to your business's social media pages, consistency is also important. It's important to steadily post to your accounts so that you can grow your audience and reach more people while building trust within the online community. Buffer.com allows you to schedule out your posts on multiple social media sites all at once. They automatically post at times that offer the most reach for each site, but even that is customizable. Their free plan offers scheduling for up to 3 social profiles and up to 10 posts each.
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