Whether you are a solopreneur or a small business owner, when you first start your business, you might be limited in financial resources and be ‘bootstrapping’. Now I am a big believer in bootstrapping because that is exactly how I have built my business.

Now there are lots of free tools out there to help you start and scale your business. However, if you aren’t careful you can spend hours signing up for tools and downloading apps that just aren’t fit for purpose. I am here to make your life easier and save you some time. Below I list some of my tried-and-tested FREE tools that I use (or have used) and loved.

 

Please note: Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you.

 

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

ASANA

Running a business involves managing multiple things simultaneously. To ensure that you remember everything and don’t become overwhelmed, I would highly recommend that you use a project management tool. My choice of project management tool is ASANA.

I love Asana for a number of reasons:

• It is seamless across desktop and mobile, so when I have thoughts on the go I can add them in.
• It will grow as your business grows. In the beginning, you can assign all tasks to you but as your team grows you can easily add new members and assign them to tasks
• The ability to copy tasks means it is great for you to create a process and then follow a checklist each time you repeat that process.

Like the sound of Asana? Sign up for free today.

 

 

GRAPHICS

CANVA

Running an online business will mean you have to have a lot of different graphics: website, email, social media etc. My go-to tool in the workplace had always been Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, which I still love. However, when it comes to free graphic design tools Canva is incredible. If you are lucky enough to have your brand fonts included in the FREE version then it is a great place to start. Otherwise, you can upgrade to Canva for work, which is $12.95 per member. I can’t recommend Canva highly enough. I have templates set up for feature images on my blog, YouTube thumbnails, Instagram posts, Pinterest pins, Instagram stories, Printables and so much more. Having all of the templates makes the creation process so much easier.

You can join Canva today for free. Click here.

 

 

EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER

MAILERLITE

As a business owner, you should be actively building an email list. An email list gives you the opportunity to direct market to people.  Mailerlite is my favourite free emailing service provider. For years I recommended Mailchimp and when I knew I needed to start a mailing list for PropelHer I used Mailchimp. Mailchimp is definitely the most well known free email service provider, but that doesn’t mean it is the best.

After hearing a few people mention Mailerlite as a good free email service provide (for up to 1,000 subscribers), and a great alternative to Mailchimp, I decided to give it a go when I relaunched charellegriffith.com I set up mailerlite and couldn’t be happier for a free provider. I love how easy it is to create automated email, there are good segmentation options (You can check out my post on ‘3 ways to start segmenting your mailing list’ here) and they are constantly integrating with more software and platforms.

For more info and to sign up to Mailerlite click here.

 

 

ANALYTICS TOOL

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

If you have a website and don’t have Google Analytics setup then get onto it now! I still can’t believe that Google offers Google Analytics for free. Once setup it will be constantly gaining data about how your site is used. This knowledge is invaluable so you can see how your marketing is working and also understand how you can improve your site. Some examples of the insights you can gather from Google Analytics include: how people got to your site, what page people left your site at and what sort of device they use. Once you are up and running check out ‘7 Google Analytics metrics every website owner should review’.

You can sign up to Google Analytics by clicking here.

 

 

APPOINTMENT SCHEDULER

CALENDLY

Scheduling appointments and meetings are such a time sucker. I am sure you have been in those never ending emails chains that go back and forth as you try and find a meeting time. Calendly is such a time-saver when it comes to scheduling meetings or calls. You can set times in Calendly of when you are available and then send the link to anyone you need to book a meeting or call with. The free version is limited to only one length of time (for example, I have a 20-min slot created for discovery calls).

You can sign up to Calendly by clicking here. 

 

SURVEY TOOL

SURVEYMONKEY

As a business owner, it is essential that you are getting feedback from you (potential) customers. You can gain research through emails and conversations, but running surveys is a great way to gain quantitative and qualitative data. The free version of SurveyMonkey allows you to run unlimited surveys, but they are limited to 10 questions per survey.

To find out more and sign up to SurveyMonkey click here.

 

 

LOOKING FOR MORE RESOURCES TO HELP GROW YOUR BUSINESS?

In this post, I have shared 6 of my favourite free tools that you can use to run your business. I hope you have found these suggestions helpful and they will help you get moving forward in your business.

If you are looking for more tools to grow your business then check out my RESOURCES PAGE.

In the comments below I would love to know what your favourite free business tool is.