Small business owners know that stretching their budget as far as possible is essential. Unfortunately, a lot of popular business tools that streamline processes, improve communication, and help attract new leads are expensive. To help you make the most of the money you have, we’re here to tell you all about the top free business tools to help your company grow without breaking the bank. 

Point of Sale & Ecommerce Tools 

1. Website Builder from Wix 

Does your small business need a website? For most, the answer should be a resounding “yes”. If your website needs are basic, head over to Wix, a website-building tool you can use to create beautiful, mobile-friendly websites.

Wix consistently tops lists of best website builders and for good reason: it lets business owners easily create websites and has a large portfolio of templates for any industry.

2. Ecommerce site from Shopify

Small business owners who are looking to sell products both online should look no further than Shopify. It’s an eCommerce platform for online stores and Point-Of-Sale systems, so if you’re looking to make use of both brick-and-mortar business and eCommerce, Shopify is an ideal solution. It provides free tools for small businesses to market and sell their products, as well as the ability to showcase products, communicate with customers, accept payments, and much more. 

If you are looking to sell products online, you can’t go wrong with Shopify. This is an Ecommerce platform designed to make it easy for businesses to widen their customer base by giving them free access to the tools they need for customers far and wide. You can use Shopify to showcase your products, talk to customers and accept payments all for free. 

3. Ecommerce and Website Builder from Squarespace

If you’ve been anywhere online lately, you’ve probably seen advertisements for SquareSpace. It’s one of the most popular website-building tools out there. Squarespace provides contemporary, state of the art website templates for anyone to create a webpage to promote their small business. If you are interested in dipping your toes into e-commerce, they also make it easy to list products and start selling.

Advertising Tools 

4. Google My Business 

Want to attract new customers by showing up on the world’s number 1 search engine? It’s as simple as signing up for a profile, and posting your business hours, location, and pricing information. Everything you put in your profile will show up when people Google you. You can even share pictures and virtual tours. 

Organizational  Business Tools

5. Project Manager from Asana

Asana is a project management tool that helps teams easily collaborate and communicate about projects, at any time, from any place. The program is designed to help teams organize, track, manage, and collaborate on work. If project management and keeping your team efficient is a top priority for your small business, give Asana a try. 

6. Organizational Platform from Monday.com

As more people have transitioned to remote work, they’re utilizing Monday.com, and for good reason. It’s an organizational platform that helps teams to stay on top of their work or assignments. There is a free version of Monday.com available to any small business owners who want to try it out before they buy.

7. Storage & Organization from Google Drive

Still using Microsoft Office? So 2003. Google Drive is essential these days. It allows you to create, edit, and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations easily online. Files can be accessed wherever you have an internet connection. And it’s all for free.

Financial Business Tools

8. Accounting from QuickBooks

Stay on top of your accounts with the world’s easiest to use accounting software: QuickBooks. QuickBooks takes the toughest of accounting tasks, like double bookkeeping, and makes them easy to understand. No business or finance degree is needed to get started and properly manage your records. .

9. Business Banking from North One

Sick of waiting on hold with your bank? We were too, so we did something about it. Meet your new best friend: North One, a 100% digital banking platform built specifically for small business owners. It’s easy to use, available 24/7 (unlike your bank) and provides useful insights into your financial health.

Best of all, you can open up an FDIC-insured Business Account in as little as  3 minutes!

Communication Business Tools

10. Communication platform from Slack (include that it has text, video and integrations like google calendar)

Email, Text messages, Video conferences. Communicating with co-workers can get confusing. Slack keeps everyone on the same page by keeping your team’s conversations in one simple app. It even integrates with third-party tools for business like Google Calendar to help keep you extra organized.

11. Video Conferencing from Zoom

Everyone, everywhere, has heard of Zoom, and for good reason. It made its viral appearance as the most utilized video conferencing platform of 2020. It’s simple to use, and straightforward to sign up for an account. It also integrates with third-party calendars like Google Calendar to make sure you never miss a meeting. For any small business that has remote workers, Zoom is a must-have free business software. 

12. Google Video Conferencing from Google Meet

For Google lovers, Google Meet is the go-to choice for video conferencing. Just like Zoom, it’s easy to create an account and integrates seamlessly with your Google Calendar. Even better, if you use Google Chrome, Google Meet will provide pretty flawless connectivity, and it doesn’t impose any time limits on meetings.

Social Media Business Tools

13. Scheduling Tool from Buffer 

Everyone knows that you need to be on social media, but not everyone follows through with a social media strategy. Probably because publishing individual posts in real-time can be so time-consuming. 

With Buffer, you can schedule all your social media posts in advance! Plus, you can connect all of your social accounts, from Facebook to Linkedin, letting you manage all your social media from one platform.

14. Social Media Listening from Brandwatch

Brandwatch has an impressive range of features and applications, which makes it a pretty stellar free business software option for any small business that needs to keep a close eye on their social media. Your own channels, hashtags, and any phrases or keywords you desire can be tracked. There’s also a customizable query builder, and you can even build your own custom dashboards. Oh, and of course, all the analytical and data tools you’ll ever need. 

Content Creation Tools for Business

15. Website for Blogging from WordPress

WordPress is the gold standard for blogging and it’s completely free. Upload your content and browse from thousands of themes and add-ons to get your blog just right. Shout out to our favorite WordPress add-on, Yoast SEO, which helps your blog posts show up first on Google.

16. Design app from Canva 

Want professional designs without paying a professional designer? Introducing Canva. With Canva, you can browse from hundreds of awesome design templates to create social media posts, marketing flyers, online banners and so much more.

Email Marketing Tools for Business

17. Email Marketing from Mailchimp 

If you have wanted to try out email marketing for your business, MailChimp is the best place to start. With MailChimp, you can send up to 12,000 emails for free every month. They are loaded with beautiful templates to get you started. Plus, their tool and campaign reports make it easy to constantly improve your strategies. 

18. Email Marketing from Braze

If customer engagement is your thing (which it should be), then Braze is one of the best free tools for business.. It’s a data-driven, cross-channel solution that drives business growth and helps your small business foster meaningful customer connections. Use Braze to send messages using email, SMS, mobile, web and pretty much any other platform you like. It also uses enterprise-grade security, so you won’t have to worry about that, either. 

Cyber Security Tools for Business

19. Anti Virus Software from Bitdefender

if you don’t have high-quality anti-virus software in place, you’re playing with fire. Cybersecurity tools are a piece of free business software you definitely don’t want to skip out on. Bitdefender is a known name in the cybersecurity world. Why? Because it’s excellent at anticipating, detecting, and immediately blocking threats to keep your small business’s data safe and secure.

Website Analytic Tools for Business

20. Website Analytics from Google Analytics 

Are your marketing efforts making you money? Find out with Google Analytics, the amazing (and free!) analytics tool that measures all your marketing dollars to ensure you are getting the most from your campaigns.

Pro Tip: Check out these 8 powerful Google Analytics tips to increase the conversion rate on your website.

21. Competitor Analytics and SEO from SEMRush

SEO is the be-all and end-all when it comes to getting your business out there. Your SEO score determines how well your website will rank when potential customers are trying to search for you online. If the keywords you are using on your website are not on point, no one is going to find your website. To make sure you’re on top of your SEO game, SEMRush is the solution. They offer all the basic SEO tools you need to make sure you rank highly in search results, plus excellent competitor analytics. 

Business Development Tools for Business

22. Directory for Small Businesses from the Small Business Administration

If you’re looking for the ultimate directory of free business resources to help your small business grow, look no further than the Small Business Administration website. It’s one of the best tools out there for any small business owner looking to grow their network and find newly qualified experts to help solve their problems. 

These are the must-have business growth tools in 2021. Taking advantage of these resources can help take your business a long way. Combining these tools can help you improve efficiency, strengthen customer relationships, and reintegrate your marketing efforts.

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