When you’re first starting out in business, whether it’s in network marketing, direct sales, or starting your own thing, it can be expensive.
But, lucky for you, there are TONS of free tools out there to help you grow your business.
Here’s a few of my favorites…
1. Social Media
Okay, I know I’m stating the obvious here, but getting your business started on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, SnapChat, etc is totally free and arguably the best way to promote your business.
And you know my platform of choice is Facebook. So, here’s some of the things you can do for free with Facebook.
- Create a Facebook Business Page.
- Use Ads Manager to gain insights of Facebook audiences
- Use Page Insights to analyze your posts and your engagement
- Create a call to action button to send people to your website
- Create a Facebook Group to grow an audience or create
- Facebook messenger for chatting with colleagues, customers, and collaborators
While I know Facebook can be frustrating at times, they are constantly working to improve it and my businesses would be nowhere near where they are now, without the help of Facebook.
2. Video Calls
Zoom is amazing for being able to talk to someone face to face who is on the other side of the world. I use this every day to work with my clients.
You can easily record your sessions, go live in a Facebook group, share your screen, and even request the remote control to work on someone else’s screen.
3. Graphics
There are so many helpful tools for creating graphics!
My 2 favorites are Canva and Adobe Spark.
Both are great for making graphics and getting the sizing right. When you use the wrong dimensions on pictures for social media and your website, it can take a gorgeous graphic and turn it into one that looks unprofessional.
And both are simple to use, with super cute pre-made graphics, and incredibly helpful blogs.
Besides Canva and Adobe Spark, there are a ton of apps that are awesome for creating graphics, including:
(Note: I believe these are all free, but since I have them already, I’m not easily able to check. If they cost anything, it would be a few dollars at most.)
4. Google Everything
I don’t actually mean using Google to search. I mean the suite of Google products to help you streamline and analyze what you’re doing online.
Here’s my favorites of the bunch:
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a must to put on your website. It helps you track visitors, how long they’re staying, and can even tell you what pages they land on and which pages they go to from there.
Google Drive
Google Drive stores all your Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides and is a great way to share files with others.
I use Google Docs for tasks like keeping a list of common responses to questions we get online so that I can quickly copy and paste my answers. I also use it for creating emails and blog posts and love that several of us can be in a document at a time all working on it together.
I use Google Sheets for things like keeping track of how my ads are doing and creating a list of possible pages to target in Facebook ads, complete with color coding based on how they performed.
Since Google Drive lives online, I have quick access to it if I’m on my laptop, desktop, or my phone.
Google Keep
I’m obsessed with Google Keep! Just like Drive, because it’s one of Google’s tools, it’s totally free and saved online.
I use it for making to do lists and for saving notes and links. It’s highly visual and I love making and checking off the checkboxes as I finish projects.
Like many people, I am EASILY distracted, so I check over my Google Keep daily to make sure I’m staying on task and working on things in order of importance.
All the Google tools are free, can be shared with other users, and any edits are easily saved online so there’s no worry that you forgot to press save.
5. Email
For a free email service provider, MailChimp is the way to go. They have a free plan for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month.
(However, once your business gets going, I suggest switching to a paid plan to be able to automate your email responses. I use Aweber for my business and use InfusionSoft with my family’s business and love them both.)
6. Storage
In order to share your files (like lead magnets), you ned a place to keep them. I suggest box.com, Dropbox or Hightail. All of these give you an easy link to share with others.
7. Group Work
When you are working with a team on a project, Asana and Slack are great tools. They let you communicate without email, are relatively simple to use, and you can get started for free.
8. Surveys
Survey Monkey is great for creating surveys for your audience. This is what I used when I first started my blog to see what my audience was most interested in learning more about.
It’s free up to 10 questions and 100 responses per survey.
9. Your Phone
Okay, obviously your phone isn’t free and neither is your plan. But my guess is you probably already have a smartphone that you use for everything already.
Besides using it to make calls, almost everything I’ve mentioned also has an app you can use from your phone.
So, there you have it! Tons of free resources you can use to grow your business!
Which of these are your must haves?
