Free Online Business Tools

Running a business is hard work! It’s long hours, making lots of mistakes, constant research and a whole lot of fake it till you make it!

However, it’s also the freedom to make your own schedule, choose who you work with, and getting to do what you love every single day! Something I would never trade… especially for a corporate job.

Any savvy entrepreneur knows that to run a successful business, it’s important to have the right business tools! That’s why I’ve compiled a list of my favorite top 10 free online tools. Check them out below.

10 Essential Business Tools… for FREE!

1. Asana – This is my favorite project management tool for a whole lot of reasons. First, Asana allows you to create a task list which can be sorted in three categories based on due dates. Today, Upcoming, and Later. This is a great way to see what items are coming down the road and allow you to better plan your schedule.

   Team Management – Asana enables you to work with a team. Simply add your team by email and start assigning tasks. Add due dates and upload any files needed to complete that particular task. Everything stays together within the task, and if a team member has a question about their assignment there is a convenient comment section for each task.

   Unicorns – Yeah, you read that right. Sometimes, when you mark a task complete, a unicorn flies across the screen. Is this necessary in a project management tool?  No. Does it make me happy?  Absolutely!

2. Grammarly – I would highly recommend this tool for anyone writing blogs! Grammarly is basically a sophisticated grammar and spell checker. Simply add it to your web browser and boom, you’ll get real-time feedback on any spelling errors and punctuation mistakes with suggestions on how to better your writing. When you do a good job it even gives you the heart eyes emoji.

3. Google Drive – While I assume business owners use Google Drive on the daily, it’s still worth mentioning. I use my drive to organize EVERYTHING for my business like brand photos, client info, and biz finances just to name a few. Google allows you to color-code your folders too and that just makes the organizer in me squeal… Love me some ROYGBIV! Google autosaves. Enough said!

4. Canva – Canva is a free online editing tool with tons of beautiful templates that are extremely easy to customize with your brand colors and images. Not only is it easy to use but you can also order prints of your custom designs. That means after you create your business cards you can order them to be printed and sent to you directly from Canva’s site.

5. Loom – There is nothing I hate more than trying to give instructions to someone through email. Not only does the email turn out to be the length of a 5 paragraph essay, but it seems like I’m never able to be clear. Loom can be added to your web browser and with a push of a button, you can easily record your voice and screen to literally show a step by step process. Once you finish recording Loom provides a link to the video for easy sharing.

6. Mailchimp – If you haven’t started to build your email list, don’t wait. Social media is great, but if it ever want away how would you engage with your audience? With an email list, you have a database filled with addresses that people have given you to use in order to keep in contact. While Mailchimp doesn’t have the prettiest templates in the world, the free plan offers up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month. Definitely a great option for business owners that want to keep their costs low.

7. Planoly – Do you plan out your social media? Planoly is a great tool to map out your monthly social media posts. It allows you to create hashtag groups and auto-post so you can set it and forget it!

8. Acuity Scheduling – How many times have you had to schedule a meeting with someone for your business? If you have meetings with anyone, regardless of if they are with potential clients or vendors, sometimes nailing down a date and time can get tricky! Create your availability and simply send a link to the person you want to meet with. Time zones are magically figured out with this tool so there is no worry there either! Talk about WAY LESS emails!

9. Wave – Invoice clients, create profit and loss statements, and easily manage your transactions through Wave. While the program is free to use they do charge 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction/invoice you receive. However, fees will be charged regardless if you are looking to take credit cards and make life easy on your clients.

10. Google Forms – This technically falls under Google Drive but the forms are worth mentioning! Google forms are great for creating feedback questionnaires for clients or past customers, or even for creating a job application. The best part is that the form can not only be sent by email or link, but the form can be embedded to your website! Perfect for a “Careers” page on your site if you are looking to hire.

Have you used any of these tools in your business before? Do you have any favorites that I didn’t mention? Drop a comment below and let me know if I need to add any to my toolkit.

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