A HUGE List of Free Resources to Help Run Your Home-Based Business

Leaving the security of a steady-paying job to launch a new business can be a scary endeavor. Even if you’ve planned and saved six months of living expenses, often it takes months to start generating income from your business.

And guess what?

Even if you don’t have money coming in, your business still incurs expenses to run smoothly. But don’t despair, there are tons of free tools, resources, guides, and printables, so you don’t have to break the bank.

Here is a massive list of free resources so you can focus on making money instead of spending it.

List of Free Business Resources

1. Free Website

Since you won’t have a brick-and-mortar location, the heart of your home-based business is your website. Having a site allows people to window shop your services and products, it helps them find you via the web, and it conveys valuable information. Personally, I think it’s in your best interest to own your website (purchase your domain name and hosting), but if you can’t afford a website right off the bat, I suggest using a free option until you can afford to switch to a more robust platform.

A few things to note about free platforms. Usually, you’re limited to a small number of web pages, you’ll have limited bandwidth and storage, and often you’ll have a sub-domain. If you can spare $2.95 a month, I highly recommend setting up your own website with WordPress. Not only is it affordable, but it’s also extremely simple to set up and use, and it will give you a professional-looking website.

• Blogger
• Strikingly
• Webs
• Weebly
• Wix
• WordPress.com
• Yahoo Small Business – Free for 30-days
• Yola

2. Free Online Productivity Tools

You’d think as much as I’m online, that I’d rely heavily on online productivity tools, but I don’t. As you’ll see below, I like to use real-world tools to help me stay organized. But if you prefer online time management tools – here’s a great list to keep you on track.

• Cozi – Simple family organizer
• ClickBook offers free online appointment scheduling
• Doodle – Scheduling application that will sync all of your calendars together – Free for 14-days
• Evernote – Virtual to-do list
• Google Calendar – Online calendar
• RescueTime – Time tracker
• Todoist – Task manager

3. Free Printables

I’m old school when it comes to planning and organizing. For all of my personal and business activities, I use a physical planner, calendar, notebook, and tons of printables. From grocery lists and daily to-dos to packing lists, chore charts, and business goals. If you’re looking for free printables to organize your business and life this list has you covered.

• Dave Ramsey – Budgeting forms
• Dave Seah – Productivity tools
• Frugal Fanatic – Budgeting, debt reduction, worksheets
• Mainstream Mom – Meal planning, organization, and budgeting
• momAgenda – Planning, checklists, and tracking sheets
• Money Saving Mom – Meal planning, household management, and weekly goals
• Productivity Flourishing – Planners and productivity worksheets
• The Work at Home Woman – Planners and income trackers
• Thirty Handmade Days – Downloadable budget binder
• Travel Mamas – Packing lists

4. Free Finance Tools

When I first started my business, I used a spreadsheet for all of my income and expenses. Not only has the process manually intensive, by it made tax-time a nightmare. Save yourself the frustration and use a professional platform. The resources listed below offer invoicing, budgeting, planning, bookkeeping, and accounting solutions.

• The Work at Home Woman – Free side hustle income tracker
• H&R Block – Free tax prep checklist and free online tax filing for 1040EZ, 1040A, and 1040
• Intuit QuickBooks – Free 30-day trial
• Mint
• PearBudget – Free 30-day trial
• Wally
• Wave

5. Free Business Templates

When you’re running a business, you’ll find yourself searching for all types of forms and templates that you don’t even know you need until a particular situation arises. When the time comes, here are some great resources to have bookmarked.

• Bplans – Business plans, proposal templates, startup checklist, and more
• Ryan Robinson – Free freelance proposal template
• SCORE – Business planning, financial, marketing, and management templates
• The Work at Home Woman – Free business plan template

6. Free Content and Project Management Systems

When you’re a service provider (virtual assistant, freelance writer, graphic designer, etc.), you’re going to have multiple projects and clients to manage. The best way to stay on top of everything is by using a content or project management system to keep you organized.

• Airtable – Free spreadsheet and data table management tool
• Asana – Project management platform
• Basecamp – Project management tool – Free 30-day trial
• FreedCamp – Free project management platform
• Trello – Online collaboration and management tool
• Wrike – Task and project management platform

7. Free Marketing Tools and Platforms

It’s been said that you should spend at least 20% of your time marketing your business. With hundreds of ways to market your business, you should be able to find a formula that works for you. Here are a few free platforms and resources worth checking out.

• Clearstream – Free SMS marketing (25 messages per month)
• Constant Contact – Free 60-day trial (no credit card required)
• Craigslist – Free online advertising
• Facebook – Free social media marketing platform
• EZ Texting – Free 30-day trial
• Hootsuite – Free plan includes 3 profiles and 30 scheduled messages per month
• HubSpot – Free email signature
• Instagram – Free photo-sharing media platform
• LinkedIn – Professional social networking website
• MailChimp – Free email marketing for up to 2,000 contacts
• Mix – Social media bookmarking site
• OneSignal – Send out push notifications to 30,000 subscribers for free
• Pinterest – A visual marketing platform
• Sendinblue – Free email marketing, unlimited contacts, 300 emails per day
• Survey Monkey – Allows you to gather feedback, collect data, and analyze survey results
• Twitter – Free social media marketing platform
• Webpushr – Free push notifications to 50,000 subscribers for free
• YouTube – Video marketing

For more budget-friendly marketing ideas, check out these articles:

• Ways to Market Your Business Without Breaking the Bank
• Free Business Cards: Where to Get Them and the Fine Print
• 4 Ways to Advertise Your Business for Free

8. Free Administrative Tools

You may already have Microsoft Office on your computer, but if you don’t, the yearly subscription can be pricey. Here are some other options that work great and they’re free.

• Cute PDF – PDF conversion tool
• GoogleDocs – Word processing, spreadsheets, forms, slides, and more
• LibreOffice – Word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and diagrams
• OpenOffice – Word processing, spreadsheets, multimedia presentations, and more
• PrimoPDF – Create PDFs for free

9. Free Communication Tools

It’s funny when you work in an office setting you don’t even think about all the different methods you use daily to communicate with others – the technology and systems are already in place. However, when you run your own business, you’ll quickly learn that you need a whole host of tools. Luckily, there are lots of free and reliable options.

• FaxZERO – Fax documents for free, up to three pages, two times per day
• FreeConferenceCall.com – Conference and video calls, up to 1,000 people for free
• Google Hangouts – Talk to other people over the internet for free
• IFTTT – A free tool to get all of your apps and devices communicating effectively with each other
• Mikogo – Desktop sharing tool, ideal for web conferencing, online meetings, or remote support
• Skype – Free call, video chat, and instant message for Skye to Skype users
• TextNow – Free text and call app
• WebEx – Free video conferencing free for up to three people
• Zoom – Video and web conferencing service (free up to 100 individuals)

10. Free Design Tools and Stock Images

As an entrepreneur, you’ll take on many roles. Quite frequently that role is a graphic designer. But no worries, you don’t need any special training to create professional-looking images, presentations, and marketing materials; these tools are both free and easy to use.

• Burst – Free stock photos
• Canva – Simple design platform and photo editor
• COLOURlovers – Color ideas, palates, patterns, and trends
• Dreamstime – Stock photos and images
• Easil – Free drag and drop editor
• FontSquirrel – Free fonts for commercial usage
• FreePhotos.cc – Free stock photos
• Gimp – Free image manipulator
• Inkscape – Free vector graphics editor
• Morguefile.com – Free stock photos for commercial use
• OpenShot – Free video editing software
• Pexels – Free stock photos
• Pixabay – Over 600,000 free images and videos
• ResizeImage.net – Resize images without losing quality
• SVG to PNG – Converts SVG files to PNGs for free
• Unsplash – Free stock photos
• Wix – Free logo maker

11. Free Tools and Resources for Bloggers

If you run a blog, there’s no doubt that you’ll need some specialized tools to make your blogging efforts easier.

Here are some that I use and recommend:

• AdRotate – Free plugin to serve image ads on your blog
• Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing – Free 36-page e-book on making money with affiliate marketing
• Blogging Success – My free 28-page e-book that covers writing, getting traffic, and monetization
• Capitalize My Title – Title case capitalization tool for blog posts and subject lines
• CoSchedule – Free headline analyzer
• Google Analytics – Free website traffic stats
• Grammarly – Free editing software
• Gravatar – Create a globally recognized avatar, helps brand your blog identity
• Rafflecopter – Free software for running giveaways
• Random.org – Randomly choose winners for your giveaways and contests
• SmallSEOTools – Plagiarism checker for guest blog posts
• Yoast – Free SEO optimization plugin for your blog

Conclusion

Are you ready to make money from home this year, but you’re not sure what direction to take? Here are a bunch of FREE online courses that can help take the guesswork out of what work-at-home career path you should take.

One last note about business freebies. There will come the point where your time becomes more valuable than saving a few bucks. So as you grow, invest in the proper tools that will ultimately save you time and money; as freebies often have limitations.

Good luck with your new business!

Do you have a free resource or business tool that you can’t live without? Drop us a note below, we’d love to hear what you’re using.

Originally published November 25, 2009. Content updated February 20, 2020.