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HUGE List of Free Business Resources For Your Small Business

Author: Holly Reisem Hanna

81 Comments

If you’re running your business on a tight budget, here is a massive list of free business resources and tools for entrepreneurs!

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 for small business owners so you can focus on making money instead of spending it.

List of Free Business Resources and Tools

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 online and 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 that you own. Here is a free step-by-step guide to get you started.

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
  • SavvyCal – One scheduling tool
  • 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.

4. Free Finance Tools

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

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 20-25% 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 email newsletter trial (no credit card required)
  • ConvertKit – Free email marketing, up to 300 subscribers
  • Craigslist – Free online advertising
  • Facebook – Free social media marketing platform
  • EZ Texting – Free 30-day trial
  • HubSpot – Free email signature
  • Instagram – Free photo-sharing media platform
  • LinkedIn – Professional social networking website
  • OneSignal – Send out push notifications to 10,000 subscribers for free
  • Pinterest – A visual marketing platform
  • Post Planner – Social media scheduling tool, 7-day free trial
  • SocialBee – Social media scheduling tool, free 14-day trial
  • Survey Monkey – Allows you to gather feedback, collect data, and analyze survey results
  • TikTok – Video social media platform
  • Twitter – Free social media marketing platform
  • Webpushr – Free push notifications to 10,000 subscribers for free
  • YouTube – Video marketing platform

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

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.

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 Chat – Talk to other people over the internet for free
  • Google Meet – Free video conference calls
  • IFTTT – A free tool to get all of your apps and devices communicating effectively with each other
  • Skype – Free call, video chat, and instant message for Skye to Skype users
  • Telegram – Free desktop and mobile messaging app
  • TextNow – Free text and call app
  • WhatsApp – Free private messaging and calling tool
  • WebEx – Free video conferencing for up to three people
  • Zoom – Video and web conferencing service (free for 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.

11. Free Courses and Business Mentorship

As an entrepreneur, you need to stay up to date on best business practices, new technology, marketing strategies, and so much more. Things change so quickly, and if you don’t stay on top of industry trends and new technology, you’ll be left behind. That’s why investing in your self-development is so crucial. 

Here are some places to find free business guides, mentors, webinars, and more! 

12. Free Resources and Tools 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
  • CoSchedule – Free headline analyzer
  • Google Analytics – Free website traffic stats
  • Gravatar – Create a globally recognized avatar that helps brand your blog identity
  • 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 a 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 free business resources and tools 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 March 2023.

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About the Author

Headshot Holly Reisem Hanna

Holly Reisem Hanna

Holly Reisem Hanna is a former nurse who decided to start a blog to make money from home while caring for her daughter. Since its inception in 2009, The Work at Home Woman has helped millions of readers find legitimate work at home jobs and business ideas. Under Holly's guidance, The Work at Home Woman was named one of the best websites for your career by Forbes two years in a row. Holly graduated from the University of Texas and has been featured in Yahoo Finance, Woman’s World Magazine, CNN, and many others.

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Reader Interactions

81 Comments

  1. I really want to start online business at home to have another source of income I’m newlywed And I really want to make business online but I don’t know how to start
    When we’re are in Thailand for our honeymoon I buy some cosmetic to sell to Philippines I have drugstore to those cosmetic products but my husband had online store so we agree also to sell to online store but we don’t know how to promote the cosmetic products through online
    Or sell it online
    Thank you for sharing this I hope it can help us a lot to sell our cosmetics products online

    Reply to this comment

  2. Hey Holly, thank you so much for sharing this extensive list! I think, with the right tools, our progress increases significantly, so I’m eager to explore some of the ones you’ve mentioned. I also would like to recommend the digital planner app called Bordio https://bordio.com/weekly-planner/. It’s user-friendly, visually appealing, and helps me keep track of all my tasks and events in one place. Also the best part – it’s completely free! I hope you find it useful too.

    Reply to this comment

  4. Thank you – I enjoyed using WIX but couldn’t do anything with the logo I created without paying the fee. I agree it was free to create, but it stopped there. I liked the ease of creating the logo, and my purchase it along with some Biz cards.

    Reply to this comment

  6. Thanks a lot for sharing the list of free resources to run home-based businesses. When it comes to the website, the design of the site always matters a lot. And to present any product, or to show the specifications of the products, most websites are preferring images, as it is easy for the users to understand. And the most crucial part is that used images should have a small size, but at the same time, its quality should not be compromised. Here I would like to recommend a tool, Resize.live, to resize, crop, rotate and flip images in real-time.

    Reply to this comment

  7. I am Jay.
    I am thankful that I found this excessive list of resources for new business owners. It has something for almost every business owner who needs help right now!
    I started my own journey just this year in January. I created a blog. I began making jewelry. I also started a memoir.
    I am building my own brand as I find my way along this path. I look forward to having a successful, lucrative, and thriving business that helps people to grow and change for the better. I plan to use the tools from this list that will benefit my business.
    Thank you!

    Reply to this comment

  13. This is an AMAZING amount of useful information!
    I just can’t get over it! ……….and all in one place!!!!!!!!!!!
    Thank you so much for sharing all of this!
    I am doing my best to put as much of it as I can to good use :)

    Reply to this comment

  16. This post is great! Thanks for sharing this free tools. I’m a remote worker for quite some time and as a VA I also use free tools to make my work a lot easier and faster. Some free tools that I use are Asana, buffer, and Canva for social media. I love freelancing work, and the 3 platforms I use to get remote jobs are

    1) Upwork.com
    2) freelancer.com
    3) remote-work.work

    Reply to this comment

  23. Excellent blog. While i agree with many points I think it’s a mistake to go cheap all the way. Why? People sense it. For example, spend a bit of money on well printed business cards. The cost is negligible on such an important business tool. I love the fresh business card designs at http://www.PrintElf.com. Just my 5 cents worth.
    Keep up the great work,
    Talon

    Reply to this comment

  26. As someone who has a huge interest in writing, I find your website both interesting and informative. However, there is one little problem – I’m a MAN! How does that tally with your guidelines? Am I allowed to subscribe?

    Reply to this comment

  30. Awesome! Thanks for the list. I’ve already used some of these but there are a few new sites I have to check up.
    BTW I came across your blog on pinterests and I think I’m going to stay longer than for this one post.

    Reply to this comment

  32. Hello Holly. This is my first time on your blog. This is an awesome list. Thank you. Check out IFTTT (If This Then That) to automate your workflow. My other favorite of TwitterFeed.com where you can automate curated content to your social media feed.

    Reply to this comment

  36. This is awesome. I know and use quite a lot of these, but of course, there is always more to discover! Thank yo so much. And I agree, setting up your own WordPress website is 100% recommended. I don’t see how anyone could regret that. :-)

    Reply to this comment

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