Cracking the Cost of Living: 10 best free online business tools 2023
Emily Ward Running a business can be costly, and with everyone feeling the pinch; staying on top of your finances and managing your resources has never been more important. But how do you do it? With the right tools and software at hand, your business can work smarter, not harder – checking off that daily to-do list much more efficiently and with less stress involved. You might be thinking, yes that sounds great but investing in these tools costs money. Not necessarily. To help, we’ve put together our top 10 free online business tools that you should use to stay in control of your workload and not hurt your bottom line.
Types of free online tools for small businesses
There are a variety of free online business tools and software available to help complete specific tasks, but the most common ones that are used by businesses to keep everything in check are:
- Task management tools
- Time tracking tools
- Project management tools
- Communication and scheduling tools
- Social media marketing and management tools
- Financial management & accounting tools
- Email marketing tools
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools
- Graphic Design tools
The benefits of online tools and software for businesses
Small business tools are designed to make your business run more smoothly and ease the pressure of never-ending tasks. There are a range of benefits involved in using business tools and software such as:
- Improved running of day-to-day operations
- Increased productivity
- Improved timekeeping and management
- Optimised communication and collaboration between staff members
- Business growth
10 best free business tools
Now we’ve told you what they’re all about, let’s introduce you to the top free online business tools that will make all the difference to your business.
- Google Docs
We love Google Docs. This free business tool is just one small part of the Google Suite family and is fantastic for collaborating on documents with team members in your web browser. Even better, multiple people can work on the same document at the same time. It has many fab features to help make your business more efficient, including ready-to-go templates, auto-save (which can be a lifesaver at times), and easy formatting.
- Slack
This is still one of the most popular business software around. With its friendly interface and fun messaging approach, this free online business tool is great for connecting, planning, collaborating, and sharing with others. The basic plan for Slack is free so if this tool sounds like something you need for your business, check it out.
- Canva
Canva is a clever graphic design tool that makes it possible for anyone to create professional and sleek designs. Whether it’s a flyer, business card, or social media marketing material, Canva has a number of ready-made templates you can use to get started, that’ll help bring your visions to life. This is also a tool that is completely free to use too – saving you money!
- Asana
This is a free task management tool and is excellent for helping your team stay on top of responsibilities and track progress. We really like Asana for its visually appealing interface and design, making it easier to see different projects and tasks that are needing to be done. If your business is goal and project focused, then this may be the tool for you!
- HubSpot
CRM is so much better when it’s free. If your business is in need of software that groups sales, marketing, and customer service all in one place, then we’ve found it.
HubSpot not only lets you create canned snippets to make it really efficient to send multiple emails, but it also includes analytics and insights, lead generation, campaign creation, internal marketing, and scheduling features all under one roof.
- MailChimp
MailChimp is a free business tool that is all about email marketing. On the free plan, you can send up to 12,000 emails to up to 2,000 subscribers. With MailChimp, you’ll be able to create personalised email templates and also track email open and click rates. Another great feature is that MailChimp can integrate with other marketing tools too, making it a great addition to your existing business tools and software.
- FreeAgent
Good bookkeeping is good housekeeping. FreeAgent is a highly-rated piece of accounting software that is free to any customer who has a business account with one of their partnering bank accounts. Given that keeping track of finances is important in any business, this free business tool may be one to consider.
- WordPress
If you’re wanting to build a website and are not sure where to start, look no further. WordPress is not only free to use but is also said to host 35% of all websites on the internet – making it a very popular choice for businesses! It has a lot of templates to choose from to get started and lets you not only create blogs to amp up your online presence but allows you to have contact forms, payment methods and much more.
- Hootsuite
Your social media best friend. This free online business tool allows you to manage multiple social media platforms, schedule posts, engage with followers and get daily tracking insights, making it a very efficient and must-have tool for your business.
- ChatGPT
There’s a huge buzz around AI at the moment and its ability to solve business problems.
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that has been designed to have human-like interactions. Not only can it be used in a variety of different industries like customer support and programming, but it can be applied to content creation such as writing captions for social media posts, or even FAQs and SEO content. It’s definitely making its mark and could save you a lot of time and money, especially as it’s currently an accessible free online business tool during its research phase.
And there you have it, the 10 best free online business tools that you can use to help your business become more efficient, manage your time and tasks more effectively, achieve business growth and be more collaborative with others.
