Free Resources I Use Daily for my Business

When you’re first starting out as a business owner, it’s ever so tempting to buy things to make running your business easier. There is an endless supply of apps, computer programs, design services, virtual assistants, etc. that all the seasoned business owners have. And boy, wouldn’t that be nice. 

But here’s the thing: when you’re first starting out, spending a bunch of money on these convenient luxuries isn’t always feasible. One day, though!

There is truth to the old saying "you have to spend money to make money", but there is also something to be said for spending smart and saving when possible. Sure, there are things that I consider to be 100% necessary for starting and growing a small business, but I have found that there are many free alternatives to paid programs that work great when you’re just starting out.

I have compiled a list of my favorite FREE resources for business owners, so you can spend where you have to and save where you can.

My Favorite Free Resources for Business Owners

1. Mailerlite. I cannot stress enough just how important it is to have a mailing list. Having an avenue to directly reach your customers any time that you want is invaluable to your business, and luckily for us business owners, there are a handful of email providers that offer free email services up to a certain number of subscribers. Mailerlite happens to be my favorite of them for multiple reasons, but sticking to the point of this post, it is free up to 1,000 subscribers and includes things that other providers charge extra for such as automation and web forms. Once you’re past 1,000 subscribers, the monthly cost for Mailerlite is still extremely manageable, starting at just $15 a month. Check out Mailerlite for yourself, here!
   

2. Canva. Possibly my favorite resource on this entire list is Canva. From your branding to your website to your marketing materials, there is a ton of design work that goes into owning a business…and Canva makes it SO easy. Choose from thousands of design templates or create your own using custom dimensions and colors. And because it’s so easy to use, you can tweak, adjust and redo whatever you want as often as you want. I even have their free app on my phone to make quick designs on the go! Just a few examples of things you can create using Canva…
   

   - Graphics for social media posts: Canva’s social media design templates already have sizing for each platform built in, which takes the painfully annoying guesswork out of trying to design things to share on your socials.
   

   - Website Elements: See the graphic at the top of this post? The pictures to the right of this post? The email sign up at the bottom? Yep, all of it is the product of my brain and Canva.
   

   - Marketing Materials: Letterhead, business cards, flyers, brochures, coupons, posters…basically anything promotion-related, Canva’s got you covered. Check out all that Canva has to offer, here! RELATED: 26 Things to Create for Your Business/Blog Using Canva
   

3. Pinterest. Myth: Pinterest is only for crafters and interior designers. Admittedly, there was a time where I saw no point in using Pinterest for my business, and I couldn’t have been more wrong…especially considering that Pinterest is the second highest referrer of traffic to my website! Pinterest is a search engine just like Google, which means if your content is on Pinterest, you have an increased chance of customers finding your business. Creating a business page on Pinterest is easy, FREE and absolutely worth your time. Explore Pinterest here!
   

4. Google Analytics: If I’m being truthful, I hate analytics. Spreadsheets, line graphs and numbers in general give me a rash...okay maybe not an actual rash but, a brain rash. BUT, if you are a business owner and you have a website, (which you absolutely should, as discussed in Why Your Business NEEDS a Website) it’s a necessary evil to review your site analytics regularly. There are hundreds of plugins that you can use to analyze your website traffic (admittedly, I’ve tried a number of them to avoid having to learn my way around Google Analytics) but none of them are nearly as comprehensive as Google Analytics. It provides such a wealth of information that even a gal who hates numbers has geeked out over it a time or two. A few cool things Google Analytics will show you…
   

   - Visitors to your site: How many active users are on your site at that very moment, how many have visited your site in the last day/week/month/year, how many of those visitors are new/returning, how long those visitors spent on your site, how many pages they viewed, etc.
   

   - Referrals to your site: This is how you tell how viewers are finding your website. If they ended up on your website through something they clicked on another website, Google Analytics tells you. My top referral sources are organic search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing…does anyone actually use Bing?!), Pinterest, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn. There are SO many other things you can learn about your website using Google Analytics if you really want to dig. And, once again, it’s FREE!
   

5. Google Drive. You never realize how much STUFF goes into owning a business…until you own a business. Documents, photos, videos, graphics, etc. – all necessary, all stored on your computer. A few problems with this: all of that important, necessary stuff, is slowly but surely bogging down your computer.  Maybe it’s just impatient little me, but I am PEEVED by a slow computer. I also strongly dislike when I go to share a set of photos or a video, and my email server delivers the news that what I’m trying to send is way too large for an email to handle. But luckily, cloud-based storage is a thing. What a time to be alive. Google Drive offers 15GB of free storage with a gmail account. Compared to Dropbox's free plan that gives 2GB, Google is pretty generous. I have 3 gmail addresses, which means 45GB of FREE storage. Can't beat that!
   

   
   

6. Stock photos. Free stock photos are quite possibly one of the best resources there are. Sure, some business owners might also be amazingly talented photographers, but I, unfortunately, am not one of them. Stock photos can be an insanely valuable tool for your marketing efforts. Let’s say you’re a dog walker and you want to start doing some neighborhood canvassing. So you decide to design a door hanger that you’re going to leave at each of your neighbors’ houses – loves it. We live in an extremely visual world, and people would much rather look at a photo than read a bunch of text. So if you have a marketing piece with an awesome photo that helps explain what you’re offering, you’re ahead of the game, friend. But, going back to my earlier point, not all of us have the talent/time/resources to take our own photos (and have them look professional), which is where stock photos come into play. There are THOUSANDS of high quality, unique, totally free stock photos available online and ready to download. My current favorite stock photo site is O-Dan.net. It pulls photos from hundreds of other stock photo sites and organizes them into one convenient location. All you have to do is search what you’re looking for, browse through the results, download the one you want and BOOM! You’re done. Canva also has a giant library of stock photos that you can use with your designs, as well.

   Free Resources I Use Daily for my Business

   Yes, it's true that it takes money to make money. But I'll always be an advocate of saving where you can. So take advantage of these FREE resources for your business today!

   
   

   And speaking of free, my email list is a completely free resource where I share marketing advice, tools and services for small business owners. Want in on the fun? You can join my community using the form at the bottom of this page! 👇