When it comes to running a business, you want to keep costs as little as possible. So how do you do that? You can take advantage of using free and reliable tools, instead of paying for the full packages. There is the daunting question as to whether free versions of softwares have useful features, but you’d be surprised. In order to convince you even more, we have reviewed the best free tools for businesses to use.

Documentation software

No matter what kind of business you run, you always need spreadsheets for budget planning, documents for proposals and sometimes templates for presentations. Normally people always go for the most promoted out there, which is Microsoft Office. However, the price tag is so expensive that it’s only natural to question if there’s an alternative that’s both affordable and reliable.

We have found the solution for you and that’s Google Drive. It’s free and all you need is a Gmail to sign up. They offer google docs which is actually simple to navigate on and can even be opened on Microsoft Office; so there’s no limitations. Google spreadsheets makes budget planning a stress free activity and Google Slides is just as easy to use. Not only that, but you get to edit your work both online and offline and you can share it on the safe, online drive.

Logo making tools

When it comes to starting up a business, one of the steps that you have to do is to design a logo. This is important because it represents your brand and it’s the first impression that customers receive when looking at your company. There are logos out there that are memorable such as the brands Apple, Nike, McDonalds and Pringles. So it’s important to make yours unique and stand out. How can you do that? By using a tool that doesn’t break the bank and gives you flexibility to be creative.

Even though Canva is a popular and easy graphic design logo tool to use, it actually limits you. With the paid version you get more features, but this doesn’t help to pay monthly for features that you only wish to use once. 

Whereas the TRUiC logo maker offers you the whole package for free. There’s no legal issues with commercial rights, you get to download high resolution SVG formats for free and there’s over 1,000 logo templates to choose from. The features are unlimited, which means you can create your logo from scratch or use a template without any problems. It’s the perfect tool that delivers professional results.

SEO Tools

If you’re a freelancer that wants to make it big in a pond of other creators, but not sure how to be successful, then you should consider looking at getting SEO tools. It’s an absolute necessity to have, in order to learn about marketing.

However, most SEO tools come with a huge price tag, even though they’re popular. SEMrush is one example of offering a good SEO tool service, but for an expensive price. Even though many major brands such as booking.com, Ebay and Quora use this service, it’s not really suitable for small freelancers.

Instead, a great SEO tool kit to use is RankTank. It offers easy and useful features such as google autocomplete tool, keyword checker tool, negative SEO monitoring and many more. It’s free and there’s even blog posts with tips on how to use the tools correctly.

Advertising

Another important step of building towards a successful business is to advertise it well. This may sound like it can cost a lot of money, but there are free alternatives for this. Even though there are budget friendly tools such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads, it can still be costly and sometimes above your budget.

Another effective way of advertising is self promoting. The key to this is to join many online communities that meet your target audience and to promote. If you join Facebook groups who share the same interests, you can use it as a tool to promote your services, have conversation starters and even suggest your products to the members of the group.