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Top 10 Must-Have Free Online Business Tools for Startups

by Jelly Shah Tweet - in Startups

Last updated on January 13th, 2023

When you’re first starting your business, every penny counts. You have a lot of choices to make and you need to make them very wisely. Working within a limited budget can be a blessing in disguise, helping you to develop good spending habits for the future. Starting off by building a toolbox of top tools for startups can go a long way to putting you in the black, as well saving time and energy you can use to run your business.

Take a look at these top 10 must-haves tools for startups, start building your toolbox today!

1. Wave cloud-based accounting software is a free and easy to use alternative to the 800-pound gorilla of QuickBooks. From simple bookkeeping to doing payroll for an additional fee and easily working with your accountant, Wave generates invoices, takes payments via an online payment portal for a fee, and manages receipts. The application also has a very intuitive user interface and navigation, and can be taken mobile on a tablet or phone. Business News Daily also rated it the best free accounting software for small businesses.

2. Managing your email campaigns with MailChimp, the email marketing software with a 4 ½ star editor rating from PC Magazine. Melcher comes with a free plan for very small businesses, that doesn’t include analytics tools or an auto responder. However, there’s lots of third-party integration with eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, Volusion, and others. And you have built-in templates and an on-site editor to customize your campaigns.

3. Dropbox is a cloud-based storage application and file sync tool that lets you access what you need, when you need it, on whatever device you happen to be using at the time from robust servers with little down time to account for. Share documents, photos, videos, and other media without fear that a wayward cup of coffee or Mountain Dew could spell the end of your valuable documents or photographs. You can invite as many people to any folder in your Dropbox account, or to specific documents. The Verge also notes that Dropbox has a full-featured photo storage app called carousel that can be used to view your Dropbox photos.

4. Trello is a standing way to disapprove the saying that bigger is not always better. What started out as a simple task management app is now a powerful project management tool for collaboration and organization – or as LifeHacker says, simply to run your life from scheduling daily and weekly tasks or organizing a home improvement project.

5. WordPress users prove that blogging is still a very viable way of interfacing with your customers. One of the old originals from the days of web 2.0, Leadsquare.com says WordPress is a powerful platform with lots of third-party integration. It is also optimized for SEO, and users have a wide variety of choices in plug-in modules, and optional upgrades to premium plans. Additionally, customer support is called Happiness Engineers – what’s not to love?

6. SEO tools for startups should be a vital part of any startup’s toolbox. You need to know not only what keywords will work for you, but what your competition is doing for their SEO as well. Keeping your SEO strictly White Hat will ensure that you stay on the good side of Google and the other search engines. Check out SEMRush, BuzzSumo, SpyFu, and DeepCrawl for your SEO arsenal, but remember that Google Analytics is the granddaddy of them all.

7. In a blog published on Businessinsider.com, writer says that Google apps is possibly the greatest thing to happen to business since the Internet. It’s more than just Gmail, with storage app Google Drive, video meetings through Google Hangouts, a calendar application, the ability to generate compatible documents, spreadsheets, and forms, and manage and archive projects.

8. Because nobody has an editor or their 10th grade English teacher on tap, you want to become very familiar with Hemingway app as you write your site and email copy. Thewritelife.com reveals that Hemingway app helps you to pump up the impact of your words and make it readable for everyone. Color coding makes it easy to match the error with a solution. You don’t want to ruin a professional website or email with poor spelling and grammar.

9. Content marketing is yet another important aspect for start-ups looking to enhance reach of your content amid people. The Internet swarms with host of free content marketing tools. Some of the classic examples are Reddit, Bundlr and Death to Stock Photo.

10. Content distribution is yet important aspect of marketing for startups. Content distribution tools for startups help you take your compelling content to a larger audience. Some of the best examples of content distribution tools for startups are FeedBlitz, Hootsuite and Outbrain.

These tools for startups can save a lot of money to be used on big-ticket items that can’t do yourself, or find a free tool. While most lists would have included free website builders, shipping apps, graphic design apps, accounting software, etc. knowing where and when to spend money is part of being a business owner.

By using services like Designhill for websites and custom illustrations and graphics, you can present a professionally branded appearance consistently over all of your media from a website, banner ad, or catalog to the small business card.

Looking for Customized, On time, Illustrations and Graphics? Launch an Illustration and Graphics Contest today. Choose from 100+ designs. Take your pick!

We offer a full 100% money back guarantee! Finally, a risk-free way of getting a customized design.

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I'm Jelly Shah from Australia. I've been designing graphics for the last six years. For further questions you can follow me on Twitter | Pinterest | Google +.

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