The Ultimate List of Free Resources for Small Business Owners

By: Updated: October 4, 2023

Small business owners are some of the busiest people on planet earth. It’s easy to enter a routine of day to day operations and ignore “the big picture”. However, spending a few minutes here and there to learn something new can never hurt.

That’s why we’ve compiled the ultimate list of free resources for small business owners. Below, you will find access to some of the best resources for a small business owner, ranging from graphic design to customer service.

Everything that you needed to pay thousands to get 10 years ago, can be done for free on your own time.... in hours, if not minutes. Want to create a design-driven website with high quality graphics? Free with the tools below. Want to figure out how your website can rank better on search engines? Check below! Want to market your product to online customers. Done! Want to make your invoicing and customer service better and faster? Look no further.

We’ve saved you the burden of finding these resources, now it’s up to you to make the most of them:

NOTE: This article will be maintained and updated on a continual basis as we find more resources.

Last updated: Feb 6, 2021.


Free Graphic Design Tools

Coolors – discover thousands of unique color palettes, combinations, and themes

Unsplash – access high quality user-submitted photos

Dafont – download fonts for free

Canva – design beautiful graphics

Gifdeck – turn your Slideshare into a gif

Gifmaker – turn your images into a gif

Pixeden – create jaw-dropping design mockups

Magic Mockups – similar to Pixeden

GIMP / Inkscape – awesome free alternatives to the Adobe creative suite

Place It – smart templates from t-shirts to finance logos

The Noun Project – download icons for everything 

Fotor - online minimal photo editing 

 

Free Website Development Tools

WIX - create your website with 100's of templates

Squarespace - same as above

Weebly - same as above

Jimdo - same as above

Shopify - same as above

WordPress – complex website builder with greater levels of customization 

Window Resizer – test different browsing sizes for your website

Searchcode – search over a billion lines of code

Codyhouse – library of html, css, and js code nuggets

Hey Nishi - get inspiration for your new website

 

Free Content Tools

Google Trends – discover search trends

Fiverr – find services for about $5 (ex. logos, graphic design, music, etc.)

HARO - connecting sources and journalists 

 

Free SEO Tools

Siteliner – crawl your site for common SEO issues (ex. Duplicate content and broken links)

Nibbler – test your website and social media scores

Moz – test website, keyword ranking and more

SEMRush – keyword research

 

Free Customer Service Tools

ZenDesk - freemium customer service tool

FreshDesk - same as above

LiveAgent - similar to above

 

Free Invoicing Tools

Invoicetome - create free invoices

 

Free Writing Tools

Grammarly - spell check add-on for Chrome

 

Free Legal Tools

Shakelaw - create, sign and send legally binding agreements in seconds. Free for personal use.

 

Free Collaboration / Team Tools

Slack - collaboration and communication tool 

Google Docs / Drive – collaborate on documents online

Join.me (free trial) – present webinars, web conference tool

Calendly - book meetings without back and forth emails

 

Free Marketing/Advertising Tools

Omni Convert (free trial) – A/B Testing

Facebook Ads - advertise on FB, Instagram, and it's partner sites

Google Ads - advertise on Google

Google Analytics - web analytics service by Google

Looka – generate names for a potential business or product

HootSuite – manage and schedule your social media on one platform

 

Free Operations Tools

Paypal – payment processing tool

Stripe – payment processing tool

GSuite – Google apps for email, calendar, chat, etc.

 

Free Email Tools

Mailchimp - freemium marketing platform including email, landing pages, and more

Thunderbird - email software to make email easier

Yesware – Email tracking for Gmail accounts (ex. See when and where emails are opened)

Hunter - find email addresses 

 

Free Survey Tools

Survey Monkey - freemium online survey tool

Typeform - freemium survey form builder with cool templates

 

Are you a Small Business Owner / self-employed in Canada?

Did you know you could save up to 50% on your medical costs by using a Health Spending Account? Determine how much you could save through our FREE Calculator:

Find out how much you save with a  Health Spending Account

Building or improving your Employee benefits package?

Get cost control and employee satisfaction with a Health Spending Account. It puts the choice in employee’s hands but keeps the employer in control. Find out more:

Beginners Guide to Health Spending Accounts for small biz

 

Related Reading: 

Kickstart your Referral Marketing Program to get Instant Growth

Intro to Digital Marketing for Small Business (Part 1)

Download our Digital Marketing Guide for a Small Business

 

Sources:

Reddit: List of tools to launch a business

Reddit: Free sources to help grow your business

 

 

Write off 100% of your medical expenses

Are you an incorporated business owner with no employees? Learn how to use a Health Spending Account to pay for your medical expenses through your corporation: 

Download the HSA Guide for Incorporated Individuals

Do you own a corporation with employees? Discover a tax deductible health and dental plan that has no premiums:

Download the HSA Guide for a Business with Staff

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