30 free Apps for Business when you’re just Starting
“If you’ve got an idea for a new App, start today. There’s no better time than now to get going. That doesn’t mean quit your job or drop your present product. You cant always jump into your new idea 100 % from day one, but there’s always small progress that can be made – to start the development on the side.” -Kevin Systrom, Founder of Instagram
Apps for Business Topics: Marketing, Sales & Growth, Names & Design, Communication & Documentation
Trying to start a Business is never easy. Being an entrepreneur means sticking your neck — and $$$ — on the line for a product you believe in. It won’t be cheap. There will be plenty of costs, some you’ve never expected. Thankfully, there are many “free” Apps for Business to start a business available online.
Building a Business will be one of the hardest things you ever do. But thankfully there are these “free” Apps for Business to get you started building the business you’ve always dreamed of. We’ve compiled this list of “free” Apps for Business – broken down by topics – to start a business. Many of them we used here to help build our Blog. Others we wish had existed when we started.
Marketing, Sales & Growth
Word Press is the gold standard of Content Management platforms, is still “free”. It is trusted by some of the world’s biggest brands & content distributors. It’s simple enough to set up in a few minutes and robust enough to still work for you when your site conquers the universe.
Strikingly makes it simple for anyone to build a basic landing page for their business or product, no development experience needed. Because a simple landing page should be one of the first things you put into the worlds to get early feedback.
Google Analytics From day 1 you’re going to need to know how many people are visiting your site and what they’re doing there. Use to track customer behavior and capture valuable information like bounce rates.
Google Alerts is another great “free” Apps for Business from Google. You’re going to want to know when your business or products are mentioned online. Set up your Google alert to notify you whenever certain terms are published to the web.
SocialRank helps businesses find their most valuable and engaged followers on Social Media. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to reach out to the right people when they start following and talking about your brand.
Optimizely makes A/B testing a snap. When your Startup is trying to figure out what messages customers are responding to, use the Apps for Business to experiment with different options and see what works.
Streak is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Apps for Business that lives in your inbox. It’s free for small teams and helps your track your interactions with customers and close more deals.
Marketing Today put together this handy calculator that helps discover the Return on Investment [ROI] for Email or direct mail campaigns. Type in a few key pieces of data about your campaign and know exactly how much you’re getting back for your investment.
MailChimp is “free” for lists up to 2,000 subscribers. it has become the go-to service for managing Email lists & campaigns. You can send Emails to multiple lists & custom segments, schedule recurring emails and even wish customers a Happy Birthday !!!
Ad Spend Calculator. Sooner or later, you’ll have to decide whether to spend on outbound marketing like buying ads. This free calculator from the people behind Qwilr helps you decide if the cost of the ad makes sense to your business.
BuzzSumo.Want to know what people in your industry & your customers are sharing online? It helps show the top-performing content for a particular website or subject area. Important information if you’re looking to get your name out there.
Square, if your business involves getting money from people (and let’s hope it does) Square is there for you. The popular card reader is free and Square is only paid when you are, via a small transaction fee.
SumoMe is stuffed with free products & free Apps for Business to build a business -“the first app store for websites.” It’s a go-to for resources on building your traffic and email list.
Names & Design
NameMesh. There’s a reason a lot of new startups are picking names by re-arranging letters, dropping letters, or making up new words entirely. A lot of the names — and the URLs — have been taken. Name Mesh helps turn your inspiration into list of unique, and un-conventional names and URLs to get your name going.
Pexels. Stock images can be expensive, boring, or both. Hold on to your precious dollars with Pexels, which offers free high-quality photos with a dead-simple explanation of distribution rights.
Canva. You don’t need to complex Photoshop skills to make a beautiful, custom images and graphics with Canva. It includes preset templates & designs, so you can get a customized image or graphic into the world in just a few minutes. No design training necessary.
Pixlr. Photo editing SW doesn’t need to be pricy and take years of training to master. Pixlr offers free & intuitive Photo editing programs that will handle most — if not all — of your photo-tweaking needs. It can save you thousands.
Pablo is a great image can get your company’s name & message noticed on Social Media. Hiring designers can be pricy & time-consuming. The folks at Buffer built Pablo, a free & simple Apps for Business that lets you build engaging Social Media images.
SquareSpace. You’re going to need a Logo. The team offers a free Logo-building Apps for Business to help make your first Logo. It won’t be the world’s fanciest Logo, but it will be simple, unique & free !!!
Flat Icon. A good vector Icon is a beautiful thing, and can come in handy in your company’s website or marketing materials. And a properly placed icon for Social Media sharing can help your messages get shared. FlatIcon offers a huge database of “free” vector icons.
Communication & Documentation
EverNote. If you’re reading something online today, there’s a good chance it was written in Evernote. It helps you capture & share text, images, web clippings + other material valuable to your business.
Boomerang. If you use Google to manage your email accounts, Boomerang helps you schedule Emails and set “follow-up” reminders. It’s critical to not let yourself become buried under the ocean of emails. Boomerang helps you be pro-active with your Email strategy.
Google Hangouts. Many meetings, job interviews, even entire companies are run remotely via Video. It’s free and easy to get started.
SlideShare is YouTube for Slide Show presentations. Many businesses use it to host & share important presentations. You can promote your presentations to get visibility for your business and share info with your customers & team.
Trello. Project management doesn’t have to happen in a conference room. Trello puts the white board in the cloud and lets teammates collaborate on projects. And you get a well-design Visual overview of how the project is moving along.
Lendio for those that need a small business Loan, It’s a “free” & simple way to see what’s available.
Docracy. You’re going to need legal documents. If the business is successful, you’re going to need a lot of them. Docracy provides “free” legal documents for all sorts of needs.
Google Docs. Fading are the days of the Word Processor file sitting on your desktop. Documents today need to be sharable & accessible from anywhere — without a tedious email attachment. Google built Google Docs is part of a suite of cloud-based apps including Docs, Sheets, Slides & Forms.
Small Business Admin. The SBA, a branch of the federal government, offers tons of “free” resources & Apps for Business to start & grow a small business + info on local agencies in your area.
Culture, Learning & Fun
Spotify. Research shows that Music boosts mood & productivity + provides a sense of well being. Sounds like the kind of way you want to work? You create your Play-list from your favorites. Check out the custom Play-lists designed for focus and productivity.
How to “Start a Startup” info – was delivered originally in 2014 at Stanford by Y Combinator president Sam Altman. All of the lectures, slides and reading materials are available on the site and the audio can be accessed also as a Podcast.
Comments: Do you know of any other Apps for Business that would be useful?
from The Science of Small Wins 2/18 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4.biz
For more Info, click on Apps for Business.