10 Free Online Tools For Freelancers and Small Businesses

Small businesses rely heavily on modern technology to find cost-effective alternatives. The security and instantaneous qualities of modern tools allow continuous real-time delivery of services. The credit surely goes to the employee’s efforts. But, you cannot think of success without adopting modern tools and software that will accelerate your business operations and increase productivity. Also, in recent years, people have started working from homes and thus, small businesses cannot compromise on the safety and security of their personal and client data. So, here is a list of 10 powerful and easily accessible online tools for freelancers and small businesses to streamline the operations of your business.

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Best Online Tools For Freelancers to Grow Business

1. Picktime

As a small business owner, you will have tons of meetings and interviews scheduled all day long. Therefore, you must use a free online appointment scheduling software like Picktime, suited for businesses of all sizes and industries. Picktime’s free online calendar service allows 24/7 monitoring of employee schedules and appointments at all your office locations. It also automates online payments, invoicing, and feedback collection. You can send SMS and email reminders to clients to reduce no-shows. You will also get downloadable business reports from your dashboard!

2. WordPress

From website designing to writing articles and blogs, WordPress is incredibly popular among freelancers and small business owners. It has excellent templates suitable for all businesses. There are more than 54,000 plug-in tools that you can choose such as image galleries, analytics tools, payment gateway, and much more that are perfect for building your online store of products, services, ideas, and content.

3. Zoom

Zoom is, perhaps, one of the most popular video conferencing apps other than Google Meet. The reason for Zoom’s popularity over its competitors is that the free plan enables users to host unlimited one-to-one and group meetings for 40 minutes each, and they can add 100 individuals to their meetings. So, whether for interviewing a candidate or for holding team meetings, Zoom would be a perfect choice for your small business!

4. MailChimp

Email marketing is an essential avenue of promotion for small businesses for making customers and clients aware of their content, services, and latest offers. Mailchimp is the leading email marketing platform for designing and launching email marketing campaigns. The free plan lets you sync 2,000 contacts who will receive your emails. You can customize your emails with attractive templates, pictures, and fonts, and also put links to your website, social media posts, YouTube videos, LinkedIn account, and much more. It also delivers insightful analytics on the effectiveness of each of your email campaigns.

5. Wix

Small businesses must focus on their online presence, and that starts from maintaining their website. You can use Wix, a website builder that enables you to create, design, and develop your website according to your preferences and business needs. It provides more than a hundred design templates to pick. So, instead of waiting for someone else to design your website, start creating it yourself!

6. Stripe

Stripe, an alternative to PayPal, powers small businesses in more than a hundred countries catering to all industries. You can accept payments and send payouts via Stripe. It has multiple payment options such as cards, customer wallets, bank debits and transfers, and so on in 135+ currencies. You can also instantly raise invoices through the app. Therefore, Stripe will be beneficial if you have clients and customers around the world.

7. Slack

Slack is an impressive collaboration tool that small business owners can use to stay in touch with their team members. It has a user-friendly interface along with easy team messaging and document sharing. It also lets you integrate with top video conferencing apps like Google Meet and Zoom, to conduct meetings and present your ideas through screen-sharing.

8. Canva

The Adobe Creative Cloud is, honestly, too expensive for small businesses! Also, many small businesses hire freshers and freelancers, and using such tools would be overwhelming for them. So, small businesses can use Canva, a design platform for creating everything from videos and social media posts to presentations and posters. You will get a plethora of stunning stock images and videos, eye-catching templates, and free music clips that can be used through Canva’s drag and drop features.

9. HootSuite

If you are not automating your social media posts, you are wasting hours that you could spend on business development! Check out Hootsuite, a leading social media marketing tool designed to help small businesses strengthen their online presence and save time simultaneously. You can schedule your social media posts, and they will automatically get posted at the scheduled time. Plus, you can also monitor who is liking, sharing, and commenting on your posts!

10. Dropbox

Cloud-based apps like Google Drive are preferred by many businesses for sharing documents, presentations, and excel sheets. But, when it comes to sharing large files like designs and videos, Dropbox can be your go-to tool. It also supports automatic backup and speedy syncing. The basic plans provide storage space up to 3 TB, while the advanced pricing plans offer unlimited storage space!

Before ending, here is an essential tip: use these ten online tools for freelancers and small business growth wisely. Research their features to determine if it aligns with your business needs, and if it does not, do not hesitate to find an alternative. Consult with your team before finalizing any software.