Cracking the case: You can buy mystery bundles of unclaimed mail starting around $40. The boxes could contain anything from knock-off Chanel bags and fake IDs to total junk. Florida-based Fundelivered has sold over 90,000 bundles in the last three years. I wanted to buy one, but they’re sold out. What a great business idea, right?
5 small biz freebies to save you some cash, from shipping materials to logos
Owning or working for a small business is full of joys: Seeing your business take off, working closely with a small team and watching your ideas flourish.
It’s not all a walk in the park, though. Small teams, limited budgets and not enough time in the day can make things challenging.
When every dollar counts, you have to take advantage of all the freebies you can get. Here’s a list you should take advantage of now.
Shipping materials
Need to ship something out? The United States Postal Service offers free shipping materials. Get free boxes, forms, stickers, envelopes and cardboard tubes. The USPS also provides templates for creating your mailing pieces.
If you want to save on shipping costs, you can do that, too. You’ll find information on bulk mailings, shipping rates and classes of mail.
Office software
Microsoft Office is pricey. You don’t need to pay for it if you know about this free alternative: LibreOffice. It’s a free, open-source office suite compatible with Microsoft Office files. Since it’s open-source software, the program is continually updated at no charge. Tap or click for details.
LibreOffice offers six programs that will feel instantly familiar to you if you’ve used Office before. Writer, Calc and Impress are equivalent to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. They have most of the same features. You just might need to poke around to find some of them.
Even better, LibreOffice can open and edit the documents you made in Office and save new files in Office formats. Download Libre Office here.
Custom logo
If your branding could use a makeover, check out logobee. Its free web-based platform, Logo-Maker, has hundreds of templates that you can customize with your brand name, colors and slogans.