6 small-business freebies

6 small-business freebies
© Yuri Arcurs | Dreamstime.com, © Natee Meepian | Dreamstime.com

Savvy small-business owners and team managers, this one’s for you. It seems like every business software platform I’ve used takes five months and at least $50,000 to get up and running. So, that’s why I found some tech tools that can help you today. Oh, and they’re all free! 

Grow your sales

🔍 Boost your web traffic: Most SEO and keyword tools are pricey, but Neil Patel’s UberSuggest has a free tier, so you can get more people to your website without spending a dime. You’ll see keyword volume, your keyword competitors and even seasonal trends. 

  • How to use it: Their free reports allow you to brainstorm headlines using key phrases people search for online regularly. You can also analyze your competitors’ websites, see what keywords they’re using and even steal their tactics! Sneaky smart.

👍 Get help with social media: Use ChatGPT. Yeah, there are specialized tools for social, but this is the best I’ve found. You can use it to generate captions for individual posts or come up with campaign ideas based on content from your website or blog.

  • How to use it: The trick is to train ChatGPT to sound like you or your brand. Just include examples from other social media accounts you like or previous posts of yours that have performed well in your prompts!

🚘 Test-drive something flashier: If you’re skeptical about going all in on a larger solution, software platforms like NetSuite let you test-drive it for six months before you buy. One of my radio listeners increased their profits by 17% in about two months!

  • How to use it: Think of NetSuite like QuickBooks on steroids. You can use its in-depth dashboards and expense tracking to improve your bottom line.

Scale your team

📈 Train new hires: Try Scribe. It uses talk-to-text to turn your existing processes into step-by-step guides. Onboarding new folks is a pain, and documenting your processes saves a ton of time. Plus, it reduces your risk of losing historical know-how if an “A” player leaves your company. 

  • How to use it: Turn on Scribe’s recorder and walk through your instructions, and it’ll automatically create an onboarding doc you can share with your team. Scribe has some handy templates, too. The free version is pretty darn good, but if you want features like custom branding, you can always upgrade to a paid account later. 

Automate daily tasks: Zapier’s basic automation platform is free and can help you cut down on mindless data entry. It also helps your different systems “talk” to each other, even if they don’t have built-in integrations. You don’t have to know any code, either. Super handy.

  • How to use it: When a customer fills out a form online, you can set up a “zap” (aka a trigger) to automatically send their info to your email list and then send an email from you.

🙋 Get help: If you’re having trouble finding good talent, you need a bigger applicant pool. Posting your job on LinkedIn* lets you tap into the largest network of job-seekers in the world. I have an exclusive link to post a job opening for free.

  • How to use it: Use LinkedIn’s custom filters to sort profiles by experience, location and education. It makes it so easy to find high-quality candidates — and the right fit!

Three bonus freebies

  1. Shipping boxes and materials: Order ‘em right from the USPS site here.
  2. Email your customers: Get going with email marketing using MailChimp for free up to 1,000 monthly sends.
  3. Survey your peeps: Figure out what your customers like, don’t like and what they’ll buy more of using SurveyMonkey.

Feel empowered yet? Forward this article to a small-biz friend to save them some time and money, too!

Tags: email, guides, money, network, online, sales, social media, steal, tech, tracking, upgrades