The first few years of entrepreneurship are always challenging. On the bright side, there is a multitude of good innovative and free tools to help you through. Finding those could be a challenge though - the internet is flooded with ads and proposals for paid stuff. And most of your budget is probably already allocated to financing ideas that grow your business. That’s why we set out in a quest to find the most useful free tools and resources for entrepreneurs.

Here are the tools that made the cut to our list:

Learning and growing your business

Coursera 

You have probably already heard of Coursera, but we think they should make the cut. Free online classes from 80+ top universities & organizations.

Grow with Google 

Grow with Google offers free training and tools to you grow your skills, career, or business. This can be a great resource to better understand the digital marketplace or training on how to expand internationally.

Google Trends

Google Trends analyzes the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. The website uses graphs to compare the search volume of different queries over time to help you tell wonderful stories about your products or services. 

Google for startups

Google for Startups compiles a list of very helpful tools and best practices to point entrepreneurs in the right direction.

Meetup

Meetup is a service used to organize online groups that host in-person events for people with similar interests. Check groups in our area and see if you can meet local entrepreneurs, discuss strategies and share success stories with them.

Medium

Medium is an online publishing platform, a place where words matter and readers can tap into the brains of the world's most insightful writers, thinkers, and storytellers to find out more about their success and how they deal with challenges.

Staying focused while running your business

Cold Turkey 

Avoid distractions by temporarily blocking yourself off distracting websites.

Trello

Trello is a great tool for project management and task management. They use visual boards that are flexible, shareable, and let you pack a ton of detail into each card.

Free tools to boost marketing efforts

MailChimp

Their Free plan is created especially for new businesses who want to grow their audience through email campaigns. MailChimp includes all the basics you need to start marketing. The Free plan includes up to 2,000 contacts and 10,000 sends per month, with a daily send limit of 2,000.

Google My Business

With this service, you can create and administer your free Business Profile on Google My. It will help you reach and engage with local customers across Google Search and Maps. 

Facebook for Business

Facebook for Business provides the latest news, tips, and best practices to help you achieve your business goals.

Canva

With this free online tool, you can create beautiful designs with your team. They have a very simple drag-and-drop feature and layouts to design, share and print business cards, logos, presentations.

Pixlr

Pixlr provides a very useful free online photo editor. You can add effects, filters, overlays and use a multitude of other expert tools easily to make your photos outstanding.

We’d love to hear from you about the free tools you’ve found most helpful and how you’ve put them to good use. Feel free to share any thoughts at all by sending us an email at support@capitalbox.uk.