5 FREE Tools That Will Save You Time and Money When Setting Up Your First Business
When I first imagined starting my own business, I didn’t realise just quite how many essential, time-consuming tasks would be included in my day to day schedule. You know that old saying… time is money. Well, that's never felt truer since starting a business.
From tracking hours, creating invoices, planning, organising calendars, responding to clients, chasing leads, networking and that’s just a handful of tasks that need taking care of before starting any actual client work.
In the beginning, I’d often find myself feeling stressed with the number of manual tasks that needed taking care of. But, after a lot of trial and error, and plenty of research I came across some life-saving tools that I could honestly not live without.
From tracking hours, creating invoices, planning, organising calendars, responding to clients, chasing leads, networking and that’s just a handful of tasks that need taking care of before starting any actual client work.
In the beginning, I’d often find myself feeling stressed with the number of manual tasks that needed taking care of. But, after a lot of trial and error, and plenty of research I came across some life-saving tools that I could honestly not live without.
Here are 5 tools that will help you to become more productive and efficient whilst running your business
1. Dubsado
A hub for all of your business needs. Dubsado is efficient and will have you super organised in no time. It’s one of the newer tools that I’ve been using and its already saving me so much time, especially when creating invoices and contracts. The best part is that it’s completely free for up to 3 clients or leads. When you reach 3 it then costs $25 per month or $250 for the annual plan. It will basically pay for itself once you hit more than 3 clients.
- Free for up to 3 clients or leads
- You can bill hourly or for package based services
- Integrate with your Gmail account
- Track client or customer leads
- Time tracker integration
- Templates for invoices, contracts, proposals and more
- Add payment schedules
- Get 20% off your first month when you move to a paid version
2. Mailer Lite
Mailer Lite is an email marketing provider that is completely free for up to 1000 subscribers and you can send unlimited emails. Once you hit over 1000 subscribers you will need to look into price plans which start from as little as $10 per month or $84 per year when paid annually.
I have experience using a couple of email marketing providers and I can honestly say that Mailer Lite is one of the best and my personal favourite. It's user-friendly, each step is simplified and easy to understand which helps a lot if you are a beginner and don’t have much experience with email marketing.
I have experience using a couple of email marketing providers and I can honestly say that Mailer Lite is one of the best and my personal favourite. It's user-friendly, each step is simplified and easy to understand which helps a lot if you are a beginner and don’t have much experience with email marketing.
- Access to all Mailer Lite features including automations and landing pages
- Ready made landing page templates that are easy to edit
- Flexibility when designing email templates
- 24/7 support
- Integrates with WordPress, Facebook, Twitter and more
3. Acuity Scheduling
Acuity Scheduling is the perfect tool to allow potential clients or customers to book appointments with you online. You can alter your availability on a weekly or monthly basis and block out specific times and days when you are busy and don’t want to receive any bookings.
You can receive payments too, if you are offering a consultation within your appointment for let’s say $50 then payment options can be added to the booking process. When someone books in with you that time will also be filled in your calendar to avoid any double bookings. It’s completely free when signing up to the solo version! After that packages start from $15 per month and include a lot more features like automatic timezone conversions, the ability to alter the text, you can add your own brand colours and display your logo.
You can receive payments too, if you are offering a consultation within your appointment for let’s say $50 then payment options can be added to the booking process. When someone books in with you that time will also be filled in your calendar to avoid any double bookings. It’s completely free when signing up to the solo version! After that packages start from $15 per month and include a lot more features like automatic timezone conversions, the ability to alter the text, you can add your own brand colours and display your logo.
- Self scheduling features for clients
- Unlimited services and appointments
- Tailor appointment process to collect relevant details
- Collect payments or offer free appointments
- Embed options so you can add the scheduler to your website
- Alter appointment duration
4. Trello
Do you have a million ideas and tasks floating around your head? Are half of them scribbled in the back of your notebook? Great, Trello is a project management tool that will be an absolute lifesaver for you. Its free, easy to use and will keep you organised.
You can create different boards for your ideas, client projects and more. Manage and keep track of where you are up to in specific projects. For more advanced features that will be valuable as your team grows, a paid version of Trello is available from $9.99 per month.
You can create different boards for your ideas, client projects and more. Manage and keep track of where you are up to in specific projects. For more advanced features that will be valuable as your team grows, a paid version of Trello is available from $9.99 per month.
- Add team members to your boards
- Assign staff or team members to specific tasks
- Create workflows and keep track of where you are up to in specific projects
- Add notes, checklists, attachments and due dates to tasks
- Color code tasks
5. Google Drive
We have all heard of Google Drive but are we making the most of it? Drive is fantastic for making organised folders for each of your clients and then saving important files and documents inside each folder. You can give access to team members or even clients so that you can share files with them quickly and efficiently without clogging up their inbox. When given your permission they will also be able to edit documents and leave notes.
- Free cloud storage up to 15GB
- Upgrade to get more storage space when needed
- Share and edit files quickly and efficiently
These are just 5 tools that will basically cost you nothing to use when starting your new venture. They will definitely save you money and time during your day to day tasks, making your life much easier and allowing you more time to focus on other areas of your business.
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