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Help Your Small Business Succeed with These Free Services


Share! 3/12/2019

Photo by Charisse Kenion on Unsplash

 

Help Your Small Business Succeed
with These Free Services

 

It’s pretty common for a small business to run on razor-thin margins, which is why many entrepreneurs run their businesses out of their homes (in some cases, doing so only eats $50 out of their startup costs, after all!). But just because your company is operating on a shoestring budget doesn’t mean you can’t optimize the way your business runs. There are plenty of free services and resources that help small business owners improve customer satisfaction, increase online engagement, and streamline processes. Whatever your business goals are, check out these useful tools to see if any can help you reach them.

 

Google Alerts

 

Your company’s online reputation is its first impression for hundreds — even thousands — of potential customers each and every day. However, as a small business owner, you don’t always have the time to scour reviews to find negative feedback that could affect how people perceive you. Google Alerts can tell you when your business has been mentioned so you can quickly address complaints or boost positive news via your social media channels. You can also create Google Alerts for industry topics, employees, competitors, or any other search term you may want to keep your eye on. Setting up Google Alerts is a free and easy way to receive notifications any time your business gains a new mention online.

 

To create Google Alerts:

 

     Go to http://www.google.com/alerts/

     If you have a Gmail account, sign in. If not, you can have alerts sent to another email address.

     Enter the search terms you want the Google Alert to track. You can add multiple alerts by separating them with comments.

     Choose the type of results you want Google Alerts to find: news, blogs, video, discussions, books, or all.

     Establish how frequently you want to receive Google Alerts (once a day, twice a week, every other month, etc.).

     Hit the “Create Alert” button, and you’re done!

 

Canva

Your business’s social media presence connects you with customers in a personal and fun way. While you want to maintain an easy and conversational tone in your copy, you still want your visuals to look professional. Canva is a free online tool that helps you create social media and marketing graphics quickly and easily with little money. The program comes with numerous templates that help even the most design-averse people create eye-catching media that your customers will love, and its drag-and-drop interface is simple enough for the tech illiterate. You can even save your company’s logo and other images in your Canva account so you have quick and easy access when you need to create a cohesive look.

 

Trello

 

Trello is the ultimate online tool for organizing your business’s operations. The task management app allows you to create boards, lists, and cards where you can save vital information for others in your business to access with ease. Save files, including PDFs, JPGs, and DOCs, in one place without using your machine’s memory. Synchronize with your Google Drive account to backup important media. You can even make important to-do lists and share them with employees as a way to stay on top of daily tasks.

 

It can take a while before you’re fully used to Trello and make the most of the app’s capabilities. However, Trello makes it easy to move cards to other boards should you need to re-organize. The longer you work with Trello, the more intuitive it becomes.

 

Small businesses have to make the most with the little they have. If you own a small business, you can always improve your operations even if you don’t have a lot of resources available. Tools like Google Alerts help you stay on top of your company’s online reputation and interact with customers via social media, blogs, and review sites. Even if you aren’t a graphic designer, online tools like Canva help business owners create professional-looking images for promotion purposes. And if your business could use some help with organization, task management apps like Trello help you list and execute your operations successfully.




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