When you are part of a small business you end up taking responsibility for many aspects of the company. You may oversee the business admin, the marketing for the company or run the social media channels. It is important that you project the right professional image whilst keeping an eye on costs. So, what free tools are there available to help?
Trello
If you need a way to manage projects and want one place to easily communicated with colleagues then Trello is great. It is a web based project management tool that can be accessed anywhere, handy if you use remote workers. It uses boards, lists and cards to help you manage projects and workflow. You can create to do lists, detail pending projects as well as use it to share ideas with others. You can attach images and files, comment on progress and add deadlines to each project. The calendar feature makes it easier to manage workloads on a day by day basis. With all the information you need in one place, you can keep everyone on track. This can be a big timesaver for any small business and stops you having to chase people to find out progress. Discover more at www.trello.com.
Canva
If you need to create professional, visual social media posts or a great flyer or poster Canva can help. It is a graphic design website that can be used to create all types of print and digital marketing materials. You can create posters, infographics and social media posts for all platforms. They have many templates you can use or you can utilise your own images and logos. Straightforward and easy to use, mostly just dragging and dropping the elements you need to create a design, you can produce marketing that catches the eye. www.canva.com.
Unsplash
If you are tasked with creating marketing materials for your business but are struggling to find high quality images try www.unsplash.com. This is a good resource for free stock images that can be used in your online and print marketing. It is important to be aware that you cannot just take any image you want from the web and use it in your own promotional materials. Most images are held under copyright so you must always check they are licensed for reuse before you use them. All the images on Unsplash are free and could make a real difference to advertisements, social media posts or your website.
Thunderbird email
Thunderbird, supplied by Mozilla, is a free email platform that can be used with your business email address. It has all the usual features of an email system with privacy and hacking protection in place. This is an open source system so developments are taking place all the time to improve its offering. www.mozilla.org.
Small Business
Tools
