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Essential Small Business Tools & Resources
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items The best tools and resources to help small business owners streamline operations, manage finances, market effectively, and grow their business. Whether you're just starting out or scaling up, these platforms will save you time and money.
Sections
10
Financial & Payment Tools
Project Management & Team Collaboration
Marketing & Brand Building
Customer Insights & Feedback
Website & Online Store Building
Sales & Customer Relationships
Financial & Payment Tools
Manage your money, get paid, and access capital
Cloud-based accounting software that handles invoicing, expense tracking, payroll, and tax preparation. Perfect for small businesses that need comprehensive financial management without hiring a full-time bookkeeper.
QuickBooks
100% free accounting software for small businesses including invoicing, receipt scanning, and financial reporting. Ideal for solopreneurs and micro-businesses watching their budget.
Wave Financial
User-friendly accounting platform designed for service-based businesses and freelancers. Excellent time tracking and project management features alongside core accounting tools.
FreshBooks
Banking and financial management platform built specifically for self-employed individuals and small business owners. Combines business checking with automatic tax savings, expense categorization, and invoicing tools. No monthly fees, plus you get a ...
Found Bank
Simple invoicing, expense tracking, and payment-management app for small businesses. Create professional invoices on the go, accept payments, and track what's outstanding—all from your mobile device.
Invoice2go
Invoicing and billing SaaS for freelancers and small businesses worldwide. Supports recurring billing, expense tracking, and multiple currencies, making it ideal for international service providers.
Hiveage
Payment processing platform that lets you accept credit cards, digital wallets, and international payments online. Easy integration with websites and apps, with transparent pricing.
Stripe
Free expense management and budgeting software with physical and virtual cards for team spending. Real-time tracking helps prevent overspending and simplifies reconciliation.
BILL Spend & Expense (Formerly Divvy)
Online financing platform helping small businesses secure loans and manage cash flow. Streamlines the loan application process and connects you with multiple lenders to find the best rates.
Biz2Credit
Project Management & Team Collaboration
Stay organized, coordinate work, and keep your team connected
Project management platform with tasks, timelines, and collaboration features. Visual boards and lists help teams stay aligned on priorities and deadlines.
Asana
Visual project management using boards, lists, and cards. Intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes it easy for teams to organize work and track progress at a glance.
Trello
All-in-one workspace combining notes, databases, wikis, and project management. Incredibly flexible—use it as your company wiki, CRM, project tracker, or all of the above.
Notion
Team communication platform that organizes conversations into channels, integrates with other tools, and reduces email overload. Essential for remote or distributed teams.
Slack
Automated scheduling tool that eliminates the back-and-forth of finding meeting times. Share your link and let clients book time on your calendar based on your availability.
Calendly
Work OS for planning and tracking projects, tasks, and team workflows in one visual dashboard.
monday.com | The AI work platform
All-in-one productivity tool with docs, tasks, goals, and automation to unify work.
ClickUp
Simple team communication and collaboration tool with integrated chat and to-dos.
Basecamp
Marketing & Brand Building
Reach your audience, create content, and grow your brand
Design platform with templates for social media posts, presentations, logos, and marketing materials. No design experience needed—drag and drop your way to professional graphics.
Canva Pro | Your all-in-one design solution
Webinar and live event platform built for presenting and engaging audiences online. Built-in registration, automated recordings, and analytics help you convert viewers into customers.
Demio
Email marketing platform with automation, audience segmentation, and analytics. Free tier available for up to 500 contacts, making it perfect for businesses just starting email campaigns.
Mailchimp
Social media management tool that lets you schedule posts, monitor mentions, and analyze performance across multiple platforms from one dashboard.
Hootsuite
All-in-one digital marketing toolkit for SEO, content marketing, competitor research, and PPC advertising. Helps you understand what's working in your industry and optimize your online presence.
Semrush
Simple landing page tool that turns your bio link into a mini-website with multiple links. Perfect for Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms that limit you to one clickable link.
Linktree
Free tool to manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps. Essential for local businesses—customers can find your hours, location, and reviews all in one place.
Google Business Profile
Customer Insights & Feedback
Understand your customers and showcase social proof
Tool for collecting and displaying customer testimonials and reviews to build trust. Makes it easy to gather video and text testimonials, then embed beautiful widgets on your website.
Senja - Collect, Manage and Share Testimonials
Beautiful, interactive forms and surveys for customer feedback and lead generation. Conversational interface increases completion rates compared to standard forms.
Typeform
Free analytics platform to track website performance and user behavior. Essential for understanding where your traffic comes from and what visitors do on your site.
Google Analystics - Analytics Tools & Solutions for Your Business
Website & Online Store Building
Build your online presence and sell products
Complete e-commerce platform for creating online stores, processing payments, and managing inventory. Extensive app marketplace lets you customize functionality as you grow.
Shopify
Website builder with beautiful templates perfect for service businesses, portfolios, and small online stores. No coding required, includes hosting and SSL security.
Squarespace
Free, open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress that turns any WordPress site into a fully functional online store. Highly customizable with thousands of extensions available.
WooCommerce
Simple, one-page website builder perfect for landing pages, personal profiles, and portfolios. Free tier available, with premium features like custom domains and forms starting at just $19/year. Great for quickly creating beautiful, mobile-responsive...
Carrd
Website builder and direct-to-fan sales tool tailored for musicians and creative entrepreneurs. Sell music, merch, and tickets directly with zero commission fees.
Bandzoogle
No-code platform to build custom mobile apps, websites, and workflows without programming. Drag-and-drop builder makes app creation accessible to non-technical founders.
Appy Pie
Sales & Customer Relationships
Manage leads, close deals, and support customers
Free CRM that tracks customer interactions, manages deals, and automates outreach. Scales with your business and integrates with marketing and sales tools.
HubSpot CRM - Streamline Your Entire Business With a Free CRM
Customer service platform with ticketing, live chat, and knowledge base features. Helps you provide excellent support across email, phone, chat, and social media.
Zendesk
All-in-one CRM, marketing automation, ecommerce and business management software. Powerful for businesses that need advanced automation without piecing together multiple tools.
Ontraport
CRM and lead-generation database tool for email lists and sales outreach. Access millions of business contacts to build targeted prospect lists for B2B sales.
Infofree Sales Leads
Sales productivity and email tracking tool to help boost outreach effectiveness. See when prospects open emails and click links, with templates and scheduling for follow-ups.
Yesware
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GoHighLevel - Elevate Your Marketing and Sales with HighLevel's All-in-One Platform!
Legal & Administrative
Protect your business and handle contracts
Online legal services for business formation, trademark registration, contracts, and compliance. More affordable than traditional law firms for standard business needs.
LegalZoom
Electronic signature platform that makes it easy to send, sign, and manage contracts and agreements. Legally binding and saves time versus printing and scanning documents.
Docusign
HR & People operations
Manage payroll, benefits, and employee administration
Payroll, benefits, and HR platform designed for small businesses. Handles tax filing, direct deposits, PTO tracking, and employee onboarding all in one place.
Gusto
Productivity Utilities
Quick digital tools for everyday business tasks
Free web collection of utility tools for writing, SEO, text formatting, and quick digital tasks. Handy shortcuts for common tasks like word counting, case conversion, and text analysis without installing software.
TheToolX - Free Online Tools & Utilities for Everyone
Professional transcription, captioning, and subtitle services with quick turnaround times. Upload audio or video and receive accurate transcripts—perfect for meetings, interviews, and video content.
Beyond | Rev - Speech to Text Service
Business Education & Resources
Learn from experts and find helpful resources
Free, expert volunteer mentorship and business guidance (U.S.) to help startups and small business owners. Access to hundreds of local chapters and online workshops on every aspect of running a business.
SCORE - Free mentorship, webinars, and courses
Free online education for entrepreneurs. The mission at My Own Business Institute (MOBI) is to start businesses that create jobs by providing training and resources to entrepreneurs around the world.
My Own Business Institute - Free Online Courses
Nearly 1,000 local centers across the US provide no-cost business consulting and low-cost training to new and existing businesses. America’s SBDC is a non-profit Association that represents America’s nationwide network of Small Business Development C...
America's SBDC - free consulting and free or low-cost training.
The SBA helps entrepreneurs start, build and grow businesses through an extensive network of field offices, partnerships with public and private organizations, and vast array of online services.
Small Business Administration (SBA) - free counseling, loans, and more
NASE is a nonprofit organization that helps self-employed and micro-business owners start and grow their businesses. NASE offers health insurance, grants, networking, education, and community resources.
NASE-Resources to Start a business, Get self-employed health insurance, and more - National Association for the Self-Employed
Freelancers Union is a non-profit organization serving as a support system for independent workers through advocacy, education, and benefits. So, whether you consider yourself a creative, a solopreneur, or a founder, we’re working to secure a better ...
Freelancers Union