Small business owners know that the cost of operating can be downright expensive. Whenever there are programs out there that can help eliminate costs, while still maintaining a professional image, you should take advantage of them! Here are the websites that top my list:
- MadMiMi.com “Simple and beautiful email marketing” – Mashable. MadMimi gives you customizable email templates that are not only easy to use to create slick newsletters, track their open/click rates, and save/sort your email database contacts, it also provides the service for free for up to 100 contacts. With ground-breaking technology, Mad Mimi is the simplest way to create branded, well-designed newsletters and promotions. If you gain more than 100 followers, it’s only $8 to upgrade to 500 accounts. Money well spent.
- SurveyMonkey.com “Create surveys. Get Answers.” Survey Monkey is an important tool to bettering knowing your customers. Constantly surveying customers on the overall satisfaction of your business is crucial to quality control, as well as attracting new customers. Survey Monkey allows you to design surveys for free (up to ten questions), collect data by distributing your survey online, and use their powerful analytics tools to get results.
- Join.Me “Share your screen. Join someone’s screen”. Don’t pay for computer conferencing when you can get it for free online. Join.Me allows you to share your computer monitor with anyone across the world and gives them access to your computer as well by emailing them a simple code. For audio you can even use free internet calling. It’s easy to use and doesn’t have the same lag time other programs may cause.
- YouSendIt.com “Keep your business moving. Access and share content from anywhere across the extended enterprise.” Send huge files via email without clogging up your inbox or destroying the receiver’s mailbox. Simply go to YouSendIt.com, upload the file, and type in the email address of the recipient. The website will then send a link of the file directly to a newly created website for easy download from the internet. It’s the polite way to send.
- MorgueFile.com “Free images for your inspiration, reference, and use in your creative work, be it commercial or not!” Photos, although may appear free online, are often owned by the person who uploaded it. Meaning if you use their photo for commercial use, you can be sued. Don’t get sued! Use stock pictures you are ALLOWED to use on this website. And if you take stock photos of your own, upload and share them!
- Hometownlocator.com “Local information, resources, and data.” Getting ready for a direct mail piece and need to hone in on zip code information, HH income and other important demographic information? This is your one stop website. It also includes handy census information dating back to the year 2000.
- CoachingReminders.com “Making it easier for managers to turn talent into performance.” This website is geared towards the bosses of the business, providing a free place for a manager to enter notes about an employee and get a reminder on when to follow up with coaching an employee. It also provides a basic understanding of exactly howeach employee is “wired” to help you build a plan.
- DropBox.com “Files saved on one computer can now be available on all of your computers and phones automatically.” You can bring all of your photos, videos and documents anywhere by allowing access your information where and when you need it. Stop emailing files to yourself, carrying around thumb drives, or being caught in a meeting unprepared. It works even across MACs and PCs.
- 1001FreeFonts.com “Download free fonts for Windows and Macintosh.” Get creative with your typeface and stop using the dreaded Papyrus and Comic Sans fonts to jazz up your publications. Download interesting fonts at lightning speed. Try my favorite font: BLOBS!
- WordPress.com “A better way to blog.” Whenever I am approached and asked for tips on starting a blog, I always point them to WordPress. WordPress provides free templates, webhosting, and help for creating well organized blogs, which promotes thought leadership in our community. If you put out ideas in cyber space, people will read them and become familiar with you and your product. It may even be a source of lead generation for your business.
