Useful programmes and services for small businesses

When a business is just starting out, it is important to optimise it and create a solid foundation for further growth. Sometimes this can be difficult, as entrepreneurs often have to work with limited budgets.

Free programmes and services can help. These are either completely free software or services that offer sufficient features for your business at no cost. In this article, we will discuss what these programmes are, how to choose them for your business, and how to use them to your best advantage.

What to look for when choosing free programmes

Even free software needs to be chosen carefully. Integrating it into business processes requires effort and time, and for small businesses, these resources are always in short supply.

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Using everything in a row is not an option. That is why, when choosing free software and services, we recommend paying attention to the following features:

The right functionality

Often, free services offer limited capabilities, do not allow automation, or do not provide full analytics.

To check whether the software is suitable for your project, write down all the processes that you want to simplify. For small businesses, these are most often document management, customer service, accounting, and SMM processes.

Choose free plans that solve the most important business tasks or simplify critical processes. There is no need to look for the perfect fit right away. At this stage, it is important to evaluate the usability and overall capabilities of the service — free plans are often insufficient to solve all tasks.

Documents and organisation

Google Workspace

Over 6 million businesses and 15 million websites worldwide use the paid version of Google Workspace. But the actual number is much higher. The free version offers more than enough features for small businesses. Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Calendar, Google Drive, and Google Meet — these services alone can create a complete workspace for a team of up to 10 specialists.

Canva

A multifunctional service for working with graphics and design. With its help, you can create website and page designs, images for social networks, presentations, product mock-ups, illustrations, and much more.

The free version offers around 2 million templates, 4.5 million stock photos, and 2,000+ design types for different purposes.

If you create branded posts on social media, Canva Free is a must-have.

Figma

Figma is a cloud-based service for creating and editing designs. It is most often used to develop layouts for websites, mobile applications, and interfaces.

The Figma library has a large number of templates, plugins, and widgets for design and automation of routine tasks. Even the free version can be integrated into a digital project, but for advanced prototyping or an unlimited number of files, a subscription is required.

Trello

Trello is a free task manager for teamwork. With its help, you can organise work tasks in the form of boards, lists, and cards, and assign a responsible person and deadline to each of them.

Even the free version of Trello can be integrated with Slack, Google Drive, and email. The service offers a huge number of plugins that can be used to customise boards and configure task execution for each specific specialist.