There’re hundreds of free, and paid, resources across the internet which can help you succeed in business. This blog will lay out 42 of the free ones spanning podcasts, blogs, and tools. They’ll help you with everything from content creation and organisation to inspiration and motivation.
1. Canva is the perfect tool for graphic design and content creation for social media posts, printed materials, video creation and more. There’re hundreds of free graphics available and font options for text, as well as AI-creation tools to make design work easy and streamlined.
2. Many people don’t know that Adobe Express is Adobe’s free version of their software. It’s brilliant for content creation, especially for those doing it every day professionally.
3. When doing content creation, looking for copyright free photos can be an absolute nightmare. Unsplash has a tonne of CC0 photos to avoid any copyright mishaps.
4. From time to time, we all lack creativity. Pinterest is great for content inspiration and can also be used to promote your business.
5. That’s enough about content creation for now – we’re not all creative! But we do all need some inspiration from time to time. Listening to podcasts is particularly helpful for this. The Ian King business podcast is just one example. From interest rates to cyber-attacks, the Sky News’s presenter has some interesting interviews and discussions to listen to.
6. You can also learn a lot from Radio 5’s business podcast, Wake up Money, covering everything financial. It’s a good listen whilst you’re travelling to work to get you ready for the day.
7. BBC news also have their own podcast called Business Daily which covers a range of topics globally within the business sector which may give you ideas for your own. For more options, we’ve put together a blog featuring the best business podcasts for startups and entrepreneurs.
8. As well as listening, why not watch as well? Tim Ferriss is an American entrepreneur with almost 1 and a half million subscribers on YouTube giving advice on topics like starting your own business and how to stay motivated. He has his own podcast available on Apple.
9. Another person you need to make sure you’re following is Pat Flynn. He covers topics like becoming successful in the media world, podcast tips and marketing tricks for his 430K+ subscribers on YouTube. Pat’s also well-known for his blog and weekly podcast called Smart Passive income.
10. Prefer to read rather than listen? Well, we have our own blog all about business. Whether you’re starting your own, are looking for advice in a certain area, we have a tonne of content. This includes 10 clever ways to save money in 2024 and 24 best business ideas for 2024.
11. Whilst reading blogs, you might find some creativity to design your own. Shorthand is a platform designed to make your blogs look appealing and engaging for your audience.
12. Entrepreneur is another blog website to look at when you have the chance. Diving into interesting topics like AI, which is slowly creeping into our lives, and general business, their articles are definitely worth a read.
13. Forbes cover topics like billionaires to create inspiration and motivation for your own business.
14. Bloomberg includes stories from all over the world in different areas like economics, wealth, and politics so you’re bound to learn something you didn’t already know.
15. If money and finance are topics which really interest you, The Financial Diet is a website filled with content designed for women.
16. Let’s look at some online tools which will actively help your business. Google Trends shows you what’s trending in search, whilst Google Keyword Planner allows you to dive deeper into the data and plan paid campaigns. We’ve written an in-depth article all about search engine marketing for small businesses.
17. Google Analytics is another great tool from Google which give insight into how your business website is doing. It monitors things like website visitor numbers, conversions, and time on page.
18. Do you ever struggle with storage? Not the physical kind! Google Drive gives secure access and a place for storing your digital files.
19. Just one more suggestion from Google, we promise – Google Meet. If anything, lockdown proved to us that online was a useful solution to carrying out meetings. Google Meet is a brilliant place to do this.
20. Zoom is another platform that’s brilliant for meetings. Plus, it can handle a high volume of people.
21. Microsoft Teams is good for video calling, and also connecting with people over message. Whichever calling platform your business decides to use is up to you!
22. When organising your meetings, why not try Calendly? It’s an automated scheduling platform, designed to make your life easier.
23. Mail Chimp is another software tool designed to help you organise and save time. Best known for their email platform, they have a range of tools to push your marketing and sales forward.
24. With a busy work life, it can become difficult to keep track of tasks. Smart Sheet is an option to put you in control of this and keep everything in one place.
25. Trello is another tool used by many businesses to track which tasks are assigned to who, so you always know what needs completing next. It’s helpfully laid out as a board with cards that can be moved around and into lists.
26. For managing specific areas like marketing, operations, and project management Monday.com could become your new buddy. It’s a little more involved than other tools but more powerful to boot, with inbuilt Gantt charts and time tracking.
27. Cloud-based software Fresh desk is popular among many businesses for arranging customer queries due to its ease of implementation and free option.
28. Hootsuite is great for social media management and sorting everything in this area that you need to. The platform does several tasks like scheduling and performance management. Better yet, it has a range of integrations and free tools.
29. To guide your social media strategy, try Buffer. It can cut time at sign off and multi-channel distribution.
30. Starting a business? Our Startup Costs Calculator is a useful tool that breaks out the typical costs that go into a new venture, helping you see what’s needed quickly and easily.
31. Wave is ideal for small businesses managing their finances due to its free option with unlimited creation of estimates, invoices, and bills.
32. Zoho Books is an end-to-end accounting software that guides you with areas like VAT returns and service tracking.
33. Ahrefs offers SEO tools for your website to help you reach higher up placements in Google search.
34. If you’re a new business looking to create a website for free, Wix could be the site you need. With templates and a drag-and-drop builder, it takes no time to publish and without need of an IT team.
35. Shorthand has responsive, no-code templates to make articles look engaging and exciting. This could be a great platform to transform your blogs into something eye catching.
36. Excellent for making graphs and charts, Flourish can present data to your customers and clients on your website in an exciting way. Animated, ‘scrollytelling’ or interactive maps? No problem.
37. People love to see visual content and, on your website, social media and videos are a part of this. Capcut is a video editing software that can be used on your phone or desktop. It’s easy to use, particularly if you’re not an experienced editor.
38. If you’re confident and talking to the camera within your video content, Teleprompter could make things easier. It allows you to add your own script which will show up on the screen as you talk.
39. People in the industry are free resources in themselves. Guy Kawaski is evangelist of Canva and has published books like the art of social media. His career may spark some of your own creative ideas.
40. We’re sure you’ve heard of Richard Branson. As an influential businessman, giving him a follow on X and seeing what he’s up to could be of benefit.
41. If you’re a big user of Instagram, you should follow @Incmagazine. They post all about starting your own business or growing your existing one.
42. We all need to take care of ourselves. The I am app makes daily affirmations to get you motivated for the day ahead.
