Why Isn’t Your Small Business Using These Free Resources?

We get it. Finding programs that can help you grow your business during its infancy is difficult because they cost money and your company probably isn’t profitable quite yet.

Lucky for you, though, there are quite a few programs out there that don’t cost a thing, so why isn’t your small business using these free resources?

Here’s a list of the ones we think you should start utilizing immediately.

Small Business Development Centers

Whether you use the US Small Business Administration (SBA) or a local business development center, the first step you need to take is getting involved in one of these services.

They offer programs that can help you write a formal business plan, figure out business tax forms, and teach you how to perform market research. There are tons of free opportunities at these places that will help you better your business.

Plus, if you decide to go with SBA, they have a program called Ascent, a free learning platform made specifically for female entrepreneurs.

It offers users video lessons and worksheets to go through as well as chat functionality when you have questions.

Website Creators

There’s no need to pay a lot of money to get a company website up and running. Website designers are too expensive for startups, and paid website creators aren’t necessary when free ones exist.

Wix and Weebly are both great starting points for building your website. Other than paying about $10 for a domain, these services won’t cost you a thing.

Social Media

If you haven’t put your business on any social media sites yet, you’re really missing out on the free marketing potential they can provide. It’s good to be on more than one, but try to use only sites that you know your target audience uses.

Once you’ve set up your pages, use them to talk about your products and interact with customers. After you’ve established a baseline, you can take the steps needed to grow your social media presence even further.

Email Marketing Services

While social media is convenient for connecting with customers, email is an even better medium for that. This is because you can formulate emails that will automatically send out to new customers as well as ones who haven’t made a purchase in a while.

Both HubSpot and Mailchimp have well-known email marketing services that we’re sure will be great jumping-off points for your company.

Online Analytics Programs

Once you have a solid online presence, you need a way to manage it all to see how it’s doing. Google Analytics is by far the best program for keeping track of your online activities.

It will give you the info you need to better determine which of your presences are working for you and which aren’t, and it does all of this for free.

With this data, you can make smarter business decisions that’ll significantly benefit your company.

Now you have no excuse when someone asks you, “Why isn’t your small business using these free resources?”

You have a list of some of the best ones out there, so take the time to utilize each to its fullest potential.