We all love a freebie don’t we?
This month, I’m thrilled to invite Alison Cooper, Online Tech VA Alison Cooper who is sharing with us her favourite free tech apps for small businesses.
Alison is an active member of Thrive Collective. So much so we have a nickname for her. Alison Cooper…AKA Google. Honestly, what this woman doesn’t know about tech is just not worth knowing. Members have even said they find it more helpful asking tech questions in the Membership group rather than asking Google as Alison is way more helpful.
Over to you Alison……
We need all the help we can get when it comes to running our businesses affordably. There are so many applications that can help us for free. We just need to know where to find them. Here are some of my favourite free business apps:
Evernote https://evernote.com
I love love love Evernote. It’s basically my personal Wikipedia. Whenever I read or see something I might want to refer back to at a later date, I make an Evernote. If I take any handwritten notes, I scan them and upload. You can categorise your data, tag and search. It will even search your handwritten notes. Priceless.
Pixabay https://pixabay.com
Pixabay is my go-to resource for free ‘royalty free’ stock photos. They also provide free stock video clips and music too. Perfect for that social media image or video you’re wanting to create.
Canva https://www.canva.com/en_gb/
If you are looking to create stunning ‘design ready’ images for your website or social media platforms then Canva is a great place to start. There is a free and paid-for version. There’s a mobile app too enabling you to create images directly from your phone and upload them directly to your social channels.
Jot Form https://eu.jotform.com
Jot Form is my go-to resource for data collection. If I need to gather any information from my clients then you can be guaranteed I’ll create a Jot Form in order to gather their answers. They have so many integrations. It’s even possible to collect payments too.
Grammarly https://www.grammarly.com/
How strong is your grammar game? If you struggle with grammar, or even just want to double-check your grammar whilst writing a blog or social media post, then Grammarly is your best friend. Grammarly not only helps with spelling and grammar, but it will also suggest replacement words to enhance your text. Install the Grammarly app on your computer or mobile device for grammar correction on the go.
Wave https://www.waveapps.com
Use Wave to create professional invoices for free. Not only can you create free invoices, you’re also provided free access to accounting software and receipt scanning.
Zapier https://zapier.com
Zapier is a great tool to get your applications talking to each other. So, for example, if you run events via Eventbrite, and you use Mailchimp for your email marketing, you can set up a ‘Zap’ to add Eventbrite attendees to your Mailchimp list allowing you to send them your own branded content before and after the event.
If you’d like to find out more about Alison, go check out her Facebook page or visit her on Instagram.
Thanks so much Alison, we love having you in the Membership and the support and ideas you offer to fellow women in business.
Thrive is a community of business women supporting each other to connect, collaborate, learn and thrive together in business.We’re women who are energised by other women’s successes and equally motivated by our own.Thrive Collective is the combination of both the Thrive Collective Meet Ups and Thrive Collective Online Membership, whatever help you need, we’ve got you covered! The doors are always open to join. Join here.