Day 14: OPERATION: Create Your Own Path
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 28 July 2013 14:59
- Published Date
- Written by Veronica Jorden
It's day 14 of OPERATION: Create Your Own Path and the end of week two! And it's time for more resources! When you are ready to start your own business, it's important to use all of the rescources available to you. And there are so many free or low-cost options, we just had to share.
Cindy Yates
Following Orders, LLC
"Seek out resources that can help you. There are so many out there and most are free. Also, never be afraid to ask for help, I have met the most amazing people on my journey."
This is but a small portion of all of the amazing resources out there. If you discover any other resouces you want to share, please let us know!
Accounting & Finance
Freshbooks - Cloud Accounting Solution Designed for Small Business Owners
Wave Accounting – Online app for everything from invoicing, accounting, payroll, personal finances, and receipts
CurdBee- Online Billing Software for Small Businesses and Freelancers
Square – take payments anywhere on your iPhone of iPad
Upsourced Accounting – affordable, professional accounting services
Recurly – Free tools that allows you to bill subscription customers quickly and easily
Customer Support
GetSatisfaction - a platform that lets your customers interact with each other, be heard and find resolution
SurveyMonkey – Create online surveys to reach your customers and for market research
GoTo Meeting - Easy web conferencing and online meeting tools that lets you work with anyone, anywhere
Contactually – keep track of contacts and customers and set up reminders to reconnect or follow-up with them
Legal
Legal Zoom – fee based access to contracts, formation documents, and other business related templates
Docusign – easy to use online tool that allows users to sign contracts, online, from anywhere
Rocketlegal – everything you need to make it legal, including document creation and online legal support from legal professionals
My Corporation – online service to form and file your business entity documents
Marketing & Marketing Research
MailChimp – email marketing tool
HubSpot – complete set of inbound marketing tools
Help A Reporter Out - connect with reporters looking for sources
MarketingExperiments.com – tons of primary marketing research
MarketingCharts.com – all kinds of charts of marketing research results across several media platforms
www.constantcontact.com – email marketing platform
http://www.sizeup.com/ - check out your local competition
http://www.appypie.com/ - affordable way to create your own mobile apps
Web Development
99designs – run contests for all of your graphic design needs
Fivrr – all kinds of business services – graphic design, voice over, and more – everything only $5
Crowdspring – submit your request for graphic design and web copy and get submissions from several designers/writers – then chose your favorite
ThemeForest – all kinds of high-quality website themes
Wordpress – one of the most popular blogging and website platforms.
Launchrock – collect interest and build and audience before you launch a new product or website
Drupal – Open-source website platform, great for building social networks and online communities
Wix – great way to get a professional looking website for free.
Shopify – online service to set up a professional online store.
Small Business Financing/Funding
Rock the Post - startup investing made easy
SBA Loans – Get all the details on how the SBA can help with your small business financing
Microventures.com – venture capital website
Kickstarter – crowdfunding website
Indigogo – crowdfunding website
Upstart.com - lets you raise capital in exchange for a small share of your future income.
VetStarter – crowdfunding platform for disabled vets
Sprigster – crowdfunding platform for veterans and military spouses interesting in purchasing a franchise
Repay Vets – crowdfunding platform offering traditional and equity crowdfunding to vets
Business Plans
BP Plans – offers free templates for common businesses
Liveplan.com - online software for creating complete business plans
