Free business tools every entrepreneur should know about

With the costs surrounding the start-up of your business, there may be little to no room to hire the graphic designer or photographer you need to help present yourself to the world. Costs can seem overwhelming, and you may be tempted to dismiss it as ‘not that important’ and shelf getting your digital foot in the door, for later. In our highly visual, information-saturated world, this would be a grave oversight.

Thankfully, there is a wide variety of fantastic tools available online, and many of them offer free access with an option to upgrade later.

What makes these tools exciting is that they are easy to use, no prior experience required. With pre-designed templates, you don’t have to have professional design skills to create striking marketing material. These templates are generally easily customisable, allowing you to still feel like your business and brand are being well represented.

We will be sharing some of our favorite tools that will help you create quality content for your Savvy site and your social media platforms.

Graphic design tools

There is a wide variety of graphic design tools on the market, all offering solutions to your content creation. Your level of skill and comfort will direct you to the platform that leaves you feeling most confident in the marketing material you present to the world.

1. Canva

Canva is a graphic design tool that can be used to create social media posts, banners, presentations, videos, logos, and newsletters. They offer an extensive array of free and paid templates that you can choose from. ‘Free’ can often leave one skeptical about the quality and variety that will be available to you, but we are glad to say that Canva does not disappoint.

You’ll notice that the pro designs are watermarked. These watermarks can only be removed once you buy the license for that element.

You need not fear picking up yet another monthly subscription fee. Canva allows you to make single purchases if a template or design element meets your needs more accurately than what is available for free.

2. Lunacy

Lunacy is a graphic design tool that is 100% free with no hidden costs or locked features.

Lunacy offers an image up-scaler where you can enlarge images, a background remover, and an avatar and text generator.

This is a great place to search for, and use icons and illustrations that would otherwise be challenging to find on search engines for free.

3. Adobe Express

If you’re looking for a creative tool that is easy to use and you want to create an infographic, video, or social media post, then Adobe Express is a winning choice.

Adobe Express does not only allow you to do basic photo editing, but you can also accomplish other creative tasks like removing backgrounds of images, converting videos to GIFs, merging videos, converting to PDFs, and much more.

Stock photography

Think about the first impression you get when you arrive on a website or social media page and you can see an image has been brazenly stolen from another platform, or the image quality reminds you of the photo’s your 4-megapixel camera used to take back in the day. It doesn’t leave you feeling warm and fuzzy about the professionality of the business you were hoping to deal with, does it?

Before using these free image tools, it is important to know how to choose good images for your business – they go a long way in getting your Savvy site or social media posts noticed and shared. It is also important to note the difference between free images, and royalty-free images.

Royalty-free images are images that you have paid for the license and can use indefinitely. A free image has no cost attached to it but be mindful that some platforms do require you to credit the creator in exchange for free use.

How to select your images?

Keep the following considerations in mind, and you will be well on your way to selecting images that enhance your online presence.

• Images relevant to your accompanying text or caption

• Emotive images that reinforce your message

• Images that reflect the tone of your business

• Images that build a cohesive brand

1. Pixabay

Pixabay is a digital platform that provides free stock photographs. No permissions or credits are required by the artists. Pixabay has a huge library of stock images that are placed in different categories to help you easily search for what you want.

Illustrations, vectors, videos, music, sound effects, and GIFs are some of the media Pixabay offers for your marketing.

2. Unsplash

Unsplash provides an extensive library of high-resolution images you can download. There is no daily limit for how many downloads you can make, and they don’t require attribution, although they would appreciate it.

3. Pexels

You can be as creative as you like using the images and videos from Pexels. Just like Unsplash, it’s easy to download and use their images, no attributions are required, and you don’t have to sign up for an account.

Be sure to read the fine print on these platforms to ensure you use images in accordance with permissions and licensing.

Video and animation tools

If you’ve ever been awestruck by marketing video content you’ve seen online, you may have thought this genre of marketing belongs to the high-rollers only. Although there most certainly is a time and place for all professional services, there are tools that enable you to create your own video or animated content.

1. Visme

Visme helps you create free videos that you can use on social media, your website, or other marketing platforms. You can also create other marketing assets such as presentations, infographics, graphs, and charts to add some color and variety to your content.

2. Animoto

You can have a stunning video in minutes with a little drag and drop. Animoto has beautiful templates that are easy and quick to use.

The length of your video is not limited, and you have access to a wide selection of music you can add to give that finishing touch.

3. Clipchamp

Clipchamp is a video editor that is designed to help you with video creation.

You can combine videos, images, and audio files using Clipchamp. What makes this tool amazing is that you are unrestricted as to how many videos you can create and you can use Clipchamp in your browser, no software installation is required.

There you have it; the roadmap to great free tools that you can use to enhance your business online and make your visuals look professional and beautiful – without breaking the bank.

You don't have to use all these business tools. Choose one in each category, and start creating engaging visuals for your Savvy Site and social media today.

Can you think of any other free business tools to use that we have not mentioned on our list? Let us know in the comments below.