It has literally never been an easier time to start your own online business! Our comprehensive list offers over 180+ resources for you to plan, design, launch, and grow your business – for Free! Start your dream business today with our curated list of resources to get your brand up and running in no time.
BUSINESS PLAN
Drafting a business plan does not have to be as time-consuming as many paint it out to be. There are tons of ways to get a great business plan completed in a single morning.
- Free Boutique Business Plans – Boutique and Retail Business Plans
- All Business Plans 500+ Business Plan Examples
LEGAL/BUSINESS RESOURCES
The legal side of your business is just as important as the visual side of your brand. Be sure to get your legal ducks in a row to save you money in the long run. In addition, check out other business resources.
Grasshopper , Toll Free Forwarding – 1800 Number for your business
Easily connect to Stripe or Square. Benefits of Business Bank Account
Business Name Generators
- Shopify Business Name Generator
- Oberlo Business Name Generator
- Business Name Generator
- Namelix
- Namemesh
- Anadea
Domains and Email
- Bluehost – Starting at $3.95/month, web hosting, domain
- Namecheap
- Google Domains – Starting at $12/year. Easily integrate and connect to all Google products
- GoDaddy – Cheap domains. When you purchase the low-cost email package, get Microsoft Office included free
- Zoho – Starting at $1/month
- G-Suite – Starting at $6/month. Easily integrate and connect to all Google products
E-COMMERCE PLATFORMS
Choosing the right e-commerce platform is critical to the success of your business. Luckily, most of the platforms allow you to try out their services for a trial period. Try out atleast two and determine which is a better fit for your business. We recommend the following:
- Shopify – Starting at $29 – How-To Build an Online Shopify Store in 1 Day
- Wix
- Squarespace
- X-Cart
- Weebly
- Etsy – Handmade, Custom Products
PAYMENT SOLUTIONS
There are many payment solutions out there, with most of them averaging around the same cost per transaction of 2.9% + $0.30.
- Stripe
- Paypal (Business)
- Square
- Amazon Pay
- Google Pay
BOUTIQUE RESOURCES AND INVENTORY
- Wholesale Clothing Vendors (women, plus size, men, children, jewelry and accessories)
- Affordable Custom Hanging Tags for Merchandise
- Children Fashion Vendors
- Men’s Wholesale Vendors
- Profit Markup/Margin Calculator
BRANDING, GRAPHICS, AND LOGOS
Graphics and Stock Photos
- Canva – simple graphic design software with tons of great templates and stock photos. Create stunning graphics and worksheets.
- 0 to 255 – Pick the perfect hue of any color in the rainbow.
- Color Picker – Chrome web extension to identify any color’s hex (#xxxxx) from any website.
- Crello – similar to Canva with more animated and video options
- The Stocks
- Deposit Photos – Over 100 million high-quality royalty-free stock images and high-definition footage
- Stock Unlimited – Over 1 Million Royalty-free Images For Unlimited Downloads
- Giphy – Find and create your own GIFs
- Signature Maker – Create a handwritten, online signature. Great for blog posts, emails, documents, etc.
- EZ Gif Maker – Make Gifs Free. Great for creating the illusion of flashing text or graphics
- Remove Background – Remove the background from all of your pictures
- Pablo by buffer – create social media graphics
Image Editors and Photo Compression
- Pixlr – Free in-browser Photoshop-esque Image Editor
- A Color Story – Enhance the colors on any photo
- Sumo Paint – Image Editor
- Compressor – reduce the size of photos to speed up your website
- TinyJPG – – reduce the size of photos and optimize images to speed up your website
Logos
- LogoMix
- Hatchful
- Cooltext – 100% Free text logo
- Design Hill
- Adobe Spark
- Logaster
- Tailor Brands
- Smashing Logo
Fonts
- Creative Market
- 1001 Free Fonts
- Adobe Edge Fonts
- Canva font combinations
- Google Fonts
- What the Font – Find out what font was used in any photo
SHIPPING AND PACKAGING
SEO AND WEB ANALYTICS
Organic traffic is the top referrer to your store, so making sure Google knows you exist is critical to your brand’s growth. Good old fashioned SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and reviewing analytics is the best way to help Google and other web search engines find you and place your website in their top search results.
- Ubersuggest – see current keyword rankings
- Beginner’s Guide to SEO by Moz
- Find your niche keywords – find keywords for your brand to add to alt text on images and keywords in product descriptions and/or your blog
- Google Analytics
- Google Keyword Planner
- Google Alerts – Get an email every time any variation of your brand is mentioned online (or whatever terms you want to track)
- SocialBlade
- Cyfe – All in One Business Dashboard
- Free SEO Report
- Free Keyword and Descriptions Test
- Banana Tag – Analytics for what happens after sending an email
- Smylelytics – Fun, visual analytics tool to analyze your website traffic
- Page Speed Insights – A slow page can affect both your ranking and customer experience. Check from time to time to be sure your site is not moving slow because of large graphics or other issues
- Dead Link Checker – Remove pages from your website that host broken links that can damage your website ranking. 404’s are no bueno.
FUNDING: GRANTS AND LOANS
Grants
- 88+ Business Grants – a detailed list of business grants
- Minority Business Development Agency – Grants and loans for minorities
- USDA Grant – For minorities
- National Minority Supplier Development Council
- SBA 8(A) Business Development Program – For socially and economically disadvantaged small business owners
- Operation Hope Small-Business Empowerment Program – For entrepreneurs in low wealth neighborhoods
- FedEx Small Business Grant – $25,000
- Etsy Makers Cities Grant
- Chase Mission Main Street Grant – $150,000
- Visa Everywhere Initiative – $50,000
- National Association for the Employed (NASE) – $5,000
- LendingTree – $50,000
- Walmart Global Women Economic Empowerment Initiative
- The Amber Grant – For women only
- American Association of University Women Career Development Grant
- InnovateHER Women Business Challenge
- The GirlBoss Foundation Grant
- Eileen Fisher Women-Owned Businss Grant – To be eligible, women must make up at least 51% of your business’s ownership and leadership, your business must have been in operation for at least three years, earn less than $1 million in annual revenue, and be focused on environmental or social change.
- Women Business Centers
- Open Meadows – For women only
- The Halstead Grant – For businesses selling jewelry
- Huggies Mominspired – $15,000
- Idea Cafe
- DC Small and Local Business Grant – They tend to offer the most grants to retail businesses that are revitalizing downtown neighborhoods in Washington DC
- Kansas Job Creation Fund
- Miami Mom and Pop Small Business Grant
- Seed Chicago
- Detroit NEIdeas Grants
- Intuit NASE Grant
Loans
SOCIAL MEDIA SHARE APPS
- AddThis – social media sharing tool
- Highly Recommended: ShareThis
- Click2Tweet
- Disqus
- Sumo Share
- EveryPost
MARKETING
Email Marketing
- MailChimp
- Benchmark
- Prefinery – good for pre-launch and waiting lists
- Vertical Response
- ConvertKit
- Leadpages – Great for landing pages
- Cold E-Mail Generator
- Boomerang for G-Mail – Schedule emails to be sent at a later time
- Sumo – email list builder
- HelloBar – welcome bar and exit intent page to grow your business
Social Media Marketing
- LinkTree – Instagram bio Link (increases conversions)
- Bitly – URL Shortener and analytics
- Find out your Instagram Net Worth – Calculator
- Instagram Hashtag Generator
- Later – schedule social media posts
- Youtube Money Calculator
- Social Pilot
- Tailwind – schedule social media posts
- Buffer – schedule social media posts
- Planoly – schedule social media posts
- Youtube Ads
- Windows Movie Maker
- Social Rank – Manage your audience on social media
Other Marketing
- Growth Hackers – Get tips from a community of business owners that have “been there and done that”. Learn new strategies to grow your business.
- QR Code Generator
- HowManyShares – Find out how many shares you have online
- Gleam – Marketing Apps
- Top 8 Influencer Marketing Tips
MISCELLANEOUS RESOURCES
- Score – Free Business Training and Resources
- Trello – online to-do lists, organize and collaborate with your team
- Send Push Notifications to Browser
- Batch – Push notifications to browser
- US Copywright Office
- Grammarly – Online grammar and spell checker that installs to your browser. Highly Recommended.
- After the Deadline – spell and grammar checker
- Any.do – stay organized with this tool
- PaperRater – Grammar and Spelling Check
- Schedule your Instagram and/or Pinterest Social Media Posts – Tailwind
- Black Enterprise
- National Women’s Business Council
- Startup Nation
- How to Perfect Flat-Lay Photos
- Easy Copy-Paste Blog Templates
- Outsourcing: Fiverr, Upwork
- Coschedule – Headline Analyzer for Blog Titles
- Content Idea Generator
- Trademark Search
- Stickermule (stickers, labels,magnets, buttons)
- Typeform , Wufoo, Surveymonkeys, Simple Survey, Google Forms – forms and surveys
- Tawk – Chat with customers
- Create and Sell Online Courses with Thinkific
- Online Coaching Certificate Program
- Shopstyle – share fashion inspo and where to get it to earn commission
