Last Updated on June 4, 2019 by Paula

There all kinds of expensive tools out there that people will tell you that you have to have for your business! Here’s the truth—you don’t have to have them!

I use plenty of paid tools. Now. But when I started out I didn’t have a ton of money to invest back into my business so I went with as many free options as I could. I want to share some of my favorite free business tools with you today. Many of these I’m still using in my business because they are just that awesome!

PayPal

To send invoices use PayPal. PayPal has been around forever! It’s a highly trusted company and almost everyone uses it. So it makes a perfect starter invoicing platform for new virtual assistants. Yes, there is a fee, but you should be able to declare this as a business expense on your taxes.

I even used PayPal as my “bank” for my business when I started out. I didn’t want to pay the huge bank fees for a business account so keeping everything in PayPal and paying my business expenses from it made perfect sense.

HelloSign

You’ll also need a way to send contracts to your clients and have them sign them. HelloSign makes this super easy. You can send up to three free signatures a month which is plenty when you’re starting out.

You’ll also get a notification when your client views and signs the contract, plus a copy of the signed contract will be sent to both parties.

Mailerlite

One of the most important things you can do for your business is creating an email list. This will be one of the best ways to build your community and connect with your target client.

A lot of people will recommend MailChimp, but I really like Mailerlite! It’s so much easier to segment your list and create sequences in Mailerlite than it is MailChimp.

Convertkit* is my autoresponder of choice, but it doesn’t have a free version to start with. So if your budget is tight, Mailerlite is the way to go.

Trello and Asana

You’ll need something to keep yourself and your client projects organized.

For this I recommend Trello! You can create boards for each of your clients where they can add projects and to-do lists for you.

I also set a Week-at-a-Glance board in Trello where I schedule out my whole week. You can access Trello on your laptop, desktop, phone, tablet. This makes it super handy!

Asana is another great option for managing projects. You can create lists or boards. Plus it has a calendar view.

Acuity

Do you know what really takes your website up to the next level? Giving your clients the ability to schedule their discovery call with you right from your website! This really makes things easy for your clients and saves you both time as you don’t have to go back and forth figuring out a good time for your call.

Calendly is my option of choice for this. You can embed their scheduler right into your website. I even have a ZAP set up that when a potential client schedules their appointment it’s added right to my Week-at-a-Glance board in Trello.

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Zoom

When it comes to your first meeting with a client, I really recommend a face-to-face video chat. I find these to be much less stressful than a phone call. (Though I will do a phone call if the client prefers.) Zoom is my favorite option for video chats. It’s easy to use and you can do calls up to 40 minutes for free.

LastPass

LastPass is an app that will allow your clients to share their passwords with you. You’ll never actually see the password and it will be filled in for you whenever you need to log in to their accounts.

It does have a few bugs every now and then but overall it’s a handy tool as not every client will want you to have their passwords. I also like it for my own personal use as I can never remember all my passwords. Now LastPass does it for me and I just need to remember my master password.

Canva

Canva is a fantastic tool to meet all your graphics needs. Even if you aren’t a great designer you can create pretty graphics with the templates in Canva. Everything from social media graphics to logos to printables. Check out this post for some helpful Canva tutorials.

Google Tools

Google has so many free tools! Instead of paying for Microsoft Office use Google Docs and Google Sheets to create your documents and spreadsheets! You can also create really pretty forms and surveys with Google Forms.

You can store and share files with your clients through Google Drive.

I also set up a Google Voice number to use for my business. This forwards calls straight to my cell phone so that I don’t have to give out my personal number. My favorite feature is that it creates a text message from voice mails and sends them to me. I love this because I hate checking voice mail!

And I set up a free Google My Business account. If you google my name my business shows up! It’s a really great tool and it helps to show clients that you are a legitimate business.

Elementor Plugin

There are lots of drag and drop builders out there but Elementor* is my favorite! I found it to be more user-friendly than Beaver Builder or Thrive.

You may be wondering why I’m suggesting a drag and drop builder and it’s for one very good reason! Landing pages! If you want to grow your email list you’ll need to create Landing pages to promote your freebie offers. With Elementor’s free plugin, you can create really pretty and professional landing pages right on your own website instead of having to use an expensive platform like Leadpages.

You can also create your own website using Elementor. Use one of their recommended free themes as a base and then use Elementor to make if your own.

Social Media Schedulers

You’ll want to take advantage of social media to promote your business and connect with your ideal client. I’ve used all the tools below either for myself or for a client. All offer free packages.

Buffer

Buffer is great for scheduling posts for Twitter. It also has a browser extension that makes it easy to add posts to your queue. You can have three accounts on the free plan and use it to schedule Facebook and Instagram posts.

Planoly

Planoly is my favorite way to schedule posts for Instagram. I love that you can create Hashtag sets and save them to use over and over again. You can schedule 30 posts on the free plan. If you decide to go with the Pro plan you can do automatic posting is you have a business Instagram account.

Facebook

To schedule posts for Facebook, it’s better to use Facebook’s innate scheduler as Facebook is known to penalize 3rd party schedulers with less reach. It’s fairly easy to use though it can be a bit time-consuming.

Recur Post

If your reach on Facebook isn’t a priority and you just want to maintain a presence there, I recommend Recur Post. You can add your posts to libraries and they will recycle which means less time planning and scheduling your content. You can have three accounts and up to 100 recurring posts on the free plan.

I use the paid plan to schedule my Twitter and Facebook posts and I’ve gone from spending an hour to two hours per week on scheduling to around one hour per month. It’s so worth it for me!

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a great tool if you want to manage your Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram from one account. You can view your posts in a calendar view which is handy.

Loom

Loom is an app that allows you to record your screen and voice and share the video with others via a simple link. This comes in so handy if you need to show a client how to do something or if they need to show you how to do something. Just make a quick how-to video and share with each other.

Be willing to invest here

The one tool I do recommend spending some money on is a contract template. This one from Horkey Handbook* is the one I use. A contract gives you and your clients peace of mind which makes it worth the investment. This contract covers all your needs and is the most affordable one I’ve come across.

Once you have more money coming in you can start investing in more advanced tools like Dubsado, Convertkit*, Leadpages, or Freshbooks. But until then these free tools will keep your business running. You may even decide that they are all you need!