What Are The Essential Free Tech Tools That New A Solopreneur Needs?

Photo by Helena Lopes

All right, so launching a business as a solo entrepreneur means wearing all the hats, like content creator, digital marketer, website manager, and customer service. And if the budget is zero, all those hats need to be free, too! You’re juggling a lot, and starting a business while still trying to make a living is hard and expensive, too. They say that you need to spend money to make money, and sure, to a degree, that is true.

But thankfully, there’s a world of free tech tools out there that can help any solopreneur create, market, and manage their business with minimal cost. While you shouldn’t rely on free tools forever, as they’re usually a stepping stone, they’re great for saving money, boosting productivity, sparking creativity, and even making your brand look pretty professional, even on a tight budget (or no budget at all). 

But what tools exactly? Well, here are some tools you should look into without needing to empty your wallet.

Free Mobile Apps

While there are more than enough premium apps and subscriptions out there, you can still find some mobile apps that are totally for free. So, phones are great for grabbing photos, handling social media, and even making simple videos, because sometimes, quick and spontaneous content is the best way to connect with an audience.

And, of course, there are free apps to help with that. So, there are plenty of video editor apps out there, there are plenty of free screen recorder apps out there as well (a lot of people love to use them for IG Stories and TikTok), apps for making graphics, editing videos, and the list goes on and on. But do some digging, and you’ll find some pretty nice ones.

Canva

If you didn’t know this, you need to know! So, design can make or break a business’s image, but hiring a designer is rarely in the cards for a brand-new solopreneur. Canva is the ultimate hack for creating professional-looking graphics without spending a dime. 

Sure, there is a premium version, but the free one is amazing too. You can use it for social media posts to logos and business cards, but Canva has thousands of templates ready to use, helping businesses look polished and on-brand in minutes. It’s also super user-friendly because it’s just drag and drop.

Free Video Editing Tools

This was briefly mentioned earlier, but it does deserve some more attention. So, video content is huge, but if the idea of editing videos sounds intimidating, well, it doesn’t need to be. For the most part, the free tools are fairly easy to navigate.

For example, when it comes to Mac users, iMovie is an easy, accessible tool with great options for transitions, audio editing, and trimming. But there are others out there too, technically, Canva can edit videos as well, and there are websites that offer video editing if you can’t or don’t want to have software on your computer.

Free Website Builders to Get Online Quickly

All right, so a website is a must for credibility, but hiring a developer or designer can be expensive. Plus, hosting is super expensive too! So, in the meantime, you could look into free website builders like Wix and WordPress.com (there are others out there, too) that help new solopreneurs set up a functional, professional-looking site for zero cost. Don’t use this forever, though, but when starting out, it can be helpful just to help you establish yourself.

Google My Business

Are you focusing more on running a local business? Well, in that case, you need to start a Google My Business profile as soon as you can! It’s free, it’s effective, and you really can’t go wrong with this! But why the work? Well, being listed on Google Maps gives local customers a direct path to your business. They can find reviews, see hours, and even get directions straight from Google.

It’s so useful because this helps your business rank higher in local searches, increasing the chances of being discovered by nearby customers. It’s an easy way to get your business on the map, literally and figuratively, and reach local customers who are already looking for what you offer. It’s honestly one of the best ways to establish that you’re a real business.

Social Media

Okay, this one was obvious, but so what, it’s still important to highlight! Social media is the ultimate free marketing tool, it lets you share your story, and showcase your products without spending a penny on ads. You have Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Twitter all offer enormous potential reach at zero cost. Sure, if you want to pay for ads, well, that cost money. But using these in general are free.

Creative Market’s Weekly Freebies

Visuals make a difference, but sourcing professional images, fonts, and graphics can get pricey. You can use what’s on Canva, but honestly, even the freebies on Canva have some limitations. But did you know that you can upload templates, fronts, and clipart onto Canva? Well, Creative Market offers weekly freebies, offering everything from templates to fonts and clipart that solopreneurs can use to add a creative edge to their content.

Its hard to say what each freebie will be each week, but usually you can expect some branding material, Canva templates, mockups, website banners, fonts, PowerPoint slides, or other things that usually relate to graphic design. But again, every week is something new, and they even give out seasonal freebies (like Christmas clipart).

Google’s Suite of Free Business Tools

So, Google has already been mentioned already, but it just doesn’t hurt to mention Google again. Actually, Google’s suite of tools is something that businesses of all sizes use, so as a solopreneur, it’s going to be the ultimate organiser. You have Google Sheets, Google Docs, Google Drive, and Google Calendar, which offer everything needed to manage tasks, track progress, store files, and communicate without spending a penny. You have to spend money on the Microsoft equivalent, but thankfully, not on Google.

But on top of that, Google Docs and Sheets are perfect for writing content, planning, tracking budgets, and storing data, while Google Drive offers cloud storage that keeps everything accessible and shareable. Again, a lot of businesses use these, so you just can’t go wrong.