Home Based Business Success

There is something about having the right tool for the job that makes everything so much better, and in your business it’s no different. When you’re managing your home based business there are a myriad of tasks that confront you on a daily basis. Some you never get around to, even though they could make your business better. Other business functions you just don’t do as well as you could. When you’re just starting out, and even after you’ve been successful, there are only so many resources to go around. Be they time, money, or expertise, resources just seem to be in short supply. If you could get productivity enhancing business tools without having to use any of your precious financial resources, so much the better. 

Here are some of my favorite free tools that I use to help me in my business. They may be able to help you in your business too.

OpenOffice – While Microsoft office is a great software suite, there’s no doubt that it costs a pretty penny, and many times it’s these very pennies you’re pinching when you’re starting your business. OpenOffice comes to the rescue by offering a complete office software suite. Not only is the price lower than the Microsoft version, it actually is compatible with their applications, such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel. There are the aps you use everyday. If you grow your business and need multiple licenses, no problem, it’s still completely free. I’ve been using a copy on my office desktop PC for about 3 years and have never had a problem. Check it out at:
http://www.openoffice.org
 

Paint.net – This is a fantastic image editing program. It’s the perfect ap for doing anything you’d do in PhotoShop. For content creation or marketing purposes, it hits a pretty nice home run, and it’s fairly easy to use too.
Get a copy here:
http://www.getpaint.net/

Note Tab Light – This is an impressive, yet free, text and HTML editor. If you still roll your own HTML, this is just what the doctor ordered. I recommend you have at least some familiarity with HTML if you do anything in the online business space.
http://www.notetab.com/ntl.php
 

SmartFTP – When you need an FTP application to upload or transfer files, ease of use is typically one of the more important attributes, after functionality. SmartFTP is easy to use, has great a feature set, and is once again, free. It even gives you success or failure emails so you don’t have to keep watching the file transfer process to make sure everything went through alright.
http://www.smartftp.com/
 

Search Status – This handy little firefox extension lets you know at a glance the Google PR and Alexa ranking any site you visit. You can dig deeper if you want, and find if they’re using nofollow links, check the keyword density,  backlinks, metadata, and more with a couple of mouse clicks. It’s great for checking out your competition’s websites or blogs. It also works to make sure your own site’s pages are up to snuff.
http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/

 
Inc. magazine has some great free business tools and other goodies, such as sample letters, forms and documents available here:
http://www.inc.com/tools/

 
Have a great weekend, and here’s to your Home Based Business Success.

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