Software on a shoestring
Cutting your software budget
I want to help you save Cash and I am not going to ask you for a penny in return.
Every year I save thousands of euros by not spending any money on software. This whole exercise began when I was looking at Sage Software as I needed one system to manage the key functions in my business. It is now possible to perform most of the key business tasks using the software that costs nothing. Only the Lord knows why this stuff isn’t evryday knowledge for most business folks. In fact I would be suprised if many experienced business owners know what I am about to share with you.
I just follow these three steps to get the free tools.
* Take 10 mins everyday and carefully search for each category of tool you need.
* Go get yourself a free copy of Evernote (it’s free, just serach Google).
* Just spend about ten minutes every day trying out your findings.
You should expect it to take about a month to get a list that will give you everything you need for today and the future. To help you get a head start here are some of the tools I have found and use on a regular basis.
To make this even easier for you I have listed each tool (on the right) with an equivalent (on the left) you will definitely have to part money for and may well have heard for or even purchased.
Here we go:
Just type the name of the free product to the search engines
One system to manage customers and accounting
salesorder.com pricing: free Sage Software – really expensive and only does Accounting
Creating and writing Documents
Google Docs pricing: $0 Microsoft Office pricing – at least $100
Or
OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org)
Sharing ideas online
Bubbl.us pricing: $0 Mindjet pricing – at least $200
Making videos
Jing pricing: $0 Camtasia Studio pricing – at least $300
Teleseminars
DimDim pricing: $0 AdobeConnect pricing – at least $200/month
My thanks to the Sage Software incident for the inspiration!motivation to write this up and help you out.
Come back soon as I will be adding more insights here…