Category: Freebies

Thrifty Thursday Post: Free Tax Help for You and Your Business

3/15/2012

Been enjoying the lovely weather recently? Those singing birds and budding trees mean spring is on the way – and that tax season is here! If you're self-employed and/or own a small business, there are a lot of great free tax resources to help you out, whether you're working with an accountant or tackling things on your own.

Here's a recent article by Adam Gottlieb at The Frugal Entrepreneur with some great tips, sites and ideas.

Got other ideas, recommended sites or suggestions? Share them by commenting here!

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SCORE - Free Help for Small Businesses

3/13/2012

Need help getting your small business up and running? Chances are that there's a SCORE office near you to offer advice and assistance at little or no cost.

SCORE is a Herndon, VA-based non-profit organization offering workshops, counseling, mentoring services and more to small businesses all over the country. With a team of more than 13,000 volunteers in 364 chapters and support from the U.S. Small Business Association, SCORE provides free and low-cost tools, workshops, mentoring and assistance to entrepreneurs.

In addition to local chapter meetings and workshops, they also offer free online webinars on topics such as business planning, budgeting, financing, legal and HR issues, and much more.

Has anyone worked with SCORE? Would love to hear about your experiences!

Thrifty Thursday Post: Get Free Voice & Video Calls with Fring

2/9/2012

Want to host a conference with clients (or just friends and family) without the hefty cost of video equipment? Check out Fring.

Fring is a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) app that allows you to make 2-way video and voice calls for free from your smartphone, iPad or iPod. It offers video calls to other Fring users on smartphones over both 3G and WiFi – and unlike Skype, it also allows you to chat with others on Google Talk, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Facebook, AIM, ICQ, Twitter & SIP. Fring connects to all of these through your phone’s data connection (whether mobile or WiFi), so the services don’t count against your SMS totals or voice minutes.

(Note: Fring used to connect to Skype as well, but the two companies don't play well together anymore.)

The video call/chat services are available for one-on-one or group conference calls, and Fring also offers low rates on other calls – prices start at just 1 cent per minute worldwide. (Like Skype, Fring calls are always free to other Fring users.)

The word is definitely out – currently, Fring is adding about 1 million new smartphone users every month, providing small businesses (and individuals) with a great way to get face-to-face interactions for free.

Would love to hear feedback from anyone who has used this service. Happy calling!

Remember The Milk: A Fun App For All Your To-Do's

1/23/2012

If your New Year's resolution was to get more organized (and you haven't started working on it yet), don't despair! Get help from a nifty little app called Remember The Milk.

Remember The Milk was created by a small Australian company with the goal of helping better organize (and remember) tasks and to-do items. With RTM, you can sign up for free and connect tasks with your Google or Outlook calendar, get reminders through email or SMS on your phone (or even through Twitter), and much more.

You can also download the app free for your iPhone, iPad, or Android. (There are a few extras available in the Pro version for $39.99/year, such as priority support and the opportunity to assist in testing new features). Check it out!

Note: Wise Penny has no affiliation with RTM -- we're just spreading the word to help businesses!

Thrifty Thursday Post: Spice Up Your Presentations with Brainy Betty

1/19/2012

Sample graphic from Brainy Betty

For this week's Thrifty Thursday post, I wanted to do a quick spotlight on Brainy Betty, a site that allows you to download hundreds of Powerpoint backgrounds, templates, music, and much more – all for free.

The site is a great resource for educators, non-profits and small businesses, and also offers tutorials, tips and tricks for creating better presentations.

While the site is perhaps best known for its Powerpoint templates, it also has photos, Excel and Word templates, iPhone backgrounds, and flash files. If you're creating a video project or presentation, you may be interested in the free free music file downloads, which can help make your project sound much more professional.

Check it out!

Freemium Series – Zoho Software Apps for Business

1/17/2012

Let's face it – Google Docs are great (as well as free), but sometimes you need more than what Docs can offer. Enter Zoho.

Zoho offers online software applications for much more than just the basics. Zoho offers 27 apps for small businesses such as meeting planners, calendars, a CRM, an HR applicant tracking system, and an invoicing program, just to name a few. The company provides programs free of charge to individuals (and non-profits get a discounted rate); some programs include fees for business use, but all are available on a per-month, per-user basis starting at $3.

Another advantage of Zoho is that it allows you to save and edit files for Microsoft Office (so you can save and open files as .doc, .ppt, .xls, and many others). In addition, Zoho apps are available on major mobile devices including iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia, and Android for working on the go.

Just a reminder: Anytime you take advantage of free software, make sure you download from a trusted source – no one needs a free virus!

Note: Wise Penny has no affiliation with Zoho – we're just spreading the word on free stuff for businesses!

Freemium Series - Capture and Share Screenshots with Jing

12/27/2011

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To continue with this short series of posts about freemiums for small businesses, I wanted to do a quick post about Jing.

Jing is one of the most helpful (and free) tools I've found this year. If you need to share screenshots or a short video with customers, friends, or other businesses, Jing will help you do just that.

Jing was created by TechSmith — the company that also created Camtasia – and the software helps you create quick videos and snapshots of what you see on your computer screen. You can then save and share these as attachments in an email, or you can upload images and videos online instantly (through Screencast.com) and share the links with others. Jing also allows you to highlight areas of the image if you need to emphasize something to someone, as shown in the example below.

The software is easy to download and use, and TechSmith offers a number of tutorials to help you get started. Essentially, you click and drag a box around the area of your screen that you want to show in your pictures or video, and then you can capture the image or start recording (and adding narration for video if you want).