Free business tools to support your business during pandemic times
COVID-19 Tips / 27.03.2020
The business world has taken a significant hit, following the results of COVID-19 or coronavirus. Restrictions in a number of countries around the world have had a serious impact on the economy of an ever-connected world.
A lot of businesses, whose model excluded the online space as a money-making opportunity, have reviewed their objectives. The increased focus towards the digital world is already vivid, with the majority of companies now asking their employees to work from home, schools are carrying out classes online, sales are taking place on the web instead of physical shops, and more.
To help small and medium-sized enterprises survive this economic storm and experience a smooth transition to online, a lot of companies and organizations offering paid online tools and training have offered support by making these valuable resources available for free during the quarantine period.
Let’s take a look at some of these useful tools, which businesses can now take advantage of, without further expenses.
If you are a G Suite or a G Suite for Education customer with Google, you will be able to enjoy a wider range of tools for free as a way to make working from home easier. Some of Google’s advanced features for Hangouts Meet will be rolled out for free until July 1st. Businesses can now jump on meetings with up to 250 participants, reach up to 100,000 viewers on live stream using a single domain, and use Google Drive on a new level by recording and saving meetings. The offer saves organizations a total of $25 a month.
Canva
Canva is an amazing visual content creation tool with a range of easy-to-use features and functionalities. Its drag-and-drop concept can help even beginner designers create stunning content that can be used for social media advertising or other marketing purposes. This design and publishing platform is offering its users a 90-day free Pro plan, which means access to more tools and designs. With this solution, you can create unique and brilliant social media graphics, presentations, posters, and more!
PandaDoc
To help businesses keep deals coming in, PandaDoc offers free eSign for unlimited users. This feature gives access to unlimited eSignatures, unlimited document uploads, and more. The main goal behind PandaDoc is to offer businesses of any size financial and process-related relief. Considering the increase in the number of organizations doing business remotely during these uncertain times, a solution like this will certainly come in handy.
Microsoft
Most of us are well aware of Microsoft and its amazing and quite popular Office package. From March 2020, the Office 365 E1 will be free for a 6-month trial. Microsoft Teams will also be made available, offering a great online alternative for businesses transitioning to the online space. The E1 Trial license has been specifically created to offer an alternative for employees who will be working remotely as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Certainly an offer worth exploring for your business.
Xtensio
With Xtensio you can create stunning presentations in no time. It is a collaboration tool that allows you and your team to create business content altogether in real-time. Build anything from Strategic plans, pitches, proposals, landing pages, sales reports, fact sheets with the easy to use drag and drop functionality that works like a page builder. It helps businesses manage collaterals in one channel and present it to key players in any device.
Trello
Trello offers a range of tools and features such as boards, list, cards, and more that aim to help businesses organize and prioritize projects productively and easily. Trello supports collaborative work and is a great solution for businesses that are struggling with teamwork when working remotely. Trello Business Class is now with free access, following the increase in remote work over the past few weeks.
Cloudflare
Cloudflare is another company offering special terms for small businesses to support them in these turbulent times. Access to free teams for at least six months from March will allow remote workers to operate safely and securely. Thanks to the features and functionalities of Cloudflare, large organizations remain productive from any part of the world. Now, small businesses will also have this opportunity for free.
Moz SEO training
Moz, a leader in SEO know-how, is now allowing users to gain more knowledge and expand their capabilities with free courses. By using a promo code, users can get valuable insight on SEO-related topics and find more online work thanks to the SEO Essentials Certificate they receive when successfully completing a course. The Moz Academy is free for the community until May 31st. If you’re looking to improve your SEO skills or are looking for a way to expand your career opportunities, sign up for a free course before the promotion expires.
The Coronavirus outbreak truly showed us how interconnected we are. It is in times like these that we must act as one and offer as much support as we can to help different business entities survive the economic storm. The examples included in this article are only a few and we were happy to see that a large number of organizations are offering special terms to help businesses continue working, despite the dynamic changes.