FREE Resources for Small Businesses during COVID-19
The COVID-19 lockdown have been particularly hard on small businesses. In response, many companies and software providers have offered heavily discounted, or sometimes free services to support SME’s. A summary of the services are listed below. Please let me know if you would like to add your services, or if there’s any I’ve missed.
List up to date as of April 12, 2020.
Hubspot has added new tools and reduced pricing on their Starter Growth Suite, down to just $50 per month for 12 months. Hubspot is a leading CRM system that used by many small businesses as a cost effective way to manage, track and generate leads.
Facebook are offering the chance to receive financial support from their Small Business Grants Programme. Available for up to 30,000 small business across 30 countries, check out to see if you’re eligible. Additionally, they’ve launched a business resource hub, that’s free to access.
Marketo have made available several templates for marketing and business planning, for those small businesses that want to use the down time to refresh and re-plan. The templates will help strategy development, content planning and campaign tracking.
Zoom: Free video conferencing tools for K-12 schools.
Google: Free, premium version of its workplace video chat tool until July, to help businesses and schools working remotely due to coronavirus. Those features include having up to 250 participants per call, live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers within a domain, and the ability to record meetings and save them to Google Drive
Zoho: Free suite of Remotely apps until July 1. There are 11 apps in all, including ones for online meetings, training sessions, storage, project management and everyday work (in the form of word processing, spreadsheets and presentations).
Gartner: Launched a free resource centre to help leaders of organizations manage their teams and business continuity during the pandemic. Find tips and advice as well as research, and webinars..
Linkedin: Free 16 learning courses that provide tips on how to stay productive, build relationships when you’re not face-to-face, use virtual meeting tools and balance family and work dynamics in a healthy way.
Shopify: Free 90-day trial for all new customers. If you’re currently on a 14-day trial, you can extend it to 90 days.
Audible (Amazon): Free stories for kids of all ages to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet. For as long as schools are closed, we're open. Starting today, kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, that will help them continue dreaming, learning, and just being kids.
GoDaddy is giving away access to its email marketing tools to help small business owners keep their employees and customers informed. The platform has also launched the #OpenWeStand microsite to help small business owners connect with each other and find resources to assist them during this very difficult time. The site is made up of a community forum, articles, videos and examples of entrepreneurs adapting their businesses to stay open.
SEOTesting.comTo help support businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, SEOTesting.com will be free for all to use for a minimum of three months, with users able to add as many sites as they like.
