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Starting An Online Business In 2021
Are you postponing starting a new online business until you have enough money to invest in paid advertising, transformative software tools and business training programs? What if I tell you that you can start an online business right now for less than $100? Because this is exactly what I and most people I know did, and so can you.
The number of low-cost or free online resources and tools available to build an online business today is astounding. Literally, all you have to do is start using them to monetize your online business idea. This makes me think we live in the best time in history, at least in terms of creating your dream business.
So, if you’re interested in this topic, then continue reading this post to discover 10 low-cost or free online tools, apps, and software to start a profitable online business with little or no money.
Elementor
Let’s start with the most obvious one: an online business needs a website. And if you want to attract as many customers as possible you need a unique, well-designed and professional-looking website. Because, whether we like it or not, most customers will not even consider a business with a poorly designed website.
At this point, you’re probably thinking that building an awesome website requires a huge budget. Nothing could be further from the truth! You can create any website you can imagine for FREE using Elementor! Furthermore, the Elementor Website builder allows you to build a website without knowledge of code! Oh my gosh, what an amazing era we live in!
Benefits Of Elementor
- Elementor is the best FREE WordPress Website Builder, with over 5 million active installs.
- Elementor allows you to build a professional and unique website without website development knowledge or advanced technical skills.
- Elementor offers its customers the highest quality support (I’m telling you this from my personal experience!)
- Elementor offers you hundreds of professional templates and blocks
- Theme Builder lets you customize EVERY part of your theme
- Elementor is mobile responsive
- Elementor makes editing content extremely easy and quite fun
- With the free version of Elementor, you can design a breathtaking website.
- Elementor offers a FREE plan and PRO plan (more about pricing here)
- The company doesn’t offer a demo version of Elementor Pro for trial BUT they have a refund policy which lets you cancel your purchase and get a refund during the first 30 days.
Web Hosting
Once you’ve built your business website you need a web hosting service provider to store your website’s files. Web hosting is basically the space that you buy on a webserver to store your website files. When you buy website hosting you basically rent server space on a server where your web files will be placed.
The most popular web hosting services in 2021 are:
- SideGround (Best for WooCommerce hosting!)
- Bluehost
- GoDaddy
- Dreamhost
- Hostinger
- Nexcess
- HostGator
- WP Engine
- InMotion
Sideground hosting pricing
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MailerLite or MailChip?
Email marketing is STILL a king of customer engagement. So if you want to create a unique relationship with your customers, create highly engaging experiences for the readers and boost your sales you will need to an email marketing software provider.
There are many email marketing services for business offering you different features and capabilities you might want to check out:
- MailerLite
- Mailchimp
- ConvertKit
- AWeber
- Constant Contact
- SendInBlue
- Drip
- GetResponse
In my personal opinion, MailerLite and Mailchimp are the best options for beginners. Both offer free plans, landing pages, unique email design and fantastic customer support in many languages. I personally use, MailerLite because it’s more generous on features, extremely easy to use, has much easier subscriber management and it’s FREE for up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month! But probably one of the best features I should mention here is their excellent customer support.
Canva
canva
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With Canva you can create any type of visual asset you can imagine without photo editing knowledge or experience. And then, once you create your designs, you can simply share them on your social media platforms or upload them to your business website. For those who want to order high-quality prints delivered straight to your door for free, this Australian graphic design company offers that too! Seriously, is there any reason not to start using Canva?
This graphic design platform offers a paid subscription (Canva Pro and Canva for Enterprise) for additional features and functionality. However, with that amount of templates that Canva offers for FREE I really don’t think you will need a paid subscription, certainly not at the beginning of your journey.
Grab Your FREE Worksheets!
PayPal Business
paypal
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Most of us already use Paypal for buying on Amazon or eBay but did you know that you can use PayPal for business transactions? Yes, you can! Honestly, I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t. It’s a perfect solution, especially at the beginning when you’re only starting out.
At PayPal For Business, the flat-rate pricing structure is a base rate of 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. So as you can see, it’s quite a reasonable pricing policy. But, as always, the choice is yours!
Get Your Finance Planner
What's Included In Finance Planner (30 pages)
Evaluate Your Current Financial Situation:
Yearly Overview
Yearly Expense Tracker
Net Worth Worksheet
Budgeting & Finance Planning:
Monthly Budget with Categories
Monthly Budget Planner
Monthly Budget Planner with Savings & Debt Goals
Subscription Reminder
Password Keeper
Manage Your Spending:
No Spend Challenge
Expense Tracker
Grocery Shopping List
Set Finance Goals & Challenge Yourself:
Emergency Fund
Top Savings Goals
Savings Tracker
Finance Goals
Savings Goal Tracker Jar
All the Trackers:
Debt Payment Tracker
Savings Tracker
Bill Tracker
Account Tracker
Yearly Expense tracker
Calendars to Track Your Finances:
Monthly Finance Tracker
Monthly Expense Tracker
Comes in A5, A4, and US Letter sizes
Social Media
Social Media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube or Reddit, Quora are amazing tools for getting more visibility for your business, promoting your products or services and attracting potential customers. There’s absolutely no doubt about that.
However, one thing to remember while using social media platforms to promote your business is that you need to be consistent. People need to know what your brain is about, what problems you solve, what are the benefits of working with you and what kind of transformation your product or service provides for them.
Consistency is the key to success in pretty much everything that we try to achieve. And building a brand is no different from that. creating a consistent brand across multiple social media platforms will help you to grow in audience engagement and attract your ideal customers! And if you need some branding ideas you can find thousands of free templates, worksheets, visuals, color pallets on Pinterest!
Grammarly
grammarly
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Spelling or grammar mistakes in your professional emails, textbooks, newsletters, website, or customer response make you look unprofessional. Thus, they should be avoided. Fortunately, we have Grammarly - a FREE digital writing assistance tool based on artificial intelligence that keeps you look polished even when you’re writing a quick customer response from your phone.
Grammarly checks everything you write and corrects all written errors before you broadcast them to the world. Of course, the company provides a premium version that offers additional advanced suggestions, more sophisticated word choice, or even plagiarism detection. But, again, a FREE version is where you should start!
Freelance & Entrepreneurship Online Courses
2 weeks may not be enough time to build a profitable business but it’s definitely enough time to take your business knowledge to the next level, gain clarity on your vision and set smart professional goals. And what better way to do that than watching high-quality content created by those who have already achieved the results you want? With this approach, you can not only save time and money but also avoid making common mistakes.
There are many e-learning platforms that give you instant access to thousands of online courses, projects, and tools to develop professional skills but not all of them offer you free trials so you can test the service and see if it’s right for you without paying for a subscription. Skillshare gives you that opinion. Because you can try Skillshare Premium for FREE for 14 days, take classes on
- Freelance & Entrepreneurship
- Marketing
- Graphic Design, Logos & Branding
- Web Development
- Productivity
- Photography
- Fine Art
without spending a cent. And when the free trial ends, you can choose whether you want to extend your membership or not. You can learn more here
The Grow Your Business Bundle
If you’re committed to grow your business and become a more successful entrepreneur in 2021 this the Grow Your Business Bundle is a can’t-miss package. It contains 20 eCourses, worth over $9,800, at a legitimate 99% discount. You can read my full review of this Bundle here.
I will only add that the Grow Your Business Bundle consists of 20 products divided into several more specific topics:
- Marketing and Branding
- Business Growth & Operations
- Traffic & Lead Generation
- Profit Margins & Revenue
- Product Development
- Perfecting Your Offer
- Leadership & Personal Growth
- Customer/Client Acquisition & Retention
- Finance & Tax Strategies
- Content Creation
- Public Speaking
2 Bonuses On Online Business Included In Grow Your Business Bundle
1. Content that Converts Workshop from Bobby Klinck worth $99
Not your typical Harvard Law grad, Bobby Klinck doesn’t do suits, and he doesn’t spend a lot of time with lawyers. Instead, he helps online entrepreneurs make sure the legal you-know-what doesn’t hit the fan, build raving fan bases to power their amazeballs business, and get the important stuff done instead of dreaming of what could be. Learn how to create stellar content that converts your audience into raving fans and willing buyers!
2. 11 Ways to Make Money (without spending any) Mini-Course from Tash Corbin worth $197
Eleven simple and effective ways to make money in your business, without needing to spend a cent! This book is particularly focused on supporting womxn* in online businesses that sell services, but many of the strategies are universal.
Grab Your Free Printable Workbook
Make 2021 Your Best Year Ever
- How To Organize Mind For Maximum Productivity & Balance: 9 Powerful Tips HERE
- 11 Awesome Tools & Apps To Plan & Organize Your Life In 2021 + FREE printables! HERE
- 11 Simple Ways To Develop Self-Discipline & Have Fun Along The Way. HERE
- Maximize Your Productivity: 6-Step Method To Get More Things Done In Less Time. HERE
- Perfect Morning Routine to Reduce Stress & Anxiety HERE
- How To Organize Your Life For 2021: 7 Simple Steps HERE
- How To Set Goals For 2021 And Achieve Them HERE
- 8 Steps To Make 2021 Your Best Year Ever. HERE
- Powerful and smart ways to manage your time efficiently and effectively HERE
- 9 Best Financial Goals For 2021 & Powerful Tips To Actually Achieve Them
- 11 Powerful Habits That Will Make 2021 Your Best Year Ever. HERE
Stay positive, be mindful and start your business for less than $100!!
xo Kate
6 thoughts on “How To Start Your Online Business With Less Than $100: 9 Simple Steps!”
Well detailed and organized. Businesses are moving online and starting one with the right strategy can save on time and resources.
Hi Kevin! Thank you for your positive feedback!! I TRULY appreciate your kind words. You are so right, with the right strategy business owners can save on time and resources! I couldn’t agree more! PS. Take care and have a wonderful week!! 😃😉
Hi Kate, welcome and have a wonderful remainder of your week😊
THANK You, Kevin!! 😃😉
Welcome 😊
😃😉