11 Essential FREE Resources for an Entrepreneur by the Rich Sage

This week I got a call from Mr. Cool, a friend diving into the world of Entrepreneurship for the second time.  Two of the questions that jumped out were about software –mainly how to create a PDF document and the other, how to manage e-mail.

Below is my advice and some additional information to help any Entrepreneur get started for next to nothing when it comes to software needs. If you are going to make money online or start an off-line business these are essential software to get things done.

At this bottom of this post I have an idea which can keep a lot of your free programs going and going for a few months until you build up a good cash flow to purchase the software that you need.

Continued… My post about how to save “many Benjamins” (the face of the $100 is Ben Franklin) while you setup your real-world or online business.

The perfect resources for the Entrepreneur in you…

#1: DOCUMENT CREATION and EDITING:

The days that you had only one real choice for document creation are gone.  Now a days you have at least three great choices that are free for 60 to 90 days.  The other two products are completely free.

Microsoft Office 90 Day Trial:  Office is a familiar and feature-rich program suite that can handle everything from a database (Access) to presentations (Powerpoint).  I use it mainly for e-book creation and spreadsheets.  Office will fulfill all your Entrepreneurial needs.

If you are in a office with many souls, Office might have an advantage because your colleagues are familiar with the layouts and capabilities.

Google Docs:  Google offers a free office type solution, mainly with a word processor and spreadsheets –running online and with the ability to collaborate.  For most of your start up needs Google Docs will do the job.  It even works offline.

Google Docs makes it rather easy to collaborate with Associates around the world with a easy to use sharing feature and maintenance of an edited document achieve.

Open Office:  This is the free office suite from Sun Microsystems.  Again, this is a desktop program like MS Office that can more than fulfill your office needs.  AND it’s free.  It has most of the features available on MS Office with an easy to use interface.  One of the advantages is that it will run on many types of operating systems and uses less computing power than it’s main competitor.

iWORK:  For you Mac users, Apple now has resources online to do many of the office needs that you may have.  But, most of what you need came along with your computer so I don’t need to say much more.  I see that they have a 30-day trial.

My recommendation for most of you with normal office needs is to get a Google account that manages all of your needs from one location.  That is the URL that I’ve provided –one login for many office features.  With one login you’ll have access to everything from e-mail to documents.

#2: UTILITIES & E-MAIL:

FTP –FileZilla:  This is an excellent program to help manage your online content by helping you upload files, back up files to a local server or even help with slight modifications to html or php pages by helping you upload files.

E-Mail Management:  I use several Google accounts to manage around 100,000 emails per month.  I really don’t have time to bother with spam or even look at what’s in a “spam” e-mail inbox.  My solution is to forward all of my e-mail to several Gmail accounts and then read my communications online.  After trying about a dozen solutions, Gmail has worked very well!

Another solution is to have an online form that anyone wanting to send e-mail has to complete.  E-mails generated by my “contact” form don’t end up in the spam box.  Gmail is part of the online suite of applications that I recommend for any Entrepreneur.

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#3: PDF & FILES:

PDF — CutePDF Writer: Need to create PDF files?  This is a perfect program that creates a choice in your print menu.  For example, from a Microsoft Word file, you can select >> Print >> Print to PDF using Cute PDF.  It’s a free program.

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#4: BROCHURES & IMAGES:

Brochures — Scribus:  Free open source desktop publishing.  When you need to create brochures and presentation quality PDF documents, this is an excellent program to design such resources.

Images — Gimp:  When you need to create images or just edit screen views to make images for online blog posts you can rely on Gimp.  I use this program to create the images for Rich Sage dot com.  It’s a free program that’s great!

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#5: BUSINESS CARDS:

Vista Print:  They often have great offers for business cards — just play shipping & handling and you can get a bunch for free.  Vista Print also has other advertising materials, with low production runs, for great prices.

How to use your business cards to promote your business?  Here are 50 suggestions that you’ll find helpful.

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#6: PUBLISHING ONLINE with WORDPRESS:

CMS — WordPress: This is a fantastic Content Management System (CMS) for websites.  I have used it for years with great success.  It’s free. It has great features that are easy to manage and plugins that great extend custom functions.  If you need to do something special, someone most likely has built a plugin to do it!  The other benefit is hundreds of thousands of great themes that give your website a professional look.

CMS — Joomla:  It’s also a CMS, but adds a lot more functionality “right out of the box” and with third party plugins, giving you the ability to setup an e-commerce site.  The CMS is free and heavily supported by Google.

CMS — Drupal:  As CMS type of software is concerned, Drupal is very sophisticated and can run very-high traffic content sites.  If you learn Drupal inside & out, you can easily make a career of it.  As for websites, it can do wonders managing large content sites.

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#7: SQL DATABASE & DATA STORAGE:

Data Storage — aDRIVE:  Need to store back up data or even files for access anywhere?  You can turn to aDrive which provides ample storage space for free with upgraded paid versions that do even more. I’ve written a review about aDrive here.

Database — MySQL:  There is no link to any resource here.  I just wanted to point out that as an Entrepreneur you’ll need to have a basic (very basic) understanding of how to create a MySQL database.  Every CMS program and a lot of other scripts –usually written in PHP (coding language) utilize MySQL as the database of choice to store data.  Just search YouTUBE on “creating a mysql db” and you’ll see plenty of videos to help you setup one.  Every MySQL database is part of your hosting account, usually tied to one domain.

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#8: LEAD MANAGEMENT:

CRM — ACT!:  Need a way to manage sales and customer data?  Need to manage leads?  This is a great low-cost program that’s been updated for many years.  It’s perfect to manage your client and potential client information.

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#9: MAKE MONEY ONLINE PLAN:

I have written several such plans which you can start for less than $100.

Clickbank:  Clickbank is a marketplace that offers tens of thousands of products which you can re-sell from your online website or store.  I’ve linked to my make money online Clickbank review here.

eBay:  It’s a perfect money maker when you have physical products at your disposal.  I don’t work that much with eBay so I cannot tell you all that much.  However, I can say that with around 50 Million visitors who are eager buyers each week, this is a GREAT place  to sell just about anything!

Rich Sage Underground:  The Underground is my own creation.  I am looking to work with about a 1,000 Members in my own affiliate program to build web sites for sale and generate leads –around the world.  The Membership benefits are limited by geographic location.

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#10: HOSTING:

WebHostGiant:  I’ve worked full-time online since the mid 90’s.  I’ve gone through a lot of hosting companies, until I ran across WebIntellects.  They provide the best service, period.  That’s why I’ve been with them for several years.  They have some great hosting packages via this link.

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#11: ADVERTISING & MARKETING:

Articles:  Using articles, press releases and advertorials are a great way to announce your start up.  I went over my publishing strategy in this post.  You can use the same technique to get your articles and press release out greatly aiding the building of search engine traffic and the QUALITY of your site visitors.

Paid Ads — Google:  Using Google’s Adwords is a great way to build business IF (and ONLY IF):

• You have tested your product sales pages.
• You clearly understand the investing $X dollars in ads usually has an ROI of 100% or 200% or even better.
• You have installed Google Analytics and will use it to track traffic behavior and overall conversion rates.

For a starting Entrepreneur generating traffic from any paid source can get expensive UNLESS you carefully monitor your conversion rates and have a healthy advertising ROI.

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#12: MISC & FREE SOFTWARE:

Google Resources: I cannot stress how important as an Entrepreneur to take advantage of Google’s resources.  There are two ways to take great advantage of Google and their free online services:

The first is as a user of general office, home based business and/or Entrepreneurial services:  My suggestion is for you to create a user account here.  Using this account you can access everything from your gMail to Google Docs from one entry point.

The second is a Google Webmaster account, which you can ‘create’ here.  I put that in quotes because you can use the same access info as above to get into the webmaster account.  Using a Webmaster Google Account you can focus on building your web site traffic.  It’s not that hard.  Just follow the directions given by Google and use WordPress to do the rest.

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#13: PAID RESOURCES that are WORTH IT:

PC TOOLS:  I’ve used PC TOOLS Spyware, Virus and Adware protection for years.  Their all in one tool does a great job for a low cost, and their license I believe is good for a few pcs. For software that costs just about $0.10 per day, this is a great service and saves a lot of headache.

ROBOFORM: This is a password manager I’ve used for years.  It’s saved me from a lot of headaches when hard drives failed to when I was ‘on the road’.  I’ve got the PRO version and the “Passwords to GO” program that run on a USB stick.  If you use the code “maxsi” you should also get 20% off.  Linked here is my review of the program, which works for Internet Explore and Firefox on a PC.

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#14: OTHER STUFF YOU SHOULD CONSIDER:

.How to Make a 30-Day Trial Program Last Much Longer:

This is a trick that I used a few times when getting started to maximize my cash flow and defer the payments or purchase of software.  Since I am in the business of software, I don’t want to get into the habit of pirating software.  However, being able to evaluate software for 3 or even 6 months is what I prefer. I think the usual 30 days is a bit too short.

Anyway, here’s what you can do.  Purchase an extra hard drive.  Then use a program such as x or y to make a copy of the the Windows XP operating system to the spare hard drive.  Basically, a copy of “Master” or your “C” drive to a “Slave” or “D” drive –*before* installing any software.  Then remove the drive and keep it aside.

I still use mainly XP –perhaps, for another few years, so the setup is from that perspective.  Make sure to keep all of your user files such as music, photos and all of your working documents in *one* place –usually the “My Documents” folder.

Going back to your “Master” or “C” drive, just install all of your programs, and the trial software just as you do normally.  Then enjoy the free software for a month or two.

Now comes the trick — After about two months and following the expiration of your free software just replace your “Master” or “C” drive with the cloned (spare) hard drive of Windows XP that you made earlier.

Then copy all the “My Documents” data over to the new main (Master) drive.

Then re-install your free trial software again.  Now you are good for another trial period.  I can bet that you can do this a few times, especially IF you use a third drive as a back up.  You can keep “swapping” drives using this process over and over.

It’s not a joke when you can delay around $2,000 to $3,000 dollars in start up costs until you have the cash flow to purchase the real thing.

So, there you have it.  With just trail software and the resources that you have, you can get started with your own consulting, online affiliate or online business in just minutes at virtually no cost!

Yup, there are more than 11 –sometimes life does not fit the headlines.  Then just say “what the heck” and work around it.  By the time you read this, I have no idea how many resources categories I’ll have.  The more the better –you’re just one more resource closer to success!

Carpe Diem,
Rich Sage

PS: Have a resource that you would like to add to the Rich Sage Community and my list above, please leave a comment with a link to your resource. THANKS! R.S.