Running a small business is easy. You get to set your own hours, make the rules, and be the boss—says the person who’s never run a small business. In reality, there are numerous challenges: limited financial resources, time constraints, market competition, customer acquisition, and retention, adapting to market changes, marketing, scaling the business, lack of staff, and technology integration, which can all keep small business owners up at night.
This blog will not solve all of your challenges, but hopefully, provide a nugget or two that can help with some of them heading into 2025. The good news is all of the following recommendations won’t cost you a dime other than some good old-fashioned sweat equity.
Set Up a Google Business Profile
If you have not done this, set up a Google Business profile (formerly Google My Business). This is a free tool designed to build an online presence and drive local traffic. A Google Business profile is essential for small businesses because it boosts visibility, credibility, and customer engagement. This ensures your business appears in local searches and Google Maps. A well-maintained profile provides key information like operating hours, contact details, customer reviews, and photos to help businesses attract and retain customers.
Google Workspace (Or Other Productivity Suites)
This is a cloud-based productivity suite for streamlining communication. Over six million businesses leverage Workspace worldwide, comparable to Microsoft Office, with essential productivity tools.
Google provides a free and paid version. The free version – Google Workspace Essential Starter – provides tools such as Sheets, Docs, and Slides at no cost with no trial period or time limit.
The paid version provides more features but is still relatively inexpensive, given the tools provided. Google Workspace also allows you to create an email with your domain for more professional communication.
Utilize Social Media Marketing
Social media platforms are powerful tools to attract new customers and keep your existing ones engaged. They offer a direct line of communication and create opportunities for businesses to showcase their brand, products, or services effectively.
Facebook and Instagram offer several free tools and features that small businesses can leverage to grow their brand and engage with customers:
- Create a Facebook Business Page: Establish an online presence, and showcase products and services.
- Join and Participate in Facebook and Instagram Groups: Find groups relevant to your industry. Engage by answering questions, sharing expertise, and promoting your business subtly when appropriate.
- Post Regular Updates: Share engaging content such as photos, videos, promotions, or behind-the-scenes stories.
- Collaborate with Local Businesses: Cross-promote each other’s pages and content, and tag local business posts to expand reach.
- Leverage User-Generated Content (UCG): Encourage customers to share photos or reviews of your products and reshare them.
Lean into Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools
ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini are some of the more common AI platforms. All of these AI tools are great for content creation and market research. Chances are the platforms you are currently using already have or will soon have an AI component. Understand how this impacts functionality, and leverage these tools where it makes sense.
AI is a fast-moving train that will impact virtually every aspect of business. The more you lean into and educate yourself on the benefits of AI for your business, the better prepared you will be. These AI tools can be leveraged as significant competitive differentiators.
Other Free Productivity Tools
- Google Alerts: is a free content-monitoring tool. It’s an easy way to track business mentions or keep track of competitors or industry trends.
- Google Trends: analyzes and displays the popularity of search queries on Google Search over time. This can be very helpful in market research to track customer interests and trends in your industry.
- Canva: helps with marketing graphics, presentations, and social media posts. It’s a user-friendly program that can help edit marketing images and graphic assets, which are easy to learn quickly. The free version is great, but there’s also a Pro version that expands the options available.
- Hootsuite: is great for scheduling and analyzing social media posts.
- Google Analytics: tracks website traffic, user behavior, and performance metrics.
- Google Speed Insights: tests website speed and performance with suggestions for improvement. Load speed is critical for user experience and conversions; don’t sleep on the importance of this.
Running a small business is challenging, but you don’t have to tackle everything alone or spend a fortune to improve operations. Take advantage of these free tools and resources to address your challenges and find efficiencies. Start small, implementing one or two tools at a time, and gradually build from there.
As someone who has used many of these tools, I can attest to their ability to save time and simplify processes. Hopefully, these tips will free up a few minutes in your day and help your business thrive!
