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85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

  • Jeffery Williams
  • November 19, 2021
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We all know how important it is to be well-versed in the startup world, but sometimes we forget that there’s a lot out there. With so many resources at our fingertips, it can be difficult to decide what would best suit your needs and goals as an entrepreneur or business owner.

As startup founders, it’s important to have the right resources at your fingertips. For this feature I scoured through many directories and sources in order to curate a list of 85 essential startup resources that every founder should know about! From angel investors to product marketing tips, these are some reputable places where you can learn more about how startups work so you don’t waste time getting started on the wrong foot.Are you in the hunt for startup material? If so, then allow me to introduce you to over 85 of the most essential resources that can help with your quest. From how-to guides and tutorials on getting started, through blogs about business ideas to industry news reports.The “85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About” is a list of resources for starting a business. The list includes blogs, books, podcasts, and courses.

 

These are the tools we know, love, and would suggest without hesitation—many of them we use ourselves. Make use of them to catapult your company to success and expansion.

On the fourth edition of The Bcast, Bplan’s official podcast, Noah Parsons, COO of Palo Alto Software, shares his favorite online tools (at 13:17):

Subscribe to The Bcast on iTunes by clicking here »

Contents: Table of Contents

Software for accounting

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is the most widely used accounting software in the United States. If you deal with an accountant, you’ll almost certainly be asked to utilize QuickBooks. Although we suggest the online version, you may always purchase the desktop version if you want.

XERO

Xero is a cloud-based accounting software. While they are popular in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, they are less so in the United States. If QuickBooks isn’t suitable for you, they’re still worth a look.

Freshbooks

Freshbooks may be perfect for you if you’re a small service-based company like a photographer, consultant, or wedding planner. Freshbooks focuses on invoicing, and it’s simple to let your clients pay you online using it. They aren’t a full-fledged accounting system, but they cover the essentials if you don’t need to deal with inventory.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Selecting a Name

NameCheckr

What’s wonderful about NameCheckr is that it not only looks for accessible domain names linked with your selected company name, but it also examines a slew of social media sites, from Facebook to YouTube, to see whether the name is available there. You’ll be able to get straight to work on your social media plan this way!

Namium

Enter a word, and Naminum will create a (big) list of name ideas based on prefixes, suffixes, and letter replacements inside your term. You couldn’t come up with a good name? For more ideas, try a new term, modify an existing one, or create random names.

BrandBucket

If you want actual people to assist you come up with a company name, go to BrandBucket and crowdsource your name and domain name.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Hosting and domain names

NameMesh

NameMesh: Part domain name generator, part domain name finder, NameMesh explores an infinite number of domain name variations to discover one that works for you. 

Domainr

There are a plethora of domain extensions available, well beyond the standard.com. You’ll get some excellent ideas, but Domainr is better for selecting a domain that will work for you once you’ve decided on a business name.

BlueHost

BlueHost provides straightforward and cost-effective hosting for anything from WordPress to full-fledged web applications. Bluehost is a cost-effective way to go online.

HostGator

Check out HostGator if BlueHost isn’t suitable for you. The services and pricing are comparable, and they do provide a visual website builder if you need one.

NameCheap

NameCheap has some of the most affordable domain registration rates. Despite their low cost, the services are robust and trustworthy.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Pitch decks and elevator pitches

LivePlan

We are the creators of LivePlan, but it just adds to our conviction that it is an important starting tool. It’s the pitch function in this instance that enables you to condense all of your most essential points onto a single page or a pitch deck that you can export to Powerpoint if you require a slide deck for a presentation. 

Deck of Haikus

Check out Haiku Deck if you’re looking for a very graphic appearance for your pitch deck. Their tool will assist you in creating a stunning pitch deck that is guaranteed to wow.

Prezi

Give Prezi a try if you want to put a literal twist on your presentation and move away from PowerPoint.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Branding and logos 

LogoGarden

For designing your own logo, LogoGarden is a fantastic free choice. This is for you if you want something simple, do-it-yourself, and free.

99designs

99designs: 99designs is a fantastic resource where designers pitch you several ideas before you pay. This is a fantastic choice if you know you’ll need someone from outside your business to create your logo and you want a lot of alternatives to pick from. 

Fiverr

Fiverr, like 99designs, is a marketplace for designers, copywriters, programmers, and other professionals. As their name implies, there are lots of individuals who are ready to labor for $5. There are more costly choices on the site, but if you’re on a budget, this is a fantastic place to start.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Libraries of stock photos

Pixabay

Pixabay: It’s the nature of the game that every content creator will require stock photos at some time. Pixabay offers royalty-free, high-quality pictures, so if you’re on a budget, this is a fantastic place to start. However, be prepared to see your favorite picture on other websites.

StockSnap.io

Another great free picture source is StockSnap.io. The images are of excellent quality, however the collection, like those of other picture sites, is rather limited. 

Shutterstock

Shutterstock is a good choice if you’re ready to upgrade to a premium image collection. The inventory is extensive, and it continues to expand on a daily basis. The prices are also fair. 

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

research into the market

CensusViewer

CensusViewer is a free application that lets you examine U.S. Census data graphically on a map or in data reports for cities, counties, and whole states.

Survey of Consumer Expenditure

The Consumer Expenditure Survey is a good place to start if you want to discover what people spend their money on.

MyBestSegments

MyBestSegments: Nielsen’s service lets you understand the demographics and lifestyle patterns of a certain region. 

SizeUp

Check out SizeUp if you need assistance choosing a company site or want to discover who your competitors are. You may also compare your marketing and advertising budget projections to those of your competitors.

Google Trends is a tool that allows you to see what

Google Trends: Use Google Trends to see what people are looking for and how the number of searches for key subjects has changed over time.

Business planning shouldn't be complicated. Plan, fund and grow your business with a simple, all-in-one platform. Get LivePlan.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Tools for conducting surveys

SurveyMonkey

If you need to survey a group of people for commercial reasons, SurveyMonkey is a free and trustworthy option. Simply create the survey and distribute it to your target audience. 

Google Surveys is a service provided by Google.

You don’t need a contact list to send out a survey using Google Consumer Surveys. You may use Google Surveys to target people from all over the internet and receive immediate input on your business concept.

TypeForm

TypeForm is a fantastic tool for creating basic forms and surveys. It works particularly well on mobile devices.

Qualaroo

Small polls and surveys are simple to create with Qualaroo and may be done directly on your website.  

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Tools for using social media

Buffer

Buffer makes social sharing a breeze: you can schedule your posts in advance and publish to many accounts at once, including Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, and more. You may also provide access to many workers so that no one has to check in to each platform separately.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is ideal for individuals who manage numerous social media accounts and are quite active on them. It integrates with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and WordPress, as well as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and WordPress, and includes statistics so you can keep on top of your stats.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Software for project management

Trello

Trello is ideal for workflows with a defined procedure since it allows you to divide tasks into various boards, create lists on the boards, and allocate cards explaining each job to the relevant teammate. It’s also appropriate for a situation in which you must build and manage a list of thoughts. 

Basecamp

Basecamp is for you if you don’t need big charts and just want a dead-simple interface that anybody can use without any training. Basecamp is a winner because of its simplicity, limitless users, and centralization of all your project materials.

Asana

If you need more functionality than Basecamp and are ready to pay extra, Asana is a viable option. Although it isn’t as cheap as Basecamp, there is a free plan for small teams that may be all you need when you start your company. If you need any assistance getting started, the guys at Sticker Mule have a fantastic tutorial on how they utilize Asana.  

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Publicity and launch

HARO

HARO (Help a Reporter Out): HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a fantastic resource for finding reporters that cover any subject you can think of. If a reporter is looking for a source, they will submit it here. Simply reply, and you may receive some free publicity.

Pr.co

You may outsource the creation of a press room for your website with Pr.co. Write your press releases, send them out through email, and set up an easy-to-maintain press room for your business.

Pressfarm

Pressfarm is a platform that assists you in locating journalists interested in writing about your company. 

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Customer service and the help desk

Outpost

Outpost is a collaborative email solution that allows your team to communicate without treading on each other’s toes. It’s compatible with Gmail, Outlook 365, and a variety of other email services.  

Desk.com

Desk.com is a Salesforce business, therefore utilizing it is a no-brainer if you’re a Salesforce client. You can test it out for free, but as of this writing, there isn’t a plan that is always free.

ZenDesk

ZenDesk: While not the cheapest, ZenDesk has a robust feature set and can be integrated with a variety of other applications.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Systems of payment

Stripe

Stripe is a fantastic place to start if you’re creating a website or mobile app that will take payments. They’ve been designed from the bottom up to be developer-friendly and straightforward. Stripe is utilized by large and small businesses alike, so you’ll be in good company.

Braintree

Braintree, a PayPal business, was developed with a strong emphasis on customer care. They’ll be there for you every step of the process, allowing your business to take a variety of payment methods from all around the globe.

Square

Check out Square’s range of mobile phone card readers and POS systems if you need to take credit cards in person for your company.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Software for invoicing

Freshbooks

Freshbooks is an excellent option for businesses that concentrate on providing services to their clients and need a comprehensive invoicing system. You can not only create excellent invoices, but also take payments online, monitor expenditures, and manage your time.

Payments in QuickBooks

 QuickBooks Payments: If you already use QuickBooks for your business’s bookkeeping, QuickBooks Payments is a useful connection since it maintains all of your accounts receivable in one place.

BallPark

Ballpark, a competitor to Freshbooks, has a similar set of features. Their “projects” function, for example, enables you to monitor time and establish budgets for, well, projects.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Building websites and shopping carts

Wix

Wix is a fantastic place to start if all you need is a basic, static web site. It has a large template library and a simple online editor. For an all-in-one solution, the higher pricing levels also include shopping cart capabilities. 

Shopify

Shopify distinguishes itself from other website builders by focusing on online sales. Shopify isn’t for you if you don’t need to sell online and just require a “brochure” webpage.

Squarespace

The emphasis of Squarespace is on attractive design. A large picture gallery, a logo creator, and much more are all included in your membership. Squarespace, like others, allows you to sell online. 

Chargify

Chargify: If you’re starting a subscription company and don’t want to deal with the bother of creating a billing mechanism, Chargify is a good option. They’ll take care of the regular payments and give you the freedom to offer your clients a variety of subscription choices.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Platforms and solutions for funding

Gust

Gust allows entrepreneurs to create a free company profile and share it with investors all around the globe. Gust is a fantastic resource for companies seeking for angel funding and perhaps venture financing. 

AngelList

Startups may use AngelList, similar to Gust, to advertise their business and seek funding from prospective investors. AngelList also provides employment boards and other resources to assist companies in getting off the ground.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Human resources are important.

Zenefits

With Zenefits’ free HR software platform, you can’t go wrong. That’s correct, it’s completely free. They earn money by managing your benefits and payroll, if you want to do so—not it’s mandatory.

Kin

Check out Kin if you need to streamline all of your employee paperwork and papers. Kin assists you in onboarding new employees, centralizing all of their paperwork and keeping track of their time off and working hours.

TSheets

 Quickbooks is integrated with TSheets. It has a GPS time tracker that allows you to conveniently monitor times such as breaks and meals. 

Lattice

Personal and team goal monitoring, performance evaluations, employee feedback, 1 on 1s, and many more capabilities are available in Lattice.

Workable

Workable: Workable provides you with all of the tools you’ll need to publish new job opportunities and manage your applicants. Check these out if you need to speed up your recruiting procedure.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Assistance from a lawyer

RocketLawyer

RocketLawyer has all of the essentials covered, from establishing your company to procuring contracts and other legal papers. RocketLawyer wants you to subscribe to their service, so if you don’t have any continuing legal requirements, make sure to unsubscribe after you’re through.

LegalZoom

Unlike RocketLawyer, LegalZoom concentrates on providing a la carte services. Find the legal form or service you need and receive transparent pricing for it. You can’t go wrong with LegalZoom since they cover all of the most basic company legal requirements.

Avvo

Avvo offers a fantastic Q&A forum where you can ask any legal issue and get free responses from attorneys, as well as pages and pages of legal manuals authored by lawyers, and a professional directory with ratings, customer reviews, and profiles for 97 percent of attorneys in the United States.

Nolo

Nolo is a great, reliable source for free legal knowledge; their website is jam-packed with factual and useful information on anything from bankruptcy to divorce to patents. They also offer books, kits, and forms for things like writing a will, establishing a charity, and figuring out the best tax deductions.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Management of content resources (CRM)

Infusionsoft

Infusionsoft: Infusionsoft provides marketing and sales automation to small companies, in addition to all of the usual CRM capabilities. This helps automate conversations and standardize activities. Infusionsoft also has an online shopping cart, allowing you to run your company from a single platform.

HubSpot CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

You can use HubSpot’s CRM for free to get started. It’s simple to use while yet providing all of the sophisticated CRM capabilities you’d expect. Its email Sidekick add-on is fantastic, and you can quickly monitor transactions and the whole sales process with it.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Analytical software

Google Analytics is a tool that allows you to track

Google Analytics is the de facto standard for online analytics. It’s free, strong, and enough for even the most seasoned internet marketing team.

HotJar

HotJar is a fantastic tool for creating heatmaps on your website so you can see where people are clicking and how far down the page they are scrolling. 

OptinMonster

OptinMonster is excellent for creating beautiful pop-ups for lead generation, and it even has add-ons that appear after visitors leave your site, allowing you to make the most of your traffic. 

Mixpanel

Use a platform like Mixpanel to monitor the activities visitors take on your site or in your app if you need more than just pageview statistics.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Financial forecasting and a financial dashboard are two terms that are often used interchangeably.

LivePlan

Look no farther than LivePlan if you need to develop a business plan, create a budget, or estimate your sales and cash flow. You may link QuickBooks and monitor your progress toward your financial objectives after you’ve established your financial goals.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Instruments for design

Canva

One of our favorite online image editors is Canva. You can simply edit photos, but you can also create a wide range of graphics, including posters, business cards, and book covers. The basic version is free, and if you require additional features, you may upgrade to the “work” edition.

Piktochart

Piktochart makes it simple to create infographics. Piktochart is one of our favorites since it’s simple to use, free, and professional-looking—basically the best of all worlds when it comes to generating your own infographics.

Pablo

Check out Pablo if you’re looking for a simple method to produce pictures for social networking. It’s easy to use and can generate pictures for use across all social media platforms.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Work is outsourced.

Upwork

Upwork, formerly known as Elance and Odesk, is a global marketplace of freelancers that can help you with everything from sales and marketing to design and web development. Upwork will handle payment and all other aspects of managing a contract freelancer if you use their sophisticated filters to locate a freelancer.

TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit is a unique service that comes in handy when you need someone to rapidly do a job that isn’t strictly freelancing; more akin to a handyman or jack-of-all-trades. For example, if your organization is hosting an event, you can use TaskRabbit to hire a bunch of highly-rated individuals to set up, serve, and clean up instead of hiring a full-service catering firm.

99designs

99designs: If you need a design for anything as simple as a book cover to something as complex as a logo, 99designs can help. You’ll be given a number of options from which to choose. 

Fiverr

Fiverr: Like 99designs, but with an emphasis on cost savings, Fiverr can link you with designers, developers, and other professionals to do your outsourced job for a low price.

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

A/B testing and landing pages

LeadPages

Check out LeadPages if you need a landing page fast. With no scripting needed, you can easily create landing pages and pop-ups.

Unbounce

Unbounce is a page builder and A/B testing tool that allows you to create landing pages and then test them against one other to discover the optimal combination.

Visual Website Optimizer is a tool that allows you to optimize your website

Visual Website Optimizer makes it simple to test modifications to your website and determine which version performs best without requiring any code. Reporting is simple, and the bulk of the capabilities you need are available at a fair cost.

Convert

Convert is a fantastic tool for A/B testing modifications on your website to verify ideas for increasing clicks, conversions, and traffic via your pages. 

85 Essential Startup Resources You Should Know About

Platforms for email marketing

MailChimp

Here, MailChimp is the obvious option. Unless you need to conduct a highly complex marketing automation campaign, MailChimp can help you create and distribute newsletters and almost any other kind of campaign. The automation capabilities are also excellent, and will suffice for most companies.

Sendy

Check out Sendy if saving money is your top priority. Sendy sends emails at a low cost using Amazon’s Simple Email Service platform. It isn’t the most feature-rich program, but it gets the job done if you want to send email as cheaply as possible.

HubSpot

Check out HubSpot for enterprise-level capability with small-business simplicity of use. It’s a marketing automation and inbound marketing tool in one, but you may also simply utilize their email service.

Aweber

Aweber is a good alternative to MailChimp. It has a low price point and a large feature set. Aweber’s customer service differs significantly from MailChimp’s; while MailChimp exclusively provides assistance through email, Aweber will call you.

The “startup tools 2021” is a list of 85 essential startup resources that will help you succeed in your business. The list includes both free and paid resources.

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Jeffery Williams

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Table of Contents
  1. Software for accounting
    1. QuickBooks
    2. XERO
    3. Freshbooks
  2. Selecting a Name
    1. NameCheckr
    2. Namium
    3. BrandBucket
  3. Hosting and domain names
    1. NameMesh
    2. Domainr
    3. BlueHost
    4. HostGator
    5. NameCheap
  4. Pitch decks and elevator pitches
    1. LivePlan
    2. Deck of Haikus
    3. Prezi
  5. Branding and logos 
    1. LogoGarden
    2. 99designs
    3. Fiverr
  6. Libraries of stock photos
    1. Pixabay
    2. StockSnap.io
    3. Shutterstock
  7. research into the market
    1. CensusViewer
    2. Survey of Consumer Expenditure
    3. MyBestSegments
    4. SizeUp
    5. Google Trends is a tool that allows you to see what
  8. Tools for conducting surveys
    1. SurveyMonkey
    2. Google Surveys is a service provided by Google.
    3. TypeForm
    4. Qualaroo
  9. Tools for using social media
    1. Buffer
  10. Software for project management
    1. Trello
    2. Basecamp
    3. Asana
  11. Publicity and launch
    1. HARO
    2. Pr.co
    3. Pressfarm
  12. Customer service and the help desk
    1. Outpost
    2. Desk.com
    3. ZenDesk
  13. Systems of payment
    1. Stripe
    2. Braintree
    3. Square
  14. Software for invoicing
    1. Freshbooks
    2. Payments in QuickBooks
    3. BallPark
  15. Building websites and shopping carts
    1. Wix
    2. Shopify
    3. Squarespace
    4. Chargify
  16. Platforms and solutions for funding
    1. Gust
    2. AngelList
  17. Human resources are important.
    1. Zenefits
    2. Kin
    3. TSheets
    4. Lattice
    5. Workable
  18. Assistance from a lawyer
    1. RocketLawyer
    2. LegalZoom
    3. Avvo
    4. Nolo
  19. Management of content resources (CRM)
    1. Infusionsoft
    2. HubSpot CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
  20. Analytical software
    1. Google Analytics is a tool that allows you to track
    2. HotJar
    3. OptinMonster
    4. Mixpanel
  21. Financial forecasting and a financial dashboard are two terms that are often used interchangeably.
    1. LivePlan
  22. Instruments for design
    1. Canva
    2. Piktochart
    3. Pablo
  23. Work is outsourced.
    1. Upwork
    2. TaskRabbit
    3. 99designs
    4. Fiverr
  24. A/B testing and landing pages
    1. LeadPages
    2. Unbounce
    3. Visual Website Optimizer is a tool that allows you to optimize your website
    4. Convert
  25. Platforms for email marketing
    1. MailChimp
    2. Sendy
    3. HubSpot
    4. Aweber
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