Startup Toolkit: 5 Free Online Tools to Increase Productivity and Profit

When you’re starting a new business, there are two things you probably don’t have much of  — money and time. You have a million things to do and no money to make it happen. I know — I was there when I launched my Internet business six years ago.

So, here are five powerful free tools that I used to get things rolling:

1. Weebly: Website Creation Tool

Weebly is the best thing that ever happened to creating websites. It is easy, fast and, best of all, free. My favorite part about Weebly is how easy it is to maintain. You can make ongoing changes on a regular basis, like updating your address, adding customer testimonials and changing your prices.

I like to start with Weebly anytime I have a business idea — I spend a few hours creating a simple informative website and then spend a week talking to customers to see if they would sign up.

2. Rapportive: Gmail add-on that displays social media info about contacts.

Want to know what the person that just emailed you looks like? Or what they just posted on Facebook? Rapportive is the perfect Gmail add-on that shows you social media information of the person who emailed you, including their profile picture and their latest updates on Facebook.

I use Rapportive anytime a new customer signs up; I like to learn as much as I can about my paying customers to see where I can find more of them.