If you’re a start up or a small business owner, then you’ll agree with me that there are three very important things to note when running a business; the first is that every penny counts, the second is that every penny counts and the third, well if you guessed that it’s “every penny counts”, then you’d be right!
Thankfully in this day and age, it’s possible to get things done well without racking up the bills. Gone are the days you need to pore over “Website Building For Dummies” (man, and those books weren’t exactly light reads!) or go to HTML classes. Now, there are plenty of amazing apps and sites to help even the least tech savvy person make their website, blog and social media outlets look great and professional — all for free. In no particular order, here are some of our favourite free sites and apps that are super easy to use whether you are an entrepreneur, social media manager or just someone who wants to unleash their inner creative genius.
Pssst: You may want to save this page for easy reference.
1. Unsplash
When it comes to beautiful photos that’s also been beautifully edited, nothing does it better for us than Unsplash. Images are clearly shot by photography enthusiasts because they’re just. So. Darn. Beautiful. All of them. You won’t have to bother with editing any of it. All photos are licensed under Creative Commons Zero which means you can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos for free, including for commercial purposes, without asking permission from or providing attribution.
2. Pixabay
Thousands upon thousands of high res images and vectors to search and sift through. For so many content creators we know, Pixabay has been an indispensable tool — whether you’re looking for a picture of, say, carrots (in a basket, on a chopping board or plate?), or historical buildings, you’ll most likely to find it here. Copy, edit and use the images to your liking without worrying about copyrights and attributions. Unless it’s stated that the image you’ve selected is protected by trademark, you’re good to go!
3. PicMonkey
Forget spending hours watching YouTube tutorials to learn how to edit pictures using Photoshop (trust us). PicMonkey lets you edit colours, remove blemishes, crop, make collages and put text into your images — which are core needs for your social media outlets. Must we mention that it’s super easy to use, even a monkey could do it?
4. Canva
If you’re like yours truly and visualise ideas and designs knowing exactly how you want them to look, then you’ll love Canva. Whether you’re designing flyers for your restaurant’s new menu or a simple Facebook cover image, there are millions of stock images and vectors, filter and textures, shapes and fonts to choose from to personalise your design. Prepare to unleash your inner graphic designer.
5. Photogramio
Another favourite photo editor site, Photogramio allows you to resize and brighten images, get rid of red eyes, blemishes and wrinkles (what else do you need to edit them selfies?). Plus, it has many filters so you can create moods with them just the way you do on Instagram.
Do you have a favourite app or to share? We’d love to know!
