If you are a small business owner and you are looking for 100% FREE, no catch, no gimmicks, here's the ultimate list of must-haves!  

(Let me note that my list is specifically geared toward online sellers but these programs can be used by anyone!)

Typing Documents and Taking Notes

• Open Office - 100% FREE "Word", "Excel" and other super important programs!
• Google Docs - I now use Google Docs the most because it allows me to access all of my documents from any device, any time, anywhere!

Taking a Screenshot without Watermarks (or other weird stuff)

• Snipping Tool (Windows) - unless your pc is super old, this is probably already on it!  Just look at the bottom left corner and click on the "windows icon" (the thing in the very lower left that looks like 4 squares) then type "snip" and click enter:

Reposting / Automation for Social Media

• Ifttt!  THE MOST AMAZING TOOL EVER... FOR FREE!!!!!

Screen Video Recording

• If you have a pc, did you know you can EASILY record (screencast) by holding down the windows icon and "G" at the same time?:

This opens the Xbox control panel (it's auto-installed on every new-ish Windows-based computer). Now simply click the Record button and it will start recording whatever is on your screen! No cost, no watermarks!  You can then edit these videos in Movie Maker or whatever program you prefer!

Video Editing

• Movie Maker (for Windows) but *supposedly* there is a MAC version, however I have never had a MAC.
• InShot (for cell phone vids)

Basic Graphic Design for Photos

• PicMonkey (if you don’t want to pay for an account, you can use the snipping tool to get the images for free, without watermark, however I STRONGLY encourage you to join PicMonkey because it’s one of the best investments EVER for online sellers. In all honesty, we started off “snipping” the images and loved the program so much we have had a paid account for a long time now. 5 star!!!)
• InShot is also a huge winner for cell phone editing. It even edits videos! FREE!!!!!! Easily save photos and videos to your phone in formats that can be instantly uploaded to ANYTHING!

Text Message Communication with Customers

• TEXTFREE by Pinger- this is the BEST EVER platform. NO LIMITS!!! NO SPAM!!! You can access messages through ANY device.  This means you can read and reply to customer messages through a phone, tablet, computer, etc. We have been using it for YEARS and love it so much we upgraded to a paid plan.  TextFree is a God-Send because we can have warehouse staff login and see conversations someone had with customer service staff in addition to anyone in the company being able to respond to any message at any time!  The only difference between a free acct and paid is that in the free acct you will see ads on the bottom of the screen. Because we use it so much we wanted to get rid of the ads. Our customers love being able to contact us via text. Plus, it endlessly stores all of the history with each phone number (unless you decide to delete it). Additionally you can choose to pay for calling features if you want. 

Cell Phone VIDEO Recording

• AZ Screen Recorder (Google Play Store Link) - 5 stars!!! No watermarks or other weird crap. No games, no gimmicks. Also records audio.

Amazing Discounts via Cash Back

You might be sick of me bringing this up, but Mr.Rebates is the BEST EVER 100% FREE Cash Back program to use.  Yes, I realize there are programs like Honey and such, but I am a massive advocate of Mr.Rebates because I have been with them Since 2009 and I have gotten over $22,000 in CASH BACK, check out two screenshots below!!:  

The four main reasons that Mr. Rebates is the best EVER are:

1. NO minimum cash-out amount!
2. Pay Pal payment is offered!
3. They also give you coupons!  So not only do you get cash back, but you also get VALID coupon codes!
4. The cash back offers apply to stores you will use for eCommerce as well as in your personal life.  Need to buy wood flooring or paint from Home Depot?  Boom!  Get 1% cash back.  Need to buy some inventory from a 7 For All Mankind 1-day online Sale?  YOU GET 8% CASH BACK! Adidas (3%), Aeropostale (10%!) even Armani gives you 5% cash back!  You can imagine how much this adds up when you are already buying from a sale and throwing on a coupon code!  They have a MASSIVE list of stores.

You can check out Mr.Rebates here.

Storage

• Google Drive - hands down, this is the best free online storage system. Yep, once you hit a sh*t-ton of data you’ll have to either delete stuff or pay for an upgrade. We currently pay $5 or less a month to store a ton of stuff. Heck, we have so much there that I don’t even know what half of it is.

Group Chat

• DISCORD!!! OMFG I LOVE DISCORD. In fact, my life long besties and I only use discord to chat because its simply so much better than texting. Everything about it is awesome!