3 Money-Saving Tech Resources for Small Business Owners/Consumers

This is a guest post by Mariana Ashley with some very good information.   Thank you Mariana who guest posts for links, seems like a fair trade when the posts are this good. 

Small business owners and entrepreneurs, aside from having ambition, typically have one thing in common—limited capital to launch their endeavors. Maybe that's why so many are constantly trying to find ways to cut costs by ordering less office supplies and hiring non-paid interns.  But where you shouldn't cheat yourself on is with technology—it has the power to help your business flourish. Thankfully there are some free resources you can use to help run your business and help you keep a few extra bucks in your pocket. Consumers looking to save can use these resources too. That said, continue reading to check out these 3 money-saving tech resources.

1. Free Software—In order to keep organized, writes letters, formulate invoices and monitor inventory, you'll need good spreadsheet and word processing software.  While the go-to-choice is typically Microsoft Suite to handle these matters, often times it costs a small fortune to purchase—currently the set price is $279 for two PCS. Open Office, on the other hand, is an open source application suite that functions similar to Microsoft Suite—it gives users access to word processing, spreadsheets, slides and graphics to use in their presentations. It's pretty basic, but for the price (free) it works wonders.

Anti-Virus Software is also something that is needed. After all, you don't want to make yourself vulnerable to a virus or hacker—you could lose all of your documents or give hackers access to sensitive information such as credit card numbers. But again, anti-virus software can get pretty pricey. But there are some software companies that offer basic anti-virus protection for free. Our favorite is AVG.

2. Free Remote Data Storage—Because you might not have a permanent office and currently switch from laptop to desktop, it would be a good idea to set up a free account with a remote data storage site. These sites allow you to access important documents from any computer and hold way more documents than a portable USB device. And since you essentially have access to all of your documents anywhere that has internet, you can boost your productivity levels. The best part is that if something unfortunate happens, like your computer crashes or get's stolen, you've already backed up all of your documents, images and videos. Our favorite free service is DropBox.

3. Free Locating Technology— If you own a business that is revolves around you visiting clients homes or traveling to remote destinations, you can save a couple of dollars by not investing in a pricey GPS system and use Goog411 instead—it's a free service for smart phone users that executes commands via voice-activation—it can look up addresses, the nearest restaurants, find you a tow truck, etc. Even if you have the internet on your phone, typing and driving at the same time is still really hazardous. This service will also immediately bring up a map of your final/desired location. It's recommended to save the number on speed dial for easy access.

By-line:

Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing,she loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com.