I remember the day I started my company. It was a mixture of excitement and fear. No guaranteed paychecks. No one to blame but myself if it didn’t work out. But the biggest challenge was making every cent count. I learned to use a number of free and low-cost online business tools whenever I could.
For instance, I needed to create PDF (Acrobat) files, but didn’t have the money to buy the full version of Adobe Acrobat ($449). So, I did a little research and discovered a world of online utilities that met my needs:
- PDF Creator – This program does require a one-time installation, but I use it more than any other. Basically, it sets itself up as a pseudo-printer. Anything you can print, you can turn into a PDF. I love it!
- InvoiceASAP – Sometimes I’m out on the road or at a hotel and need to create an invoice quickly. Instead of trying to access my accounting system, I just go to this site. I enter my company information, their information, the services they are buying and prices. It will then create a PDF that looks very professional – and since it’s a PDF, I have a copy of it to be entered into my accounting system. Great in a pinch!
- PDF Hammer – What if someone sends you a multi-page PDF document and you want to rearrange the pages or even delete a few? This site will allow you to do that, including combining many smaller PDFs into one large one.
- PDF to Word – Changing a Word document into a PDF is easy (and free if you use PDF Creator). But what if you need to go the other direction PDF to Word? If you need to change the text of a PDF, this is the best way. This site does the best it can to retain the original formatting, but keep in mind that task is difficult.
- AutoFill PDF Labels – Ever just needed some labels. Perhaps you bought a box of Avery labels but didn’t know how to line them up in your word processor. This site has a number of pre-made PDFs that allow you to print as many labels as you wish!
