The Technology You Need to Start or Run a Small Business
Real tools, real prices, real alternatives. No upsells, no agency pitches — just the software, services, and free government help that every owner should know about.
The essentials every small business needs
Before you worry about anything else, get these five basics right. They separate a real business from a hobby.
Google Workspace ($7/mo), Microsoft 365 ($6/mo), or Zoho Mail (free tier). Use a name@yourbusiness.com address — customers trust it far more than a gmail or yahoo account.
Google Voice is free for personal use, Google Voice for Business is $10/mo. Grasshopper runs $29/mo with auto-attendant. Sideline is $10/mo and puts a second number on your existing phone.
Squarespace ($16/mo) and Wix ($17/mo) for most small businesses. Shopify ($29/mo) if you sell products online. Carrd is free and perfect for a one-page site with your hours and phone number.
QuickBooks Online ($30/mo) is the industry standard. Wave is completely free for invoicing and basic accounting. FreshBooks ($19/mo) is friendly for service businesses. Xero ($15/mo) is popular for growing teams.
Stripe for online (2.9% + 30 cents per charge). Square for in-person card swipes (2.6% + 10 cents). PayPal Business for customers who prefer PayPal. Most businesses end up using at least two.
Legal and registration tech
You can pay a service to file your paperwork, or you can do it yourself for the cost of the state fee. Here is what each option looks like.
LegalZoom ($0 + state fee, upsells heavy), Incfile/Bizee ($0 + state fee, first year free registered agent), ZenBusiness ($0 + state fee). You can also go directly to your Secretary of State website and file for just the state fee — usually $50–$300.
The EIN is 100% free from the IRS at irs.gov/ein. Any site charging you for one is a middleman. Takes about 10 minutes online. Required for business banking, payroll, and most licenses.
Every state has a business filing portal through its Secretary of State. Search "[your state] secretary of state business filing." Register your LLC, get your certificate, and file annual reports from there.
Check sba.gov/business-guide/launch-your-business/apply-licenses-permits. Your city or county may also require a general business license — a $25 item that many people forget.
Financial tech
Mixing personal and business money is the single most common reason owners get into trouble at tax time. Keep them separate from day one.
Chase Business Complete ($15/mo, waived with balance or activity). Relay (free, up to 20 checking accounts, great for freelancers). Mercury (free, built for online businesses). Novo (free, small-business focused with invoicing built in).
Gusto ($40/mo + $6/employee) is the favorite for small teams. QuickBooks Payroll ($45/mo + $6/employee) integrates with QuickBooks. OnPay ($40/mo + $6/employee) runs a close third. All handle taxes and year-end forms automatically.
FreshBooks, Wave (free), and QuickBooks all send professional invoices, accept online payment, and chase overdue invoices automatically. Even a free Wave account is a huge upgrade over a Word document.
TurboTax Business ($170+) for self-filing an S-corp or partnership. Bench ($249–$499/mo) does bookkeeping + tax filing for you. A real local CPA usually runs $500–$2,000 per year and is worth every penny once you clear $75k in revenue.
Marketing and customer tools
You do not need a marketing agency in year one. You need three or four free tools used consistently.
Mailchimp (free up to 500 contacts). ConvertKit/Kit (free up to 10,000 contacts, creator-friendly). MailerLite (free up to 1,000 contacts, cleanest editor). Email beats social media for actual sales — build a list from day one.
Later (free tier, visual calendar). Buffer ($6/mo per channel). Hootsuite ($99/mo, for larger teams). Write a week of posts in one sitting instead of staring at your phone every day.
Completely free and the single biggest thing a local business can do. Set up at google.com/business. Controls how you show up in Google Maps and local search. Post updates, respond to reviews, add photos.
Free to claim your page at biz.yelp.com. Respond to reviews, update hours, upload photos. You do not need to pay for Yelp ads — those are expensive and rarely pay off.
HubSpot CRM (free forever for core features) is the most generous free plan on the market. Zoho CRM (free for 3 users) is simpler. A CRM keeps track of leads, conversations, and follow-ups so nothing falls through the cracks.
Productivity tools
Pick one from each category and stick with it. Switching tools every quarter costs more time than any of them save.
Trello (free, sticky-notes-on-a-wall style). Asana (free up to 10 users, task lists). Notion (free personal, great wiki + tasks combo). ClickUp (free forever, most features — also the steepest learning curve).
Calendly (free for one calendar) lets clients book time with you without email ping-pong. Acuity ($20/mo) handles paid appointments and intake forms, good for service businesses.
Google Drive (15GB free, built into Google Workspace). Dropbox (2GB free, $12/mo for 2TB). OneDrive (comes with Microsoft 365). Pick the one that matches your email provider.
Slack (free tier covers basics, $7.25/user/mo for history and integrations). Microsoft Teams (included with Microsoft 365). Use one — do not run your business on text messages.
Ecommerce specifics
If you sell physical products, your choice of platform shapes everything else. Pick based on where your customers already are.
Shopify ($29/mo) is your own storefront — you build the audience. Etsy (20¢ listing + 6.5% fee) brings you shoppers looking for handmade and vintage. Amazon (15% fee + $40/mo Pro plan) has the traffic but owns the customer relationship. Many sellers use all three.
ShipStation ($10–$160/mo) for order management across platforms. Pirate Ship (free) gives the cheapest USPS rates on the market — genuinely cheaper than the post office. Use Pirate Ship first, add ShipStation when volume grows.
Square inventory (free with Square POS) for in-person + online. Shopify inventory (built in). For multi-warehouse or wholesale, Cin7 or Zoho Inventory ($50–$100/mo).
Free government help
Your tax dollars already pay for these. Most business owners never use them. That is free money and free expertise sitting on the table.
Free business plan templates, loan programs, disaster assistance, and contracting opportunities. The Lender Match tool connects you to pre-screened SBA-backed lenders.
Free one-on-one mentoring from retired executives. You can talk to someone who ran a business like yours for 30 years, at no cost, as many times as you want. The best-kept secret in American small business.
Free consulting through your local SBDC (usually based at a university). Help with business plans, financial projections, marketing, and applying for capital.
Every state offers free certification (MBE, WBE, VBE, DBE) that qualifies you for set-aside government contracts. Search "[your state] minority business certification."
AI tools for small business
Used well, AI saves a few hours a week on writing and admin. Used carelessly, it ships typos and wrong facts to customers. A human reads everything before it goes out.
For emails, product descriptions, first drafts of marketing copy, and reply templates. Free tiers are enough for most owners. Always read and edit before sending — AI makes up details.
Built into the free Canva plan. Drafts social captions and generates simple designs. Still needs a human eye, but cuts blank-page time in half.
Good for social graphics, background patterns, and illustrations. Do not use AI-generated images to misrepresent a real product — always disclose and keep real product photos of what you actually sell.
Tax season prep
The business owners who hate tax season are the ones who keep no records all year. These tools fix that.
Snap receipts as you get them. Every accounting app (QuickBooks, Wave, FreshBooks) has a mobile app with receipt capture. A shoebox full of paper receipts in March is a $500 tax-prep bill waiting to happen.
Everlance ($5/mo) and MileIQ ($6/mo) auto-track mileage in the background. The standard mileage deduction is 67 cents per mile in 2026 — most drivers miss thousands in deductions without tracking.
If you expect to owe more than $1,000 in federal tax, the IRS wants quarterly payments on April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15. Pay online at irs.gov/payments. Skipping them triggers penalties even if you pay in full in April.
Common scams targeting small business
The moment your LLC is filed, your contact info becomes public. Within weeks you will start getting scam mail and calls that look very official. None of these are real.
Random invoices for toner, domain renewal, or "office supplies" you never ordered. They hope a busy bookkeeper pays without checking. Verify every invoice against an actual purchase order.
Official-looking letters demanding hundreds of dollars to "renew" or "publish" your trademark. The real USPTO only emails, and all fees go to uspto.gov directly.
Mail from companies named like "Corporate Compliance Center" asking $200–$400 to file your annual report. Your state does this for $10–$50 through its own portal. Throw these envelopes away.
Robocalls threatening that your LLC will be suspended unless you "press 1." Real state agencies never call with threats. Hang up. When in doubt, log in to your Secretary of State portal directly.
Want more step-by-step help?
TekSure has guides on setting up business email, configuring a website, filing your EIN, and spotting scams — all written in plain English, with screenshots.