Make money with free software
Some companies need to pay for software. For all others, there is freeware
By Ian Harvey
August 1, 2009
August 1, 2009
They say the best things in life are free, but they also say you get what you pay for. So, when it comes to selecting software for your business, which old saying do you go with? Is free software good enough for your company? Well, yes and no. First, realize that free is just a word. There’s free as in zero cost and free as in it’s-so-ridiculously-cheap-it-might-as-well-be-free. Then there is seemingly free, such as Linux. The operating system is a great free alternative, but it’s not suitable for the technically faint of heart, unless you buy one of the supported versions from vendors such as Red Hat or Novell. And that means it’s no longer free.
Truly free software is usually pretty basic: it will get the job done, but there is often a premium package with more features. Even so, buying a premium package can feel virtually free when compared to the $800 you’d spend for one full copy of Microsoft Office 2007.
Cloud productivity
Truly free productivity options start with Google Apps, which offers e-mail and basic word processing, spreadsheet and presentation functionality. The premium versions are US$50 per year per user, while e-mail and Web security packages run between US$12 and US$24.
Does Google work? “We’ve saved up to $70,000,” said Grant Shellborn, CTO and co-founder of financial services software maker VendTek Systems, based in Vancouver. The company has 40 employees in Beijing, Abu Dhabi and Toronto, and it depends on the free Google suite for e-mail, schedules, documents, sharing voice messages and synching smartphones.
“What I like is that when someone updates a spreadsheet everyone gets notified of the change. We’ll probably go to the premium version in the next couple of years.”
Another option, for a little more money, is Open Office, a full suite of programs that mimic Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Open Office also offers a database, a drawing program and a math formula program. The basic suite is free but a year of access and support is US$2.50 per month, with an upsell to a PDF manager which lets you open, create and edit PDFs for US$15. Files are compatible with Microsoft Office.
Even Microsoft is climbing on-board with free business software: Office Live Small Businesses and Office Live Workspaces for Small Business are easy step-by-step programs to get your business online.
Again, the basics are free but as you add on modules such as e-commerce, e-mail marketing and project management and scheduling, there’s a charge, though it’s still pretty cheap: US$14.95 for domain registration after the first year and US$14.95 per month for five to 10 users (the first five are free) up to US$84.95 per month for 75 users.
Talk, market, measure
If you want to talk on the cheap, both Google and Skype offer free chat, voice and video between users. Skype will also let you call regular phone numbers for as little as two cents per minute.
Also worth checking out is MailChimp, an e-mail marketing program that tracks who got a message, who opened it and who responded for up to 100 subscribers and six mail-outs per month; cough up $10 a month and you’re up to 500 subscribers and it rises incrementally to $240 per month for up to 50,000 subscribers.
Google Analytics is another useful and free marketing tool to uncloak which keywords hooked your best prospects, and which copy, headlines and pictures pulled the most responses. Better yet, it’s designed for novice users and works on e-mail and Web campaigns.
Truly free software is usually pretty basic: it will get the job done, but there is often a premium package with more features. Even so, buying a premium package can feel virtually free when compared to the $800 you’d spend for one full copy of Microsoft Office 2007.
Cloud productivity
Truly free productivity options start with Google Apps, which offers e-mail and basic word processing, spreadsheet and presentation functionality. The premium versions are US$50 per year per user, while e-mail and Web security packages run between US$12 and US$24.
Does Google work? “We’ve saved up to $70,000,” said Grant Shellborn, CTO and co-founder of financial services software maker VendTek Systems, based in Vancouver. The company has 40 employees in Beijing, Abu Dhabi and Toronto, and it depends on the free Google suite for e-mail, schedules, documents, sharing voice messages and synching smartphones.
“What I like is that when someone updates a spreadsheet everyone gets notified of the change. We’ll probably go to the premium version in the next couple of years.”
Another option, for a little more money, is Open Office, a full suite of programs that mimic Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Open Office also offers a database, a drawing program and a math formula program. The basic suite is free but a year of access and support is US$2.50 per month, with an upsell to a PDF manager which lets you open, create and edit PDFs for US$15. Files are compatible with Microsoft Office.
Even Microsoft is climbing on-board with free business software: Office Live Small Businesses and Office Live Workspaces for Small Business are easy step-by-step programs to get your business online.
Again, the basics are free but as you add on modules such as e-commerce, e-mail marketing and project management and scheduling, there’s a charge, though it’s still pretty cheap: US$14.95 for domain registration after the first year and US$14.95 per month for five to 10 users (the first five are free) up to US$84.95 per month for 75 users.
Talk, market, measure
If you want to talk on the cheap, both Google and Skype offer free chat, voice and video between users. Skype will also let you call regular phone numbers for as little as two cents per minute.
Also worth checking out is MailChimp, an e-mail marketing program that tracks who got a message, who opened it and who responded for up to 100 subscribers and six mail-outs per month; cough up $10 a month and you’re up to 500 subscribers and it rises incrementally to $240 per month for up to 50,000 subscribers.
Google Analytics is another useful and free marketing tool to uncloak which keywords hooked your best prospects, and which copy, headlines and pictures pulled the most responses. Better yet, it’s designed for novice users and works on e-mail and Web campaigns.
