You need certain services to successfully run your new online business.  You will need web hosting, you’ll need to manage your personal as well as your business finances, you may need telephone services, faxing, etc…  However, many of these services cost money and if you are just starting out, you want to save as much off your starting capital as possible.

So how does one find the best services without spending a ton of money?

Before you pull out your wallet and spend a ton of cash for your business services, you want to make sure that you are spending your money in a good place.  The best way to do that is to find the best free premium services.  Even if you can’t find a completely free premium service, you can often find a great premium service that offers a free trial.

I love free trials.  I think they are a great way to introduce me to the product and it gives me an opportunity to test it out and see if it’s something that I would like.  These days there are so many online services offered by different companies that it’s often hard to find the best one.  You never know if something is legitimate or a scam.  In addition, you have affiliate marketers out there pushing random products simply for a paycheck.

These days, I try to find the best free premium services that I can.  There are so many free premium services available to fit a variety of needs that you can often meet your needs without spending a dime.  When you are starting a new business and looking for ways to save money, using free premium services is definitely the way to go.

Sometimes, you can’t find the service that you need completely for free, so you end up having to do some shopping for the best service.  In those cases, I look for the free trial.  First off, a free trial gives me the opportunity to take the product out for a test drive.  Secondly, a free trial tells me that the company trusts their product enough to feel that they can give it out free and it will sell themselves.

As an affiliate marketer, I’ve also followed this general rule when I recommend products.  I try my best to recommend great free premium services to you.  (I’d rather take a smaller commission or no commission at all than recommend crap)  However, if there is no completely free premium service, I do my best to keep my recommendations to services that offer risk free trials.  This way you get the benefit of experiencing the product yourself as well.

Along the way, I’ve found some awesome free premium services.  Some are forever free, while others are free trials for a limited time.  In any event, these premium services are risk free for you.  (Some of these free trials do require a credit card to sign up, so long as you cancel before the trial ends, you won’t be charged)

Web Hosting

If you thinking about starting a blog or website, there are several services that allow you to get started completely for free.  The most popular are generally blogger and wordpress.  You can easily find several others as well.  Depending on your needs and goals, these are excellent options for getting started.

Most people think of these platforms as just for blogging.  However, with the number of awesome plugins and addons and different customization options, you can create almost any kind of website using these free options.  If you are really tight on starting capital, this is not a bad way to start until you can earn enough to go to a paid hosting solution.

While there are a few limitations such as not having a custom domain name, these are awesome free premium web hosting services for starting out.

Money Management and Banking

Mint.com- simple budgeting and planning

Mint is one of my favorite 100% free premium services for money management.  It’s completely free and secure for all your money management needs.  I use this myself for managing my own household finances.  I can set budgets, track expenses, set up alerts to myself, as well as get useful tips on ways that I might be able to save money.  They could easily charge money for the service that they provide, but it’s completely free.  How awesome is that!

ING DIRECT USA – High Yield Savings with the Orange Savings Account

This is another free premium service that I personally use.  While I also have a regular brick and mortar checking and savings account for my daily banking, online savings accounts generally offer higher interest rates.  I have a savings account through ing direct for myself as well as a Kids Savings Account for my son.  I particularly like the kids savings account as it has a number of parental options that allow you to teach your kid to manage their own finances, but at the same time doesn’t just hand over full control to your child.

Paypal

If you are running an online business, I consider paypal an essential banking service.  Paypal is an awesome premium online banking service that allows you to easily transfer and exchange money using only your email.  It makes it easy to make and accept payments.  Most affiliate programs also offer options to pay you through paypal and some even offer lower payment thresholds if you are being paid through paypal rather than requesting a physical check.

Business Management

Shoeboxed

If you are running an online business, you are going to generate paperwork.  You’ll have receipts, mail, business contacts, etc…  Shoebox helps you manage all of these items so you can go paperless.  It’s complete business management in the cloud.  You can generate end of year expense reports for tax season and keep up with all your companies finances.  The offer a completely risk free trial.  For managing business finances, this is a great premium cloud service.

Patriot Software Online Payroll

If your business is starting to grow and you need to manage a payroll, you may want to start looking into payroll software.  Patriot software provides full functioning payroll management software as well as money management software for your business.  The service itself starts at $10 a month for a single employee and is fully functional.  They offer a 30 day free trial so you can give it a spin and see how you like it.

Telephone and Fax Services

Ooma

This is my personal home telephone and fax service.  It’s a completely free service, however does require the purchase of the equipment up front.  I purchased my Ooma telephone modem from Costco for $180 plus tax. It’s since more than paid for itself.  The phone service includes free, unlimited calling anywhere in the US and Canada, call waiting, caller id, and voicemail.  Beyond that I can send and receive faxes as well.  This is an awesome free service that I would recommend to anyone, even though you do have to spend some money upfront for the equipment.  You can find it on Amazon here: Ooma Telo Free Home Phone Service or at your local retail stores.

eVoice® 6 Month Free Trial

eVoice gives an awesome deal that’s particularly good if you are starting a new business and want to give customers a way to interact with you directly.  They offer a low cost toll free number with a 6 month free trial.  Its definitely worth checking out.  The way they can offer such a service at such a low price is that they are a virtual telephone service.  These days, you really can’t tell the difference between a virtual phone number and a traditional telephone line as it is.  However, with the virtual number, you have the advantage of being able to route the call anywhere as well as make and take calls using mobile apps.  Your customer will never know the difference.

Final Thoughts

These are just a few categories and choices for you.  There are many more free premium services and options that you can use that will help you save and earn money.  My recommendation is to save where you can as often as you can.