Resources & Tools
Legal Services for Entrepreneurs is an economic justice and community empowerment project of the Lawyers’ Committee. LSE provides free transactional legal services to low-income individuals who want to start or develop businesses, businesses committed to investing in economically distressed communities, including hiring people with arrest and conviction records, and mom and pop shops located in areas where gentrification is a force for displacement. LSE provides workshops, clinics and consultations, and attorney matching.
MergeLane discovers, accelerates and invests in high-potential startups with at least one woman in leadership. They make select investments in startups and venture funds, and run a series of seven-day immersive programs for startups with at least one female in leadership. MergeLane also offers intensive three-day Leadership Camps for male and female leaders in startups, industry, and nonprofits designed to accelerate participants’ growth as innovative leaders.
Brazen supports women at all stages of business through resources, tools, community and support. They provide opportunities for peer support and connections with technical support experts, as well as events and workshops in the following locations:
St. Louis, Missouri
Chicago, Illinois
Dallas – Ft. Worth, Texas
Denver, Colorado
Detroit, Michigan
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Southwest Florida Women’s Foundation offers numerous resources and opportunities for local women entrepreneurs, including a free online business course and the option to set up a KIVA loan of up to $10,000 with 0% interest.
LaunchTennessee offers a variety of resources for Tennessee entrepreneurs at every stage of the business journey, including a “resource matcher” where you can find specific kinds of support to meet your business needs, entrepreneurship programs and events, and more.
The Michigan Women’s Foundation offers a variety of opportunities for women business owners in the state of Michigan. They have a events where you can pitch your business idea, get advice and support, and win funds. You can also join a peer support group for business owners, attend a conference for entrepreneurs, and more.
Empire State Development offers a variety of resources and information for business owners in New York.
The Bay Area Entrepreneurship Alliance is a non-profit organization in California that offers business support to women, people of color, and veteran entrepreneurs. They offer a number of tools, including guidance, peer support, resources, connections, conferences, and more.
Mortar offers an entrepreneurship course in Cincinnati, Ohio that is specifically designed for low income people who want to build or grow their businesses. The course is nine weeks, and includes mentorship, education, and support.
WE NYC is an intiative for women business owners in New York, which offers resources, educational materials, and access to community (including events, mentorship connections, workshops and more). WE NYC has partnered with Kiva to help women crowdfund for their business. They offer 10% of the crowdfunding goal (up to 1k) to pre-approved women-led businesses.
The Women’s Venture Fund works with women who own businesses in the New York City metropolitan area. They are a non-profit organization that offers advisory services, workshops, local events, and small business loans.
Google analytics (which has free and paid options) can help you understand things like how people are using your website, how people are finding your business, and how you can better market your business online.
Shopify is helpful if you are selling items online, either through an online store, Facebook, Amazon, or elsewhere. The service helps you set up an online store, track sales, manage inventory, create invoices, and more. A basic plan starts at $29 per month, and a lite plan starts at $9 per month.
Google Business offers a free way to manage the online presence of your business across Google. You can register and list your business on Google Maps and Google’s platforms to help potential customers find you more easily.
MailChimp helps you create marketing emails, sign up forms, and to track the impact of your emails on your business. The service is free if you have less than 2,000 email subscribers, and $10 per month or more if you have a larger subscriber list.
Legal Zoom offers legal templates that you need to start or grow your business. Their templates are organized by the forms you will need to start or manage a business, including forms for tax, registration, and establishing your business. They do not offer a free service, and the price varies by template, so be sure to buy only those that you need.
Piktochart offers infographic tools, with templates and formats that you can use to design flyers, presentations, or information sheets. This website is useful for businesses that want to make the information they want to share more visual and compelling. Their basic service is free, $12.50 per month gives you access to more extensive services.
Canva offers graphic design tools to create branding and images for websites, ads, banners, etc. It is free to use the basic plan, and $12.95 per month for access to more extensive services.
Yellow Pages is a business directory where customers leave reviews. List your business on Yellow Pages to increase traffic to your website, store or services. Make sure to encourage people to leave reviews! It is free to use but advertising on Yellow Pages does cost money.
Yelp is where many people go to find local businesses. List your business on Yelp to increase traffic to your website, store, or services. Make sure to encourage people to leave reviews! It is free to use but advertising on Yelp does cost money.
Use this marketing budget calculator tool to help you figure out how much you need to spend on your marketing. This website also has resources about how to improve your marketing budget and make it more effective.
iFundWomen is a crowdfunding platform for women-led startups and small businesses. They also provide coaching on crowdfunding, a helpful guide to crowdfunding, and support in creating a crowdfunding video.
Not only do they offer a way for you to create a crowdfunding campaign, but they reinvest 20% of profits into the campaigns on their platform. They also offer a helpful guide to creating a crowdfunding campaign, as well as crowdfunding coaching and support with producing videos for your campaign.
A network and online resource for women entrepreneurs. They have a business directory that features women-led businesses, events, resources. Membership costs $299 and then $60 annually.
Women 2.0 is a resource for those looking for insights in to the tech industry, startups, and gender issues. They offer articles and interviews with women who are working in tech.
AWBC offers a fee-based network: it costs $400 per year to be a member. They sustain and support women business owners with over 100 local Women’s Business Centers.
SCORE provides you free business mentoring and advice. They also offer educational webinars, courses on demand, and a library of resources with guides and helpful articles. Connect with SCORE in your community or online at www.score.org.
Send Grid offers a comprehensive email marketing guide, with lots of tips about how to use emails to market your business.
Kissmetrics offers a paid service for analyzing your online marketing. They also offer lots of guides, blog posts and webinars about online marketing and how to engage more customers.
Walker’s Legacy is a digital platform for entrepreneurial women with a strong focus on diversity. They offer articles, a directory of businesses led by women, and communities that you can join in select cities.
If your business requires multiple clients and projects, as many creative industries (like photographers or event planners) do, Honeybook offers a service that helps manage that. Their service lets you schedule tasks, sign and bill clients, and find new clients. They also offer contract templates and other resources. It costs $40 per month, or $34 per month when you pay for an annual plan.
Pablo offers a way to easily design graphics for social media posts. You can select a size (for Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, or Facebook), add text or a logo, and then download or post directly to social media. It is free.
Do you have a business website? Website grader will give your website a (free) health check. By entering in your web address, you can check to see if your website is secure, if it is working well (in terms of connection speed and adapting to a mobile device) or if there are issues.
Quicksprout offers a variety of tools, webinars and guides on how to increase your online marketing. The website has short, free videos that explain things like increasing website traffic through Facebook ads, making the most of paid ads, and more.
Offers free business plan templates, as well as a variety of free tools including a small business toolkit, resources for pitching and funding your business, and numerous templates and tools.
The Women’s Business Development Center provides a simple, easy to understand guide to becoming certified as a woman-owned business.
Hello Alice uses AI technology to curate tools, resources, events and opportunities based on stage of business, and they believe in inclusivity for women and minorities. They also run a 12 week virtual accelerator.
The NWBC conducts lobbying and advocacy on behalf of women business owners. Their website has facts and figures about women in business.
“What I Look for When Hiring” is a video featuring Katherine Hays from our partner Career Girls.
“Tips for Getting a Great Interview” is a video featuring Kate Scott from our partner, Career Girls.
CareerGirls.org is a video-based career exploration tool for girls, with an emphasis on STEM careers. The mission of Career Girls is for all girls to reach their full potential and discover their own path to empowerment through access to inspiring career role models.
WESST is a non-profit organization that supports small business owners in New Mexico, which focuses on supporting low-income women and minorities. The support they offer includes loans, trainings, and technical support.
