This comprehensive list offers over 180+ business resources to help you to plan, design, launch and grow your online boutique business. 

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LEGAL AND BUSINESS RESOURCES

The legal side of your business is just as important as the customer-facing side of your brand. Be sure to get your legal ducks in a row to save you money in the long run. Many of them are free to obtain depending on the state you are doing business in.

Resources

• Novo - Business Bank Account
• Trello - Online To-Do List
• Planoly - Free Instagram Scheduler and Feed Curation
• Linktree - Create multiple links for your social media bios 
• Trademark Search and/or Apply
• Tailwind - Schedule social media posts
• Bitly - URL Shortener and analytics
• Growth Hackers - Free forum for entrepreneurs and businesses looking to enhance their marketing skills
• Score - Great business blog and you can find mentors 
• Any.do - Stay organized on-the-go
• Grammarly - Free chrome extension offering enhanced spelling and grammar check (great for product descriptions and emails)
• Upwork - outsource work to freelancers
• Fiverr - outsource work
• Typeform - Create online forms/quizzes

Legal and Business Resources

• EIN (Employee Identification Number) - an "id" for your business. Read more about EIN's here
• Seller's Permit - needed to purchase wholesale and charges tax on products
• Local Tax Business Receipt (Florida Only)
• Free Boutique Business Plan Templates - Boutique and Retail Business Plans
• Policy Generators - Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions Generators 
• Trademark Search
• Google Voice - Get a local business phone number (great for customer service and trust)
• Google Trends - Use this to find out how a word or phrase is doing in the search engine. Sort by location, # of clicks per month, age groups, etc. Great for determining a target audience
• Afterpay - customers can pay in 4
• Sezzle - customers can pay in 4
• Klarna - customers can pay in 4

Business Names

• Best Boutique Business Name Ideas (these names haven't been taken yet, hurry and steal one)
• Shopify Business Name Generator
• Oberlo Business Name Generator
• Business Name Generator
• Namelix
• Namemesh
• Anadea

 Domains & Email

• Zoho - Email Hosting for only $12/year
• Bluehost - Website Hosting & Domain
• Google Domains - Get a Google domain for $12/year)
• Godadddy - Domains as cheap as $.99. Search Google "godaddy promo codes"
• Mailchimp - Email Marketing. Free up to 2000 subscribers
• Mailerlite - integrates with Shopify apps. Free version, automations, etc.

• Benchmark - Email Marketing. Unlimited subscribers, Free up to 250 emails per month

​E-COMMERCE PLATFORMS

Choosing the right e-commerce platform is critical to the success of your business. Luckily, most of the platforms allow you to try out their services for a trial period. Try out at least two and determine which is a better fit for your business. We recommend the following:

• Shopify - Starting at $29 per month (Preferred)
• Wix 
• Etsy (marketplace) - Handmade, Custom Products
• Poshmark (marketplace) - resell
• eBay - great for reselling and selling your products to increase sales

​CONTENT CREATION

• Canva Pro - Free 30 Day Trial
• Crello - animated social media posts
• Color Pick Eyedropper - Chrome extension that allows you to choose any color from an image or website (great for matching colors to photos/graphics)
• Gif Maker - Create GIFs and videos for free
• Background Remover
• Compressor - Compress images up to 70% for faster web loading time
• Lingojam - Change the font for your Instagram bio and post text
• Dafont - 1000s of free downloadable fonts
• What the Font - Discover what font was used from any image or website
• Giphy - Find and create your own GIFs
• Adobe Spark
• Cooltext - 100% Free text logo
• Windows Movie Maker - Free. Easily Create movies with windows for your website and/or Youtube

ANALYTICS & KEYWORDS

• Ubersuggest - Free keyword ranking tool
• Google Analytics Tool - Free analytics tool
• Google Keyword Planner - Great for determine what keywords to use on your website. Boost your CEO.
• Google Alerts - Get an email every time any variation of your brand is mentioned online (or whatever terms you want to track)
• Google Search Console - Submit website to Google and track your website traffic/keywords
• Smylelytics - Fun, visual analytics tool to analyze your website traffic
• Business Grants for Women and Minorities

​Funding: Grants and Loans

Grants

• 88+ Business Grants - a detailed list of business grants
• Minority Business Development Agency - Grants and loans for minorities
• Grants.gov
• USDA Grant - For minorities
• National Minority Supplier Development Council
• SBA 8(A) Business Development Program - For socially and economically disadvantaged small business owners
• Operation Hope Small-Business Empowerment Program - For entrepreneurs in low wealth neighborhoods
• FedEx Small Business Grant - $25,000
• Etsy Makers Cities Grant
• Chase Mission Main Street Grant - $150,000
• Visa Everywhere Initiative - $50,000
• National Association for the Employed (NASE) - $5,000
• LendingTree - $50,000
• Walmart Global Women Economic Empowerment Initiative 
• The Amber Grant - For women only
• American Association of University Women Career Development Grant
• InnovateHER Women Business Challenge 
• The GirlBoss Foundation Grant
• Eileen Fisher Women-Owned Businss Grant - To be eligible, women must make up at least 51% of your business’s ownership and leadership, your business must have been in operation for at least three years, earn less than $1 million in annual revenue, and be focused on environmental or social change.
• Women Business Centers
• Open Meadows - For women only
• The Halstead Grant - For businesses selling jewelry
• Huggies Mominspired - $15,000
• Idea Cafe
• DC Small and Local Business Grant - They tend to offer the most grants to retail businesses that are revitalizing downtown neighborhoods in Washington DC
• Kansas Job Creation Fund
• Miami Mom and Pop Small Business Grant
• Seed Chicago
• Detroit NEIdeas Grants
• Intuit NASE Grant 

• Women's Net 
• Fundera
• Kabbage
• Paypal Working Capital

Miscellaneous Resources

• Score - Free Business Training and Resources
• Giveaway App - https://www.rafflecopter.com/
• Trello - online to-do lists, organize and collaborate with your team 
• Send Push Notifications to Browser
• Batch - Push notifications to browser
• US Copywright Office
• Grammarly - Online grammar and spell checker that installs to your browser. Highly Recommended.
• After the Deadline - spell and grammar checker
• Any.do - stay organized with this tool
• PaperRater - Grammar and Spelling Check
• Schedule your Instagram and/or Pinterest Social Media Posts - Tailwind
• Black Enterprise
• National Women's Business Council
• Startup Nation
• Easy Copy-Paste Blog Templates
• Outsourcing: Fiverr, Upwork
• Coschedule - Headline Analyzer for Blog Titles
• Content Idea Generator
• Stickermule (stickers, labels,magnets, buttons)
• Typeform , Wufoo, Surveymonkeys, Simple Survey, Google Forms - forms and surveys
• Tawk - Chat with customers  

Disclaimer: The Online Boutique Center website may contain links to external websites and I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Please note that The Boutique Business Hub does not guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any information on these external websites.

Last updated 07/25/2021