Entrepreneurs are often strapped of cash. Sreekrishna Sankar, who has just completed his Post Graduate Diploma in Management at IIM Bangalore, has come up with a list of tools that entrepreneurs can use in such times; most of this is free and freely available for use. Incidentally, Sreekrishna, and a couple of his batchmates at IIMB, Ajith Pai and Sahil Barua, have floated a firm Catalyst Ventures, which worked with a few start ups. Thanks for sharing this info, Sreekrishna.

1. Business Plan developer for developing professional business plan templates which can be a starting point(free)
2. Open Office – a free alternative to the Microsoft Office suite (free)
3. Google Apps for small business. Google Apps also offers a personal calendar, word processor, and a spreadsheet editor. Because the programs are web-based, all information edited on them can be shared easily and in real time. (free)
4. Zoho Suite – provides online tools for project management, database management, web conferencing and CRM support (free)
5. For the startups needing their own servers and databases, freely available Apache suite of products and the mysql/postgres are free options
6. Free accounting software  like Turbocash, Wesabe help in quickly setting up the financial processes in startups.
7.Setting up a website is very easy even for newbies through Weebly. Weebly also provides domain registration and your professional website can be up and running within minutes.

⊕