You’re probably already more than aware, but starting your own businessis pricey. From finding capital to manufacture products to allocating funds to pay employees—expenses can add up fast. Especially when it comes to purchasing all the necessary software you need to help your business reach success—just for reference, Microsoft Suite (which gives you access to excel spreadsheets and word documents) is a whopping $279, and that’s just accommodates two computers! Thankfully you can save a good chunk of cash by skipping expensive software and downloading alternative, free versions instead. While the free applications are basic in form, they still get the job done. That said, this article is tailored to help small business owners save a few bucks, these recommendations can certainly help a regular consumer save some money as well.

1. Open Office — Let’s get the highest priority software out of the way first. Like mentioned above, Microsoft Suite doesn’t come cheap. But with Open Office, which is an open source application, you can get all the perks of Microsoft Suite for free such as access to word processing documents, spreadsheets, XHTML note pads, slides for presentations, and even graphics to embellish those documents and slides. In fact, it’s ranked as one of the best open source applications from various sources. Open Office is available for both PC and Mac users.
2. AVG Anti-Virus Software — There’s no point to having the software to construct important documents if you’re not going to have the software that will be able to protect that information from hackers and/ or viruses. Your computer could end up crashing, which means you’ll lose vital documents. Or you could end up giving malicious third parties access to customers’ or employees’ sensitive information such as social security numbers or credit card numbers that can result in identify theft. AVG is free and works to safeguard your information. It was voted as one of the most effective antivirus and antispyware free software by various sources. Runner up is Malwarebyte, according to PC Mag.com.
3. PagePlus Starter Edition  — From the very beginning, a small business owner’s main concern is finding a variety of ways to promote their products or services to grasp the attention of their targeted audience. Typically, this is where a team of marketers come into play. But marketers cost a pretty penny to hire. If you’re merely interested in creating a few flyers, newsletters or advertisements to get your name out there, all you really need is some basic desktop publishing software to do the trick yourself. PagePlus Starter is idea for those who aren’t really familiar with the complexity of layouts, alignment and color schemes.
4. TrueCrypt — Lastly, because you are in fact the owner of your business, you’ll probably be constantly on-the-go and will try to  squeeze in work wherever you can—like at your official work office, home office and the local coffee shop. That said, you’ll probably rely on a USB flash drive to store all of your documents. Flash drives are handy and really useful. But if that flash drive gets stolen or lost, you can end up in a heap of trouble and lose your “business secrets.” That’s why it’s important that you encrypt your flash drive so no one can access the information and files that are stored on your flash drive(s). An even safer alternative could be getting a free account with DropBox; it’s a remote data storage service that allows you to access documents from anywhere with internet connection (thus you never have to worry about leaving a small USB device behind or getting it stolen).

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Alvina Lopez is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez @gmail.com.