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People have always had revolutionary ideas about the future. The difference between then and now is that creating and sustaining a company is easier than ever due to the wealth of tech resources that we now have at our disposal.
This article will cover the subset of those resources that come in the form of awesome deals for students (or technically anybody with access to a school email)
Who’s starting small businesses in 2019?
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- 73% identify as male; and
- 25% identify as female.
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- 50-59 years old: 35%
- 40-49 years old: 25%
- 60-69 years old: 18%;
- 30-39 years old: 14%;
- 18-29 years old: 4%; and
- 70+ years old: 4%.
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- High School / GED: 33%;
- Associates Degree: 18%;
- Bachelor’s Degree: 29%;
- Master’s Degree: 16 %; and
- Doctorate: 4 %.
Creation Tools:
Most creator-based websites on this list are meant for graphic designers and creatives, but if you are an engineer or otherwise handsy, Octopart.com and Rhino deserve an honorable mention. Octopart.com is a database and parts-seller that makes building your own hardware transparent as well as simple. Rhino is a 3D product design tool.
Discounted for 12 months: 1&1 IONOS
1&1 Ionos is a German domain hosting company that competes with GoDaddy. It touts a much higher ranking than it’s competitor on it’s front page. Ionos offers an array of services aside from just domain hosting such as custom email domains, which, as you probably know, makes you and your employees looks a lot more legit in external communications. This company offers cloud and e-marketing products as well.
Discounted for 12 months: Adobe Creative Cloud
The world standard for graphic design. Adobe Creative Cloud provides students with a tool to create pretty much anything you can think of on their computer. The resources this platform has includes software for bringing drawings to life, pretty much infinitely editing pictures, manipulating video, rendering in 2D or 3D, and website design.
50% off: Sketch
As design-centric as the name suggests. This company offers everything a designer needs. It is used by companies such as Porsche, Nintendo, and Google. It has a very user-friendly interface and distinguishes itself from the competition by offering a ton of plugins that make your life easier.
50% off: Squarespace
Building a website is a necessary part of running a business. Squarespace is part of the new generation of website builders that remove the need for coding as much as possible from the website creation process. Its layouts, widgets, and tabs that propel your users into action. This service is known for being a bit on the complex side compared to its competitors like Wix, but it also is more comprehensive. You can use Squarespace to create pretty much the same level of site as you can with a paid Wordpress.
Analytics Tools:
Free for 12 months: Tableau
In 2020, the world will generate 50 times the amount of data it produced online in 2011. This software, available on mobile, allows users to engage with their data in real time. It invests heavily into R&D for cutting-edge code.
Free for 12 months: Azendoo
Turn conversations into actions. This tool reduces time spent in superfluous meetings and emails. It also adds a human touch on the tactical level that provides employees with a more accurate and nuanced understanding of what their co-workers need. The analytics part of this software allows you to track your team through time and understand who is performing and how.
Organizational Tools:
Free for current students: Lucid Chart
This is a very special organization tool. It allows you to draw systems and subsystems in flow chart form in order to communicate visually with your team. It is a powerful method of communicating complicated and difficult ideas rapidly. The fact that it is totally free for as long as you are a student is a nice touch, too.
Free for current students: Basecamp
Basecamp allows your team to communicate on different levels. This comes in handy when you have the same person working on multiple projects with potentially totally different departments. Basecamp is like the nicer, more professional version of Slack.
Free for six months: Asana
APIs get compared to waiters at restaurants. The more waiters the “restaurant” has the more “meals” it could prepare for—assuming everything is good in the kitchen. Asana has a strong API that connects with many platforms and services. The value Asana brings to the table is the ability to centralize all of your activity and multiply your productivity.
Most of these services will only require you to have an active .edu email. They are all valuable tools that people outside of academia actually have to pay full price for. Stay grateful and enjoy!