30 Free Resources For Small Businesses And Startups

As a small and medium business (SMB) owner, you’re the CEO, social media manager, sales rep, and customer service representative all in one. If there’s one thing that can help you navigate these many roles, it’s knowledge. Always be learning, as the saying goes. 

Well, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you and compiled 30 free resources across all business teams — sales, marketing, service, and commerce — all with the added bonuses of productivity and artificial intelligence (AI). These valuable resources come from the experts, leaders, and innovators at Salesforce (along with some of our esteemed partners) built on trust, data, and all things AI. Let’s jump right in.

What you’ll learn:

• Free resources on sales and growth
• Free resources on marketing
• Free resources on service
• Free resources on commerce
• Free resources on productivity
• Free resources on AI
• Access more resources for your business with Salesforce

Free resources on sales and growth

Learning how to sell your products is the toughest and the most rewarding skill. These resources will equip you with information and tips on sales and business growth:

1. Small and Medium Business Trends Report

Salesforce’s Small and Medium Business Trends Report is a go-to resource for global SMBs and startups for one reason: know what other founders are prioritizing. We spent over a year digging deep into this free report to help SMBs optimize their business for sustainable growth. Get insights into AI tools for SMBs, top challenges, and tips to navigate them. And learn how AI agents can improve your business operations. Here are some takeaways:

• Prioritize customer experiences: Focus on improving customer experiences and customer retention.
• Increased tech investments: Busting common myths, SMBs are investing in tech to compete with their peers and enterprises.

2. Sales for Small Business Trail

Want to learn how to manage your sales pipeline or use automation in your sales journey? Sales for Small Business, a course on Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform, is your best bet. This short Trail requires only 30 minutes and introduces you to ‌customer relationship management (CRM) for small teams. 

Here are some key takeaways:

• Better lead management: A CRM for small business like Starter Suite helps you manage your leads, and focus on hot leads that will likely convert. 
• Automation enhances productivity: Pro Suite can automate multiple tasks and boost your workflows and productivity.

3. State of Sales Report

Salesforce’s State of Sales Report draws insights from 5,500+ sales professionals, covering everything from AI adoption in sales to revenue-generating methods like upselling, and cross-selling. Learn about the top challenges that sales teams are facing, and how to address them. Here are some key takeaways:

• Employee retention matters: Improve your team happiness and productivity through regular coaching and sales enablement on new tools, and AI. 
• Good data matters: Sales teams rely on data for tasks like sales forecasting, setting targets, and quotas.

4. Salesforce for Small Business Trail

Salesforce for Small Business is a Trailhead module on the benefits of a CRM for small and growing teams. In just 10 minutes, get an overview of SMBs’ impact on the economy and how Starter Suite equips them for the future. Here are some key takeaways:

• CRM benefits: CRMs offer a 360-degree view of your sales and service operations, helping you make informed decisions.
• Starter Suite’s scalability: Starter Suite grows as you scale, helping you seamlessly manage leads, contacts, and overall growth.

5. SMB Sales: A Complete Guide

Some say selling is an art, but we say it can be learned. The SMB Sales: A Complete Guide is a comprehensive resource on how to go after your prospects. It dives deep into the psychology of running an SMB, showing the factors that influence owners’ purchasing decisions. Here are some key takeaways:

• Choose scalable solutions: Invest in technology that scales as you grow instead of upfront investments.
• Ease of use: Highlight your solutions as easy to learn and implement — even without any technical skills.

6. Small Business Administration (SBA) Business Guide

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) offers the SBA Business Guide as a free resource on their website. This guide is designed to help you at every stage of your business journey. Learn fundamental topics like financing, legal requirements, and marketing. Here are some key takeaways:

• Step-by-step roadmap: Get guidance on everything from planning and starting a business to managing daily operations and growth strategies. 
• Targeted support: Targeted programs for underserved groups, including women, veterans, and businesses in HUBZones or rural areas.

7. Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) Business Mentorship

Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE)’s Business Mentorship program provides free guidance to aspiring and existing entrepreneurs through a nationwide network of volunteers and mentors. These experienced professionals offer advice and support across all stages of the business lifecycle, from initial planning to growth. Here are some key takeaways:

• Transparent mentorship: Be clear about your expectations and setbacks, as it helps your mentors offer accurate guidance and direction.
• Free templates: Quickly create a business plan, manage balance sheets, and conduct a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis. 

Free resources on marketing

According to the latest State of Marketing Report, marketers use at least eight different tools and technologies in their business journey. Learning to market your products and the value they offer to your customers — all while being consistent across channels — is important. These free resources can get you there.

8. State of Marketing Report

Salesforce’s State of Marketing Report is a survey of 5,000+ global marketers, who share insights about AI in marketing, personalization, and analytics. It covers various concepts, making it a useful playbook for navigating the modern marketing landscape. Here are some key takeaways:

• Keep innovating: Learn and continuously innovate using AI to stand out in the market.
• Strong marketing ROI: Monitor sales pipeline and revenue to learn which campaigns are generating conversions and customer acquisition.

9. How Marketers Make Meaningful Moments Happen Guide

Learn how to make moments magical with the web resource How Marketers Make Meaningful Moments Happen by Salesforce. This is a mix of demos, articles, webinars, podcasts, and customer stories that’ll guide you throughout your marketing journey. Bookmark this page for more learning. Here are some key takeaways:

• Foster loyalty: Build brand advocates and prioritize customer retention by maintaining strong engagement with them.
• Personalize everything: Customers today expect highly-tailored and relevant experiences as it makes them feel heard and valued.

10. Digital Marketing Roadmap Development Trail

Digital Marketing Roadmap Development is a Trailhead module that helps you assess your current marketing strategy and how to change it as you grow. Snack on this 25-minute course through topics like customer communication lifecycle and setting up specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) metrics. Here are some key takeaways:

• Set key metrics: Whether your focus is on email marketing or social media, identify the key performance indicators (KPIs). 
• Data quality matters: Your marketing performance is only as good as your data. Have the right and secure tools for data management. 

11. Salesforce Admins Podcast

Want to check out a podcast? Tune in to Salesforce Admins Podcast for insights from industry leaders and experts. From tips on building your business to understanding which technologies can fuel your growth, this podcast features real-life stories and examples from Salesforce users and customers. Learn about problem-solving and delve into the “why” behind certain tools and processes. Here are some key takeaways:

• Evolve with the times: Learn about emerging trends in marketing, from AI to changing customer behaviors, to adapt and grow.
• Data-driven engagement  Use data and technology to create personalized and meaningful customer engagement.

12. AI for Marketers Course

AI for Marketers is a collection of free online courses and resources from Salesforce. This includes a range of marketing certifications that’ll equip you with the skills to thrive in this AI-driven world. You’ll also get acquainted with Marketing Cloud and how it’s useful for creating landing pages and running multichannel campaigns. Here are some key takeaways:

• Email marketing practices: Understand how to set metrics like open rates and engagement rates for your email marketing campaigns. 
• Community learning: Join Moment Marketer, a Trailblazer Community to interact with other marketers and stay up-to-date on marketing learnings from Salesforce. 

Free resources on service

At least 63% of SMB leaders believe they meet customer expectations in comparison to large enterprises. Deliver consistent and prompt service to improve your customer satisfaction rates. These free resources provide best practices and insights into keeping your customers happy with great service. 

13. State of the AI Connected Customer Report

Salesforce’s State of the AI Connected Customer Report offers advice from 16,000 consumers and business owners on how generative AI (Gen AI) is transforming customer experiences. This all-encompassing guide covers both perspectives, giving you deeper insights into both business and consumer behavior. Here are some key takeaways:

• Build trust: With an increase in AI usage, having ethical AI practices in place will improve customers’ trust in your business. This increases product adoption, too. 
• Human involvement wins: Whether you’re using chatbots or autonomous AI agents with Agentforce 360, human supervision is highly important.

14. The Modern Customer Podcast

The Modern Customer Podcast, hosted by Forbes contributor and customer experience strategist Blake Morgan, spills the secrets of the world’s most customer-centric companies. Each weekly episode features experts and their advice on AI and leadership. Here are some key takeaways:

• Prioritize customer experiences: Advanced AI like machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) can help you understand customers better and automate mundane tasks.
• Customer-focused leadership: Effective customer experience starts from the top, requiring leaders to be deeply involved. 

15. How to Use Slack and Salesforce to Win New Deals and Deliver Better Customer Service Webinar

Everything begins with effective communication. And that’s what you’ll learn from the webinar, How to Use Slack and Salesforce to Win New Deals and Deliver Better Customer Service. Learn how to use Slack and Starter Suite together to improve your productivity and deliver better customer service. Here are some key takeaways:

• Communication consistency: Starter Suite is integrated with Slack and provides a unified view of your customers, letting your team communicate effectively about next steps in the sales process.
• Simplified operations: When Slack and Starter Suite work together, tasks like project management and daily operations are more organized.

Free resources on commerce

When you’re not busy selling, you’re probably busy shopping. And that’s why ecommerce is having its moment. With these free resources, grow your commerce business and compete with big brands. 

16. State of Commerce Report

Salesforce’s State of Commerce Report offers insights from 2,700 commerce leaders and 1.5 billion customers. From ecommerce trends to digital payments, customer needs are evolving. Learn all about these shifts and refine your strategies using this guide. Here are some key takeaways:

• Digital wallets are here: About 62% of consumers prefer using digital wallets like Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, and Google Pay to buy online. Offer diverse payment options to make shopping more convenient.
• Social commerce roars: Consumers today shop from brands through social media platforms. Engage them where they are.

17. Start Selling Online with Storefronts in Starter, Pro, and Foundations Webinar

Start Selling Online with Storefronts in Starter, Pro, and Foundations is a free webinar that covers various aspects of your ecommerce journey. From setting up your online storefront to running ecommerce merchandising, learn how Starter Suite and Pro Suite can help. 

Also, this webinar introduces you to Salesforce Foundations, a free CRM upgrade for existing Salesforce customers. This offers key features across Agentforce 360 and various Salesforce products like Sales Cloud and Service Cloud. Here are some key takeaways:

• It’s all about unified commerce: Bring your marketing, sales, and service together with built-in tools for a unified commerce strategy. 
• Storefront builders make life easy: Even with minimal or no design experience, set up your online store using our storefront builder. This comes integrated with Starter Suite. 

18. Sell Everywhere With Commerce Cloud Trail

Sell Everywhere With Commerce Cloud is a comprehensive Trailhead module that covers all the basics of Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Get acquainted with its key features and plan your unified commerce strategy and marketing efforts. You’ll need over three hours to complete this course. Here are some key takeaways:

• Unified customer experiences: Deliver consistent, personalized shopping experiences wherever your customers are engaging — on mobile, social media, in-store, or through chat.
• Simplify operations: Whether it’s inventory management or running promotions, use a CRM that centralizes all your business and customer information. 

19. Social Commerce Strategies Trail

Can social commerce generate sales? Absolutely. And that’s what you’ll learn in Social Commerce Strategies. This Trailhead module teaches you about shoppable content and building a feedback loop for your social commerce strategy. You’ll need only 15 minutes to complete this course. Here are some key takeaways:

• Engaging shoppable content: Create content that resonates with your audience on social media and embed product links for shopping.
• Improve with feedback: Use social media monitoring to know how people are speaking about your business online. 

20. Proven Tips to Make Every Season Your Peak Holiday Season Guide

If you’ve been wondering how to prep for the holiday season, this quick guide will come in handy. Proven Tips to Make Every Season Your Peak Holiday Season is a free resource from Salesforce with top three tips to help you succeed during the holiday season. Learn how to deliver highly personalized shopping experiences using Agentforce 360, taking a cue from Saks Global. Here are some key takeaways:

• Ecommerce site testing: Holiday site crashes cost sales – and your reputation. Test and optimize your ecommerce site for peak performance.
• Establish AI guardrails: This is the cornerstone of ethical and trusted operations as it prevents unintended biases or harmful outcomes.

Free resources on productivity

Switching between tools and distractions are common culprits that impact productivity: SMB owners typically juggle four different tools, apps, or programs every workday. Get on track with these free resources.

21. How to Maximize Your CRM Productivity E-book

Salesforce’s free e-book How to Maximize Your CRM Productivity helps you stay productive and scale fast with the right tools. It shares strategies to save time through automation, and boost employee efficiency. 

The guide also covers how a well-integrated CRM reduces costs and simplifies various business processes, from managing sales cycles to marketing segmentation. And that’s why Salesforce CRM is increasing sales productivity by 30% and employee productivity by 31%. Here are some key takeaways:

• Enable self-service: Online portals with answers to common concerns allow customers to troubleshoot issues, and manage their accounts independently. 
• Train your team: Create custom learning paths or access free training on Trailhead to upskill your team.

22. Personal Productivity Trail

Personal Productivity is a Trailhead module on how to manage your time like a pro. Learn how to do your routine tasks in a new way and make your calendar work for you. Also, get tips on time blocking to work on high-priority tasks. You’ll need only 15 minutes to learn these skills. Here are some key takeaways:

• Do deep work: Turn off notifications, close down distractions, and give yourself the solid, unbroken time you need to‌ finish those big, important tasks.
• Set clear agendas: Set clear agendas for your meetings, and provide read-ahead documents to respect everyone’s time. 

23. Drive Productivity With Salesforce AI Trail

Drive Productivity With Salesforce AI is a Trailhead module that covers everything from prompts to using out-of-the-box Salesforce AI products. Learn the basics of prompt fundamentals and how they can enhance operations across your business. Set up Agentforce 360 for your SMB and get all the required information on Agentforce Specialist Certification. Here are some key takeaways:

• Prompts simplify operations: Whether you’re using AI prompts for sales or to improve customer service, prompts guide AI to generate relevant and helpful responses.
• Save more time: Agentforce 360 helps you build AI agents to simplify operations by handling repetitive tasks and providing agents with the right information at the right time.

24. How Small and Growing Businesses Can Use Generative AI to Drive Productivity Webinar

How can AI impact sales and service across SMBs? In How Small and Growing Businesses Can Use Generative AI to Drive Productivity, a Salesforce webinar, learn how AI enables personalization and efficiency across your business. This free resource also takes you through a quick demo. Here are some key takeaways:

• AI for lead management: From lead scoring to lead nurturing, AI helps you prioritize your most promising leads and recommends how to convert them fast.
• More alignment: A unified dashboard with AI insights creates more collaboration across your team. 

Free resources on AI

A whopping 87% of SMB leaders believe AI will equip them for the future. Keeping up with AI trends and learning is crucial for every SMB founder. The following resources will keep you updated with the latest and the best in AI.

25. Grow Your Business With AI Agents E-book

Grow Your Business With AI Agents is a free e-book from Salesforce that highlights the key use cases of AI agents in an SMB. This covers the key components and types of AI agents that growing businesses often use. As most SMBs operate with lean resources, AI agents help them manage their growing business needs without increasing the headcount. Here are some key takeaways:

• Train your AI: Your AI agents are only as good as the data you train them with. So, keep training them on clean, updated data for data-driven decisions.
• Round-the-clock service: Unlike humans, AI agents don’t sleep and can deliver 24/7 service — no matter where, how, or when your customers contact you.

26. Explore Generative AI Tools Trail

Prefer to start with the fundamentals? In Explore Generative AI Tools, learn the basics of large language models (LLMs) and AI models. This Trailhead module covers AI capabilities and how it can understand ‌human conversational language. Today, AI chatbots use this as the foundation to deliver contextual and accurate customer service. Here are some key takeaways:

• Fine-tune your model: Based on your business needs and evolving goals, model fine-tuning enhances AI performance and accuracy. 
• Fewer communication gaps: NLP helps computers understand and create human language, making communication between people and machines more natural and effective.

27. AI Strategy Guide

With the AI Strategy Guide, learn how to prepare your business for and with AI, and the importance of having a strategic roadmap for it. This guide covers the necessity of setting AI guardrails and how Gen AI guidelines contribute to trustworthy AI development. From enabling your team ‌to having a solid checklist ready, these tips will get you started with ease. Here are some key takeaways:

• AI literacy: Continuous AI learning will help you adapt and stay relevant in our ever-changing world. Look for trusted resources like Salesforce AI Research to build knowledge.
• Foster trust: Building trust in AI is crucial as it improves adoption and enables safe, ethical integration of its benefits.

28. Unlocking Growth: AI and Tech Strategies for SMB Success Webinar

How can SMBs effectively introduce AI into their operations? Find out in the webinar Unlocking Growth: AI and Tech Strategies for SMB Success in 2025. We cover how to use tech, particularly AI, as a catalyst in scaling your business. Also, understand the biggest challenges that SMBs are facing — along with their solutions. Here are some key takeaways:

• Increased optimism: SMB founders are feeling confident about their future, thanks to accessible technology and AI. 
• Deep customer connections: SMBs feel they’re more connected with their customers, which gives them an advantage while delivering customized solutions.

29. How to Get Started With Voice AI Guide

Voice AI agents are dramatically transforming customer experiences. In How to Get Started With Voice AI, you’ll find out how. This comprehensive guide covers why automated agents aren’t enough for today’s consumers — and why they require voice AI agents to be on par with human service. 

The biggest benefit of voice AI agents is their ability to conduct sentiment analysis while on call with their customers. They can customize their service based on the customer tone, and quickly escalate the calls to the appropriate department. Here are some key takeaways:

• Multilingual support: With voice AI agents, you can extend support in multiple languages, thus improving customer satisfaction.
• Better time management: Focus on high-priority and high-value tasks, since voice AI agents can seamlessly manage repetitive or low-value tasks.

30. Grow Your Business With Salesforce Foundations Trail

Everything you need to know about Salesforce Foundations is right inside Grow Your Business With Salesforce Foundations. This all-encompassing Trailhead module introduces you to the various features packed inside Foundations. This includes sales, marketing, service, and commerce. You’ll need about 14 hours to wrap up this course. Here are some key takeaways:

• Personalized marketing campaigns: Foundations gives a 360-degree view of your customers across various touch points, optimizing your conversion rates.
• Data Cloud’s impact: Learn about Data Cloud and how it works across the entire AI ecosystem at Salesforce.

Access more resources for your business with Salesforce

Some of the best business resources on this planet are completely free — you just need to know where to find them. This is where Salesforce comes in. We’re passionate about bringing you the latest trends and free tools designed to support your growth. Starter Suite is built for small and ambitious businesses like yours. Think of it as a launchpad, packed with friendly, built-in guidance and easy onboarding tutorials. 

All set? Start your journey with a free trial of Starter Suite today. Looking for more customization? Explore Pro Suite. Already a Salesforce customer? Activate Foundations and try out Agentforce 360 today.

AI supported the writers and editors who created this article.