Ever struggle to put together a business plan, a schedule for a special project, or an invitation for a party? Wish you could easily whip out a decent website for your business or a lease for your rental? All of these tasks can be accomplished fairly simply if you start with a pre-designed template. And fortunately, there are many professional templates available for a variety of tasks, including marketing and business plans, legal forms, web pages and even advertising materials. You just need to know where to find them, and that's where we come in. We've come up with some of our absolute favorite sources for free templates. Take a look!
For basic needs, you may need to look no further than Microsoft's template homepage located at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx. You'll find a lengthy list of templates for virtually every personal and business need including brochures, budgets, stationery, schedules, newsletters, invitations and resumes. Click on any category, and you'll be presented with a range of options. The templates download in Microsoft Word, Excel or other commonly held applications, so you need not worry about having special software. They're customizable and easy to use. Check out the expansive list and do some experimenting!
If you own a business, you might be looking for a bit more in-depth help. For the more common needs, Score, operated by the Small Business Administration, offers a variety of helpful templates including business plans, bank loan requests, competitive analyses and a variety of templates to help build financial models and statements including balance sheets, breakeven analyses, and cash flow statements among many others. Visit http://www.score.org/template_gallery.html. Again, the templates use commonly held programs in Microsoft Office and are easy to use and professionally built.
If your concern is a legal matter, there are again a variety of sources on hand. One example is http://www.legal-forms-kit.com/freelegalforms.html. The site is loaded with useful options including bills of sale, last wills, leases, powers of attorney, sales of a car and on, and on. Be sure to consult with your attorney before executing the final document, but the site can be helpful in saving you a great deal of money on basic agreements. To give your hobby or business the jump start online, you might want to consider using free templates to build your website instead of using costly web site designers. We found a couple of interesting sources, notably http://freelayouts.com. The site offers hundreds of free html, CSS style sheets and flash template pages. You'll also find code generators for making a variety of helpful enhancements for your visitors such as topbars, navbarts, drop-down menus, etc. If you're new to this sort of thing, you'll also find articles and tutorials to help.
And finally, now that you've got your website, you'll want to put out great advertising without a lot of expense. A great source for advertising templates is www.stocklayouts.com, offering a variety of professionally constructed advertising templates. The majority of templates carry a fee, but there are a few that can be downloaded as a free trial at www.stocklayouts.com/Products/SampleLayout/SampleChoice.aspx.
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