Yes, I know it doesn’t sound plausible! but there is actually a free alternative to Microsoft Office. The software I am speaking about is infact Open Office, and it is Open Source! For those of you who are new to all this (as we were once), open source is a great online movement whereby you do not have to pay to use the softwares, they are developed by very kind people and businesses who offer them for free.

That is not to say that you cannot contribute in order to help them keep up the good work, as we all have to pay to exist (yes even me, hence all contributions to help site development welcomed – email admin@thebusinessidea.com), but their products are indeed free and are very very good, I use Open Office and have done for the past 4 years, it does all the features I need it to and once you get used to the layout (it isn’t that different) it works fine.

So, if you wish to save some money off your start up costs then wonder over to Open Office and get some cool office documents, spreadsheets, databases, visual editors and much more!