The primary concern of every aspiring entrepreneur is to keep their startup costs as low as possible. Though an online business faces several unavoidable charges, you can reduce your operating costs through a never-ending selection of tools. The fact is, you can't do everything on your own, no matter how savvy you are. If you're building or growing a startup, you should invest in tools that can help you optimize, automate, and enhance every aspect of your business.

But how do you decide which ones to choose? How can you tell which ones can actually help you expand your business and achieve your objectives? Take a look at some of the best tools and resources that will help you grow your startup this year:

1. AnswerThePublic: Content marketing is the most effective tool for startups to reach out to their target audiences and build brand awareness. AnswerThePublic can help you generate hundreds of content ideas.

2. Hootsuite: One of the best social media marketing tools for startups used across the globe. With its free plan, you can schedule up to 30 posts across any social platform. It helps you calculate the return on investment (ROI) of your social media campaigns and keep track of their impact.

3. MailChimp: Email marketing is a tried-and-true strategy that has done wonders for many startups. This email marketing tool allows digital marketers to send emails directly to any user's inbox using a secure email provider.

4. Canva: One of the easiest graphic design platforms that help entrepreneurs create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents, and other visual content. You no longer need a design background to create impactful visuals that convey your brand message. With a library of more than a million fonts, images, and icons, you can come up with an array of visually appealing content.

5. Quillbot: Do you need to improve your writing? Look no further. Quillbot is one of the best artificial intelligence paraphrasing tools that help you write better, faster & clearer.

6. ClickUp: Do you need help with project management? ClickUp is your all-in-one suite to manage people, projects, and everything in between. Use it to streamline projects and tasks with lists, boards, delegating, and more. ClickUp also lets you use automation to reduce repetitive tasks.

7. Slack: This is the classic team collaboration tool for keeping everyone engaged and productive. Slack is hands down the best way to communicate quickly in groups or 1 on 1, organize discussions by topic (i.e. channels), and have everything in one place.

8. Squarespace & Shopify: If you are looking to create an eye-catching website for your startup, Squarespace is an all-in-one solution that allows you to claim a domain, build a website, sell online, and market a brand. If you’re selling a physical product online, Shopify should be your first stop. It covers everything you need to establish an e-commerce business, from the storefront to the backend.

9. Google Drive & DropBox: Focus on the work that matters and use tools like GD & Dropbox as a safe place to back up and access all your files from any device. Create and share your work online and access your backed-up documents from anywhere.

10. Coursera: Help your team grow their skill set, earn degrees, and advance their career with targeted courses from top universities around the world.

If you’re looking for an extremely useful new tool that adds AI capability to Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, AIExcelBot is your go-to formula generator.

Evaluate your startup's needs before investing in any paid tools. Identify inefficiencies or areas you think your startup is falling behind. Next, hunt for resources to help you solve those specific issues. A while later, review the results from each tool to make sure it’s fulfilling its purpose. That's the only way you won't end up blowing your budget on a collection of tools you'll never use.