This is not just about POLE. This is about BUSINESS.
Vendor Booth During PoleCon

(Even More) Free or Low-Cost Resources for Pole Professionals

The internet has a huge number of resources, many for free. Check out these resources for pole dance professionals shared during our Pole Business Panel held at the 4th annual Virtual PoleCon on October 21, 2024.

These resources are in addition to this existing list of Top 10 FREE resources for pole professionals which covers some marketing and business resources.

Free Legal Help

  • Your Local Bar Association (US)—existing lawyers (not students) may agree to provide some pro-bono (or free) services to small business. They may also have free templates for common things like non-disclosure agreements, non-compete agreements, photo releases, and more tailored for your legal jurisdiction.
  • Your Local Law School— students at local law colleges universities may have “capstone” or other final projects where they write a business plan or a marketing plan. Contact them to see if one of these students would work for free on your, real business rather than creating an imaginary business.
  • Embassies— if you’re looking to do business in another country, go to the embassy for that country. They may have digital or in-person resources to share with you to help you decide if international expansion is for you/your business focusing on the legal aspects.

Free General Business Help

  • Your Local Chamber of Commerce—some localities have city, county, state, and other regional levels of Chambers of Commerce, Boards of Trade, or other free (or low cost)
  • Local Colleges/Universities (Capstone projects)—students at local universities may have “capstone” or other final projects where they write a business plan or a marketing plan. Contact them to see if one of these students would work for free on your, real business rather than creating an imaginary business.
  • Embassies—if you’re looking to do business in another country, go to the embassy for that country. They may have digital or in-person resources to share with you to help you decide if international expansion is for you/your business focusing on the business aspects.
  • Talking to other people—it sounds silly but networking and talking to people in all those places that there are people like your kid’s school, your church, your gym, where you do your hobby, all these places might have people in them that can help you or lead you to someone who can. Talk to people!

Online or App-based:

  • OpenOffice—Microsoft Office functionality but free (slides, documents, etc.)
  • Google Workspace—Microsoft Office functionality but free and collaborative (slides, documents, etc.)
  • Otter.ai—meeting transcriber

Free Marketing Help

  • Local Colleges/Universities (Capstone projects)—students at local universities may have “capstone” or other final projects where they write a business plan or a marketing plan. Contact them to see if one of these students would work for free on your, real business rather than creating an imaginary business.

Online or App-based:

Video editing:

  • Magisto—video editor app (free to start). Now part of Vimeo
  • CapCut—video editing app

Photo editing and royalty-free photos:

General marketing:

Link based:

  • bitly.com—shorten or make unique URLs
  • LinkTree—single link for all your information
  • Beacons—single link in bio and more marketing

Sound/music editing:

Social:

 

There are many more tools that are low cost or ramp up slowly in cost making it easier than ever to start and run your small business or side hustle.

IPIA members, check out our partners for discounts off important business tools, education, and equipment for your new pole-based business. Not a member? Join today!

What resources would you add to this list?

 

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