46 Ways To Start A Business With No Money Most people who want to start their own business don’t have a ton of money laying around and it’s probably one the most common questions I get emailed about: How can I get started without a lot of cash? Well I’ve put together a list below of the best ideas I’ve heard and personally used. I hope you find it useful! The three basic strategies to starting a business without much money are: Delay the normal “business starting” activities like incorporating, hiring, renting office or retail space, etc until AFTER your business has started earning money. This is known as bootstrapping.Doing everything yourself and spending your personal time instead of hiring an expert. Start With The Easy Stuff: Eliminate Expenses Don’t rent an office! Legal Stuff and Incorporating Make a website for your business Getting a Logo Don’t hire a fancy graphic designer. Accepting Credit Cards Starting a service business where you consult, coach, teach, etc Creating Info Products Before investing in a retail location…
Starting a Business: Advice from the Trenches If you’re like thousands of other designers, programmers and other creative professionals out there, at one point in time you’ve considered starting your own business. Unlike most, you’ve gone against common sense and decided to open shop for yourself. And not just freelance full-time, mind you, but file for the company name, get some stationery, and wade through the legal mumbo-jumbo. Maybe even get a real office with a water cooler. This article offers real-world advice from the trenches of a small start-up, and is applicable to designers, web developers, copywriters, usability experts and all manner of service providers. Freelancers take heed: there are several items that are just as pertinent to your profession. Write a Business Plan#section1 The most important thing you can do to prepare for starting and operating your own business. A few years ago, new age business rhetoric said forget the business plan and just run with it. File for a Fictitious Name#section2 Funding#section3 Good:
29 Ways to Collect Email Addresses for Your Business Looking for ways to grow your list of newsletter subscribers? There are a ton of ways to get people to sign up for your weekly or monthly email marketing campaigns. I’ve put together a list for you to read, so you have heaps of options for growing your list. Include a link to your newsletter sign up form in the main navigation bar of your website and/or blog. (Or better yet, include a sign up form in the main navigation bar).Create a “sign up” call to action on your Facebook business page.Create enticing visuals encouraging people to sign up for your list, and post them on social media channels (especially Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn).Attend or exhibit at a trade show or networking event and bring a newsletter email sign up clipboard or book. Bonus: Optimize your site for appropriate SEO keywords, and ensure your business is on appropriate online listings. Have any additional ideas? Need more ideas for your next email? Send your next email for free using VerticalResponse.
How not to start your cover letter This was one of our most popular blog posts this year, and we think the advice is so good it should be repeated! If you’re looking for some awesome cover letter advice on how *NOT* to start your cover letter (and some great examples of how you should be starting it) then read on! On a weekly basis any hiring manager probably receives between 50 and … well, probably hundreds of resumes and cover letters. Here is the most boring intro line because everyone uses it: Please accept my resume for consideration of the (XYZ) position within your organization. What a snoozer! Administrative: If you are spending too much time compiling tedious lists of general office duties and administrative tasks, then I have the solution for you. Customer Service: It’s twice as hard to attract a new customer as it is to maintain an existing one. Nonprofit: Try something like this: “In today’s challenging economic climate, many people will respond to your advertisement. However … General: “Integrity.
10 Blogs Entrepreneurs Need to Be Reading | | Grasshopper BlogGrasshopper Blog See the 2012 edition: 10 Must Read Blogs for Entrepreneurs (2012 Edition) #1. The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur Site: What it is: Mike Michalowicz provides entrepreneurs and small businesses with tips on everything from starting a business to networking to marketing and health care. Why you should read it: Mike not only provides great tips but he provides great tips from REAL people. #2. Site: What it is: Written by a panel of small business owners, the site offers tips and advice on everything business related. Small business trends really covers EVERYTHING! #3. Site: Run by two brothers, Matthew and Adam Toren, Young Entrepreneur is exactly what it sounds like; a site dedicated to young entrepreneurs. Between blog posts, forums, polls and interviews with other small business owners, the site offers fantastic content. #4. Site: Why you should read it: #5. #6. #7. #8.
Eight Questions To Ask Before You Start A Business Are you thinking of starting a web business? Starting a PPC Management agency? Setting up your own site and selling things, or building a web publishing empire? Before you start, ask yourself the following eight questions. 1 . Define what service the business provides. Try to focus. McDonalds could, no doubt, provide up-market meals, but they focus on selling quick, cheap food. That is what they do. 2. Who are your customers? Create a mental image of your typical customer. 3. What is your unique selling proposition? If your customers can buy the same services for less elsewhere, or more easily, they will. There is a tendency to model yourself on others. This is not to say doing something wildly new or different is any guarantee of success. 4. This point is so important, it really should be number one. Businesses may have great ideas. Then the bank manager calls. The overdraft has hit its limit and you can’t meet payroll this week. There is no fooling cashflow. 5. 6. 7. Set company goals. 8.
5 things that destroy a company’s value Imagine this: You build a tech company with lots of happy customers and an enterprise value of 1.0 times revenue. So you challenge the sales team, the company doubles its top-line revenue and achieves an enterprise value of .75 times revenue. Or less. This may sound ridiculous. But it happens all the time. Take a look at Cisco over the last decade. So over the span of 10 years, Cisco’s sales rose nearly 94 percent while its enterprise value actually declined 29 percent. Cisco is not alone among legacy technology companies. Sales don’t create value, what you do creates value How can it be that a successful company with seemingly healthy revenue growth can decline in enterprise value? Because when it comes to value, what you do matters – the business you’re in, the markets you serve. There is one more thing: the enterprise value of your company is based not just on past performance – a fact that Investors in the public market are continually reminded of. 1. 2. 3. Let me state the obvious.
All Revenue is Not Created Equal: The Keys to the 10X Revenue Club May 24, 2011: May 24, 2011: [Follow Me on Twitter] “ Don’t you know that you are a shooting star,And all the world will love you just as long,As long as you are.” – Paul Rodgers, Shooting Star With the IPO market now blown wide-open, and the media completely infatuated with frothy trades in the bubbly late stage private market, it is common to see articles that reference both “valuation” and “revenue” and suggest that there is a correlation between the two. What drives true equity value? Because of the difficulty of getting DCF right, investors commonly use a handful of other shortcuts to determine valuations. The following chart highlights 2012 forward price/revenue ratios for 122 global Internet stocks. Before we talk about why there is such disparity, it is important to highlight a few more points. What causes such a wide dispersion of price/revenue multiples? 1. If high price/revenue multiple companies have wide moats or strong barriers to entry, then the opposite is also true. 2.