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For many people who have an entrepreneurial dream, there is no established nest egg or savings to start a small business. Don’t be discouraged! Many people before you have started a business through “bootstrapping”. You can get plenty of businesses started with very little upfront cash, and the cash you do need can be sought in unique, non-traditional ways.
It can be tempting to fund a business fully or partially with credit cards. Once you establish a federal employer identification number, you will start getting plenty of offers for business credit cards. Unfortunately, many people end up managing business credit like they do their personal credit-poorly. I recommend avoiding credit cards at all costs.
You may feel like you need an MBA to have the necessary knowledge to start a new business. Not so! Most of the information you need can be found for free online and at your public library. Learning to write a business plan, set up a marketing strategy, how to negotiate and find funding is all available to you for free. Additionally, seek out small business and entrepreneur groups to learn from and share with others more and less experienced than you.
Think DIY. Most people can set up a basic web site and blog. Using templates, you can design logos and order brochures and business cards (and incorporate the logo into your Web site) inexpensively. Do video recordings of yourself discussing your services and/or products. Make sure your products still look and function professionally.
Social media should be incorporated early and often. Start building an online community early and often-for free! Sign up for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube and start interacting with other members. Share information about your company, offer to help them and before you know it you will have a team on your side.
It is tempting to start hiring staff immediately but I don’t recommend it. Consider outsourcing as many of your tasks as possible. You can use a virtual assistant in the beginning fairly inexpensively. You can also outsource your marketing, accounting, IT and other tasks. You can continue using them long-term or replace with in-house staff as your business matures.
Keep your IT costs down by using “the cloud” (free online applications). Many office software packages are very expensive and purchasing them, and the required licenses, can cost you in the thousands. Instead use online applications for your word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and graphic design. You can also use free bookkeeping/invoicing applications and an additional benefit is secure online storage of much of your information.
Angel investors are wealthy men and women who invest in startup companies. Many of these individuals will band together to form a network. Consider approaching an angel network with your business idea. Normally they provide these loans in exchange for partial ownership or future stock options.
It is hard to release a product or service out to the world when you don’t feel that it is perfect. So long as it is good enough, get it out there and fine tune as you go along. You want to start generating a cash flow as soon as possible. Combine this with keeping your expenses low and you can get your business up and running sooner.
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