This post assumes you have just started a business that sells either a service or products:
Getting up to speed quickly with your new business is vital to generating profit and testing assumptions (if the business will work) without you loosing too much time and money. I have personally setup 4 businesses and helped thousands of new startups and here are some tips I have for getting started on a tight budget.
- Branding:
I am a big fan of 99designs for their very professional logos and the way you can get multiple talented designers working at the same time based on your direct feedback. I have used them a few times, most recently for this logo:
A great logo can be created for around £239.
- Website:
A simple website that converts your visitors to customers is key as you'll need have a home for all your online and offline marketing. You don't need a huge fancy website, the basics will do for now. You can always build a huge ecommerce website once your business has proved successful.
Harbour Websites make excellent websites starting at around £500 which look and function really well.
- Online Directories:
Yell.com have a great tool to check if your business is registered on the business directories online. I have used this to find the most popular and useful place to put my companies information. Obviously Google/Yell/Facebook are huge and should be very well developed first. This can all be completed for free using just your time.
- Reviews:
Ask everyone you complete work to complete a review, this is great in the early stages and you can even offer an incentive for these customers. Building a trustworthy brand is key to gaining new clients.
Any remaining money should be spend getting clients.
Jack Morgan - Director
