Today, there are various tools which are relatively cheaper but can still do the job as well as the expensive ones can. Some companies even offer beta testing and these are ideal for a startup which doesn’t have a lot of capital to spend. Listed below are 4 of the well-known tools which may be beneficial for your bootstrapped business.
Blogging has taken the place of conventional marketing strategies. More entrepreneurs can see now how joining the blogosphere is beneficial to their business, no matter if they’re operating it online or off. You could start out a blog for your business by signing up for a WordPress blog. It is free and easy to set up but of course it wouldn’t give you the flexibility and power that paid web platforms would.
One other marketing strategy is to grow your network via social networking sites. Being socially active online isn’t just for sharing private thoughts for your friends anymore and if you think that that’s still the case, you might have been living under a rock for the past few years. For every online networking site, there are advantages and disadvantages so you have to know which one to use that is aligned with your goals as well as the one which holds the most potential for your business.
If you need more manpower but cannot afford to hire a full-time employee, consider looking for a freelancer. You can try posting job ads in Freelancer or Odesk for project-based jobs and the good thing about it is, it would still be within your budget.
As for analyzing the performance of your online business, you could check out traffic sources and how it affects your site by using Google Analytics. It is free and you would be able to check how effective your marketing efforts are with the use of this tool.
There are many opportunities for growth available for entrepreneurs. It may be a tough decision to break away from that 9-to-5 job because of the risks that a startup may face but as for funding, it is all blown out of proportion. One might think that in order to compete with corporate giants, you would have to start big. That’s not the case. I’m not much of a biblical person but take the case of David and Goliath. Small businesses have always been David and you would just need to figure out where to hit what hurts them most: their target market. The lesson? Start small, be resourceful, make a market research and even if you are using free or inexpensive tools, you would still have a fighting chance to make it in the business industry.
