Tips to Bootstrap to Success #5
from Blog of Dr Shannon Reece 3/13 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz 7/13
16. Focus On Sales first.
Use Press Releases & be Okay with Incremental Steps.
If your budget isn’t very big, you need to Boot-strap your business start by focusing on sales. Send out Press Releases to as many places as you can — use Press Release services online (if you have to), call your local papera. Get the word out that way, and move onto other more costly tactics once the sales start coming in. Be okay with incremental steps. It is tempting to hold back a service or product until it is perfect, but finding ways to expose what you do have working – to customers – can get the ball rolling. It amazes me how often people are excited to use something they know is a “work in progress”. It makes them part of the process, they are going to tell you exactly what should be improved and in which order.
17. Bartering for Boot-Strappers
Boot-Strapping a businesses can utilize Bartering to boost Sales & conserve cash. It’s easy, it’s smart & it works like a charm. Savvy entrepreneurs are discovering that Bartering is a great vehicle for moving excess inventory, using downtime, attracting new customers, and generating Barter dollars that can be used for advertising and other business expenses. In its simplest form, Bartering involves an equal trade. One business swaps a product or service for another. Through professional Barter Exchanges (where members pay a commission fee for goods or services traded) more complex trades are possible. A business lists a product or service for “trade” through the Barter Exchange. In return, the business receives a “trade credit” based on the dollar value of trade.
18. Poverty is no Excuse for Bad Taste
Entrepreneurs should go to the experts and either barter, create an equity arrangement, payment schedule or some other compensation, before they launch their companies on a shoe string with compromised messaging & graphics. Your brain’s memory works with only one cue card: experience. Without a brand experience, you have nothing. And that’s no way to launch a business. A “brand promise” must be articulated with a ‘reason to believe’. You have ONE shot to make a good impression – you can’t fix it later. If you feel you need to, get help to write your Mission Statement – do a few pages of a website and keep building as you go – but either copy from a design you like or have a pro design it for you. The dirty little secret is – the investment you make in branding right from the start, gets amortized over the next 10 years of your business if you do it right.
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