Operating Successfully On A Shoestring Budget

by Willie Crawford

Almost daily I get email from people trying to get their businesses off to a good start who tell me they're operating on a shoestring budget. My first thought is always, "I hope you're cutting the right corners."

What I mean by that is - there are certain corners you can cut, and then there are things many new business people do that limits their business growth substantially. Distinguishing between the two requires a lot of analysis and careful consideration. Basically, there are some things that you must do to succeed in an internet-based business.

These essentials are based upon the fact that people dealing with you on the internet must make their assessment of you on the image you present. If cutting corners presents the image of a struggling business person who might not even be capable of fill their orders - you have killed most of your potential sales.

I will just throw out just a few essentials and suggest you to mull these over. There are a lot of articles out there proving the essentialness of each

. (1) You must have your own domain name. You need to use this domain name in your own webpage address and in your email address. The prevailing thought is that if you do not have your own domain name, you are either still struggling too much to be worth taking the risk on, or you are a fly-by- night operator hiding behind a throw-away address. Either perception will kill more business than you can afford. A domain name only cost $35 per year. Folks, this is only 10 cents a day to add TREMENDOUS LEGITIMACY to your image. Reserve your own domain name today! To see if the domain name you've been considering is available check free now on my webpage at: http://www.virtualisys.com/vr/wcrawfor/domain_search.html

(2) You must allow customers to order using the payment option they prefer. This means you must allow them to pay for your product or service using credit cards, online checks, or by mailing the payment in to you. Neglect offering any of these options and you are loosing sales. It's also a proven fact that customers who pay using credit card also place bigger orders. Perhaps it's that perception we all have that credit cards aren't real money. Yes, a traditional merchant account can be very expensive, but there are alternatives for the struggling new business.

(3) You must build a customer list of individuals whom you have permission to maintain regular contact with. These are the people who subscribe to your newsletter, or are members of your website mailing list. These are the people who gradually get to know and trust you and are most likely to buy your worthwhile products and services. Marketing on the internet is generally a three step process. You get people to inquire about a product or service, you provide the requested info, and you follow up. If what you have to offer fills a real need, your prospects will buy if you keep in touch! To repeat - you generate interest in your product or service, build a list of people who have told you that they are interested and that it is ok to email them periodically, and you FOLLOW UP.

(4) You must advertise to build upon your mailing list and bolster your online presence. Advertising is:

(1) placing classified ads in ezines and at free classified sites,
(2) posting to discussion groups, and newsgroups,
(3) writing e-zine articles,
(4) getting listed in all of the major search engines under the proper keywords,
(5) trading links with compatible sites
(6) using free-for-all links pages both to attract traffic to your site and to improve your search engine rankings, and
(7) giving people a reason to come back to your site frequently to see what's new.

Do all of these things and your customer list will gradually grow over time to hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands. You will have requests to be removed from your list from time to time but the new subscribers will be many times greater. It does take time, but you business can grow operating on a shoestring budget. The thing you need to watch is false economy.

If you spend $30 advertising and earn $60 in profits from that ad, then you have just doubled your money. Reinvest that profit in a place where you generally get back twice what you spend and after five time that $30 has grown to $960. Folks, there are places where this happens, especially if the product is a low cost product such as informatin.

Ezine advertising is some of the most effective advertising available. That's why you see all of the enthusiastic testimonials in some of the better ezines. They get great results. The ezine is mailed to people who anxiously look forward to each content-rich issue and they devour each issue. You ads are read if the ezine is a good one. So this is one of the proven places where too many businesses practice false economy.

The other place people often practice false economy is when they trade time for money. Your ad has to be seen by a large number of appropriate prospects. Research also shows that many of these prospects will need to see the same ad 7 or more times before they seriously consider it. To me this means using automatic submission services (for some search engines, free for all links pages, and free classifieds sites) when appropriate. For example, free-for-all links have been proven to attract traffic to your site.

The service I use will post two of my URLs to around 600 sites every day for $20 per month. That's 36,000 links posted a month for only $20 or $.0006 per listing . I don't know about you, but first of all I don't have time to post 30,000 links per month. Secondly, since this would probably take me over one month to post at the speed I type, I think my time is worth more that $20 per month.

The service I use is called autolink and their banner is across the bottom of many of my pages. You need to think of all you expenditures in these terms. If you get good results from an investment in your business then choosing cheaper means of doing things may still grow your business, but will it be at an acceptable pace?

Operating on a shoe string budget still means paying for some business essentials, but also taking advantage of the many freebies that are out there. These freebies are available on many popular websites including mine at http://www.williecrawford.com

Use them, but pay for the things you NEED to, and that your business can't afford to do without. Doing otherwise turns that shoestring into a noose.

Willie Crawford is a well-know internet marketing consultant and writer.
His website is filled with articles designed to help you succeed.
Visit http://www.williecrawford.com today!
This article may be freely used in your ezine or on your website as long as it is reproduced in it's entirety, to include this footnote and it is not altered.
* Copyright © 1999 Willie Crawford All Rights Reserved *