How To - run a business on a low budget

[paulieG]

Hi everyone, I’m new and I just thought I’d make a list of services that benefit businesses that I know of. If anyone knows of any other services please add them, it would be great to have a list of services in one spot, and I’d love to know more services if anyone knows of any cheap and effective ways of doing things, particularly in the area of advertising. I’ll get the ball rolling. Please note I am not affiliated with any of these services, these are just services I have used or heard of people using.

Products:

Clickbank – http://www.clickbank.com
Some people like this path, some people hate this path. If you are looking to make some cash but don’t have anything to sell, Clickbank is a great site for finding and selling other peoples products. It is also great if you have a good product and would like other people to sell it for you, which saves you time.

Alibaba - http://au.alibaba.com
Buy bulk lots of just about anything from around the world. This is a great wholesale resource.

Advertising:

Daily deal sites are fantastic for getting your product or service out there. They advertise your product/service to potentially tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of buyers and it doesn’t cost you anything upfront. Daily deal type sites are hugely popular for buyers because these are sites that people can buy products/services for very cheap.
Your role is to make your service extremely cheap for a limited number of people. The daily deal site will then advertise it for you for free, and then for every sale made, they take a commission. The amount of commission varies from site to site so it’s worth asking around.
The idea of advertising through Daily deal type sites is to drastically reduce your profit margin, but gain heaps of new customers.
Here are some Daily deal type sites in no particular order:

Scoopon - http://www.scoopon.com.au
Spreets - http://spreets.com.au
Deal2Day – http://www.deal2day.com.au
Deals – http://www.deals.com.au
Catch of the Day - http://www.catchoftheday.com.au
Ouffer - http://www.ouffer.com
Groupon - http://www.groupon.com.au
Jigo City - http://www.jigocity.com.au
1-day - http://www.1-day.com.au

Website / Web Design:

Everyone needs a website, so since the demand is high, they can be very expensive. However there are DIY services around which are far less expensive.

WordPress - http://wordpress.org
WordPress is great if you want something really cheap. There are also heaps of free plug-ins which can turn your WordPress installation into just about any type of site and you don’t need a web designer. However there can also be a big learning curve and can be a really big pain at times. Certain versions of WordPress have trouble with some web hosting services, errors arise, it can often be a pain to set up if you’re doing something a bit different and even though there are thousands of templates out there good luck getting it to look good unless you are a proficient web or graphic designer already. However you can sign up to WordPress on the WordPress site and get a custom sub domain site and have a play with it and see if you like it.

Creative Site – http://www.creativesite.com.au
Creative Site is really easy to use. No installation required. Way easier to use than WordPress. Way better looking than WordPress. They have about 200 designs to choose from, all of which are beautiful and would probably cost you a few thousand dollars each if you got a web designer to design the site for you. You can update the site by yourself without having to pay a designer. They have video tutorials available, email support and live chat support. You can also sign up for free to see if you like it. Really affordable and professional service. It’s cheap, not as cheap as WordPress, but I’ve saved hours of frustration using it.

Phone Line:

Skype - http://www.skype.com
Skype is really handy. If you have an office computer connected to the internet (which most people do), just buy a cheap set of headphones with a microphone and you’re set. Skype has really cheap calling available including a plan which gives you unlimited national and international landline calls for $7.99/month and $15.99/month respectively. You can even purchase an internet phone number from Skype.

Amaysim - http://www.amaysim.com.au
I haven’t used Amaysim but people I know have and they absolutely LOVE it for it’s cheap mobile rates. Especially their unlimited plan which is really cheap and worth checking out. They use the Optus network so they get good coverage.

Virtual Office:
This is especially great for online businesses. Instead of hiring out real office space which gets costly, you can hire out virtual office space which is much cheaper. If you run a home or internet business, instead of putting your home address on your website, you can hire an office space somewhere within your area and put that address on your website. You can also hire assistants, so now you have an office and phone number where mail can be sent to and assistants will answer the phone for you. Since these virtual offices look after many businesses, they can make this service much cheaper than if you hired the people yourself.
A quick Google of ‘virtual office’ will bring up heaps.

So that’s my list. Please feel free to add more, I’m particularly interested in advertising. I will add more if I find more too!

[JakeThomas]

Hi Paulie - great list you have there!! Thank you very much for sharing =)

Just noticed this is your first post, why not head over to our new members thread here so we can learn a little about you.

[Burgo]

I agree what a good list to get started with, a couple of the daily deal sites I hadnt heard off but yes very good.

Why not tell us more about U

[heymp25]

Great list PaulieG.
What about online marketing and productivity tools for the small business and SOHO?

I don't want "self-promote" our company, but I think people starting off their own businesses should also focus on simplifying and automating their day-to-day tasks, so that they can become more productive- spending more time on viral marketing to get their business brand, products and services out to as many people with the least amount of effort.

Advertising is great, but it's passive. Marketing in my own opinion is more effective, as it actively engages the individual (consumer).

[jwmann2]

You left out a lot of the top dogs in affiliate marketing and social media. What about Linkedin for professionals? Commission Junction, Shareasale, Google's Affiliate Network? Clickbank has high payout percentages but the products are often $1 -$4.

[meme1820]

How about PPC advertising? Obviously it's not right for everybody, but depending on your business area and how well built your campaign is it can be relatively cheap and gives quick results in terms of increased traffic. Read about Facebook PPC or Google Adwords - just two of the main online advertising providers.

Social Media is a great one! Twitter and the like are brilliant for raising brand image and brand awareness..for free!

Following on from virtual offices, how about virtual assistant? Saves on hiring a real employee (National Insurance, sick pay, holiday pay..etc) and they can help you with all the admin tasks from answering the phone to typing up documents for relatively cheap.

[AshleyWhiteBusiness]

Affiliate marketing like Clickbank and Commission junction are very beneficial too. Also, I think business coupons are important too such as discounts for ink cartridges, paper, advertising etc. can really help any business save while still make their business grow.

[tradr]

With the Wordpress option.

You can host your Wordpress site at Tradr and use our commerce system too.

$6 per month. shameless plug - but i am actually trying to help entrepreneurs.

http://tradr.com

[Nilu753]

Starting a business doesn't have to require a large investment. In fact, there are many types of small businesses that are not only relatively inexpensive to start, but also have the potential to produce significant profits.

[tradr]

Starting a business doesn't have to require a large investment. In fact, there are many types of small businesses that are not only relatively inexpensive to start, but also have the potential to produce significant profits.

• You can set up free blogs/sites.
• Get cheap hosting.
• Use free project management tools
• Use cloud storage at iCloud, dropbox
• Use free google apps for your documents

If you need a cheap hosted commerce solution feel free to check out http://tradr.com


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