Invest In My Idea

If you are going to succeed in your small business, you must get people in the door, and that usually requires an advertising and marketing budget. The bootstrap start up thus has a doubly daunting challenge: growing the business and doing so without a lot of money. Tough, yes, but it can be done.

 Advertising on a Budget

Advertising is the lifeblood for many businesses, but to be effective, it must be done correctly. This is even more true when yours is a bootstrap business. There is no room for error. Accordingly, the first thing you must do is analyze who your customers are, or who they are likely to be. If you don’t know to whom you are selling, you won’t know where to advertise in order to reach them. How old are they? Where do they come from? What are they looking for?

Once you have a good idea of whom you are looking to attract with your advertising, you can earmark your ad money much more wisely and specifically. The trick is to find the right media source; that is, the one most frequented by your potential customers.

Chapter 16 delves into this subject more fully and explains all of your various media options. Suffice it to say at this juncture that the important thing to know is that there are many ways to advertise for next to nothing.

Buy unused time or space. If you call a magazine, newspaper, radio, or television outlet near their ad deadline, you may find that they have space they have not yet sold. This is called remnant space (for print media) or time (for the electronic media). Remnant buys are often available at a great discount.

Advertise in less traditional media outlets or at odd times. If your business will cater to teens, for example, buying an ad in a local alternative newspaper is much cheaper than your local daily. This is also true for electronic media. Buying an ad on television or radio is much less expensive if you advertise on smaller stations or in the middle of the night. A radio ad that may cost $250 per minute during peak drive times can be had for $25 late at night, and that just may be when your audience is listening. Similarly, your television dollar can go much further if you advertise on cable stations.

And no matter which media outlet you choose, the trick to getting your ad heard for less is to never agree to buy their going “rate card.” Find out what they are asking and offer less. Remember the rule: Everything is negotiable. It is quite possible to pay less than the going rate if you walk in with cash and a commitment to pay less.

Get your ad produced more cheaply. You do not need to hire an expensive ad agency to create your ad. Be creative. Find a graphic artist who moonlights or approach a student at an art school to create an ad for you. Be willing to barter.

Use flyers. Flyers can advertise specials, offer discounts, grab attention, and, best of all, be created very inexpensively on your computer.

Use door hangers. Hiring some local kids to distribute door hangers can be an inexpensive yet very effective way to bring in business.

Daily and weekly newspapers, as well as local and inexpensive classified ads, and the people who mood to buy something. Classified ads need to be to offer only one product or service per ad.

 

Tap into regional papers. Newspapers and other publications often have regional editions that cost much less to advertise in than the regular edition.

 

Barter. It is sometimes possible to barter your services for ads in various small media outlets.

Have visitors to your Web site “subscribe.” Ask visitors to give you their email address in order to get your content and make sure that you explain that their email addresses will be completely private. After that, send them to a special page on your site to sign up, and be sure to have an ad there for your product.

Place an ad in an ezine. Ezines, or electronic magazines, allow you to reach hundreds or thousands of targeted readers for free or for a very small fee. Ezines are categorized by subject, almost all are free, and many offer free ads for their subscribers. Inexpensive spots are also usually available at the top of each issue.

Use coop advertising. Here is a great option that you may not know about. It’s called cooperative (coop) advertising. Coop advertising is a costsharing arrangement between a manufacturer and a retailer wherein the retailer places an ad that is partially paid for by the manufacturer in exchange for the manufacturer’s product being mentioned in the ad.

For example, when a convenience store advertises a certain beer, you can bet that the beer company helped pay for the ad. That is coop advertising. Coop opportunities are available in every medium, from Yellow Page listings to print ads and radio and TV spots. Collectively, manufacturers earmark approximately $25 billion dollars annually to help small businesses stretch their advertising dollars. However, according to the Yellow Pages Publishers Association (YPPA), much of the money goes unused.

To start using coop advertising, ask your suppliers what coop programs they offer. Follow their rules carefully to be sure you get reimbursed. Some suppliers require that ads feature only their products, not those of any other supplier; others ask that no competing products be included.

Normally, you will need to pay for the ad and then present proof to the supplier that you mentioned their products. For print ads, just a copy of the ad exactly as it was printed will work. If you buy TV or radio ads, you’ll need a copy of the script with station affidavits of dates and times aired. You also will need to document the cost of the advertising, usually with copies of applicable invoices from the publication or station where you ran the ad. Finally, you will need to submit a claim and your documentation.

■ Get the Most from Coop Advertising

•  • If you’re preparing your own ads, work with the free advertising professionals available at the media outlet you are using to prepare an ad you think will appeal to the manufacturer. Keep in mind the image the manufacturer presents in its own ads.
• • Make sure your company’s name stands out in the ad. Your goal is not so much to sell the supplier’s product but to get customers into your store.
• • If there’s no established coop program, pitch your ad campaign to the vendor anyway.
• • Expect vendors to help out. After all, you’re bringing them business.
• • For more information about coop opportunities, pick up a copy of the Coop Source Directory (National Register Publishing, 8005218110). 

Yellow Pages Advertising

Advertising in the Yellow Pages is a proven way to get customers and make money. Almost every home has a copy of the Yellow Pages, and when it is opened, the users are in the mood to buy. Many businesses sincerely believe that they would be unable to keep their doors open without being able to advertise in the Yellow Pages. The downside is that buying an ad in the book can be quite expensive, unless you know what you are doing.

If you decide to take out an ad in the Yellow Pages, there are ways to get a discount. First, a Yellow Pages book not sponsored by the local phone company will offer a substantial discount over the well established leader. And, even if you decide to go with the leader, you should find that it gives firsttime advertisers as much as a 50 percent discount.

Also, a business to business phone book is certainly cheaper, as are specialty Yellow Pages geared toward a certain ethnicity or group, such as seniors. Also, do not forget that using a manufacturer’s name or product in the ad can allow you to tap into some coop assistance to help pay for your ad.

 When you are on a tight budget, there is no room for error. There are many things that can affect the outcome of an ad campaign—the weather, the economy, even the news. Ads get stale. Neighborhoods change. Customers’ tastes and buying habits change. Given all of that volatility, it is important to keep a close eye on the effectiveness of your advertising. When you do advertise, follow these tips to see if your ads are working:

• • Track sales a week before an ad runs, the week it runs, and then the week after to see how the ad is pulling.
• • When customers call, ask them where they heard about your business.
• • Offer customers a small discount (say, 10 percent) to fill out a simple survey on their attitudes about your advertising.
• • Run the same ad in two or three different publications, each with an identifying mark. Have customers bring the ads in for a discount and see which ones do best.

Marketing on a Budget

Less than 50 percent of all businesses in the United States rely on advertising to bring in customers. What do they use instead? Marketing. Marketing is a strategy to get your name known by the public so that when they need a product or service, they think of your business. The great thing about marketing is that there are plenty of cheap ways of getting business without spending a lot of money.

The following cost effective ideas can definitely increase sales and they need not cost a fortune. The key is to choose the methods that are appropriate for your business, marketplace, and style.

Gift certificates. Gift certificates allow present customers to introduce you to new customers. Even better: Because you get paid up front, they help your cash flow.

Brochures. A good brochure is a great selling tool that allows you to provide plenty of information about your business quickly and inexpensively.

Packaging. The plastic bags that customers leave your store with can be great, cost effective signs. With your name, address, phone number, and logo on the side, bags can be a valuable marketing tool. The same goes for your mailing labels.

Coupons. This is one of the least expensive ways to develop new business. Offering a discount via a coupon is historically a great way to grab attention and get business. Coupons can be put in invoices or church bulletins, sent using direct mail, or simply handed out or placed on windshields.

Giveaways. A free gift reminds your customer of you and your service. Just about anything can be engraved, imprinted, silk screened, or embroidered with your company name and phone number—pens, key chains, coffee mugs, refrigerator magnets, baseball caps, paperweights, etc.

Speeches. Depending on your topic and your market, you might want to speak before chambers of commerce, trade associations, parent groups, senior citizens, or other local organizations.

Articles. Write an article for a newspaper or magazine, reprint it, and mail it to your customers and prospects. This positions you as an expert, and is a particularly good way to promote a consulting business.

Word of mouth advertising. The best source of repeat business is through happy customers. Make sure that your current customers know how valuable they are to you. Send them a flyer or brochure offering a discount for sending in new business. Give something for free to a loyal customer as a way to say thank you.

Seminars. Free seminars also give you an air of authority and allow you to sell without seeming to be a huckster. If you do hold a seminar, be sure to:

• Schedule the event at a time convenient to most attendees
• Be specific in the ad or invitation about when the event begins and ends, who will be there, and what people will get/learn by attending
• Offer great information

Donations. Donating your product or service to a charitable cause often results in positive exposure.

Samples. Giving potential customers a free sample is an excellent way to attract attention and make a positive impression. And, if your product is too expensive to give away outright, offer a free trial to qualified customers.

Press releases. A wel lwritten press release sent to the right media outlet can generate a free story about you and your business that can be used for sales and be reproduced and used again and again to create credibility.

To learn more about cheap marketing, pick up Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson (Houghton Mifflin), High Impact Marketing on a Low Impact Budget by John Kremer (Prima Publishing), or StartUp Marketing: An Entrepreneur’s Guide by Philip Nulman (Career Press).

Trade shows. Specialized trade shows allow small business owners to promote, sell, network, and check out the competition in one location. Trade shows come in all shapes and sizes. Wouldbe entrepreneurs can go to franchise expos, gun enthusiasts to guns shows, antiques collectors to antiques shows, and so on. Almost every industry has trade shows. Trade shows are great for the bootstrap entrepreneur because they pack a lot of potential into a short time and need not cost a lot.

And consider the people who attend trade shows: They are so motivated that they use their time to attend an exposition about a certain topic. Like people who open the Yellow Pages, people who go to trade shows usually are looking to buy something. What’s even better is that you get to personally meet hundreds of qualified leads.

To be successful at a trade show, you need a booth that attracts some attention because there are so many booths. That means you need to be creative and put some time in planning your booth before the show.

■ Successful Trade Show Tips

• Early bird registration deals can reduce exhibition fees by 30 percent. Co exhibiting with others whose target audience is the same as yours can cut costs in half.
• You can create an impressive display with used exhibit materials.
• Look in the telephone directory under “Display Systems.”
• Have a drawing for some free services, offer a small gift to the kids, hold a giveaway, or offer special show prices—something to draw attention to your booth.
• Remember that a trade show is a numbers game. You want to meet as many people as you can. The more you meet, the more potential qualified leads you get. One effective tool is to have a short list of questions to quickly separate serious buyers from the lookers. In any case, get contact informational from as many people as you can.
• When you do find a buyer, make sure to have a quiet spot in the back of the booth where you can close a sale.
• Because trade shows pack a lot of opportunity into a few days, the pressure can be intense and the hours long. Be sure you have enough people working the booth and rotate your staff to keep them fresh. You want to bring in upbeat people with stamina.
• Use the show to scout new suppliers, scope out the competition, find new strategic partners, and even shop for other trade show venues.
• Remember that not every sale occurs at the show, so followup is important. Find a way to stay in touch with your prospects. Send them a newsletter, brochure, or free estimate.
• After the show, bring your team together and see if you can learn
• some lessons so you can make the next show even better. Review your marketing strategies and brush up your booth selling skills.

 

Web Sites on a Budget

One of the greatest things about a Webbased business is that you can open your virtual doors without any inventory in stock. Talk about shoestring business models! You do so by outsourcing what is called fulfillment.

A truly effective ecommerce site not only offers product and a shopping cart, but it also is able to take an order and send it to a warehouse to fulfill that order. The great thing is that you can hire a fulfillment warehouse that stocks and owns all of the products; you just become the middleman who takes the orders and sends a message to the warehouse to ship the product.

Using fulfillment services, anyone can go online and sell just about anything without having any inventory at all and no one is the wiser. When customers order a product from you, they are, in reality, ordering from your warehouse partner. The key then is to choose the right warehouse service or fulfillment company to act as your partner. The best way to find a warehouse company is through word of mouth or by checking with your industry’s trade association. There are many businesses geared toward ecommerce fulfillment. Among those that you might want to check out are:

• <efulfillment.com>
• <fulfillmentplus.net>
• <ifssolutions.com>
• <weship4you.com>

 Motivating without Money

Your business is often only as good as your employees. If you want to increase sales, it is imperative that you have an energetic, motivated staff. How do you do that without spending a lot of money? The first thing to realize is that we all work for a variety of reasons, money being only one of them. Your job as an entrepreneur is to realize what other things motivate your employees and tap into those.

Often, what people want out of work depends on their age. If you can understand the various motivating factors of different employees, you will be able to provide incentives for a job well done, and do so without raising salaries. The following details some of these groups and what each may be looking for.

Generation Xers

 Generation X, comprised of those born roughly between 1964 and 1981, is a different breed of employee. They like a good salary as much as anyone, but just as important, they want to be in a challenging work environment where they can grow while learning new skills.

For the most part, Generation Xers are independent and dubious. They have entered the workforce knowing that they will have several careers and employers throughout their working lives. What this means for you, the frugal yet inspired entrepreneur, is that you can motivate them by creating a work environment that develops their skills, thereby increasing their future marketability. Offer assignments that challenge them, change their jobs around, give them new and different projects, help them learn new skills.

Not surprisingly, training is greatly appreciated by Gen Xers, as is mentoring and other continuing education techniques. Other rewards that work with this group include:

• Telecommuting
• Gift certificates
• Dinners
• Tickets to sporting and cultural events

Finally, remember that younger employees like to have fun and value a worklife balance. A workplace that demonstrates your support of that can go far and doesn’t cost any money at all.

Baby Boomers

Baby boomers, born 1946 through 1964, are now middleaged, and are thinking about family, money, and retirement. Indeed, many boomers are worried about their financial future. As such, one thing you can do to help motivate them is to offer financial planning, good pensions and benefits, and retirement planning.

You should also consider offering flexible work schedules and different retirement options. A survey by the National Institute on Aging found that nearly 80 percent of boomer employees would prefer a retirement plan that is phasedin, rather than occurring all at once. Given that, use job sharing, flex time, independence, and other similar options as ways to keep these employees loyal.