“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
Disclaimer: We are private investors ourselves; we are not attorneys, tax specialists, accountants or investment advisors. We do not provide tax, legal, or investment advice. We do not endorse or recommend any contributor, company, or specific investments. Any information communicated is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as tax, legal, or investment advice. Whenever making an investment decision, please consult with your legal, tax, and accounting professionals. Business success is controlled not just by the information and education received but by the action taken. We cannot guarantee specific results nor can we ensure that any other individuals experience with another company will be equal to ours in terms of service or product. We cannot guarantee that testimonials shared are representative of results that will be duplicated by another person. Success is controlled and determined by individual talent, dedication, experience and commitment.
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“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
Dear Friend:
“I am so excited to have a change to share with you terrific ideas, tips and strategies for ‘bootstrapping your business’. I believe we probably have many things in common. I have always know that I was meant for something other than the corporate world (you probably always knew that too). When I finally had the chance to strike out on my own and leave my 9-to-5 job behind, I thought, “This is IT! This is what I’ve waited for!” I was a bundle of energy, excitement and hopefulness.”
“I learned quickly however that business does not grow on good intentions, excitement and marketing “theory”. I had a strong marketing background from my corporate job but those strategies just weren’t practical for a small business on a BUDGET. I got frustrated with “experts” constantly offering me advice that was COMPLETELY unrealistic for a small business owner. It was either FAR too expensive or it was too generic and “conceptual”.”
“I needed to make money…NOW! Not in 2 years when people developed a warm tingly feeling because I had established “brand sensitivity”. I threw myself into figuring out what I could do that was effective for me. Here’s what I wanted:
The ideas and strategies had to be practical for me to develop and manage on my own. I did not have a huge staff so it was mainly up to me.
It could not require constant babysitting – I had a business to run!
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
It could not demand that I become a technology-guru. While I’m relatively savvy technically, it’s not my primary skills set.
It had to be RESULTS-oriented! I needed to be able to SEE more sales and more MONEY as a result.
“I learned along the way…some things worked, some things did not. I was seeing great results from my marketing and started to kick myself in the behind for the silly mistakes I had made when I first opened the business (useless ideas, stupid programs, buying the wrong product or paying too much for something when I could have had the exact same thing for less). I started telling my business associates, “Hey, try this idea”…”No, don’t buy that - I know a place where you can buy that for HALF the price”…”Have you ever thought of using this idea to bring in new customers?”
“Today, I still have my “original” business but I now focus more time on sharing ideas that are the RIGH FIT for entrepreneurs (NOT for corporations or people who have money to throw away). In light of the economy today and what we have faced in that past recent months, it’s become more critical than ever for all entrepreneurs to be frugal, thoughtful and conscientious about where we invest our marketing dollars”.
“I hope you enjoy this document. The accompanying MP3 is perfect to download to your iPod or mp3 player and listen while you mow the grass, do dishes or have a little free time. If you’d like more great cheap ideas for Marketing, learn more about “Bootstrap Blast” and take a look at our emails when they come your way.”
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
The following document is a transcript of a recorded training session.
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
“Hi, good morning. This is Angela Phebus and I’m really excited to have an opportunity to share with you today some of my favorite tips, tricks and ideas for marketing your business on a budget. I really consider myself a “bootstrap marketer”; I’ve learned some strategies and ideas for marketing a small business without spending a ton of money. “
“So you know, I’ll start by saying that if you are in a situation where you have of a lot of excess money laying around for marketing or if you just have so much money in your bank account that you can really invest in every marketing idea that comes along, then this is probably not of the right program or advice for you. The type of entrepreneur who really benefits from this experience is one who is in the same shoes that I have stood in. They are running a business on their own -- maybe you just started your business, maybe you’re new, maybe you’re just getting ready to open your doors and you’re thinking about how you’re going to market this new venture that you been dreaming about. Maybe you’ve been in business for couple years and it just really frustrated things haven’t caught but along the way that you hoped that they might. These are terrific ideas to help you really do things on a budget. “
“Now I will tell you of the I think that there is a lot to be proud of about trying to do things affordably and I will continually reiterate that I think there is (unfortunately) in the marketing world an opinion that you must spend a lot of money and that they try to make us feel embarrassed that we’re not willing to spend incredible amounts of money on a program or an idea. One of the things I to try to reiterate is that something does not have to be expensive to be important and that there is a lot of value in doing what is appropriate for your business at the time. If later you have a ample resources and can invest in a different type of a product or a test campaign or something that is a bit more expensive (maybe bring in a consultant who’s going to sit with you at your company and give you some ideas every month), then that is great.”
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
“But I will tell you for the majority of us you’re running a small business on our own, we really have to do it all. That means if there’s a marketing campaign, it’s up to us to do it. You have to write a copy, you have to turn it into the newspaper, you have to update the website, you have to print the coupons. You may have a few folks helping you but a lot of the work is really left to you. And I don’t know how you feel but I know that I don’t want to pay someone incredible amounts of money to come into my office and tell me more of what I should be doing, then turn around walk away. If I pay incredible amounts of money, I want someone to solve a problem for me-- not with “concepts” or “theory” but with deliverables. I want them to come in and DO SOMETHING and get a job off my plate.”
“I tell people to be really proud of the fact that they are conscientious about their cost and that they want to consider appropriate amounts of money to spend for appropriate results. Do what is best for your business at the time. If your marketing budget is only $100 a month, then make the absolute most of that $100 a month and make that work for you.”
“I’m going to ask that you be open to some new ideas because sometimes people instinctively just say, “Oh no, that won’t work for me” –but sometimes there are opportunities for new ideas to work. Don’t get overwhelmed because you’re trying to do everything -- because it’s impossible. There is a lot on your plate and you’re doing many things on your own and so sometimes the enormity of all the possibilities can lead us to just feeling paralyzed. When you don’t know where to start, then just pick a few things that you think are critical for your business. Focus on those things - don’t be overwhelmed, keep your mind fresh and open to the possibilities of something new that might work for you.”
“I’ve noticed that many other marketing resources who offer help with inexpensive marketing really talk exclusively about social networking. There complete business model is to educate people about social networking. Now what is that?...these are sites like Facebook and Twitter. And I will tell you that I think
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
those are wonderful tools and I use them and I would encourage you to use them too. I would also share that I understand the reality of the average small business who is not an “online marketer”, who may be living in it may be in a smaller community (maybe even in your hometown)is that Facebook and Twitter are not really going to be your only avenue to reach your audience. You still have to focus on more traditional marketing so we’ll talk a lot about traditional (“old marketing”) marketing (newspaper ads, signage, etc.) that are targeted for people who literally drive by your office every day. And things like social networking and internet marketing (“new marketing”)…those are important too.”
“As a small business owner you have to consider every opportunity to market your business effectively so we don’t rule those out. In terms of what I consider “old” and “new”, I think to think of it this way…in the past a small business owner came into a community and set up shop and then spent the next 40 years fighting like crazy to defend their turf. Today we need to rearrange our mindset and understand that the way we grow our business is through “cooperative marketing”; working together and reaching out to other people who are in related businesses, or maybe located on your street. We look for ways to market for each other. We talk a lot in our other programs about who you can use your community connections to find ways to build your business. You take those personal connections with people and use that to create a marketing tool.”
“So I like to think about that difference as (1) either being in a defensive position where you’re battling for control or (2) being in a position were you’re welcoming people in and saying “How to we work together so that we both are more successful?” And I think that feels a lot better.”
“When you’re looking at marketing opportunities, people should always do what works for them. Don’t feel obligated to buy or to invest in something that’s more than what you need. Invest in what makes sense for you AT THE TIME and upgrade when you need it. Websites are one area where this really
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
comes into play. Some of you may say “I’ve already had a website for years!” but the reality is that only 38% of small businesses actually have a website. That means there are a ton of people out there who don’t.”
“Why not? Well, the first reason that entrepreneur don’t have a website is because they think about the cost. They think, “Why should I spent $20-$30 dollars a month or hire somebody to design a website for me which might cost as little as $300 or as much as several thousand dollars.” The second reason that people are uncomfortable with the idea of getting a website for the business is that they don’t feel they have the skills. They acknowledge that they can’t pay the fee and also know that they’re not a programmer. “
“So let’s go back to the concept of ensuring you invest in really what you need at the time. There are websites that are extremely complicated because they are supporting businesses that require that infrastructure. And it may have taken the last decade to get that website to that point. Maybe you don’t need that type of website. It’s very likely that what you need is an avenue to you to promote your business to folks who do business with you locally. Do you know that over 50% of people use search engines as “online yellow pages”? They no longer pick up the phone book but instead they go to the Internet and they search their community for a specific type of business. “
“Have any of you ever advertised in the yellow pages? It’s expensive!! You can use the power of the internet very affordably and very easily. So let me share you a couple of really great tips. I have a couple of different ways that you can get your business online either for free or very cheap. If you want the cheapest way, you can set up a blog. Some people get a little nervous when I mention blog, especially if they’re not internet-savvy. It’s really a free webpage for you to post anything you want including information about your business. There will definitely be some limitations to this type of
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
product but if FREE is what you want, this is an option. www.blogspot.com is a great place that you can go to start a blog. It’s very simple you could be published in the next 15 minutes. You sign up for a free account and the rest the process if step-by-step.”
“Another option I would recommend that to consider using a service like www.godaddy.com. Now, I really like godaddy.com for new entrepreneurs even thought I think they have some questionable advertising. But the product they offer is really valuable and with just a little time, you can get a nice website that terrific temple and be online within a matter of an hour. AND you don’t need to know anything about programming or designing websites. Here’s what you do…visit godaddy.com and select your domain name (this is the name of your website). You probably want to consider something that’s easy for people to spell and relatively short. So, you set up your domain name and it will likely cost only $9.95 for a year. Now godaddy.com does not really promote this but the do offer you a FREE web design product when you buy a domain called WebsiteTonight. It is specifically for people who don’t know anything about web design it is so very VERY simple. In addition, godaddy.com provides a customer service phone number so you can call them in anytime. You may have to wait few minutes to get them on the phone but you will typically speak to someone who is bright and educated about their system who can really help you. Trust me, I’ve had the experience of buying software or using even in online provider who does not provide you ANY way to reach them so if you have a problem or a question, you’re stuck.”
“Look on the left side of their home page and you’ll see an option to click for “free products”. Here are the limitations…it’s limited to five pages so you don’t have the opportunity to put a ton of information out there (which frankly for most people is OK). The second limitation is that there is a very small advertising banner at the top of the page which has advertising for www.godaddy.com. Again,
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
remember that you should work with what is best for you and your budget at this particular time. You CAN get the banner removed for only about $5.00 a month – maybe you want to, maybe you’d rather save the $5.00. The Website Tonight provides hundreds and hundreds of templates -- you can choose a pre-designed template that’s appropriate for your business. Whether your business is wedding planning or it’s a restaurant or an ice cream shop or a bakery or a handyman service or a seamstress service… you name it, it’s likely they have a nice template for you. You could also use generic templates and customize those if you want. You have a lot of terrific functionality like easily adding audio, video and photos in a SIMPLE and EASY format. You can have a website up and available to view online easily within an hour.”
“Again, you can do that for about $10.00 a year. Now again, you can always use a blog and it is free. Here are your limitations with that option…you can’t have a cute domain name… you can’t choose a domain name like www.BobsServiceStation.com. It would have to be www.BobsServiceStation.blogspot.com. So it’s more difficult for people to remember, more difficult to see as they drive by, etc. My recommendation is that you consider the $10.00 a year. I believe it addresses the issue of cost as a barrier for the majority of people and ALSO addresses the issue of technical training/web design ability. Of course, you can always upgrade in time if you website is doing well and you want to add a thousand pages. But, if you are on a limited budget, this gets the job done and is a great place to start.”
“So now you have a website. What are you going to do with it? One tip I think you’ll like is that you can get your site listed in many “online yellow pages” for free (actually, you can get your business listed on Google WITHOUT having a website at all). Let me tell you a little about that…go to www.GOOGLE.com/local/add/ . This will let you add your business name and information to Google
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
Local Directories. So for the guy who decides to go to the Internet and uses it as his online telephone book, he will be able to find you. Even though you can list your business without a website, I do suggest that you have one. If someone is using a search engine as their Yellow Pages, then they are definitely interested in learning more about you through your site. There are a number of other places where you can post for free; and I am sure you know how much it costs to get into your local Yellow Pages. It’s expensive!...sometimes I’ve seem people who’ve been spending several hundred a month.”
“In addition, there are other places like Yahoo, Verizon and AT&T that offer these online “Yellow Pages” –type services as well. We talk more about that in some of our other products but that’s a great start for you get your website together.”
“So now you need to think about what you want your website to be. Do you want it to simply be an online business card? Do you really want just a reiteration of your name and address? Sometimes all people include is that basic information plus a tiny little over view of what they do. Well, if you’re website domain name is www.JeffsLandscaping.com, then I have a pretty good idea of what service you provide so reiterating that you mow lawns and provide landscaping service is unlikely to set you apart.”
“Think about designing your website as a tool to start selling to your customer. Remember, the words you type in your website are free. There’s no cost for writing your own good copy (of course you can pay many thousands and hundreds of dollars to write copy for you if you want). But if you’re working on a budget, think about how you can design your website in a very simple way that makes it beneficial to you. The key thing I would recommend that you consider is using forms on your website. These forms are used to capture your customers name and email address. I’m sure that many of you have probably been online and you’ve entered your email address in order to join a mailing list or receive a bonus “gift”.”
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
“It’s important to get these forms on your site because you want to know who’s been visiting your site – these are potential customers! You want to be able to have ongoing conversations with this person who is clearly looking for a service that you provide. So offer your customer some type of an incentive to give you their e-mail address. Let’s say you are butcher – maybe you offer a 15% off coupon they can redeem in your store when they fill out the form. If you own a bakery, maybe you offer them a special report with coupons for 20 wedding related retailers in your area. If you are a locksmith, perhaps you offer a free special report “5 Tips To Help When You Lock You Keys In Your Car”. What if you don’t have anything to offer right now? Get the form on your site anyway, then add your free gift when you can. But get started. You’ll be surprised how many people will start signing up on your website (by the way, you’ll know they’ve signed up because you’ll get an email with their info included in it).”
“These tips will really help as you get online for the first time – it’s affordable, it’s simple and you can do it quickly and without technical background. We talk more in our other programs about how to use this customer information and turn these prospective customers into paying customers without spending a fortune.“
“So what about the rest of your operation? Do you have budget friendly solutions for other aspects of you business? This is really interesting to me because I have seen folks set up their office and spend incredible amounts of money on phone service, fax service, on Internet connection setup and this is before their doors are even open. Of course, our natural instinct is to call the local phone company but there are some other things that you can do it to help control these expenses. First, you can use discounted phone service providers (which we talk more about in some other programs) of that can reduce your monthly service drastically (versus the $150 a month that the phone company typically charges).”
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
“There’s also the opportunity to look for other free services to help you build and market your business. For example, you can get free voicemail boxes. You may be wondering how you can use these free services so let me help fill in the blanks. You sign up for free voicemail box (there are many providers online – just use Google to search for “free voicemail” – www.freeconferencecall.com has a service). You’ll get a phone number and select a password so you can login, record your outgoing greeting and listen to any messages that have been left for you. Now let me clarify how this works…you’ll never actually hear the phone ring. I call it a “voicemail in the sky” – the calls “ring” into a computer system somewhere on the hosting websites service where your outgoing messages is played for callers and then they can leave you a voicemail. You’ll get an email notifying you that a voicemail has been received and then you can check your messages.”
“How can you use this? Let’s say you are lucky enough that you’re going to hire a part-time employee. If anyone has ever gone through the process of hiring an employee, you know disruptive it can be to have people stop in your office or call your office all day to ask questions about the job (especially when perhaps the caller is clearly NOT qualified for the job but just won’t let you off the phone or keeps calling you over and over). You can instead use this voicemail number as the phone number to call for more information. You can then record a thorough message (usually you have 10-15 minutes of recording time for your outgoing message) and can explain everything about the job. You can talk about the job responsibilities, the hours, the requirements, your dress code or anything else you want. If the caller is still interested, they can leave you a message. This allows you to ensure that everyone who inquired about the job heard ALL the pertinent information and frees up your time through the day.”
“Another option might be a situation where you are launching a new product. You can record a message with all the information about the launch and promote the phone number is all your marketing
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
materials. You’ll also be able to see how many people have called and listened to you message as well as hear your voicemails. This gives you a great idea of the type of traffic you’re generating (some people use a different number of different marketing promotions so they can test the effectiveness of different marketing campaigns). Another way to use this service is if you are selling or leasing a property. You can have a large sign made that offers a free recorded message about the property. Again, it’s a terrific tool and a great way to market absolutely at no cost.”
“What about fax service? Do you still use it? I think we all know that faxing has become less prominent. I personally only fax something out or accept faxes in when I am dealing with someone who insists on using a fax – otherwise, I send everything online. BUT I still need to have fax service “just in case”. I have met people who not only purchased a fax machine for $75-$100 but who also had a second phone line installed so they wouldn’t tie up their normal line. However, there are ways to get FREE fax service. I use two different fax services…one will let you send outgoing faxes and one will let you receive incoming faxes. For example, there is a service at www.FaxZero.com which will let you send outgoing faxes for free. It’s terrific. You just enter the fax number where you are sending the document and attach the file.”
“One trick to this service that I’ll share is that you have to attach either a Word document (.doc) or an HTML (.html) file. So let’s say I have something that’s in “hard copy” (paper) format, such as a letter I have sign and date and then send back to someone. Here’s what I do…I sign the document then I scan the doc (which means that it is then saved as a JPEG file). I open that JPEG file, I then copy and paste it into a Word document then save that Word document. When I send my fax, I just attach the Word document I’ve created.”
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
“I don’t fax often enough to justify spending $50-60 a month or even $12.00 a month on a fax machine. Not only do I send my outgoing faxes for free, I can also receive faxes for free. There’s a great service at www.JConnect.com –they’ll let you receive faxes for free. They actually provided you a dedicated fax number that is just for you. I have one myself and have it printed on all my business cards. When a fax comes in, you’ll receive an email notifying you that you have a fax and you can login to their site to access your fax.”
“Now, if your business is dependant on being able to send 100 faxes a day, this is probably not the solution for you. But if you’re like most small business owners, this is a great solution when you only send faxes “once-in-a-while”. Why throw away money every month for something you’re not using all the time?”
“Let me go back and add a little about social networking. We’ve covered some important tips so far and these are just the tip of the iceberg. These few tiny ideas can create tremendous cost savings and revenue creation for your business. Many marketing “consultants” or “experts” who offer advice for saving money for small businesses focus exclusively on social networking. I completely agree that using tools like Facebook (which is obviously a free service) to market your business is a terrific step. But it is likely important for you to balance internet marketing and social networking with more traditional marketing as well. Many of you do rely on multiple techniques to market your business and have to control your budget and find the more affordable strategies for saving. If you have a large local market, you can’t just rely on Facebook and Twitter to completely drive your business.”
“If that’s the case for you, let me offer you one more helpful resource. If you have not already tried out www.VistaPrint.com, I would encourage you to do so. They are well-known and most popular for offering free business card but they have many other free products or highly discounted products as
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com
well. For example, I recently purchased a banner for my office. This banner is about 2 feet high and 6 feet long; I paid about $17.00 for it. I did price it locally and there was no one in my community who could come close on price. This banner has already brought me three new customers so it’s been a great return for my $17.00.”
“Another trick when using VistaPrint.com is to take advantage of their free/cheap business cards. Just because you order “business cards” doesn’t mean you have to use them as “business cards”. Stop thinking of the card as a traditional business card and instead think of it as a mini-postcard. Could you advertise a new service or product? Could you use it as a mini-brochure for a property you’re selling? Could it be a “admit one” coupon to a customer-only sales event? Or a FREE coupon for a networking event you’re hosting? The limits are only in your mind and for just a few bucks, it’s a great marketing tool. I know someone who takes her cards with her everywhere and leaves them behind at restaurants, at the cash register at the grocery store, anywhere she goes. It’s a way to spend only a few dollars and get some great advertising.”
“I hope you’ll continue to visit our website to learn more tips, tricks and ideas for managing and marketing your business by the bootstraps. Our “Bootstrap Insiders Circle ” program is a tremendous tool to help you continue to learn how to market your business on a tight budget. Check it out right now and start saving more and spending less!”
“Bootstrap Marketing: for SMART Small Business Owners on a Budget”
www.AngelaPhebus.com