No Money? No Problem!

We worked hard on compiling some Tips and Tricks you can use to help your business look bigger, with very little or no money at all. They were all tested by our team, so you don't have to spend hours researching in order to find the right match for your business.

Sit back, relax, and take some time to analyze each and every one of the links we will present to you.

Good Luck!

    Angela Marques

Business Consultant

First things first

Looking professional (before looking big) is the major milestone you have to accomplish. What is "looking professional"? To us, is looking like a company, not like an individual working from someone's garage (even if that is true). Bill Gates started from his garage, but without his "professional looks" and his ability to make his tinny company capable of delivering his promises, he wouldn't be where he is at right now.

To get you started, and if you don't have a formal business yet, go ahead and register for one. Think of a good name. John Doe Incorporated may sound appealing to you, but is it strong enough to stand out from the crowd? Look for a name related to what you do. It is a good idea to make some research among your competitors. See what they are doing (and how successful they are). Stick with the good strategies, discard the bad ones.

Once you decide on a name, check its availability. For Arizona residents, go to http://www.cc.state.az.us (you can find the Corporation Commission for your state by opening any search engine and typing Corporation Commission + [your state]. Applying for a LLC (for example) is a simple process, and you shouldn't spend more than 5 minutes downloading the PDF file and filling it up. Attach a check with your name and address printed on it and mail the form to the address you will find listed on the site.

While you wait for the paperwork to arrive, you can work on step #2.

A Picture is Worth More than 1,000 Words

True and proven. So, work on it. A good logo (preferably meaningful) is a must. You can hire someone to design it for you (like us) or you can do it yourself. Either way, make sure you have an image to go with your business' name.

Have a Toll Free number

Nothing screams "small" more than using your home phone or cell phone as the main line for your business. You can still ANSWER the calls using your cell, but make sure that stays between you and the Toll Free company :-)  The cost is extremely low (starting at $2.00/month) and there are plenty of places to choose from. We use Kall8, but as I said, there are plenty out there for you to choose from.

or you can go one step forward and get a virtual PBX system (for about 25 dollars/month). We recomend eVoice Receptionist, but there are tons of other providers out there. eVoice let's you try their system for 30 days. We recomend it!

Print Some Business Cards

A company without customers will do you no good. To get customers, you must introduce your company at some point. If your business is brand new, or if you never had business cards printed for you, it is time to get some. There are tons of cheap services out there (keep in mind that he quality of the product is directly proportional to how much you pay for it). You can have business cards printed for free, and pay only for the delivery. It is a great alternative for the ones operating within a short budget.

The rule of thumb is to keep it simple. Anything you're printing with a third party for the first time can bring unpleasant surprises. To prevent disappointment, keep your design simple, i.e. plain background, no shadows or gradient tones, until you can afford a bigger company to print your cards. Trust me, you won't be happy if you order 300 business cards just to find out that what was supposed to be gray turned out green...

An alternative for business cards is to print them out yourself. It is not a hard task at all. The worse part will be fighting with the printer until you figure out how to insert the paper correctly in order to have it printed both sides, without one side being upside down. Check your printer first, to make sure it can deal with the heavy paper (100 lb.) used in most business cards.

Register a Domain, Create a Website and a few e-mail Addresses

Why? Because it is the quickest way to spread your company's name across the country. Everybody is online. A webpage is an easy way to display your products (not mentioning that you can save tons of money by sending your customers a link to your website instead of a costly postcard).

An e-mail address is a must. Probably as bad as having your personal cell as your contact number is having your email address with a free provider. Joe@gmail.com or joe@aol.com makes it obvious that you are small, and we don't want that, do we? Even if all you can afford is one email account (sometimes you have to pay extra in order to get 2, 5 or 10 email accounts), name it "sales", "admin", "contact", "info", etc.

Remember: Info@yourcompany.com is better than Joe@yourcompany.com and it is much better than Joe@hotmail.com.

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For more tips growing your business go to http://smallbusinessblog.freedomvoice.com/public/blog/149173