The Lo or No Cost Solutions to Online Business Set Up That Any Gumby Can Master

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The early days of your business are the hardest.  Generally there is a lot of set up cost and little income flowing in.

There are certain critical tools you need at the start of your business but it can all become too daunting and hard.  Then valid but show stopping excuses begin to form as to why you aren't actively promoting your business.

I’m over hearing excuses from people who say they either don't have the money to get started or the computer skills to get online to grow their business.

So I’m giving you “The Lo or No Cost Solutions to Online Business Set Up That Any Gumby Can Master”.

Gumby was a piece of green clay that became a very famous cartoon character back in the 50s but a Gumby also is a tongue in cheek way to describe someone who can't use a computer.  So even if you are a piece of green clay when it comes to computers you will be able to either set these tools up yourself or bride a teenager or 5 year old to do it for you.

Marketing your business is about getting your message to as many people as possible in your target market.  The time to start is always yesterday.  When I speak to people who tell me they are WAITING for business cards or WAITING for a website or WAITING to finish their logo BEFORE they get serious about their business because they don't have any money or don't have IT skills, I want to cry.

• Firstly because every day they aren't working on their business is another day they won't be getting the opportunity to help someone and 

• Secondly there are some great free or lo cost products available on the Internet that make it SO easy to set up an Internet presence and they make it really easy to get started.

 
The truth is you can probably create a full online presence in a weekend using free or lo fee products which are freely available to anyone.  I recommend you start small and build up as opposed to “waiting” for the perfect time to get out and about or online.

Technology can be your friend and I’ve seen people who are complete IT gumbies get these systems set up and working for them within 24 hours.

So lets get over the excuses and get over the seven deadly excuses and get going right now!

#1 Excuse “I don’t have (have run out, the dog ate them, my details have changed blah - blah - blah) any Business Cards”

Excuse Buster:  Vista Print 

Vista Print will give you 250 free business cards with a choice of 42 designs – yes they stamp their branding on it – but don’t let that stop you.  A vista print brand on your card is better than scribbling out your old email address and writing on your cards in Biro which I see many people doing - that's a sin.

If you dont' want the Vista Print branding then there prices are ridiculously cheap, so #1 excuse handled.

Click here for more info on VistaPrint

#2 Excuse “I’m waiting on brochures.....”

Excuse Buster:  Vista Print

Again Vista Print will do a standard basic DL card for next to nix.  Anything else at the start of your practice is a waste of money.  A clear, basic message on the top of a DL card so it jumps out at people whilst sitting in a rack at your local coffee shop is much better than a fancy brochure.

Still can't afford it - then there is still a lot of sales to be made from a flyer that comes off your ink jet printer – there really is not excuse.

Click here for more info on VistaPrint

#3 Excuse “I’m waiting for my cousin/husband/wife/mate from work/teenager to finish my website”

Excuse buster: Blogger

Having a web presence these days is crucial – any presence is better than none.

At base level you can create a great looking site on Blogger for free

I just knocked up an information website this week for a Retreat I’m having in Daylesford http://www.sanctumforthesoul.com/ - I’ve already sold four tickets and to date haven’t invested one single dollar in the event.  By the time it comes to paying venue deposits I will already have the money in the bank to cover it.  I’m not ashamed to have a blogger website promoting a Retreat – and everything I have on that site is standard blogger issue.  Send me an email if you can’t figure out how to get something I have and I’ll tell you how I did it.

Wordpress is another way to create a similar product but frankly it does my head in and you need more IT experience to make Wordpress work - if you are a beginner don't go down the Wordpress route.  

Click here to enter the 3 step process to get your own blog


Excuse #4 “Getting a proper web address and professional email is too confusing and expensive”

Excuse Buster: GoDaddy:

GoDaddy hosts all my live websites, my email and my other 25 non live domain names.

Quite frankly I have little idea how all this stuff works.   Whenever I want to do something I phone up their 24 hour, 7 day a week hotline and they talk me through how to do everything.

They pride themselves on the person answering your question AND solving your problem on your first phone call.  I can confirm I have NEVER needed to phone back and they have ALWAYS delivered on their promises.

Their marketing is weird and their website has race car drivers promoting it but you just got to remember their target audience is mostly male IT geeks – having worked alongside a lot of big IT departments I can confirm you couldn’t find an IT geek in a corporate office when The Grand Prix hit Melbourne.  But non-nerds are well supported by the help desk, who are honestly some of the most patient and knowledge people I have ever met.



Find out more about GoDaddy here

 

Excuse #5 “It’s too hard and expensive to get a newsletter out”

Excuse Buster: Mail Chimp:

Still today with all the social networking and ways to push your message out – the humble newsletter is still being used by the gurus around the world.  When they stop – I stop and so can you.

Mail Chimp is awesome.  I use it for my Retreat database and I also use it for a community event I run each month.  It is dead easy to use.  They allow you to store 500 subscribers and give you 3,000 emails a month before they even think about charging you anything.

The product they produce looks awesome AND this includes autoresponders AND the ability to set your campaign to run in advance AND it allows you to easily publish your newsletter to social media sites.

It’s also quirky as all get out and frequently encourages you to “eat a banana” and to “stop flirting with the monkey”.  They also have pre-designed forms to send out specials and birthday cards to members – and so long as you stay under 500 it’s free and well frankly if you have more than 500 people on your database you need to start getting serious about your business and paying for services.

Free is great in the early days but remember likes attract – if you aren’t prepared to pay for quality service neither will your clients be.

Find Out More About Mail Chimp here

Excuse #6 “I don’t have time or energy to do the admin for a workshop”

Excuse Buster: Eventbirte

I LOVE this site and it really helps sell events and workshops and they don’t charge you anything until you sell a ticket and then it’s just a small percentage of the price of the ticket. 

In return – your attendees type in all the info so you are assured your spellings are correct and that you have the right email address.  Anyone who has ever had to type up a registration list and name badge list will be jumping with joy at this news.

It has helped me sell out most of my events and the waitlisting function allows you to know who missed out and might like to attend your next event before you even release it.  It also posts your event on social media sites looking hot to trot and takes interested people directly to your registration page.

They also have an iPhone app that lets you check your participants in via your phone on the day of the event – gotta get an iPhone first  :-)

If you sell a ticket outside the site, they don’t even charge you to enter the person’s name but the details still print out on the rego list.  It saves a HEAP of time, energy and effort and your workshop goes out to the public looking really hot and will delay your need for a personal assistant or VA.

Find out more about Eventbrite here

Excuse #7 “I don’t have a way to collect credit card payments online”

Excuse Buster: PayPal

I still don’t have a formal Payment Gateway with my bank because it costs and arm and a leg to set up.  My shoppingcart simply connects to good old PayPal and they keep taking people’s money online without hassle or stress to me.  To be honest there have been a couple of people who had trouble with the system but I suspect user error was the cause because 99% of transactions flow without error or stress.

You can do recurring billing, have Buy Now Buttons which just sit on your website without you even needing a shoppingcart or you can simply do an email request for money if everything gets too much for you.

You can transfer funds internationally and it takes care of all the exchange rate nightmares. 

The only downside of PayPal is that it takes a couple of days to transfer funds to your bank account, whereas a full Gateway fill transfer overnight.  I can live with that.

If you want the hoots and whistles shopping cart I recommend and use 1shoppingcart.com
 


You do need a bit of IT nous to get 1shoppingcart working and to be honest I'm still only using a very small part of it. It is a big system that I recommend you either use or upgrade to if and when you are ready to very serious about online sales. Click here for more details

If you have found any free or lo fee resources that helped you get started I'd love you to add a comment and share your resource with others.

Full disclosure:  The above links are affiliate links and these people do give me coffee money if you sign with them.  It is not why I recommend them and I only ever recommend things I either use myself or have personally experienced or someone I trust has used the product.  

My Most Favourite Piece of Office Equipment.

My labeller is my most favourite piece of office equipment and here it is on the right with the Happy Man doing a demo of how easy it is to use.

I love it because it has flowers on it - it is funky groovy colours and IT WORKS!!!

With all the technology I deal with on a daily basis it is SO good to have something cheerful that doesn't require a lot of brain work and it helps me be more effective in my work.

Everyone should have a labeller!

My labeller has revolutionised my office. All my files are properly labelled now and I can find things. I use it to label client files and the little doovers that sit on the suspension files. Every time I open the client file draw I send a whoosh of love out to those files because they make me feel good and I’m sure those clients pick up that energy.

As silly as my labelling fetish is, it will help to build my business because the better I feel about things - the more attractive I am to others. Read the post below to find out how Feng Shui can help you get your office energy effectice.

Would love you to share your most favourite office or treatment room tool - just add a comment.

Choosing the Right Business Name

Question

I am looking for a name for my business and all I can come up with is names that are already taken or are very corny. Is it important that the name of my business communicates clearly what niche I am aimed at (so that my target market knows I'm the one for them) or can I go for something either a bit more subtle (just because I like the name) or a bit more generic (in order to keep my options open)?

Answer

The Abundant Private Practices system really encourages you to make your practice all about you and be coming from your heart, this is key to your success in that your integrity and passion for your work come through your business. However, that is only true of the vision, mission and values of the business.

The next thing you need to understand is that your practice then becomes all about the client! In other words you need to let go of things you like, anything quirky, inside jokes or things you understand but the rest of the world doesn’t because you are going to confuse people. The name of your business is really important on two levels

1. Your business name needs to describe clearly what you do or at least describes it in conjunction with a tagline.

2. When people type a search string into a search engine like Google, the closer your name fits with words in that search string, the more chance you have of coming up near the top. This is invaluable if you have a website and these days a website is pretty much a given.

The clearer your business describes what you do, the easier it is going to be to get clients. Sadly this means that sometimes the name could be very boring or you could get very clever like the door company did that named itself “Well Hung Doors”. I love this business name because it totally describes what they do with lashings of humour. With a name like that though you better not get some boring person to come to hang doors that doesn’t have an ounce of humour. Your name needs to match the vision, mission and values of the company.

Therapists love to come up with exotic sounding names from Sanskrit messages or terminology from their modality or names like “Flowing River Sunset Rhythms” but unless you take river cruises with live music, this is probably not going to identify you as a natural therapy business that can sort out someone’s sore back – Julies’ Back Massage Service, although a bit boring, will work better to attract clients. If you can give your card to a 15 year old stranger and have them understand what you do, then your business name has hope of being understood by the general population. There is elegance in simplicity so keep it simple and obvious.

Anther key thing to consider is names that rank alphabetically in advertising etc – it’s always good to be at the top of an alpha listing, hence one of the reasons why I called my business Abundant Private Practices :-)

Getting Clarity on your Niche and Target Markets (the WHO & the WHAT)

Hi Mz Margz

I’ve been working through the 90 Day Challenge and the question raised about the choosing a niche or target market (WHO and WHAT) brought me to a question of my own, which I have been thinking about for some time.

Question

Currently I have narrowed my niche down to women in transition and I think that's still pretty broad.

Answer

Yes, I think you would find it easier if you defined which group of women or what their transition is. Perhaps both, for instance women transitioning to a new career or working women transitioning to motherhood – it just makes it a little clearer who you work with.

Always remember that you are only going to market to this group, you will still see women outside the group but your marketing dollars will only go on one specific area. The concept around having a specific niche is that when you say what you do, the person you are speaking to will be in three categories:

1. Is interested in what you do because they are in your target market and need and want what you are offer and therefore they will ask for more information



2. Has no interest in what you do but knows someone who would be (can refer others)



3. Has no interest in what you do or doesn’t know anyone who does – so stop wasting your time and start talking about the weather!

In your preferred niche for instance if you were talking to a man don't automatically assume they won’t be interested because even though they won’t personally use your services they have wives, mothers, sisters, friends who could need what your service offers.

A short talk by Mz Margz on the benefits of choosing a strong WHO & WHAT



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