Thursday, June 11, 2009

Marketing a Business For Free - 3 Small Business Resources Your Start Up Can't Survive Without

Marketing a business on a shoestring is an absolute must for the long term survival of any new start up business. Utilizing free small business resources has helped my clients save thousands of dollars. As a new small business owner, you simply can not afford to waste a single penny of your small business start up capital, by overspending on fancy printed brochures or an expensive website.

How Can Free Small Business Resources Help My Start Up?

Taking advantage of free resources can greatly reduce your initial business start up costs and ongoing operating expenses. This translates into lower overheads and greater profitability.

3 Free Marketing Resources Your Start Up Can't Survive Without!

Marketing a business on a shoestring doesn't mean that you have to sacrifice quality or professionalism. You can find excellent free business resources that represent a tremendous value, if you know where to look. Here are my top three, must-have picks:

#1: Collateral Damage

Free Desktop Publishing Software: freeserifsoftware.com

Take no prisoners when it comes to "standing out from the competition". You absolutely need to have an impressive arsenal of marketing collateral (such as a comprehensive marketing kit) at your disposal. Take advantage of free desktop publishing software to create winning marketing materials.

#2: Seek and You Will Find!

Free Blog: blogger.com

Let potential customers find you! Did you know that 73% of the U.S. population are already web surfers? As a new business, you need to make sure that you have an online presence. Otherwise you could be missing out on the over 220 million internet users in the USA alone, who may be looking for a business just like yours. Take advantage of an absolutely free blog. A blog is oftentimes considered better than a website for attracting visitors. Why a blog over a website? Blogs are usually updated a lot more frequently with fresh content that internet surfers are hungry for.

Free Search Engine Optimization: ezinearticles.com

Just like websites, blogs need search optimized content to attract targeted visitors. If you don't know the first thing about seo, you may want to consider posting articles to your blog. If you decide to take this option, be sure not to violate copyright law. Give full credit to the article's author by including their complete information.

#3: Promote, Promote, Promote!

Learn to Create a Promotional Calendar for Free: public library

Successfully marketing a business requires that you create a strategy for promoting your products or services on a consistent basis. Start by creating a 12 month promotional calendar. If you need some help with this, here's another great free resource -- your local public library. Visit in person or go online and check out Guerrilla Marketing for Free, by Jay Conrad Levinson. You'll find a very simplistic promotional calendar in chapter 2.

Why Are Reduced Overheads Essential to Start Up Business Survival?

The leading cause of start up failure is the lack of operating capital. To survive the time lag between start up and profitability, a new business must have a rock solid cash flow management plan. The mark of a truly successful cash flow management plan, is one that utilizes free small business resources to conserve much needed small business start up capital.

More Great Tips for Starting a Business on a Shoestring...

Invest the time it requires to seek out free sources of business start up funding. If you find yourself short on time, consider investing in an ebook which provides you with valuable resources of free start up money. Make your dreams of small business ownership a reality - even if you have very little start up money. I'm living proof!

©2009 Kimberly Kelly - All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Permission is granted to reprint this article on the condition that it may only be reprinted in its entirety, with all live links and author bio in tact

Kimberly Kelly is a Certified Start Up Business Consultant. She teaches new entrepreneurs the secrets for finding free sources of business start up funding through her ebooks, seminars and coaching services. Kimberly is the author of the popular selling ebook: The Start-Up Business Survival Guide: 101 FREE Products and Services to Help Finance Your Dream of Successful Business Ownership. Visit her website at http://www.StartUpBusinessSurvivalGuide.com

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