Robert Granholm runs IT Arsenal, a company that supports new online businesses with their technology needs. Websites, e-mail marketing, maintenance, sales systems, and much more. You can find Robert on Twitter and Facebook.
You’re bootstrapping your business, so your overhead is already laughably low, insultingly minuscule, and if you’re anything like me, you’re proud of how little you spend.
Kudos for wasting time efficiently.
But seriously, just because you can run your business on $15 a month, doesn’t always mean you should. This was a hard lesson for me to learn.
I grew up frugal, I knew running an online business could be done for next to nothing, you need a website, and a way to take money, everything else you can find, create, and do through ingenuity right?
Well yes, but ignoring anything that cost over $50 costs hundreds of hours in productivity, it’s like paddling upstream with a baseball batt.
Spending money on the right things increases the rate at which you’ll succeed, or fail, both things you want to get to do as quickly as possible when you’re starting out.
So what should you take off your “spendthrift” glasses for? Here’s what I’ve experienced.
*I’m cheap, none of these things are actually that expensive.
Spend Money On
- HostingThe availability of your app, or website, is like your storefront, and must be fast and always available.Downtime is not acceptable.
- HelpYou know the drill here, if you’re wasting your time trying to make a logo or in contrast coding, hire someone to do this.In order to see how clear this choice really is, estimate how long it will take you to do something you’re horrible at, that someone will pay $200 for, then go on craigslist and find a gig you can easily accomplish for roughly the same price, this flicks the knob in your brain.
- Accountability / FocusThe bane of the entrepreneur is often focus. Do whatever you need to in order to focus on clear deliverable goals.Hold mastermind meetings with peers, create a community on Google+ or a private group on Facebook, or just start e-mailing.Use Stickk to put real money on the line, or bet me $100. Ramit Sethi’s brother, Maneesh hired someone to slap him when he procrastinates.
- FeedbackYou want feedback often when starting.One of the best services I’ve paid for, and most eye opening was UserTesting.com and more recently Criticue (free!).You want people telling you what sucks or what doesn’t work ASAP.
- Capability EnhancersTools that expand your capacity, and allow you to automate.
- Boomerang
- Evernote
- Rapportive
- Buffer
- Sauce Labs
- IFFTT
- First UsersAt first I wanted money from my users, now I just want them to be happy…because it makes more money.
Give them stuff, make special video’s just for a user and say thank you. Noah Kagan of AppSumo e-mailed his first 1000 users to say thanks for putting food on his table.It makes a huge difference.
Don’t Spend Money On
- AdsMarketing, to get initial users and feedback can be useful, but general ad campaigns while you’re still validating your idea isn’t money well spent.Advertising should feel like a tactical action that will yield a return, not a shotgun in the dark.
- The “industry standard” ToolsI understand you want to do it right, so it’s the Adobe Creative Suite, Wistia video hosting, Wishlist Member, and Apple everything all from the start right?”Fake it until you make it” doesn’t always apply, your outcome is more important.I purchased the Adobe Suite, only to let the shiny icons sit in my dock where I realized I don’t have years to learn them, and it costs $99 to get some great sales page graphics created.
- Over-educatingCourses that will distract you from building your company are only slowing you down. I advocate always learning, but if you’re on Udemy for a couple hours a day learning about graphic design when you have a logo, or taking a certification course when you still don’t have customers, you’ve found a nice looking way to procrastinate.Obviously we’re not all the same, your skill-set, and business will indicate specialities, but I urge you to take an hour this week to think about what you could spend money on to catapult your business forward.
You’ve decided to bootstrap, you’re naturally cheap, [kudos for real!] that will keep you in check, good luck.