Keep It on the Cheap: Episode 2

In my last post, I covered human resources, this post will cover
Other Resources
This is the stuff that will force you to spend some money, but not as much as you think.  The first purchase I made for my site was the domain name.  (Let's just ignore the 1st domain name I purchased: Spot's Couch.  Really?  Talk about a B domain name.  Who would be naive enough to purchase it?)  After bouncing hundreds of domains off of godaddy.com to find out if they were available, I took the dozens of winners and e-mailed them to Mark.  He rejected months work of work.  Then finally he said that Later Dog was cool but it might have a bit of a negative connotation.  I took that as a go!  Then, he said that he'd buy the name if I didn't; so I got on it.  That domain ran me a whopping $7.95 after a coupon through instant domain search.

So there was my first business purchase.  And this purchase lasted me through the first couple months of developing Later Dog.

As I was trying to get a feel for how dog owners would navigate through my website, I was frustrated by the pen and ink solution of wireframing (a skeleton version of a website that depicts navigational concepts and page content).



Just Ask for that Discount
A now friend of mine, and then contact of mine, Subbu, suggested that I use Balsamiq Mockups for wireframing my site.  While balsamiq mockups are largely appreciated for their black and white, simple wireframing tools, I wanted something that would be a little easier on the eyes.  And, I discovered FlairBuilder, a tool where the widgets actually work and you can add color.  That was more my style.  So, I mocked up my pages during the 2 week trial.  Then, I started a new free trial on my laptop to continue mocking up the pages (totally immoral, I know).  At which point, I decided that I couldn't live without the full version.  Plus, their customer service is so fantabulous that I wanted to support them.  Imagine that: cheepo Jessica wanting to pay for something.  But, I didn't want to pay full price, so I e-mailed the owner, explained to him my situation and mindset at the time, and asked for a discount.  I got a great discount.  And, I had made my second purchase.

This is essentially the point I'm at now: having spent less than a hundred dollars on my start-up.  But as I'm nearing my launch date, I see two big money-grabbers in my immediate future:
Public Relations: Getting "free" publicity.  (Not really free because you have to pay someone to do it for you.)
Advertising: Paying for ads.

some Things Require Money
I spearheaded public relations and found out that $5K wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket for a major PR firm (i.e. they won't talk to me).  Then, I talked to Nathan at campus2careers (remember them?) who gave me the valuable advice of paying a student to do the PR.  I'm about to embark on this journey and I'll tell you all about it as it unfolds.  Apparently if I pay then less than $600, I don't have to fill out a W-2 here in the great state of Texas.  This sounds simple and promising.

I've been deliberating how to attack advertising before I even knew what my company's name was or exactly what we would do.  No matter which way I slice it, it seems that i have to pay something to have flyers, magnets, sitckers, and moo cards printed.  I've been avoiding it, but now that I've decided on a launch date of Aug. 15th I can avoid it no more, and I must order them in the coming weeks.

The 2 ways that I am going to save on advertising are 1) My sister, a fine artist and budding graphic artist, will do the designs and Mark will check them.  That way, I'm not paying to have the advertising designed, and it will still be rad.  2) Delivery of the goods by the sweaty hands of myself, my sister, and my mom.  We're going to target dog friendly businesses (that are not direct competition) and dog parks.  That way, we'll be printing minimal materials by distributing largely only to dog owners.  I also intend to find some partners (people in a similar fields, but not in direct competition, that have a mutually beneficial relationship) that I can leverage for advertising.

#1 One Reason to Spend Money
This is the number one reason to spend money before you are acquiring customers: to make your people happy.  The lesson of the last post was that you can probably find people to do what you need done for free or cheap.  Once you have those people, you need to keep in mind that they are doing you a huge service, and you will repay them someday with something.  Right now, you can't.

But, you can keep them very happy.  Give them what they want even if they don't ask for it.  For instance, my developer volunteered to do the "front-end development" (making sure the web page looks just like the pic the designer showed you).  This was ideal for me because that meant I didn't have to pay for a separate front-end developer.  As we conversed I could tell that he was struggling through it and certainly was not enjoying the task.  I'm about to spend $250 bucks to make his Later Dog work a bit less frustrating.  He's doing a $10,000 dollar job, so what's $250 bucks for the happy train?  Invaluable.

Keep It on the Cheap: Episode 1

If your trunk is loaded with money that you need to get rid of, then you can skip this post.  If not, let's talk dough.  I'm building a web business, so the controlling start-up costs I expected to encounter were the following:
Designer
Developer
Advertising/Marketing
PR (Public Relations)

How much can you expect to pay for these services?  Obviously, the costs vary widely, but I'm just going to throw these ballpark numbers out to give you an idea of what it might cost.  $5-$10K for a designer.  $10K min for a developer.  $5-$20K for advertising/marketing.  More than $5K per market (or metro area) for PR.  So, that's somewhere between $25K and $100K depending. But, I did say that you could do it for little money.  25,000 bucks in not a small amount of money (for me at least).  Let me tell you how I've dramatically reduced my budget so far.

First, you need to know people that will do work for you, free or cheap.
The Obvious Human Resources
I feel absolutely certain that you know people who do some of the things that you need done.  Call them, talk to them, see what they can do for you.   Some people will help you for free, others will believe in your idea and ask for a piece of your business, and still others will charge you a severely reduced rate just because they know and like you.  Oftentimes, these relationships evolve.  When you first start talking to Joe, your advertising buddy, neither one of you may know how it's going to work.  And, that's okay.  But, when you need Joe to do some serious work for you, don't be afraid to call him up and have the conversation (that I know you don't want to have).  Really, you'll both be happier if you agree on the terms of your business relationship.  Don't let lack of communication hurt your friendship and your business.  (The lawyer in me thinks I should tell you to write out a short contract for emphasis.  It is the smart thing to do, but I haven't done it, not yet, at least).

The Buried Human Resources
Network: A system of intersected lines or channels, like string art.

If you think of yourself as one of those little nails, then your goal is to have more strings going from you to other little nails.  Right?  The more people you know, the better.  I've already mentioned some of the communities that I've been using to network, but let's go over them again:
Tech Ranch Austin: A business situated around planting and growing start-ups
Bootstrap Austin: A network of bootstrapping entrepreneurs.
Austin on Rails: A professional community of ruby on rails developers.

There are at least half of a dozen meetings that happen in Austin every month that would be useful for me to go to and network.  Go.  You will meet useful contacts at every meeting you go to if you make an effort.  Show up a bit early and introduce yourself to everyone in the room.  Then, go to the bar with them afterward (don't drink) and get to know them a bit.  After my first networking session, I was in a bar with Jason at A Smart Bear furiously writing down all of the golden information he was spewing out of his mouth. Intimidating, yes, infinitely useful, yes.  That conversation changed the direction of my business, for the more profitable.

As you're doing your networking, they'll ask you about your business.  Make sure you tell them about it concisely, then tell them that you're looking for a web developer (or whomever it is you need).

Oh, and print out cards before you go.  It doesn't matter if they are cheap and ugly (although, you can make reasonably priced, professional looking cards at Tiny Prints.)  You want these people to remember you and be able to contact you if they like.  Tip: You can set-up a google voice number for a separate and free business number (it will forward calls to the number(s) of your choice).

Remember that you have something to offer as well.  Since my background is environmental engineering, I assumed that I had nothing to offer to a bunch of developers at the Austin on Rails meeting.  I introduced myself at the beginning, and sure enough someone came up to me who wanted to talk to me about env. eng., because that was relevant to his business.

The Closer
Now what?  You've met a bunch of people that you've followed up with by sending each of them an e-mail a few days after you met them.  You have, haven't you?  But, you still have a bunch of work that needs to be done on the cheap.  Keep following through with the conversation, ask them if they can help you.  Ask them if they know anyone who can help you.  Make sure you're giving them feedback on their projects.  You must be bold, interested, and kind in one; you're molding invaluable friendships here, not just using people.

And, if you just can't locate someone to do your PR on the cheap, then use a resource like campus2careers to find a student to do the work for you.  They're cheap, you can mold them, and 1099 them.  But, you will have to actively manage them.

More ways to "keep it on the cheap" up next.  Thanks for reading.