Tips For New Small Business Owners With Busy Schedules and Small Budgets

Tips For New Small Business Owners With Busy Schedules and Small Budgets

At Site-Reference, we been tossing around a few ideas in our heads about how to spice things up a little bit with our content. One of the ideas that came up was to have all our own writers contribute to a collaborative piece on a central topic. We love if the community were to participate in this new venture as well; we hope that we can start lively discussions out of this idea and somewhere along the way help you solve a problem you had or anticipate having.
Considering Site-Reference main focus is helping small business owners get their online presence up and running, we decided to start out this new feature with what our experts think are the most important focus areas if you are just starting out on a small budget and restrictive schedule.
New small business owners can forget about SEO. In fact, it should be in their plan before they ever start building their site. This way, everything is done right from the beginning, and there no need to go back and redo everything. You start off on the right foot and just keep going!
As for getting started, you need to familiarize yourself with the basics to prevent people from taking advantage of you. The fastest, easiest, and most accurate way to do that is to go through the Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide from Google (PDF). It is by no means comprehensive, but it will give you enough of the ABCs that you can prevent most major mistakes and kick-start the learning process.
By this point, you have a good site structure and solid on-page optimization to start from. You can, of course, start naturally building links back to your site using good anchor text, but the primary focus should be on good content. Don have time to run a blog or article section? No problem. Guest post, contribute on other sites, add links to your social media profiles, and just be visible. This way, you under no pressure to regularly publish content. So long as you add value and contribute, you naturally build links, until you have more time to push and dedicate to this portion of your marketing strategy.
Misti:
I remember when I started my first small business back in 1999 as an online wholesale business, and then five years later I sold that website to focus on writing full time. During that time, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn were unheard of, so marketing with a limited budget and time was a little different.
Although I couldn market my business through a Facebook page, Twitter or LinkedIn, I did spread the word and share my knowledge through another form of social media: forums. You can still network with others in your industry and share your knowledge through forums; however, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are very effective for starting a small business, especially when you have a small budget with little time.
I know by now you thinking these three social networks require a lot of time, but the truth is they don take up all that much of your time. All you really need to do is login long enough to share a brief article or tips related to your business. You need to build your list of friends as well, but you can do that in as little as 30 minutes or an hour on a daily or weekly basis. Just send requests to others with the same interests as you.
Another way to manage your social networking accounts when you limited on time is with HootSuite. Hoot Suite is a free service that let you schedule status messages you want to send out to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn friends. The scheduling feature is a great time saver!
I highly recommend you use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to spread the word about your new, small business. The great thing about all three networks is they won cost you a dime, and if you use Hoot Suite to schedule your status messages, you won be taking up too much of your time.
Lisa:
There is just so much you can do when it comes to marketing online. For most small businesses just starting out, you want to make an impact fast. But at the same time, building a sustainable foundation for your marketing is also important.
First of all, I don't recommend you try to do everything. Assess what's out there and then decide what fits your business model. That said, there are a few things most every small business owner should be doing right from the start: email marketing and building word-of-mouth online.
Email marketing lets you build a valuable marketing asset and possibly even see immediate results. Be sure you start to grow your list as soon as you have an idea for your business. Don't wait til your website is perfect, your store is open, etc. Gather the names and emails for anyone who would be interested to hear more about what you offer. This can be anyone you come into contact with regarding your business, from members of the media to potential partners or vendors, and of course potential customers. Just be sure you always ask for permission before you add someone to your email list. You don't want to start out with a reputation as a spammer, right? If your site is already functioning, use a low-cost email marketing provider that can grow with you. I recommend AWeber. Their customer service is great, and they'll guide you through everything you need to know. You can set up an email signup box on your site, provide incentives for people to join your list, and then keep communications with your list flowing as it grows.
Many small businesses get by on word of mouth in the first while, and your email marketing activities can support this. Here are a few other online activities that can help amplify the word of mouth effect:
Actively request referrals and offer rewards to those who refer someone your way
Collect testimonials and request that every customer leave a review of you online (respond to those reviews graciously, even when a negative one comes across your radar)
Depending on what you offer, you may consider setting up an affiliate program or social media profiles to facilitate referrals and list-building activities.
Local coupon services like Groupon or Living Social can be helpful to spread awareness, too.
You can also actively network online by visiting and commenting on blogs and forums in your industry. While this takes a lot of time, you'll find you learn a lot quickly with your ear to ground, and you may connect with people who can help your business grow.