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Introduction

Starting a business can be costly, especially in certain fields such as brick-and-mortar and retail. But there are ways to drastically reduce your startup costs, and to secure funding without giving away the rights to your company, or going into serious debt.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard entrepreneurs lamenting over the fact that they gave a huge percentage of their company equity away to get angel investors or venture capital, and realized later they could have done it on their own without giving up so much equity. Let’s say you secure $100,000 from an angel investor in exchange for a 25% stake in your company. (Realistically, most investors ask for higher amounts, but we’ll use 25% for easier math.)

Now let’s say your company makes $1,000,000 in profit in its first year. This means your angel investor would receive $250,000 for that initial $100,000 investment, and that’s just in the first year! Over the years, this could add up to millions of dollars!

This is why it’s important to avoid seeking investors whenever possible, or to delay seeking funding as long as possible. (We’ll talk about the reasons for that later.)

In this guide, we’re going to talk about some of the best ways to save money, get profitable faster, and avoid having to seek funding before your company is truly ready. You’re going to learn how to start your business with the least possible investment, and how to manage your money until your company becomes profitable.

So, let’s get started.

Setting a Budget

According to a 2009 survey by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the average startup cost for a business was around $30,000. It might be a bit higher now, given inflation, but you can expect the average is still somewhere in that ballpark.

Of course, startup costs can vary dramatically depending on the type of business you’re trying to start.

Opening a retail business or a restaurant, for example, might cost a minimum of $50,000 or more, because you have to pay for the physical space, fixtures, product, licensing, employee salaries, and more. But starting an online business focusing on digital products, affiliate marketing, drop shipping, or something similar might require as little as $25 to start. This is one big reason so many people start these types of businesses. There’s a lower barrier to entry.

Even $25 can be a significant investment for some people. If you’re already living on next to nothing, even such a small amount can seem like a fortune, especially when it comes to risking it with a potential for failure.

But entrepreneurs know that there’s no reward without risk, and only you know how much risk you’re willing to take.

So, the first thing you need to do (after you make the major decisions regarding the type of business you want to create and such) is figure out exactly how much you’re prepared to spend starting your business. A lot of this will probably depend on how much you have to spend. If you don’t have very deep pockets, and most of us don’t, you will be limited in the amount of money you have available to start your business.

Some people don’t mind risk, and they’re willing to put more of their available funds into their business in order to try to extract profit more quickly. Others prefer to risk a bit less and grow more slowly. Either way is fine. It’s up to you to decide how much risk you’re willing to take. This is why it’s important to set a budget and stick to it as much as you possibly can. If you have $20,000 in your savings account and you’re willing to risk half, then you need to set a budget that falls within the $10,000 you have available.

If you have no money available, and you’re starting with nothing, budgeting becomes even more important. You’ll have to find money somehow, and that’s not easy if you have no experience to prove your ability.

Determine exactly how much money you have to invest, and how much you’re willing to risk. Then sit down and total up every single expense you can possibly think of with regards to opening your business.

Don’t forget things such as:

• Product (either buying or developing it)

• Location (either a physical location or a website)

• Marketing expenses

• Employees or outsourcing expenses

• Office supplies and utilities

• Six to twelve months of operating capital

Take note of that last one. Many businesses don’t become profitable for at least the first 6-12 months, so it’s important not only to ensure you have enough capital to start your business initially, but also to run it until it becomes profitable.

Determine how much you are likely to need to run your business until it becomes profitable, and try to pad that number as much as you can in order to account for unexpected expenses.

Once you’ve determined your budget, you can start purchasing the things you need to open your business.

Sticking to Your Budget

Let’s talk about a few things you can do to make sure you stick to your budget once you have developed it. After all, a budget won’t make a difference if you don’t stick to it!

Using Credit

There may be times when using credit is absolutely necessary, but try not to use it unless you have to. Interest rates vary based on the type of loan/credit and your credit history, and can be as much as 30% or even higher for some types of high-risk loans. This kind of expense can destroy a brand-new company if it’s not managed carefully, so it’s wise to avoid using credit if at all possible.

The only thing you should use credit for is to obtain inventory, because it’s something you can sell for a profit, and then only if necessary. For example, if you find a good price on inventory that is a limited time offer, or if you run out of stock of your best-selling item and you need to get it back in stock urgently and you are waiting for payments to come in, then you can float with credit.

If you do this, be sure to pay back the entirety of the loan as quickly as possible, ideally within 30 days in order to avoid interest. Most credit cards will not charge interest until they generate a statement, so if you can pay off the balance before your statement is generated, you probably won’t have to pay interest.

This isn’t true for loans, however, so be sure to check the terms of any loan to see just how much you’re going to have to pay back.

Remember, if you end up paying high interest on something, even product you intend to sell, you eat into your profits. This is especially notable if you’re in a field that operates on razor-thin profit margins, such as consumer electronics. Such interest payments could erase your profits completely.

You may also occasionally have emergency expenses that you must use credit to cover—such as an unexpectedly high utility bill or some other expense you couldn’t have anticipated. This is another valid reason to use credit, but try to avoid doing so if you can find any other option.

Don’t forget that you can often transfer balances from one card to another, so if you have a balance on a card and you know you can’t pay it off in time to avoid interest, you could transfer the balance to another card with a lower interest rate or to buy time to pay it off. Also, consider getting business credit instead of using your personal credit. Some types of business credit can be obtained without risking your own personal credit score or your personal income, instead being opened in the name of the company using the company’s Federal tax ID number instead of a social security number.

Be sure to ask if the creditor requires a personal guarantee, also called a PG. If so, it means you could be sued directly if you default, and it can be reported to your personal credit report.

Keep An Eye On Cash Flow

In the early stages of a startup, cash is king. Cash flow is something that can easily get away from you if you’re not careful.

Be sure you carefully document your business expenses, including noting the date, amount, items purchased, where they were purchased, and keep receipts.

Not only will this help you stick to your budget, but you will need this information for taxes, because you will pay a huge amount of money in taxes if you aren’t able to claim deductions for your expenses! Some expenses can’t be written off on your taxes, but save the receipts anyway. You never know when you may need them.

Tax laws can and do change sometimes, and not only that, you may need to prove expense figures if you later decide to sell your company.

If you have employees, be sure that anyone who has access to petty cash or to company funds knows they must clear purchases with you first. One of the biggest reasons companies go over budget is through employees spending money on items that aren’t in the budget.

It’s always difficult when you don’t want to micromanage employees. Just be sure to let them know that cash flow is tight, and that’s the reason they are being asked to clear purchases with you first. You don’t want them thinking you don’t trust them.

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Introduction

If you have an online business, you’re selling something. It might be a product of your own, a service you provide, an affiliate product (or most likely multiple affiliate products), etc. Whatever it is you’re selling, you need leads.

In fact, in most major industries the average cost of a single lead is $20 or more! They’re THAT valuable. But you won’t have to pay that kind of money, because you’re about to learn exactly how to position yourself so you can easily connect with an unlimited amount of high-quality leads without breaking the bank!

So, what exactly is a lead?

A lead is a potential buyer. And more importantly, a qualified prospect that has been proven to be interested in your products or services. potential customer or client. A lead isn’t guaranteed to buy, but they are far more likely to because they’ve shown interest in your niche market.

How does one go about generating qualified leads?

You need to entice them to offer their contact information in exchange for something of value. It might be a free report, a training video, a discount or coupon, or something else—but it should be something they would be interested in only if they would also likely be interested in whatever you’re selling.

In other words, offering a discount coupon for a coffee shop is NOT going to get you qualified leads if you’re selling model cars. A guide on how to lose weight is NOT going to get you qualified leads if you’re offering a graphics design service. Sure, a few of those people might be interested in what you’re selling, but you want people who have clearly demonstrated some level of interest in the types of products or services you are offering.

Here is a simple example:

If you’re offering dog walking services, you might offer a free report on training your dog, or how to get bargains on pet supplies, or even a coupon for 50% off the customer’s first walking session.

To begin, there are four main elements to generating leads:

• The system

• The lead magnet (offer)

• The squeeze page/entry funnel

• Traffic

We are going to devote a chapter to each of these four elements, so you will learn more about how to start generating leads as you move through this guide. By the end of this special report, you’ll be ready to start connecting with red-hot prospects in your niche market so you can instantly maximize your income and expand your outreach. So, let’s get started!

Step One: The System

The first thing you absolutely must do if you want to generate leads is to sign up for a service that will allow you to build a database of leads through a web form.

Most people simply use an autoresponder service such as MailChimp, MailerLite, aWeber, or GetResponse, but there are also services that will let you collect, store, manage, and search many different types of information if you need more details from your leads.

If all you need to collect is name and email, which is fine for most online marketing purposes, you can just use a simple autoresponder system.

Here is a list of some of the most popular autoresponder services. Each of these services is widely respected and most have similar features and pricing.

If you’re just getting started, MailChimp and MailerLite have free versions you can use for a while.

MailChimp

>> https://www.mailchimp.com

MailerLite

>> https://www.MailerLite.com

AWeber

>> https://www.aweber.com

GetResponse

>> https://www.GetResponse.com

If you’re looking to collect more in-depth information, you might want to go with a CRM, or customer relationship management, software. This type of software has in-depth information collection and management, allowing you to build a database of customer information that you can use for marketing purposes.

Agile CRM

>> https://www.agilecrm.com/marketing-automation-software

Agile CRM is one of the most popular and powerful CRM systems out there, and you can start with a FREE account to give it a try. You can have up to 10 users with the trial, and you don’t have to enter any credit card information to get started.

Agile will let you set up autoresponder campaigns, perform A/B split testing, segment your lists, and even predict customer behavior in the future!

Best of all, Agile CRM has some of the Brest pricing in the industry, with plans starting at just $8.99 per month after the trial.

Infusionsoft

>> https://www.infusionsoft.com

Unlimited Leads: Special Report 11

Infusionsoft is one of the most well-known CRM systems out there. They have a hugely powerful suite of features, including syncing with over 200 other services from Gmail to BigCommerce, Shopify to Woocommerce.

Infusionsoft has extremely powerful analytics, a full-fledged sales pipeline built in, and much more.

The biggest drawback to Infusionsoft is pricing, which starts as $199 and scales upward. It’s a very powerful software, but the price may be a bit high if you’re just getting started.

Salesforce

>> https://www.salesforce.com

Salesforce is another very well-known CRM. They have a huge arsenal of tools available, including They have plans starting at just $25 per month for lead generation alone, so they are affordable for smaller companies who won’t have a lot of users accessing the software. If you don’t need the advanced features, you can make do with the cheapest plan just for generating leads.

Their lead management system lets you keep track of all the stages of customer interaction and transactions.

FreeAgent

>> https://www.freeagentcrm.com

FreeAgent is a very affordable CRM system that has a wealth of features, including email tracking, outbound call tracking, sales activity tracking, real-time alerts and updates, mass email send, calendar syncing, and more.

Plans start at just $29 per month, making it a great option for new companies and those who aren’t doing enough business to support the price of one of the more expensive options.

Once you’ve decided which system you’re going to use and you’ve signed up for an account and familiarized yourself with how it works, it’s time to move on to the next step—the offer.

Step Two: The Offer

Once you have chosen your system and set up your initial campaign, it’s time to think about creating your offer, which many people refer to as your “lead magnet”. It’s kind of like fishing, where your leads are the fish, and your lead magnet is the bait that lures them in.

Remember, this offer should appeal directly to your chosen demographic. You can’t expect to catch a catfish with a flashy lure meant for bass. While it’s possible, it’s not likely, and you’d stand a much better chance of catching a catfish with something that is known to appeal to them—such as chicken livers, or earthworms, or stink bait. Try to think about what might appeal to your target audience. What would they be interested in learning that they don’t already know? What would they be interested in getting a discount on?

Most people create a special report as their lead magnet. It’s usually 10-20 pages, but may be up to 50 or so, depending on how much you want to say. Longer reports are more appropriate when you have a complex subject and aren’t selling information on the topic.

For example, if you’re in real estate and selling houses, you can give away a 50-page guide on how to find the perfect house, including information about stuff like zoning regulations, homeowners’ associations, utilities, road frontage, home inspections, etc. But if you’re selling a course on SEO, a shorter report, say 20 pages, on a small segment of the topic would be much more appropriate, because you don’t want to give away all your information for free. You can always outsource the creation of your lead magnet, or purchase a high-quality PLR product that you can use. This will save you a lot of time.

If you are in the Internet marketing or B2B (business-to-business) fields, you might be interested in signing up for the Automated List Profits monthly program, which delivers two fully-automated lead generation packages per month and includes a report, squeeze page, and thank you page. All you have to do is paste your opt-in code and upload everything!