Let’s face it, human beings are really lazy creatures. Compared to the assiduous caveman we barely have to lift a finger. Can you imagine if you had to wake up each morning, pick up a spear, and chase down a deer; not because it ate the lily you worked so hard to cultivate over spring, but because you have to feed your family!
These days, all it takes is a telephone and a bit of patience and – Voila! – your meal is at the door. These habits exist in the start-up and small business world. We, as entrepreneurs, often seek the easy way out when trying to grow and expose our businesses.
There are some things simple enough we can do ourselves rather than pay an expert to do. No matter how cliche this may sound, a dollar saved really is a dollar earned.
1. Your Blog
A tool used to share your thoughts, ideas, products and services with your customers. A simple essential marketing tool that is very simple to create.
Last year, I learned a seven hundred dollar lesson about blogs after paying a web-designer to create one for me. When I needed changes and updates done to the blog he was nowhere to be found. I suddenly found myself at the admin page of my blog feeling like a complete idiot. I felt like I was playing three dimensional chess underwater with a gun to my head. As soon as I started playing around I figured the whole thing out. What I thought was rocket science suddenly turned to elementary science. Even web hosting companies make it extremely easy for us to host blogs on our domain names with their new ‘one-click installation.’
So the next time someone asks you to pay them to start a blog for you, say no and blog about it.
2. SEO
Search Engine Optimization: this term has been put on a pedestal by internet marketers and web hosting companies, and they seem to be convincing us that if at some point we donʼt get it done our businesses will be banished to the bottomless pit of the internet plagued with the lack of supercharged traffic and hits like Barry Bonds before physical enhancements.
Do our businesses really need this SEO thing anyway? Well, the truth is that it does help, but we shouldn’t pay hosting companies seventy dollars monthly for it, especially at the start-up stage. Rather, you should perform simple SEO practices like submitting your sites to major search engines, the frequent use of tags/meta tags and the consistent use of keywords.
3. Social Media
We all know social media has basically taken over the world: allowing us to reconnect with old friends, promote businesses, and market goods and services. We can do it all in this new adopted realm of existence we seem to now prefer to the real world. The same idea applies to others mentioned above: We can do it ourselves.
Many social networking sites provide a “how-to” tutorial on the basics of how the site works. You can even use social network to learn about social networking, ask questions, and watch what other people do. Once you digest that, the slightly complicated will “follow.”
Keep in mind, everything mentioned above is based on start-up businesses that have little means. Of course, if you have deeper pockets, or youʼre a major corporation, go ahead, hire people please be sure you hire one for me, too.