Indie Entrepreneurs, Build, Grow, Scale and Sustain Your Business (Part 1)
Indie Entrepreneurs – Start on a Shoestring
Is it possible to build a successful business without investing in the multitude of services promoted by the experts? How much does it really cost to get started and what is the bare minimum needed to start and still create a successful business? Well, these are the exact questions I asked when I began my own business efforts. I work a full-time job, and that begs another question, can a person working a full-time job with a family really start and grow a business? In this post, I will discuss my own experience and plans as I navigate the first of three stages of a successful business (Stage One - Build, Stage Two - Grow, Stage Three - Scale and Sustain). However, I encourage you to do the research on starting a business for yourself. From my previous articles, you know I am a fan of using YouTube and Pinterest to find content to help Indie Entrepreneurs build successful businesses and I will list a few key videos in this post as well. Also, I have created a free resource that lists YouTube videos to help you get started on your Indie Entrepreneur endeavor (Click Here).
Starting on a Shoestring – Build Your Business
I hear the term budgeting on a shoestring frequently, and it means to engage in an effort or business pursuit using as little funds as possible. Lacking money or wanting more money is the condition many people find themselves in when they want to start a business and is one of the main reasons why they want to begin one in the first place. However, seasoned entrepreneurs will tell you that it takes investment and time to build a successful business. There are no real specifics on how much or how long, but I think you should be willing to commit two to five years of hard work to build a scaled and successful business. As far as the investment, I believe it is good to have a goal to spend as little as possible but be ready and willing to make strategic investments when warranted.
I began my publishing business, EARN LLC, to augment my own writing and to publish my daughter’s children’s books. My business has a website I created using Squarespace ($18 per month for the business version) to build and host. I also registered my business in my home state ($125), purchased some software and equipment I needed (a new pc - $1,000), and purchased some needed publishing items (ISBNs, Copyright Services - $300). I will also be contracting with a copy editor and that may cost me another $300. All told, I invested roughly $2,000 to begin my pursuits. I don’t think most start-ups need to register their business immediately as I did, but eventually you should consider doing it for tax purposes and branding (be sure to consult a tax expert). Your business costs may vary compared to mine, depending upon the services and products you will be providing, the type of equipment or shipping needs, and any professional assistance you seek out (tax adviser or accountants). However, I do think an essential minimum purchase is the website hosting. Squarespace, Wix, and Wordpress are three choices to use to build your site and provide differing levels of service. I found it easy to learn Squarespace in a very short amount of time and was able to build the websites for my business and my daughter’s (https://www.laylasillustrationstudio.com) without too much trouble.
Screen shot of Layla’s Illustration Studio Website, created using Squarespace.
Considering the budgeting on a shoestring model, much of my business effort has been supplemented with free services or signing up for trial subscriptions that I use to accomplish a specific task related to building my business. This is not the easiest thing to navigate (canceling subscriptions before you get billed and dealing with the limits of free services) but it has allowed me to do some things at the early stage of building a business that I could not otherwise afford to do. Services I have used are below. Some of these are general enough to apply to any type of online business. Others are what I used to start my publishing business.
General Business Resources
Creative Market (https://creativemarket.com/free-goods) – sign up for a free account and have access to free downloads on Mondays. I have found useful font packages and Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator templates and brushes.
Favicon Generator (Websiteplanet; https://www.websiteplanet.com/webtools/favicon-generator/) – generates the little icon or image that displays on the tabs of browsers. Important for branding.
Keywords Everywhere (https://keywordseverywhere.com/) – a widget that has free features that I installed on my Chrome browser. It has been extremely helpful doing keyword searches for blog topics.
Sharethis (https://sharethis.com/onboarding/) – enables free share buttons to be added to your website and blogs.
Canva (https://www.canva.com/) - If you don’t know about Canva, here is one of my favorite tutorials about what Canva can do, and for free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kunvwC1AMkU
Google Analytics (https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/) – Google Analytics provides a suite of free tools to help analyze data relative to your digital business.
YouTube – many successful entrepreneurs are using YouTube to develop a following and to promote their businesses organically. It costs nothing to create an account and all you need is a good cell phone camera to begin recording. The video below will help you get started.
Mailchimp (https://mailchimp.com/) - Build an email list for free up to 2000 subscriptions. Connects to SquareSpace and other webhosting.
Pinterest – another tool to help you grow your audience organically. Pinterest is a search engine and can be used to direct traffic to your website, online store, or blogs. In my previous blogs, I listed a free good beginner videos on Pinterest.
Self-Publishing Resources
Book Cover Mock-ups (https://covervault.com/square-childrens-board-book-mockup-laying-flat/) – For self-publishing, create book mock-ups for marketing.
Kindle Direct Publishing or KDP (https://www.kdp.amazon.com) – This is how writers can upload books to Amazon. It is free to create an account and publish books.
Free Barcode Creator (https://www.creativindiecovers.com/free-online-isbn-barcode-generator/) – For writers self-publishing, this site uses the ISBN number to create a barcode that can be inserted onto book covers.
Nerdy Book Girl (https://nerdybookgirl.com/book-category-hunter/) – to identify book categories to use with KDP and marketing.
Verdict: Prepare to invest between $250 and $1000 your first year, minimum while utilizing many of the free services and applications listed above. Additionally, beyond the investment of dollars, be prepared to work hard and be persistent. Persistence through the times when you doubt yourself or have others doubting you will be very important. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we can do this together!
In part II, I will discuss Growing, Scaling and Sustaining Your Business. Until then, please join our growing community of Indie Entrepreneurs, dedicated to learning from one another to grow our businesses and create more income streams!
Take care Indie Entrepreneurs!
Matt