Never Get a ”Real„ Job (16 page)

8

Shoestrapping (Because the Boot Is Too Damn Expensive)

A few weeks after shutting down
the company that shalt not be named
, I felt obligated to review the line items on the credit card statements that I was so resentfully paying off. Never before in my life had I felt compelled to punch a hole in a wall—but I guess there’s a first time for everything. It didn’t take more than a few seconds to figure out that poor cash-flow management was a major reason the company went kaput.

Come to think of it, “management” probably isn’t the right word. “Reckless mismanagement to the point of decimation” is actually more like it.

Our start-up philosophy was hardly one of meticulous bootstrapping or growth with client revenues. It was more of a “purchase first, and never ask questions later” approach. Before we earned a single cent in revenue, we were already in the hole for thousands of dollars. Here are a handful of the knuckle-headed, amateurish financial mistakes we made:

 

• Rented pricy office space prematurely.
  
 

 

• Hired employees before we could afford it.
  
 

 

• Paid high-priced consultants to tell us information we could have found online for free.
  
 

 

• Purchased overpriced presentation materials.
  
 

 

• Failed to negotiate with and often accepted the first project bid from friends.
  
 

Cash flow is the most important thing for your business. Your wallet and bank account are your company’s lifeblood. Yes, it’s important for your company to look like a polished and experienced brand, but it is equally—if not more—imperative to maximize existing resources, maintain a low overhead, and manage cash flow effectively. It’s time for you to learn how to be a cheapskate, outsource effectively, and look like a million-dollar enterprise without bleeding red.

FAKE IT ’TIL YOU MAKE IT

Your company simply can’t afford to make a poor first impression in today’s cluttered, hypercompetitive marketplace. Every touch point that leads to your business needs to impress, motivate, and inspire potential customers. You may have a great product or service, but if you want to be taken seriously, you need clients to believe that you’re on the same playing field as the bigger guys.

Fear not. You needn’t spend millions to make it seem like you’re worth millions. Your start-up needs little more than a phone number and an e-mail address in order to position itself to look and sound like a multimillion-dollar enterprise.

Look like a big fish with a $10-a-month Web site
. Your Web site is the center of your brand universe—and simplicity is the key to looking like a multimillion-dollar enterprise. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t know how to construct a Web site. Frankly, bothering to do this from scratch is a waste of your time anyway.

Unless you’re an expert Web programmer and graphics designer, building a custom Web site comes with the high-opportunity cost of wasted time. While I normally advocate that you outsource as much as possible, Web sites are a different animal. Hiring programmers from India or Ukraine might seem like a great solution at first, but $2 an hour will not make up for language barriers and a lack of any support whatsoever. Agencies and firms are cost-prohibitive for start-ups and can turn the simplest of Web projects into full-blown money pits—and a good amount of those Craigslist posters you see are just frauds out to bamboozle you.

This is why the smartest start-up Web sites are those no one has to build—and the ones that can be up and running in 20 minutes.

There are a variety of cheap, reliable subscription-based service providers that offer small businesses online tools, ecommerce stores, well-designed templates, and hosting packages that can have your site up quickly without the necessity for Web development or coding experience. Most importantly, these relatively inexpensive services eliminate the need for large chunks of cash and maintenance fees up front, and enable you to update your content with a few keystrokes and couple of clicks of a mouse. There are also an abundance of available freeware technologies that make it easier than ever to add blogs, forums, video, and forms to your Web site.

The best, most professional Web sites are those that load the fastest, are easy to navigate and understand, offer the most relevant and valuable content, and successfully convert users into satisfied customers and information providers. “Best” does not mean “most complex” or “pretty.”

In other words—less is more. A clean, simple-to-navigate, easy-to-read two-page site with useful content makes your company look far more established than a cluttered 20-page site with long-winded fluff. Make sure that users can find any pertinent information in no more than two clicks. Ditch the unnecessary sections—such as half-assed “About Us” pages—and place the most important content above the fold.

As your cash flow increases and your business flourishes, you can consider hiring Web design firms and programmers. But until then, forget the bells and whistles; keep it small, simple, and solely focused on revenue generation. You’ll look like a captain of industry as a result.

Be the master of your domain (name)
. Choosing the right URL plays a vital part in your brand development strategy. Domain names can either turn users onto your site—or turn them off completely. A good one will draw users in to learn more about your company. A bad URL will have them pigeonholing you in the blink of an eye and scrolling to the next Google search result.

Your main URL should be no more than 10 to 15 characters long. Lengthy URLs are hard to remember, hard to read, and are likely to be spelled incorrectly. Use domain names with a “.com” extension. Although it’s important to purchase all of the other domain extensions to protect your name, major companies rarely use extensions such as “.tv” and “.net.” Avoid using URLs that are sentences, begin with lackluster words, or utilize dashes for your main Web site. A funky URL for a landing page is one thing, but there is a reason Apple’s main Web site isn’t
WeLoveApple.com
or
Apple-Computers.com
.

Finally, steer clear of domains that remove or add letters from correctly spelled words. This doesn’t make you sound like a smrt, hipp Web 2.0 guroo—it makes you sound illiterate, announces to the world that you’re a start-up, and makes it difficult for users to find your Web site. Keep in mind that your domain name also needs to make for a simple, easy-to-type e-mail address. It’s highly unlikely that anyone in their right mind will think that your company is a 10-figure winner with an e-mail address like
jdoe@my-strt_up-sux.info
.

Keep your domain name in mind when you name and brand your company. It’s nearly impossible to acquire your exact company name as a URL, but your domain name must convey and embody your brand’s message to prospective customers and users. The best URLs reinforce the company’s product or service offering.

Buy a vanity phone number
. How often have you seen a billboard or heard a radio spot that advertises an easily forgettable phone number? Phone numbers must be catchy, memorable, and relate to your product or service to prove effective. Online services sell custom vanity numbers for around $50. Purchasing one of these vanity numbers increases the likelihood that prospects will remember your number long enough to enter it into their mobile device. A vanity number will also increase sales call volume, build brand awareness, and increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Case in point: Sizzle It! experienced a 30 percent increase in calls the month after we replaced our generic phone number with 877-EZ-SIZZLE. Our clients told us the number was easier to share with others and reinforced the simplicity of our services.

Keep in mind because of the ever-growing number of new smart phones and other mobile devices, numbers don’t always match up to their alphabetical counterparts. Be sure to decode your vanity number on your business cards, marketing materials, and online. This will prevent you from losing a segment of leads that remembered the vanity number, but got frustrated trying to use it.

Use virtual phone systems
. When you combine a toll-free number with an automated phone system you can make a small business look and sound like a Fortune 500 enterprise while you operate out of multiple locations anywhere in the world. These services use professionally recorded voiceover talents to welcome and thank callers, automatically route callers to the appropriate party, and provide callers with brand messaging and information while they wait on hold.

Big companies pay tens of thousands of dollars for their phone services, but small business phone systems can be as reasonable as $50 per month. This lets small business owners receive calls in their home offices or on their mobile devices while appearing to be available in an office. It also creates the appearance of a centralized office, when partners and employees might actually be on two different sides of the country.

Work in a virtual office
. Though you might be answering a call on your mobile phone from your living room, it’s important that your customers believe they are calling a global headquarters with an office and a staff.

For only a few hundred dollars per year, virtual mailing addresses and offices offer small businesses high-profile mailing addresses on brand name streets in major metropolitan areas. In addition, they include mail-receiving-and-forwarding services, receptionists, and options for on-location meeting space.

For example, instead of paying high New York City rental fees, my second business saved more than $100,000 by renting a Madison Avenue mailing address for $300 per year from
ManhattanVirtualOffice.com
. I never stepped foot into an actual office, and was only using the address to forward mail. However, putting the Manhattan address on my Web site and marketing materials gave my company such a boost in clout that we needed to increase our rates to maintain the perception. After all, Madison Avenue companies aren’t cheap hires.

The best offices for start-ups don’t have a view, so avoid spending any money on your “real” office space. Take advantage of any free locations that are at your disposal, like an apartment or a relative’s garage. Don’t sign long-term leases. If you absolutely must have a brick-and-mortar presence, consider alternatives to traditional office rentals, such as month-to-month leasing, coworking spaces, or bartering with other businesses for space.