When I decided to start my own business last December, I had no idea where to begin! I didn't have a lot of money to invest and I didn't know any entrepreneurs to ask for advice. Despite my fears and reservations, I decided to jump in with both feet! I have since found a lot of resources that I'd like to share with other small business owners or anyone considering entrepreneurship.
01) Fiverr - Fiverr is a marketplace with products and services for just five bucks. A lot of the "gigs" are just for fun or humorous, but there are actually a lot of great business resources as well. You can get a logo made, purchase a video testimonial for your product, or get a SEO analysis of your website....all for $5!
02) Kick Starter - Kick Starter is a fabulous way to find funding for your new business! All you have to do is create a "project", explain your idea, set a funding goal, and create a deadline. You attract backers by offering incentives for pledging money towards your project. To protect both you and the backers, you will only receive the funding if your goal was reached by the deadline.
03) Square Up - Your business can be just as mobile as you are! Square Up is an app for your smart phone that helps you accept credit cards virtually anywhere! Once you sign up, they send you a free credit card scanner that plugs right in to your phone's headphone jack. Once a payment is processed, Square takes 2.75% as a processing charge, and deposits the rest in your bank account. It couldn't get any simpler!
04) Vista Print - Business cards are an essential for any business owner! If you don't know how to design your own business cards and/or want to save money, Vista Print is the place to go! They have hundreds of business card templates you can customize to get a professional look. They offer 250 business cards for just $10, and that includes free shipping. If you subscribe to their newsletter, you can get even better deals if you watch for them.
05) Webs.com - When I first started my business, I didn't want to pay for a domain name and hosting right away but I DID want to make sure I had an online presence. It was hard enough to find free hosting, let alone free hosting that offered a shopping cart option for my customers. I finally found what I was looking for from Webs.com! You can set up a shopping cart on your free website through Paypal or Google Checkout. Also, making your site look professional is very simple thanks to their templates and drag and drop editing.
I hope this list helped! Feel free to add on to the list by leaving a comment below.
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