Starved Of Funds Startup? Three Areas To Bite Back Costs

PixaBay

If you’re in the midst of starting a business, it’s unlikely that you need to be told it’s an expensive venture. As the bills mount up and everything seems to be far more expensive than you’d thought it would be, it’s definitely the kind of truth that life will have hammered into you by now.

It’s distressing. You have your idea for a business and you really, truly believe that it can flourish - but the money is running dry. Are your entrepreneurial dreams going to be sunk by a lack of funds? Or are there some areas where you can claw back expenses, by spending a little time furnishing yourself with new skills?

Are You Write For This?

You need writing to promote your business; or ‘copy’ as it’s most commonly called when it’s for commercial purposes. If you’re going to hire a writer, then life is going to get expensive incredibly quickly. Any writer worth their salt is going to charge anything from 3c-10c per word of copy that they write. Given the amount of words that go into starting a business - from your business plan to your entire website - that might not be something you can afford.

If you’re going to learn to write this kind of copy for yourself, then you’ll need to first brush up on your English skills. You’ll then be able to find plenty of books and resources that help you write in an engaging, personality-driven, interesting style. You might have to pay for these books, but it’ll still be a lot less than hiring a writer to do it for you!

Art Attack

That website and the promotional materials you’re going to be writing are going to need another element: design.

Hiring an artist to custom create all of your business imagery is going to be incredibly expensive. This is doubled down on if you want to photograph products, with the cost of hiring a photographer running at at least $100 per day.

So it’s time to DIY it. For your main logo, you can use the likes of https://withoomph.com/ to get your task ticked off in minutes. For photographs, it’s a better use of funds to equip yourself with a decent DSLR camera and then follow some simple online guides for how to use it. You’ll probably need studio lighting to help with the photographs but - as with writing - it’s still going to be more affordable than hiring a pro.

Web Wonder

Finally, your website. Even if your business is based strictly offline, you’re still going to need an online presence for it to flourish. Are you willing to spend up to $250 for a basic company website, or is there something you can do instead?

One great option is to use online “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG as an abbreviation) website creators. These allow you to pass over the need to learn to code, and instead you can custom make your own website using their software. You’ll find a list of possibilities at http://hostingadvice.com/ to get you started. There’s a fee, of course, but as previously discussed - it’s still going to be cheaper than hiring a pro!