It always takes a lot of time and money to get your own business set up.
But what if you’re trying to set up and grow your side business? How long should and would that take?
That’s where bootstrapping comes in: cutting down costs as much as possible while trying to grow as much as possible.
Many businesses have done it successfully to the point where they are now corporations and offering IPOs.
There are many ways to bootstrap your business. However, many of them are quite specific and therefore may not work for every niche or industry.
That’s why today we’ve got the five most popular and applicable ways to bootstrap your side business.
#1 Bootstrap with free tools
One of the greatest aspects of the 21st century and the internet culture is that there are so many free tools available.
These offerings generally tend to cover nearly every single aspect of business.
That means that, for your specific niche, there will be something on offer to help make your business easier.
For example, you can use Google Docs to create documents of all kinds, Gmail for your email, Google+ to engage quickly with customers and Google Analytics to track your site visitors and improve your metrics.
#2 Use free resources online
Another great thing about this day and age (along with the free tools) is that there are so many free resources available online.
All of these free resources can provide you with a wealth of information. Even better, they cover almost every single subject there is to cover, so that means you can learn a lot about your niche or business operations.
You can usually find great things on Youtube, StackExchange, Quora and many other places.
#3 Find and use coupon codes
Instead of paying full price for an online service, why not try and see if you can find a coupon to get a lower price?
These coupons cover everything from marketing, websites, hosting, advertisement and much more.
For example, if you wanted to get a .com domain from GoDaddy.com, you could end up paying about $13 per year.
However, if you search for “godaddy domain coupons” in Google, you could find a coupon that lets you have the same .com domain, but for only $0.99 for the first year.
#4 Free marketing with great content
Ever wonder why there are so many free resources on the internet? That’s because of a thing called inbound marketing—the way for sellers to attract customers to their blogs and sites.
You should be using that strategy too. You should create fantastic content that will give you a large fanbase, lots of high-quality backlinks, and boost your influencer status.
With that, you’ll get visitors to come to your page for free—much cheaper than paying for online ads.
#5 Take your time
This last advice is free, and it’s great bootstrap advice. Just take your time.
You cannot get from $0 revenue to $100,000 in 1 month, nor can you get 1 million website visitors in the same timespan.
You need to make sure you invest in the long-term and grow your business organically.
That way, your business will have a much better chance of success and longevity.
After all, if it took long to build, it will take long to destroy.
