We hear it time and time again: Starting a business is hard! Depending on your industry, you may see stats like ‘1 in 3 Startups will fail’ or ‘only half will make it to the 4 year mark.’
Scary stuff if you have a dream; a passion; or a gift, and you’re ready to go to work for yourself. But then there’s the flipside. Half of those businesses do make it to the 4 year mark! Garage-based businesses move to gigantic facilities, a small batch of handmade products turns into an order of thousands per month, that blog turns into a book!
It can be done; you just have to be willing to put in the work.
Here at Green T Design, many of our clients understand you have to spend (some) money to make money, but then they are concerned with their small budgets for items like business cards, websites, social media and more. Our advice is always the same. Start small, USE the tool you’ve invested in, then come back and get more when you make more money! It’s a beautifully simple cycle.
What do we mean by this?
If all you can afford is an order of 500 custom business cards, then that is all you should get. But you need to take those 500 business cards and give them to EVERYONE you know! Attend networking events and swap cards, take them to local businesses that may use your services, distribute them in a small letter to close friends and family letting them know about your new venture. Leave a card for the mailman, the bus driver, the delivery guy, the grocery store clerk, the waitress, etc.
You don’t have to be annoyingly sales-y about it either! Just let everyone know that if you offer what they may someday need, you’re their lady (or man!).
Chances are 1 or 2 or 10 of those 500 people might actually need you to groom their dog (if that’s your thang). Once you get a few monthly customers coming through the door, then you can move on to the bigger and better things.
We know it can be tough and we love helping people spread the word about their businesses. If you’d like to set up a consultation to see what we can do with your small budget, email our Marketing Director at vanessa@gtdesign.co today!
