Yesterday I was privileged to give a presentation at the first Marcshoret conference in Jerusalem for marketing professionals. I wasn't able to attend the whole event, but from what I could see Paula Stern and her crew at Writepoint did an excellent job putting a high-level, professional event together. You can see the program here if you're interested. In my presentation, we discussed how to market and manage your business in tough economic times by using the many excellent, free tools that are available on the web. Many entrepreneurs who have survived previous market crashes are talking about how those that get through these difficult times ...

The following is a guest post by Heather Johnson. Her details are at the end of the article. ----------------------------- In order to maximize sales and improve marketing tactics, each small business must learn the fine art of bootstrapping. There are many ways to cut costs in order to leverage your assets. Some of these methods are complex and only gradually save money, which is fine if you have the luxury of waiting. However, many businesses resort to bootstrapping out of urgent necessity and there are certainly ways to cut costs immediately. Below are eight bootstrapping tips that will show you quick results. Switch to VoIP - Many companies are saving thousands each year by using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) providers like Skype. ...

Small businesses have small marketing budgets. In a previous post, I listed 5 low-cost ways to market your business. Two of the methods mentioned were advertising on Google Adwords and Dapei Zahav. Since bootstrapping businesses need to ensure that every advertising dollar is justified, I decided to conduct an unofficial study comparing Google Adwords and Dapei Zahav (the Israeli version of the Yellow Pages). The winner with no holds-barred: Google Adwords. Here is a comparison of the features of both advertisers: Dapei Zahav: For a relatively low monthly fee, you can have your business appear on their site at the top of the classification of your choice. I put ...

Dane Carlson lists 20 Things Not to Do Before Starting A Business. While I agree with some of his points, I disagree with many others and think that if you follow them, they will either hinder the growth of your business, or get you into trouble. Dane's point was to help entrepreneurs bootstrap, but it is important for business owners to walk the fine line between saving where possible, and spending where needed. So let's go through his list. I will discuss five points at a time, so let's begin: Don't quit your day job: Disagree This is advice I see repeated for entrepreneurs, but it's not ...

With Pessach around the corner, many people are busy scrubbing their homes to rid them of all signs of chametz. In honor of this season of cleaning, here are 6 (mostly) free tips on housekeeping for your computer that anyone can do to keep it optimized and in good health: Antivirus program – make sure you have a good antivirus program installed on your computer, and that is constantly being updated. Two good antivirus programs are Norton Antivirus and McAfee, and they ...

Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages. - H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956) I recently became bit despondent about the state of my business. I felt like I was taking one step forwards, and one step back: every time I earned a little bit more, I was taxed a little bit more. I wondered how the government thought I could ever make it if I just worked to fill thier coffers, leaving little for me and my family to get by on. So I went to discuss this issue with my accountant. I explained the situation, and asked him what he ...

In Part 1 of this series, I wrote about self-employed women and the issues facing them when trying to get proper compensation from Bituach Leumi/Social Insurance. However, a self-employed mommy faces another significant dilemma after giving birth: how can you just stop your business for three months? Can you afford to lose clients? Running a business involves more than just getting the work done – it means being there for your clients. Loyal clients are very valuable, and part of what makes them happy is that they know that you are there for them all the time. This is particularly true if your clients are other ...

Business plans are considered standard fare for the budding entrepreneur. Business mentors and guides will tell you that you must have a business plan in order to succeed. Even if you aren't looking for funding or loans, and even if your business already exists, they will tell you that you must put together a business plan in order to create structure and discipline for your business. But do you really need a business plan? An excellent article on Wall Street Journal's "Startup Journal" looks at some recent studies on the effectiveness of business plans. According to a study recently released by Babson College, businesses that began ...

I am a big fan of the bootstrapping business approach. I am also a big-talker, since I was forced into bootstrapping by circumstances - investors weren't knocking down my door, and banks weren't handing me cash. I was a bootstrapper before I even realized that this approach had a name. At the beginning of my journey to business-dom, I took the MATI Small Business Course. This is a comprehensive course that covers the basics of running a small business, such as banking, financing, marketing, sales, and more. The teacher at that time placed a lot of emphasis on what were considered accepted business practices: writing a comprehensive business ...

Like many people, I use more than one computer for my work. Some people use their computer in their home plus an office computer, and some like myself, have a desktop and a laptop. My laptop allows me to be mobile and work wherever I like and take my material to meetings with clients, but laptops have their drawbacks. First of all, their processing strength is almost always weaker than that of a desktop. Users of heavy graphic programs may be limited by their laptops. In addition, you can't beat a 17 inch screen for readability and usability, and a real keyboard for preventing carpal ...