Getting a tech business off the ground takes more than just a great idea. You need the financial backing to get things started. But what if you’re working on a tight budget? Should you give up your dreams of running a tech company? No! You just need a little insight into how to get things started without spending a lot.
The other benefit of this approach is that you won’t be wasting money if things don’t work out. Starting out small (and cheap), gives you the chance to feel things out and test the waters.
If it takes off, then you can take the necessary steps to invest more of yourself and your money into the business.
Here are six tips for getting your tech start-up off the ground without breaking the bank.
1. Get Inspired
There’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from other successful tech companies. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Find a website that fits the same style, taste, and goals that you have. In fact, find a few websites that are accomplishing what you hope to achieve someday. Then, use these websites as a template for your own. Just be careful not to infringe on any copyright laws in the process. Use these companies as inspiration, don’t make your website identical or unrecognisable. Not only is this a potential for legal trouble, but it can be confusing for visitors. You want your website to have its own distinct feel.
Unfortunately, hiring a website designer to build your site from the ground up can be expensive. By designing it yourself with a little help from other professionals in the tech world, you can save money without sacrificing quality.
2. Google AdWords Is Where It’s At
Google AdWords is a popular choice when it comes to advertising your tech start-up and sparking interest. Paid advertisements are a smart and necessary investment, even when you’re working on a tight budget. You can — and should — run your own AdWords campaign. Hiring a manager with in-depth knowledge of the advertising process will cut into your budget, big time.
The good news is, you can find plenty of free AdWords tutorials online and on YouTube. These tutorials give you step-by-step directions on how to build a successful Adwords campaign, including selecting a budget and setting up keywords. Performing these tasks yourself will save you hundreds each month.
Using automated bidding strategies through AdWords collects important data and information, then provides it in a detailed report. You’ll learn what kind of customers you’re attracting and which ones are converting. Based on this data, AdWords will start generating automatic ads that reach your target demographic.
3. Take Advantage of Freelance Workers
Freelance workers are growing in popularity for a few reasons. Most notably, they’re affordable and you can hire them on a need-to-need basis. This is perfect when starting a tech company on a tight budget. Forget hiring consultants to design, develop and manage your website and business. Instead, look to freelance workers to fill your part-time needs.
Co-founder of Rent Round, a letting agent fee comparison platform, Raj Dosanjh, explains:
“Websites like Fiver and Upwork helo you find freelancers across a wide range of specialities. Each freelancer has a rating and a previous work completed report.
You can create specific jobs for what you need, select your budget, and state your timeline. Freelancers will then pitch offers and proposals to you.
When hiring using these platforms, make sure you’re as clear as possible as about what the job requires and your expectations. Also, keep in mind that less expensive freelancers may not be English native speakers, so you may face communication issues.”
Give as much feedback and direction as possible to ensure the freelancer gets it right the first time. Hiring freelancers on a part-time basis is a great way to reduce payroll and other overhead expenses.
4. Look to Loved Ones for Help
Who better to test out your product on than your friends and family? But before you even get that far, you need to test out your website. Is it easy to use or do visitors get tripped up? Confused customers will leave without converting, which is the exact opposite of what you want.
Ask your friends and family to sit down and go through your website. Ask them questions about what they like and what they don’t like. Just because you understand every ounce of your website doesn’t mean a novice visitor will.
Knowing how customers view and perceive your company is known as the customer journey. Send your loved ones on this journey first and use their feedback to make necessary changes that improve the overall customer experience. Some companies hire people to test out their website, but why pay for opinions when you can ask those closest to you for free help and advice?
5. Increase Traffic by Offering Customer Tools
One way to attract more visitors to your website is to offer free tools. Calculators are a popular choice — from weight loss to mortgages, people love tools that help them calculate facts and figures. Not only do these tools bring in more traffic to your website but also improve your SEO. Like most costs associated with a tech start-up, developing these tools can be costly. Instead of designing a tool from scratch, check out websites that help you create your own calculators. All you have to do is input the formula, choose a design, and edit the colours. Then you enter the code into your website and you now have a useful tool that will boost traffic and SEO.
Plugins are another popular tool for improving your tech website’s SEO and increasing traffic. Plugins offer everything from payment gateways and SEO analysis to convenient shopping carts. Plugins are also simple to install and many basic versions are free. Down the road, you may want to hire a freelance developer to help you modify your tools based on their results and customer feedback.
6. Get Backlinks the Creative Way
Backlinks are SEO gold for any tech start-up — but they can also be quite costly. Just one backlink from an authoritative site could run you as much as £500! When launching your tech company on a budget, you want to collect as many free backlinks as possible. One way to do this is by looking to journalist sites like HARO. These websites will pay you with a backlink just for providing snippets based on a proposed topic. Make sure you’re monitoring these websites regularly because certain topics can go fast! There may also be several websites vying for the same topic and backlink. Act fast and submit early to guarantee you come out at the head of the pack. Another way would be to seek a professional advice on how you can improve your site. There are various professionals out there such as Ghost Marketing that could help you build your site backlink profile.
