Ben,

this past year I have been involved in 4 start-ups. We have relied heavily on the free and opensource resources you mention here. So far we haven’t any problems with reliability or compatibility. (Ok, so Skype gets a bit garbled sometimes…)
Great post, I will start working on a “5 Things” post of my own.

Warren – thanks for commenting. And thanks for the link, definitely a worthwhile read.

Colleen – Hopefully I didn’t come across as saying, “Brands are pointless” In fact, with Grasshopper New Media one of the things I want to do as Director of Ops is to build a brand around GNM, through each of the properties. I’m a strong believer in brand, image and how you project yourself. But I think it’s also easy to get caught up in slick brochures and the like which may not bring immediate value…

Edward – I can’t wait to see your “5 Things” posts! We need more! I’ve got a few waiting to be published, as soon as I get up to 5…

As a slight counterpoint, I wrote “5 things you SHOULD spend money on when you start a business”:
http://dionea.wordpress.com/2006/10/04/5-things-you-should-spend-money-on-when-you-start-a-business/

Dionea — I saw that. I’ll be linking to it soon … just as soon as I get a couple more submissions to Blog About 5 Things Week!

Thanks for participating!

Great Tips!
Speaking of not paying for things…two things that have helped me out:

efax.com – a free fax number (not local but hey it’s free)

http://www.grandcentral.com – a currently free (beta) local telephone number that forwards calls to one or more selected numbers. It gives me an option to have a separate work voicemail on my cell and a lot of other options. A must for anyone who only has one phone!

and I really agree with #3 The best way I’ve found to advertise is networking! Just tell everyone what you do and ask everyone what they do… you never know who’s sitting right next to you… they might be your next biggest customer!

efax is a great tool. I use that one for my own business, so should have thought of that. The good thing about efax is that it turns faxes into PDFs and emails them to you – very easy to work with…no equipment required.

Thanks for contributing!

I’m really enjoying the posts on your blog, Ben and I want to thank everyone for their input as well.

In regards to software I agree, use all the freeware/shareware that works.

One online tool I found that works really well for maintaining your schedule, contacts and notes of conversations is found at http://www.FreeCRM.com.

If you don’t want to spend the money up front for a CRM you can use the free version and then of course as your business grwos they offer the for pay version with a few more bells and whistles.

Thanks again,
Marty D

Marty — glad you like Instigator Blog. Thanks for commenting and I hope you’ll keep adding to the discussion!

I’ve never used that CRM tool, but free CRM makes sense for a lot of small businesses.

I’m more familiar with SugarCRM which I believe is also free. (Or at least has a free version.)

There’s something else you forgot to mention that you shouldn’t pay for. Labor.

I notice on your http://www.grasshoppernewmedia.com site that you want audio and video interns, but you don’t want to pay them.

I love the guise of “it’s good for your resume”. Would be good if it was a skilled work position, but really…sound checking mp3s and uploading to a site..my mom can do that.

On top of that, you are expecting people with dedication and skill…

(From the grasshoppernewmedia.com)…Here’s a test question: Do people say, “Wow. I just had to show you once, and then you did it!” Do they say, “I can’t believe how much energy you have! When do you find time to sleep?” Have people said, “I’m so glad you’re on the team. I know I can trust your stuff to come in fine.” If you’ve answered yes to all three, get in touch. If not, good luck!

So you want all 3 of the qualities in UNPAID staff.

Hilarious.

Congratulations, you made it in the top list of lists. Please take a look here: http://uberlogging.blogspot.com/2006/10/top-list-of-top-lists.html

what?

who’s on first?

Always look at Return on Investment.
Some things are investments, others are expenses. Avoid all expenses, measure all Investments based on direct returns.

For example, hiring 2 people to get 2 contracts is an investment. Buying a refrigerator for the office is an expense.

I’m keen to spread the word about outsourcing (no. 5) during the early years.

I provide business support solutions to solo entrepreneurs and small enterprises. Persuading business owners of the benefits of investing in outsourcing rather than hiring staff is hard going!

I’ve experienced first hand the side effects of hiring staff before a small business is financially secure to commit to paying employee salaries – in the worst case scenario leading to bankruptcy!

Every business will need to use different business solutions such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) to manage business relations with customers, sales, marketing, accounting, etc.

Instead of purchasing an expensive traditional install-base CRM and ERP solutions, you can rent it by subscribing to an online CRM or ERP system such as Salesboom.com or Netsuite.

Not only will you save tremendous amounts of money by going the software-as-a-service route, but you will never have to deal with shelf software, since your company will only pay for what it needs and uses.

Those were some great suggestions. I know when I started out my friends were the first ones I spoke to about getting an opportunity going. Then when I put my system online I realized I needed to make Friends everywhere.

It wasn’t until just a couple months back when I started advertising online. But like you said before… Network network network

Online advertising is the most important thing to my opinion, which I only stated using after 4 years in my business. The investments I’ve made in advertising were so high and not allways worth it, compared to online advertising which is cheaper and affective.

Not advertising a new business is the DUMBEST piece of advice. Sure, take out a $200,000+ business loan but don’t let anyone know where you are located or what you offer. PR will only take you so far. If you don’t include a decent yearly ad budget into your business plan then your business probably won’t last long…or you’ll just make enough to get by. Who wants that? I deal with new businesses on a daily basis and all the ones who don’t set aside a yearly ad budget are closed with in 8-15 months. If you want your business to fail…don’t advertise!