A course in assistive technology changed Kelly Twichel’s and Eric Packard’s career paths. The two were in graduate school in 2016 at the University of St. Augustine studying to become occupational therapists. As part of their coursework, the class teammates were challenged to invent a product that would assist individuals with disabilities in their daily lives.

Their resulting invention was a portable pathway for people who use wheelchairs and other mobility devices, which they dubbed Access Trax.

Converting an Idea into a Business

Twichel and Packard were so passionate about their product that they decided to explore producing and selling it, but, as students, they had no income to start product manufacturing, Twichel explains. So they turned to their university to ask if there were any grant opportunities for which they might qualify.

After some research, they were told that the James McGuire Global Business Plan Competition was an event for which they qualified, but the grant application was due in March, only six weeks away. Many teams at other schools had been preparing their applications for months. Despite feeling stressed about the looming due date, Twichel and Packard got to work.

“We studied the requirements and went step-by-step through [the grant application instructions],” Twichel recalls, taking special care to answer every question as completely as possible. They got it in on time and then waited.

On May 3, they received an email announcing that Access Trax had been chosen as one of six finalists. (It turns out that Twichel had missed the previous email alerting them they had made the semi-finals.) That year, Access Trax was the only finalist from the US.

And, as a finalist, the company won a grant of $7,500. It wasn’t the grand prize, but this funding, paired with a surprise award of $5,000 from their school’s board of directors, was enough to cover the cost of creating prototypes required for manufacturing.

Most recently, the company was the grand prize winner of $50,000 in the FedEx Small Business Grant Contest, following on the heels of its Amber Grant win in December 2018.

In all, Access Trax has won grants totaling $75,750. Since 2017, the company has entered 11 different grant competitions and won 4, achieving a staggering 36% success rate.

Photo by Access Trax

Success Tips

As part of the process for developing the first grant application, Access Trax’s founders asked their grad school for feedback, to help improve their odds of winning. What they heard from administrators there and from other grant programs they entered confirmed they’ve done a number of things well.

Fortunately, almost any entrepreneur or business owner can replicate Twichel’s and Packard’s tactics. Twichel recommends that you:

1. Read the application instructions carefully. Understand from the start what the grant committee is looking for, or hoping to read in your application.

And if you’re not clear about a particular question, email the grant sponsor to ask, Twichel says. “Don’t reduce your odds of winning by guessing.”

(You can find tips for writing a solid Amber Grant application here.)

2. Focus on the problem your product or service solves. How does your offering change someone else’s life, by solving a nagging problem, improving a process, or creating new opportunities? In your application, emphasize how much of an impact your invention or development can have on the lives of a group of people, whatever their challenge.

Although Access Trax focused on individuals that could benefit from assistive technologies, your product or service might be as simple as providing healthy pre-packaged meals, reducing a family’s cell phone bill, or tracking wayward pets. Or it could address larger issues, like providing clean water, reducing plastic in the ocean, or creating a fast coronavirus test.

3. Personalize the issue. “Bring people in to what the problem is,” says Twichel, by putting your audience in the shoes of the people you are trying to serve. Have a person at the center of the story, she says.

Access Trax started its application by setting the stage for the problem its product solves. “Imagine you’re a surfer. One morning, you’re surfing some great waves, fall off a wave, and hit the sandy ocean bottom. You know something’s very wrong instantly. You’ve suffered a spinal cord injury that changes your life forever.”

4. Look at winning examples. If you can get access to successful grant submissions, read them carefully to understand what the applicant did well. But even if you can’t see past submissions for the program you’re applying to, search for winning grant applications for other programs, to get an idea of how you might present your story and request for support.

Or you may be asked to provide documentation that you’ve never heard of, such as a business model canvas or pitch deck. Before starting to draft a response that you think may hit the mark, research what these successful materials contain and look like. Find great templates to use as models. Twichel recommends Slidebean for well-designed slide deck templates.

To find more grant programs, Twichel advises joining groups where like-minded business owners congregate. She suggests Startupschool as one example, which is free online training for startup founders.

Odds are you may find resources specific to your city, college, or industry. It’s there you’re likely to hear about helpful resources and opportunities for funding.

While grants that you don’t have to pay back are certainly a preferred means of getting the money needed to start a business, securing a low interest loan is a potential Plan B. As long as the interest rate is reasonable and payment term longer than a couple of years, financing your business’ growth through a loan isn’t a bad strategy.

However, with banks becoming more stringent about qualification requirements, it’s becoming more difficult to be approved for a loan. You frequently need a combination of a solid credit score, low existing debt, and collateral to secure the loan in order to be approved. That’s often challenging for newer entrepreneurs.

Fortunately, non-bank lenders are often willing to work with startup businesses, to provide the capital needed to get started. One such lending platform is Kiva.org.

“When typical lenders will look at collateral, credit, and other sometimes prohibitive factors for early stage businesses or financially excluded business owners, Kiva sets its criteria to be as inclusive as possible, so more can get a foothold on what we call the ‘capital ladder,” says Katherine Lynch, senior manager, Kiva US. For example, 46 percent of Kiva borrowers have credits scores below 650.

Women Make Up the Majority of Borrowers at Kiva

In fact, women account for 68 percent of Kiva’s lending clients, with the average US loan size around $7,000. Of businesses funded, 29 percent are in the food industry, 28 percent are service businesses, and 18 percent are retail.

The most common uses of the funding are: purchasing equipment, inventory, and remodeling or expansion, Lynch says.

Kiva Loans

Kiva has two loan products: a crowdfunded microloan and a microlending tool used by economic development departments.

The crowdfunded microloan offers loans of $1,000 to $10,000, with 0 percent interest, and repayment terms of 12 to 42 months. Many borrowers frequently excluded from qualification at other lending programs are able to apply through Kiva.

However, in response to the coronavirus, Kiva now offers loans of up to $15,000, with repayment periods up to 36 months, but with a 6-month grace period before repayment starts.

It’s clear access to capital is needed now more than ever, as Kiva has seen the number of loan applications increase 800 percent between March and May 2020 during the pandemic. The average loan size has risen to $8,500 and the time required to fund them averages seven days.

Application Tips

As with many other lenders, Kiva wants to see the following basic information in loan applications:

• Where the borrower is from and where they live now
• Why they became an entrepreneur
• Their business’s mission
• A detailed loan use plan

Lynch offers another tip: provide great photos. “Lenders gravitate toward photos of business owners at work — in whatever way that means for that business — that clearly displays their face and their smile!”

Kiva lends business funds to women entrepreneurs around the world, providing much-needed capital to female entrepreneurs who might have few other options.

“Though Kiva’s US lending accounts for about 5 percent of the overall portfolio, borrowers do find that the international community is eager to support their loan. With fundraising times lasting about a 1-2 weeks and 150+ lenders per loan, borrowers often feel nervous at the start of the process (which is totally fair – crowdfunding is a vulnerable experience!), but supported and more connected by the end,” says Lynch.

Note: This is the beginning of a weekly WomensNet Wednesday series where we’ll tackle topics relevant to entrepreneurs. Any content ideas/requests can be submitted via our Contact Us form.

If there’s one business-related thing we’ve learned from the pandemic, it’s how critical it is to have an online presence. With access restricted to physical stores, salons, restaurants, and other businesses, many companies have survived by making their products and services available through a website.

Whether you’re a local brick-and-mortar retailer, consultant, personal service provider, real estate agent, hair stylist, child care provider – you need a website. But not just any website. You need one that is designed and developed to attract more business.

In fact, there are 7 major elements that great websites – meaning websites that are successful at attracting, retaining, educating, and selling to customers – have. You’ll want to do all you can to make sure your website has these 7 things too. They include:

1. A design that reflects your company’s brand personality.

That is, when you come to a business’s home page, do you get a general sense of its culture and reputation? Great websites do that.

Some of the design elements that make up your website and influence your brand include the colors, the use of images, the typeface, and overall ease of use. More tech-focused companies are sleek and modern. Companies that serve young children might be more whimsical, with bright colors. Environmental-related companies might have a simplistic design, with lots of natural colors.

As soon as someone gets to your website, they should get an instant sense of what you’re like to do business with. Make sure the words, colors, and layout all convey the image you’re after.

2. Functionality that allows customers to get what they need.

Depending on what your website was designed to help customers accomplish, you should have functional capabilities – such as buttons and forms – to match. So if a customer heads to your website to make a purchase, it should be easy for them to do that. If they want to schedule an appointment, a calendar should be easily accessible. If they want to ask a question, you may have Live Chat enabled. Or if they want to sign up to be on a wait list for an upcoming event, you should have a form for that purpose.

Great websites anticipate what customers will want to do once they’re at the site, and provide functional capabilities that make that possible.

3. Backlinks from reputable sites.

One way that great websites stand out is in the number of other websites that link back to it – a.k.a. backlinks. The more that other authoritative websites point back to yours, the more credible yours appears.

SEMrush has a useful tool for finding out what your current backlinks are, as well as your competitors’.

You can get more backlinks by exploring guest blogging opportunities, for example, and by making sure that your company’s website is listed in advertising, directory listings, and publicity you earn for your business.

4. Keywords that reflect the content on the site.

Great websites make it clear what visitors will find once they land on the site. Keywords and key phrases help in that regard and also help improve your Google search rank.

The best strategy for improving your rank in search is picking one key word or phrase for each page and using it 1) in the title tag, 2) as part of the page’s URL, and 3) in the page’s headline. This reinforces for Google that your site, and each particular page, is providing the information that it promised.

5. Fresh, high quality content.

To continue to get better results from your website, in the form of higher traffic, higher conversions, and higher sales, you’ll want to regularly add new content.

Creating and posting new blog posts regularly confirms to Google that your site is active. You can also add new website pages, such as if you add a new product or service, or add a media page, where you post announcements and press releases. All of these types of materials are considered content. And if you post quality content that matches the keywords on your site, so much the better. You’ll be rewarded with more traffic sent your way. Plus, by supplying content that’s useful, you’ll build up trust and brand loyalty long-term.

6. A freebie.

Sometimes referred to as an “ethical bribe,” freebies are offers of free content in exchange for a visitor’s name and email address. They are usually digital downloads, such as a checklist, a recipe, how-to instructions, or a special report, but a freebie can also be a physical gift sent through the mail.

The presumption behind freebie offers is that if a visitor is willing to share their contact information in order to gain access to the free gift you’re offering, they may be a good prospect for your products and services.

A freebie doesn’t have to be long and involved either. In fact, shorter is better. Give your visitor exactly what you’ve promised, as efficiently as possible.

7. A way to contact you.

Surprisingly, some business owners make it difficult for website visitors to make contact. That’s not conducive to generating more revenue.

One of the simplest ways to encourage contact is to create a Contact Us tab on your site and provide a form or an email address there for people to use. Some entrepreneurs put their email address at the bottom of each webpage, so that visitors don’t have to click away to find their contact information.

Although not everyone includes a phone number, it’s a smart idea if you do business by phone or use it to make reservations or appointments.

A website is a powerful sales tool that can be made even more powerful if you have these 7 elements working for you.

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic is being felt far and wide, in homes and businesses small and large. With organizations from corporations to nonprofits to mom-and-pop shops now shut down temporarily, entrepreneurs and foundations are stepping up to offer support and some financial relief to small businesses.

Although new grant and loan programs are cropping up almost daily, we’ve pulled together a list of 7 that we believe are currently accepting applications, or will be soon. Many programs have been overwhelmed with applications and have already stopped accepting new entries.

Amazon Neighborhood Small Business Relief Fund

Amazon has established a grant fund of $5 million for Seattle-area small businesses with fewer than 50 employees or less than $7 million in revenue, with a physical presence within a few blocks of Amazon’s Regrade, South Lake Union, and Bellevue office buildings, that are open to the general public, and that are reliant on foot traffic for customers.

Apply Here

Denver Small Business Emergency Relief program

The Denver Small Business Emergency Relief program consists of $4 million, to provide cash grants of up to $7,500 to businesses in industries particularly hard-hit by the coronavirus. If you run a Denver, Colorado-based small business that has lost the ability to operate during the pandemic, apply to be considered for financial support.

View the Form

Facebook Small Business Grants Program

Facebook has created a grant fund of $100 million in grants and Facebook ad credits for up to 30,000 small businesses in more than 30 countries where Facebook operates. To be eligible, you must run a for-profit business with between 2 and 50 employees. You must have been in operation at least one year and been negatively impacted by the coronavirus. You also need to be in or near a location where Facebook operates.

View More Information

Google Ad Credits

Google is offering $340 million in Google ad credits to small and medium-sized businesses with active ad accounts that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. “The ad grants can be used until the end of the year across the company’s advertising platforms.” Credit notifications will appear in the Google user’s account.

Hello Alice Business For All

Grants of $10,000 to small businesses impacted by COVID-19 are being awarded on a rolling basis through Alice. The official deadline to apply is September 25, 2020.

Start the Application Process

Save Small Business Fund

The US Chamber of Commerce Foundation created the Save Small Business Fund to help small companies impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.

To qualify you must: 1) Employ between 3 and 20 people 2) Be located in an economically vulnerable community and 3) Have been harmed financially by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Grants of up to $5,000 will be made to “as many small employers as we can.”
Applications will open April 20, 2020 at 3:00 EDT.

Get Notified When You Can Apply

Topeka and Shawnee County, Kansas – HOST Relief

Small businesses in Topeka and Shawnee County, Kansas can apply for grants of up to $5,000. “Priority will be given, but not limited, to those businesses affected most by COVID-19 such as the food, restaurant, personal services, mall retail, small manufacturing, small distributors, and other unique types of businesses.”

Applications will be accepted until June 1, 2020, or until funds have been disseminated.

View the Application

Apply quickly for any program for which you believe you are eligible, because many stop accepting applications when they get close to running out of funds.

As the United States hunkers down to prevent the continued spread of COVID-19, many companies and government agencies are ramping up efforts to reduce the financial impact of the near-nationwide mandate to shelter in place.

Facebook is one of them.

Said Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg on a post on her Facebook page, “In recent weeks, we have seen inspiring examples of individuals and groups helping each other. People across the globe are stepping up, rising to the enormous challenge in front of us. We want to do our part too. Small businesses are the heartbeat of our communities, and many of the people who run these businesses are heavily affected by the crisis – especially as more and more people sensibly stay home. The longer the crisis goes on, the greater the risk to small businesses and to the livelihoods of their owners and employees.”

In response, on March 17, the company announced a $100 million grant program for small businesses negatively affected by COVID-19. Facebook will give away money and/or ad credits to 30,000 businesses worldwide – in the 30 countries in which Facebook operates.

Facebook says the funds granted can be used to get caught up on rent, pay operational expenses, pay labor, or invest in marketing.

Sandberg explained, “We’ve listened to small businesses to understand how we can best help them. We’ve heard loud and clear that financial support could enable them to keep the lights on and pay people who can’t come to work. That’s why today I’m announcing that Facebook is investing $100 million to help 30,000 small businesses in over 30 countries where our employees live and work.”

Although details are still being worked out, you can sign up for updates on the Facebook Small Business Grant program site.

Sandberg says, “That’s just the start. We also want to make it easier for businesses everywhere to find help and receive training and support from our teams. We’ve made our Business Hub —a resource for Facebook employees and health experts—readily available for all. We are also creating new virtual training to support businesses operating in this new and unsettling environment.”

Since our goal is to help women entrepreneurs start, run, and grow successful businesses, we decided to ask past Amber Grant winners for advice they would want to share with you.

Here are some words of wisdom straight from them:

Develop a business plan

“A great product (or service) is only one ingredient in the recipe for a successful business. Take time to develop your business and financial plan prior to launching. You must have a well thought out and scalable business infrastructure to grow. This said, theory never translates exactly to practice. Once you launch, be sure to evaluate your execution and pivot as needed!”

Rebecca Scott, founder, Sustainable Snacks

Don’t get too attached to your ideas

“If I could offer one solid tip to anyone starting or planning to start a business, it would be to always…ALWAYS keep an open mind. You may think this is common sense and obvious, but not everyone actually does it. Sometimes it’s difficult to admit that your idea just isn’t working. I’m not necessarily talking about your main business idea. I’m referring to the everyday smaller ideas and decisions that are more important than you might think. Changes and modifications of your ideas and plans, both big and small, are crucial and necessary when you are building something from the ground. We need to have the ability to recognize the difference between when an idea needs time to simmer, when it needs change or modification and maybe most importantly, when something simply is NOT working. I have learned that sometimes we come up with something that we as individuals think is a million-dollar idea and we get very emotionally attached to that idea and how we think it needs to be executed. Our target customers or clients may not feel the same way. I have seen emotional attachment to specific details be the very thing that causes a good business plan to not work. Always be aware that there are so many ways to accomplish any given thing. Be open to them all. Pay close attention to what works and take notes. Recognize what is not catching on and do more of what is, cutting the waste loose. Be open-minded and flexible. Listen to your customers and your staff if you have one. And if that genius idea that you came up with just isn’t getting off the ground, let it go and replace it with more genius. This is an ongoing process that I utilize every day and its effectiveness has been life-saving.”

Elena Mascherino, founder and chef, Love Again Local

Plan your days

“My best entrepreneurial tip is to create daily agendas for yourself to help manage your workload and also provide that time you need to relax and refuel yourself. Entrepreneurship gets lonely and sometimes it’s difficult to motivate ourselves. I’ve learned that planning a daily schedule gives guidance to my actions during the day and helps motivate me to get work done in manageable parts.”

Tina Degano, founder, Sugarless

Find a mentor

“Building relationships is the cornerstone of success-with yourself personally and with others professionally. I value relationships so much that it’s one of my company’s (Noomi) core values. Interestingly, when I first began my Noomi journey, it was the unplanned mentorship of an executive chef who believed in me, encouraged me, and challenged me, that really supported me through the launch of my product. And I wouldn’t be where I am today without her.

I genuinely believe in the power of mentorships too, so find someone who can really push you in a constructive and inspiring way. Someone who echoes your passion and enthusiasm and motivates you to think differently, to be better, and to dream bigger. Network with others, ask questions, start the conversations, and leave the conversations with even more questions than you started with. Soak up as much industry knowledge as you can, and leverage it to help you understand how to establish your business, set SMART goals and successfully grow.

People are always willing to help you along the way, and in many cases, have been in your shoes at one point; meaning, they want to pay it forward and help if they are able to. So put yourself out there, expand your network every day, and build and nurture every relationship. You’ll be surprised who you meet, who they may know, how they can help you, and what you can achieve together as a result.”

Krystina L. Murawski, owner and founder, Noomi

Network to forge relationships

“My advice for other female business owners is to get involved in a wide variety of community events and seek out networking opportunities. It’s not always about what will get achieved by attending/ joining conferences, or small business organizations (local or national), but often the people that you meet and connections you build can have the greatest impact on your personal and business growth.”

Kristen Moffatt, founder, Wasatch Nectar

Since our goal is to help women entrepreneurs start, run, and grow successful businesses, we decided to ask past Amber Grant winners for advice they would want to share with you.

First up is our 2019 annual Amber Grant winner, Amy Mitchell of Lisse Shave, who received a $25,000 check from us last month. Here’s her process for launching a product-based startup business:

Launch Strategy

I believe a lot of my success was attributed to building an audience prior to launch and validating my business idea before diving into buying a lot of product when I didn’t know if it would sell.

1. Build a lookalike audience

Even though I didn’t have all the details of my business figured out, I knew I wanted to be in the clean beauty/low-waste niche. So while I was fine-tuning my ideas, I started a “vertical account” on Instagram, blogging about clean beauty and sustainable living. I grew the account to 2k followers in a couple of months, which is pretty modest. However, I was experiencing good engagement, I organically connected with a lot of influencers, and I got to test out what content resonated with my audience.

2. Validate your idea

As simple as it sounds, I compiled various online surveys to gather feedback on my proposed business idea. I also started working with manufacturers to produce a small run of product to test out on friends and family for more in-depth feedback to see what I could improve.

3. Building the hype pre-launch

I knew I wanted to create a buzz on Instagram and leverage UGC (user generated content). I designed custom packaging for just 30 units of product to send out to influencers. Even though it was a crazy expensive price per unit with such low quantities, the branding of the packaging was really important as I wanted that beautiful “unboxing moment” that people would want to share on Instagram. I used a lot of my influencer contacts from my vertical Instagram account to showcase my product to start to build an audience on my brand page, as well as leverage my existing following from my vertical account.

4. Building an email list

I constantly promoted my email sign-ups through both my Instagram accounts. I knew people needed an incentive to give over their details, so I offered 48-hour early access to my website as well as a free gift with purchase for the first 100 customers (scarcity and exclusivity!). Using this tactic as well as executing a viral social media competition, I was able to grow my list to just under 1k subscribers before launch.

5. Launch day

I spent around 5-6 months building my audience using the steps above. It definitely paid off as when launch day finally came, I had around 10% conversion from my email list and just over $5k USD in revenue on Day 1. I think it would have been a completely different story if I had just launched my brand account to a cold audience without doing this prior work.

6. Things I could have done better

Keeping my list warmer! Looking back I could have done a better job at keeping my email list warmer and emailing more regularly on the build-up to launch. But if there’s one thing I’ve definitely learned, it’s that business is a constant evolution and optimization – don’t wait until everything is “perfect” before launching otherwise you’ll never launch!

Early-stage woman-owned businesses looking for educational support should consider applying to be a Tory Burch Foundation Fellow. Applications are due by November 19, 2019.

Up to 50 Tory Burch Foundation Fellows will be selected and asked to commit to participate in a one-year program that includes:

• A $5,000 grant to be invested in their business education.
• A five day visit to the Tory Burch campus in Jersey City, New Jersey, paid for by the Foundation. During the visit, Fellows will participate in experiential learning workshops on entrepreneurship and leadership development led by guest experts.
• Additional educational programs and networking events.
• Ten Fellows will be invited to pitch their businesses to potential investors.

The educational opportunity can be a workshop, conference, class, or other event.

To apply, you must:

• Be a woman business owner and own a majority stake in the for-profit company, which is between one and five years old (considered early stage)
• Be an active owner, meaning involved in the business on a daily basis
• Be over the age of 21
• Be generating at least $75,000 in revenue through the business
• Be proficient in English
• Be a legal resident of the US

As part of the application, be prepared to share your résumé, business plan, personal statement, and know how you want to spend the $5,000 educational grant.

According to the Fellows website, judges “will take into consideration multiple factors including how your business creates positive and lasting impact, what unique factors differentiate your business, what problems you are trying to solve for, how your business reflects your passion, the substance and quality of your business plan, what obstacles you have overcome, and your investment opportunities.”

The 2019 Tory Burch Fellows learned from experts that included authors Seth Godin and Kelly Hoey, Instagram’s Emilie Fife, PureWow’s chief content officer Mary Kate McGrath, and The Muse co-founder and CEO Kathryn Minshew. They visited area companies and tapped into the network and expertise of other Fellows.

To be considered, complete the free application online.

Decisions will be made in April 2020 and Fellows contacted at that time.

That first year in business is one of the hardest. You’re learning how to sell your products and services while simultaneously figuring out how to build a business. It’s a lot like flying a plane while you build it, as the saying goes.

The good news is that the vast majority of small businesses do survive their first year. In fact, a resounding 79.8% were still in business after Year 1, according to the US Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. That’s not to say surviving and thriving are easy. That first year provides many opportunities for growth.

So if you think back to the biggest and most important lessons you learned that first year as a business owner, what would they be? Or as you’re creating the foundations for your business during your own first year, what have you learned so far?

We asked dozens of women entrepreneurs that question and distilled their answers down to the five we thought were the most insightful. You surely had your own five biggest lessons, and they may be completely different from this list. But as you continue to grow your venture, these may be lessons you need to learn now.

• The people you hire at the start may not be able to grow with you. Paige Arnof-Fenn, founder and CEO of Mavens & Moguls marketing consulting firm, learned that lesson the hard way, she says. Her mistake that first year was “not getting rid of weak people earlier…I spent more time managing them than finding new customers.” Loyalty is what led her to hold onto them even when they were no longer the best choice for the roles they were in. 

“As soon as I let them go, the culture got stronger and the bar higher,” she says. Hire slowly and fire quickly is now her mantra.

• Prioritize what skills you should learn, rent, or buy. Juli Lassow, founder and principal of JHL Solutions retail business consulting and management firm, strongly advises assessing your areas of strength so you can build your business around your “superpowers.” Then “focus on what needs you can’t meet today and quickly decide how you’ll want to address the gaps,” says Lassow. She sees the options as learning the skill yourself, such as the basics of social media; outsourcing tasks to an expert, such as if you need a website designed and don’t see yourself needing that skill regularly; or buying tools or systems that will help you solve issues or fill a need.

“For technical areas of expertise, such as legal or accounting services, I would highly encourage that you prioritize your funds to hire an expert. The upfront investment will help you build a stronger foundation and save you money in the long run,” says Lassow.

• Set boundaries for yourself. “The first six months are tough because there is no groundwork to build off of,” says Ashley Lim, founder and CEO of Mansa Tea, a handcrafted aged tea company. You have to do everything from scratch, for the first time. “From product planning to supply chain management to marketing, there is so much on your plate and not enough time,” Lim says. Feeling overwhelmed is common and possibly preventable, by taking breaks, setting limits on what you expect of yourself each day, and being willing to hand off tasks that you don’t personally need to tackle, such as bookkeeping, ordering supplies, or creating online content. 

Saloni Doshi, CEO of EcoEnclose, a sustainable shipping supplies company, avoids overwhelm by mapping out her priorities each month. “Then each week, I plan how much time I’d like to spend on each one. It’s a great way to make sure you’re organized, hitting your goals, and making time for the things that matter,” Doshi says.

• Test your product, again, and again, and again. Lori Cheek, founder and CEO of Cheekd, a Bluetooth mobile dating app, learned from not testing her website before earning major publicity. “When we got covered in the New York Times nearly five years ago, we got site traffic from all over the world until Cheekd crashed,” Cheek says. Once back up, the company started getting orders from customers nationwide. “It was the biggest day in the history of Cheekd,” she confirms.

But her jubilation turned to frustration when she discovered that the company’s web developer had toggled a button “off” to prevent customer credit card data from being captured and saved. That was problematic since Cheekd’s business model is based on a recurring subscription model that requires credit card data to be stored. She estimates the company lost on the order of $30,000 from hundreds of orders that couldn’t be renewed. Her takeaway? Test everything to make sure it works as you expect before launching.

• Communicate consistently with your customers. The number one reason that customers stop doing business with you is perceived indifference. According to the Peppers & Rogers Group, 60% of customers stop buying from you because they that they think you don’t care about them. How can you combat that? Be in touch. Send friendly emails to see how they’re doing, connect on social media, send out a newsletter, pick up the phone. Do all you can to show you care about your customers’ well-being as individuals, and not just people who spend money with you.

Alex Tran, a deals and lifestyle blogger at Schimiggy, quickly discovered that online customers appreciate talking to a live human. About 13% of her customers are repeat buyers, she says, who “do more than just purchase. They interact with me on social media and through my blog and I’ve become friends with many!”

That first year is tough, but as time goes on, you should be proud of all you’ve accomplished—the connections you’ve made, skills you’ve developed, network you’ve established, and recognition you’ve received as a result of your idea and your efforts.

Your second year in business may not be easier, but it will definitely be different, full of new ideas, customers, and experiences you can continue to learn from.

We recently received a question from an e-mailer who said, “I’d like to hear about no or low-cost marketing tools and ideas. Promoting a business as an independent woman operating as a team of one has its challenges.”

We agreed and wanted to offer some ideas for getting more bang for your marketing buck.

12 No-Cost or Low-Cost Marketing Tools

Starting and running a successful business takes time and money. In many cases, when you don’t have much time, you can spend money to delegate to other people and services. But when you don’t have much money, you have to invest more time to get things done.

Fortunately, when it comes to marketing, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to capture your audience’s attention, but it may take a little time initially before you see results.

The following are 12 free or low-cost marketing tools you should consider exploring, to raise awareness of your business and attract potential customers:

Free

Believe it or not, marketing doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective. In fact, some of the absolute best marketing tools are completely free. Yes, some may have paid versions as an upgrade option, but in most cases, the free account works just fine.

Publicity

The most effective way to attract new business is to get the media saying positive things about you. Whether in a magazine article, newspaper mention, TV show, or website quote, people like to be associated with success. So when they see your business attracting positive attention from established media outlets, you may be surprised by the calls and emails you receive.

There are two ways to land media exposure: 1) Write a press release and send it out in the hopes that a reporter will find it interesting or 2) Find out what reporters are already working on and suggest that you’d be a good source.

That second approach is far more effective and less expensive than the first. The website HelpAReporter.com, nicknamed HARO, sends out three emails a day during the work week announcing the types of sources reporters and editors are looking for. Reading those listings will tell you exactly what articles are planned.

Skim the listings to see which topics you might qualify for, or be qualified to talk about, and then email the writer to explain exactly why you’d be a good person to include.

The basic HARO subscription is free.

The key to succeeding with HARO is to respond quickly and take a couple of minutes to answer the reporter’s question or offer your advice. Yes, it does take time, but giving them what they’re looking for up front will significantly increase the odds that you’ll be quoted.

Social Media

You’re on social media everyday anyway, right? So it shouldn’t take much extra time to do some business.

Three platforms you’ll want to at least have a presence on are Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Believe it or not, Facebook is very active for business and a great way to find and interact with potential clients, at no cost. Set up a free business page (which is different from your personal profile) and start to share information of interest to your target business audience there.

Instagram (IG), which is very visual, is a great place to share news about your products and services and to give your audience a taste of how you do business, through photos. Although IG is free, you may want to invest a little money in some photography training, since snapping quality pics is essential on this site.

Although we don’t hear a lot about Pinterest for business, it’s another great place to share stunning visual imagery with a link to other content. For example, you could share a link to an article you’ve written on your blog with the cover image pinned, or some glamour shots of your products.

Given how easy it is to find and connect with other people using free social media platforms, they should be one of your first resources to leverage.

Groups

Related to sharing updates and news on social media, another great way to attract members of your target audience while positioning yourself as the expert is by setting up a Facebook group. Facebook groups are communities you can establish for free that can bring together groups of like-minded individuals for discussions, information-sharing, and networking.

Some companies create private customer groups and share special deals with members, while other business owners use Facebook groups as a way to encourage conversations that are related to their business.

For example, a veterinary practice could set up a Facebook group for dog lovers. A graphic design firm could set up a group for sharing best practices around logo creation. A grocery store could create a group to talk about recipes that include ingredients that are on sale that week.

To get a sense for what groups already exist, do a search within Facebook on a subject you’re interested in. You may be surprised by the depth and breadth of groups that are out there. See if you can come up with one that doesn’t already exist.

Networking

Another free social media site designed for business professionals is LinkedIn. You certainly want to be sure you have a professional LinkedIn profile created, so that potential customers can check you out. It’s a stealth research tool many businesses use.

Once you have your profile set up, be sure and share links to articles and blog posts you write there, too. And ask to connect with other businesses in your industry and individuals you’d like to have as clients.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

When potential customers go looking for businesses like yours online, you want to be sure that your company shows up on the first page of Google results. If it doesn’t, the odds of your business being found go way, way down. Most people don’t look at the results beyond that first page.

To improve your standing in Google results, register for a free account at SEMrush, to be able to conduct keyword research. With an account, you can perform 10 keyword searches a day at no charge. If you need more than that, you may want to consider paying for a subscription.

Keywords and phrases are the words your target customer uses to look for your products and services. You want to find out what they are so that you can use them on your website and in your blog posts, to help Google see that your business does what your prospects are after. Matching your verbiage to what prospects are searching for is what search engine optimization is all about.

For example, if you own a restaurant in Boston, MA, you may want to see whether more people are searching for “restaurant in Boston” or “restaurant in Back Bay” (a neighborhood in Boston) online. Or maybe “Italian restaurant in New England” or “Boston eatery.” Once you discover what wording most people are using, use the same terminology to describe what you’re offering.

Video

The percentage of information we now get from videos has skyrocketed in recent years. More people are watching TED Talks and instructional content as well as vlogs—video versions of blog posts—than ever before.

YouTube is the main video platform, which is free to post on. You can upload your own videos related to your company, such as product demonstrations, trouble-shooting instructions, or recent presentations made, for example.

You can also create your own YouTube channel and invite your audience to subscribe, so that they never miss future videos you post.

All for free. 

Low-Cost

In addition to the free promotional tools available, there are a few that are extremely useful but that will cost you a few bucks. Nothing crazy, but also not free.

Blogging

One of the best ways to get Google’s attention is to regularly post new content to your website. The easiest way to do that is through blogging, or writing and uploading short articles of interest to your target customers.

To do that, you’ll want to add a “blog” navigation tab to your website that is linked to WordPress.org. WordPress is a fairly easy-to-use blogging platform. While there is a free version you could use (at WordPress.com), don’t. Go with the paid WordPress version that offers the option to add apps that will attract more eyeballs to your blog. You also pay for hosting of your website and for the URL you want to direct people to.

If you need help setting up a website or attaching a blog, SUMY Designs may be able to help. SUMY has low-cost website templates available that will get you up-and-running quickly design-wise. You’ll still have to provide your own copy and images, but they can design the back end.

Newsletter

As you start to build a customer base, it’s a good idea to communicate with your prospects and clientele regularly. Sending informational emails in the form of a newsletter to their inbox is one way to do that, as long as you have their permission.

There are a couple of companies with systems that will help you manage your customer database and format and send newsletters out. One is Constant Contact and the other is MailChimp.

My sense is that Constant Contact may be easier to use, or at least you get more hand-holding, while MailChimp may be less expensive but require more of your time to become familiar with how it works.

Getting Started

Don’t feel like you need to immediately use all of these marketing tools. You don’t.

Start slowly and check out each one to be sure it’s going to help you build your business. Rank in order of priority which tool is going to make the most difference for your company.

For example, if you don’t have a website, put that near the top. You can’t start blogging or directing members of the media to learn more about you if you don’t have a website.

A newsletter, on the other hand, is something you can put off until you have, say, a mailing list of at least 100 customers and prospects.

Video, however, you can create even without a website.

But before you go spending tons of money on paid advertising or pricey promotions, invest your time in exploring these budget-friendly alternatives.