Where the hell are you?

Written on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 | Bootstrapping News | Be the first to comment

So, there’s no secret that lately we’ve been minimal with articles. There’s a perfectly good explination for that though; I’ve been too busy at my blog design site to take a breath, let alone write any articles. So, here’s a couple announcements to get the ball rolling again.

I’m looking for guest writers

If you’d like to write an article related to anything small business, freelancing, bootstrapping, guerrilla marketing and so on, please feel free to use the contact page and submit your idea and I’ll let you know if it’s approved to post. Also include a 2-3 sentence by-line including 2 links to your website and a bit about you. This can be a one time thing, or ongoing if you’d like.

I’m designing a new layout for this website

Blog Theme Machine is being redesigned and with that, my favorite site I run is also being redesigned; bootstrapping blog. The design will be a lot more user friendly, it will be the ever popular “magazine style” and will feature a lot more of the best content and showcase interviews, and new ideas I’ve got planned for the site. I’m wanting to keep it a “blog” but turn it more into a fully functional website. It will definitely be an improvement from this layout (which was thrown together pretty quick because the old layout it had when I bought the site was horrible in Internet Explorer).

I’m looking for your input

If you’ve got an idea for an article, or have questions you’d like answered, please leave a comment on this article or shoot me an email through the contact page and I’ll make sure to get an article up about it.

Thank you

I wanted to make sure I thank everyone who is a reader of this blog, subscribes to the feed and/or just scrolls by every now and then. Without you, this blog wouldn’t be where it is today. Again, thank you for being readers, thank you for commenting and thank you for being fellow bootstrappers and small business owners with a dream to succeed. I’m in the race with you and together, we can definitely make it.

 

If you liked this post you may wish to subscribe to our feed to ensure you don't miss anything.

Subscribe via Feed Reader | Subscribe via Email | What is RSS?

Building an effective Guerrilla Marketing Strategy

Written on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 | Bootstrapping News, Guerrilla Marketing | 3 Comments

Guerrillas create a strategy in seven simple sentences. No more need for a comprehensive marketing plan that lists projected goals in great detail for the next five years and other nonsense. Today, the guerrillas and bootstrappers out there know what it takes to win with their marketing and win in a very high margin. These seven sentences can make or break your marketing strategy, so never leave home without them.

1. The purpose of the marketing - The physical action you want your prospect to take.
2. How you’ll achieve this purpose - your competitive advantage and benefits.
3. Your target market - who are you aiming to benefit?
4. The marketing weapon you’ll use - online, offline, magazine print, ect.
5. The niche and your position and what you stand for.
6. The identity of your business - Not who owns it, but what you stand for.
7. Your budget - This should be expressed as a percentage of your projected revenue.

I’m going to cover each of these seven sentences and give an example of my own personal blog design company marketing plan for each step and then show you how it comes together at the end.

The purpose of your marketing

This is the introduction sentence to your paragraph and should outline what you’re looking to gain from the marketing you’re putting into action. Is your marketings sole purpose to create awareness of global warming or is your marketings purpose to generate traffic to your business website in order to gain visitors and potential sales?

The purpose of Blog Theme Machine’s marketing is to generate sales for my blog design services.

How you’ll achieve this purpose

This is going to give a quick outline of the way you intend to achieve this purpose. How will you accomplish your targeted goals? What makes your product or service needed compared to others? In our previous article about People buying benefits not features, we talked about this a little bit. This sentence should explain what your product or service does that sets it apart from the others and makes it a benefit to your client/customer.

In order to achieve the purpose of my marketing I will position my blog designs as being a benefit to their branding as well as potential profit increases.

Your target market

This should be self explanatory but some people forget to think about this part of their marketing. A generalization isn’t going to get you the benefits that the pinpoint accuracy of your target market. Throwing a fishing rod into an ocean without any research on the area could get you a few bites, but knowing a specific area with fish that love the bait you’re using could get you hundreds of bites.

The target market that I am after is bloggers from around the world.

The marketing weapon you’ll use

This will be whatever marketing tools you’ll use. General ideas are good, but again, targeted ideas are great. If you’re an author of a book or blog on a specific subject, why not put a fish bowl at the library and give the winner a free copy of your book, or a free downloadable copy of your e-book? Remember that you’re always thinking about what can and will work the best for your business.

This will be accomplished by emailing 100 bloggers from 5 different niches along with purchasing advertisement space on high traffic blogs.

Your niche, your position and what you stand for

The niche is pretty close to your target market but slightly different. If you’re a plumber, your target market my be the elderly who are too weak to fix the problems themselves while your niche is the plumbing industry. The position you talk about is geared towards explaining why your product or service is needed and what your company stands for.

The niche that my blog design company inhabits is the blogging industry. My position is that of a high quality blog design that increases the clients profits and adds to their branding across the internet.

The identity of your business

What your company stands for could be many things, but remember that an identity and your image are two completely different things. The image of your company is a false impression that you give your clients; one of exceedingly high worth and expectations you normally cannot live up to. Your identity is what you’re known for and what you want people to remember about you.

Our identity will be that of quality, great customer service reliability and friendly conversations geared towards creating a high comfort level & one-on-one business arrangement.

Your budget

Your goal is to budget only a specific amount of money in the initial stages and then fund your marketing efforts off the profits that it brings in. Generally, most small businesses will allocate a specific percentage to their budget and will hold true to it. Your budget can be anywhere from 5% to 50% depending on how much money you want to put into it and how great your ROI (return of investment) is.

25% of sales will be allotted to my guerrilla marketing campaign.

Overview

So now you’ve seen what each sentence is used for and why they are important to your guerrilla marketing strategy, but what does it look like all put together? Below is my 7 sentence guerrilla marketing strategy I put together for the purpose of this article, and for future marketing. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact me.

The purpose of Blog Theme Machine’s marketing is to generate sales for my blog design services. In order to achieve the purpose of my marketing I will position my blog designs as being a benefit to their branding as well as potential profit increases. The target market that I am after is bloggers from around the world. This will be accomplished by emailing 100 bloggers from 5 different niches along with purchasing advertisement space on high traffic blogs. The niche that my blog design company inhabits is the blogging industry. My position is that of a high quality blog design that increases the clients profits and adds to their branding across the internet. Our identity will be that of quality, great customer service reliability and friendly conversations geared towards creating a high comfort level & one-on-one business arrangement. 25% of sales will be allotted to my guerrilla marketing campaign.

 

If you liked this post you may wish to subscribe to our feed to ensure you don't miss anything.

Subscribe via Feed Reader | Subscribe via Email | What is RSS?

Bootstrapping Blog owner overview and article overview

Written on Monday, May 12th, 2008 | Bootstrapping Extras, Bootstrapping News | 3 Comments

Hello everyone. I wanted to take a minute to re-introduce myself for those of you who are new to the blog or do not know much about the owner (me) of this website yet. I also would like to point out some of the greater articles I’ve written in the past that you might not be aware of unless you’ve looked through all of our websites pages or searched the archives.

My name is Mike Smith and I am a small business owner. I have owned and operated a couple very small (I mean so small you’d never even know they existed unless I told you) businesses in the past. After struggling for many years (about 4 to be exact) I started reading some great material and really focusing in on running a successful small business. I started my blog design company, Blog Theme Machine back in October 2007 and am looking forward to hitting my 1 year mark with it very soon! It has been very successful and has allowed me to live with it as my only source of income which is great.

I started this blog about the same time to share my ideas and tips on what I’ve learned over the past few years, from reading books like “Bootstrapping Your Business” and “Guerrilla Marketing” to reading blogs like Freelance Switch and Zen Habits. All I hope for is that someone reading this blog finds the proper tools to grow their small business into something they are proud of without having to go through the heartache that I have.

I am very easy to get in contact with and love hearing from my readers. It lets me know that I’ve done something right and that means a lot to me. I also love seeing comments (so comment! - really, I love it and I comment back) If you need to get in touch with me, the contact form on the bootstrapping blog contact page sends mail directly to me and I will write you back as soon as possible. If you’d like to chat via AIM or another form of Instant Messenger, just let me know in the email and I’ll send you my details.

So, enough about me

Below are some links to some of the earliest articles written on this blog that I think you will really enjoy. Definitely something to look over when you have some spare time. If you see something you like or have a question about, leave a comment and I’ll comment back (See, I told you I love comments) You can also request further discussion in new articles that grow on an old article if you’d like. I’m always open to suggestions.

• What is Bootstrapping?
• Legalizing Your New Company
• Enlisting Friends and Family
• How NOT To Run A Business
• Bootstrapping And Your Gut Feeling
• Ten Steps To Making That First Sale
• 30 Local Resources You Can’t Live Without
• How To Lose A Potential Customer In One Easy Step
• Building An Optimistic Business
• Enlisting Your Friends And Family

Thank you for taking the time to read this post and getting to know me, what I do and why I do it a little bit better. I hope the above articles bring some light into your days as a small business owner. Remember, bootstrapping isn’t for everyone but it sure is for YOU! Drive, Dedication and Determination can get you anything so please don’t ever forget that!

If you’re enjoying the content I’m providing, why not subscribe so you can get email updates or feed reader updates? It’s free and every time I post on this website, you’ll be notified (I only post once every other day so don’t worry about being flooded with emails/feed notifications).

 

If you liked this post you may wish to subscribe to our feed to ensure you don't miss anything.

Subscribe via Feed Reader | Subscribe via Email | What is RSS?

Huge list of websites about startups (and we’re on it)

Written on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 | Bootstrapping News | Be the first to comment

So recently I’ve been using twitter and seen Guy Kawasaki was working on his alltop website. He posted about the section set up for Start up websites so I immediately scanned it, found TONS of useful articles and tweeted him and asked if he’d consider this blog for it. Bootstrapping is a great resource for start ups in my opinion and I guess he agreed as well because we’re now featured on the page.

So, if you’re looking for a page to bookmark that showcases the latest post titles from over 20 websites on start ups, including bootstrapping blog, check out the Startups.Alltop.com page.

Thanks guy, I appreciate it!

 

If you liked this post you may wish to subscribe to our feed to ensure you don't miss anything.

Subscribe via Feed Reader | Subscribe via Email | What is RSS?

Don’t let anybody (and I mean ANYBODY) steal your dream

Written on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 | Bootstrapping News | Be the first to comment

Ever since I’ve watched the movie Pursuit of Happyness I have wanted to write something about this phrase. Will Smith makes you really FEEL these words in the movie while talking to his son and I wanted to take a moment to explain why this is one of the best quotes you could ever read; and follow.

In the movie, Actor Will Smith plays Chris Gardner, a man who was once homeless and faced with the dilemma of taking one of two roads; one being the road of defeat and curling up in a ball and accepting this as his life, while the other road was one that would change his life forever. Chris chose the second path, the one that he WANTED and didn’t let anyone stand in his way of getting. Bootstrapping your business might be mainly about the cost of production and the bottom lines, but for the bootstrapper, I know that this topic is near and dear to our hearts. I know I’m not the only one who has heard the phrases “thats crazy” or “thats never going to work”. So, for all of the bootstrappers out there in this same position, this one is for you.

These are some of the things I’m going to cover in this article. I wanted to give a brief overview because I know once I get writing on this topic, its going to be a long one. I hope you enjoy it!

* Why I’m writing about this NOW instead of when the movie was released
* Why the child’s mind is one we should all want to have
* How we can live out our dreams and feel good about it
* Video snippet of the scene this quote was taken from

Why I’m writing this NOW instead of when the movie was released

Recently, I’ve been faced with some roadblocks from friends and family that I needed to decide if I was going to fight or run. I don’t know of a better way to put it so please don’t think of that as me punching someone, I just mean that I had to decide if I was going to allow them to crush my dream and follow the life THEY wanted or if I was going to do what I knew was best. I knew in my heart that I was struggling with a lot of things and actually have been stumbling around without real direction for the past few days. I’ve taken longer breaks then I usually do, I’ve went on walks to try and calm my anxieties, I’ve even taken days off to try and reconnect with things but nothing has worked; until now.

Why the child’s mind is one we should all want to have

When I thought about this topic and really examined the way children are while watching some television shows and the children around me, I realized that they have no real cares in the world about what other people are thinking. They just want to be happy and do whatever it is that makes them happy.

Think about when you were a child and the teacher in your class asked everyone “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I bet that no one in the class raised their hand and said “Unhappy, alone and depressed”. Did they? No; everyone in class wanted to be firefighters, or a princess, or a police officer, doctor, lawyer, and so on. At that point in the child’s life, they could do anything they wanted and that’s the mind set I think we should all strive to be at.

So, if you’re ever around children, try sitting back and just watching them react to their environment. See what makes them happy and what makes them scream and yell. Watch how they always seem to push back to the feelings of happiness. Try even asking the children what they want to be when they grow up. You’ll see a sparkle and excitement in their eyes which is truly inspiring.

How we can live our dreams and feel good about it

Regardless of how hurt someone might be when you remove them from your life, or how angry they might get when you tell them that they are part of the reason you are not productive or living your dreams, you need to cut the dead weight. When a ship is too heavy and is starting to sink, what do they do? They remove as much of the dead weight as possible to stay floating and finish out what they started and that’s exactly what you need to do.

Remember that no matter how upset the people in your life might be because you are not happy with how they are, think about how unhappy YOU are with them there. At the end of the day, we all leave this world alone so unless you leave happy, what have you really lived for?

Video snippet of the scene this quote was taken from

Here is a video snippet of the scene from Pursuit of Happyness where Will Smith is talking to his son. Powerful stuff.

 

If you liked this post you may wish to subscribe to our feed to ensure you don't miss anything.

Subscribe via Feed Reader | Subscribe via Email | What is RSS?