Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey Day Young Entrepreneurs! I hope you are all enjoying your week as you pop a squat at home and relax with your family. While you have a minute to yourself to read this article, I believe its my turn to show you how to “plant some corn” so here are 10 ways you can bootstrap your business for less. Lets give thanks this Thanksgiving for all the great ways we can save money.

Losing your feathers over money issues? Heres 10 ways to stop it:

1. Social Media

Once again go-getters, we see those famous two words: SOCIAL MEDIA. I feel like they should be put up on a pedestal because their mentioned so much. Believe it or not, I don’t get off by saying it or writing it for my own good, and I doubt other entrepreneurs do either. Instead we say it because its the biggest thing since sliced bread to hit the minds of young individuals. Its changing the game whether you want to play or not. So how you say can you use social media to save yourself money? By creating an online presence for your company! Go write a blog about your industry! Get on Facebook,Linkedin,Twitter, and start promoting your business! Start promoting your company through these sites at little to no cost.

2. Wholesale

If your starting or running a company where you need to buy inventory. Then obviously you want the best price so you can make the most profit. In order to find that price it can be tricky and wholesalers usually have those best prices right? Well then go to one of the best sources for that, Alibaba.com. Its a market place for wholesalers to connect to customers and its going to be one of your best resources. If you haven’t heard of it go check it out because you can get anything you want made, if its not already out there and at low costs!

3. Get a Partner

If running you business is becoming to costly or the business you want to start you think you wont be able to financially manage, then get a partner! Sure you may have to work with someone else and give them half of the control, but sometimes that sacrifice is necessary to get your idea off the ground and running. With a partner you can split costs thus relieving half of the pressure that was on you before.

4. Make Deals

This is part of what you should be learning as an entrepreneur already! Negotiate! Make better deals! find a way to finagle your way out of an expensive buy to a cheaper solution. Just because your working with a corporate company and not in some farmers market, doesn’t mean you cant barter between you and the other business.

5. Tap The Good ol’ Family/Friends Fund

The FFF can be many things, and if you can tap into it in a polite way then some great resources can be unlocked for you. If you have need more money to start your venture or keep it going, then you could ask the FFF for some cash to keep you afloat in rough times. It could be a loan and even sometimes a direct investment into your company but I can tell you its much easier than dealing with the bank! You could also enlist the FFF for some free labor, if there’s something they could do to help you out , usually they would more than likely be happy to give you a hand.

7. Get Free Consulting

Not sure what to do next but don’t want to get a partner or pay for financial advice? Then get some free consulting! Now more than ever, there is a huge amount of free advice out there whether it be over the internet, at your school, or even the local SBA,SBDC, or SCORE offices. There are people out there that will give advice to you about your business in confidentiality so that you can get the help you need without spending some cheese!

8. Pre-Sell

Youve got a product that you can sell ahead of time? Then do it! Pre-selling is a great tool to help you raise money before you even sell anything! So if your having trouble covering your costs to get your invetory or set up a part of your business, then pre-sell your product and youll have some extra cash inflow then to cover those costs and get you going!

9. Outsource

Need something done but don’t know where to find someone to do it? Especially at a good price? Well then I have a great resource for you. Elance.com is a marketplace to connect free lancers from all over the world with customers. Services range from website design, to legal help, to data entry. You can find a great company to do your work through the rating scale they set up and every things very secure. Not only will you find a great price to get whatever you need done, you will also get quality work done.

10. Do it Yourself

If all else fails and your still bleeding some money, get off your butt! dont be a bum and try and coast your business to a success! It takes work! If there is something in your business that needs to be done and you have the capability to do it, you better make sure you do it yourself instead of paying more money for someone else to do. That means going and selling your product yourself, creating logos/flyer’s, or putting together a website all by yourself. As they say, if you want something done right, you’ll have to do it yourself.