Leverage the Web

In today’s business world, you cannot afford NOT to leverage the web. The Internet is not to be ignored by anyone starting a business, including those that are not seeking to start a web-based business or do online sales.

It should be used to your advantage as soon as you decide to become an entrepreneur.

Even before.

The Web has gives us the opportunity to become prosumers (the word was coined in 1980 by the futurist Alvin Toffler), like we once were. In the pre-industrial age (and still in many countries, like India) people consumed the things they produced, rather than relying on others for most of what they consume. Toffler used ‘prosumer’ to describe a possible future type of consumer who would become involved in the design and manufacture of products, so they could be made to individual specification.

This is what we all can be. Thanks to the Internet. The entrepreneur can ‘make’ almost everything that is needed to start a business. Much of it for free.

There are four key ways to be using the Web, in addition to making direct sales:

Research;
Marketing;
Office Products;
Networking;
Subcontracting.

Research

You already know that the internet is an endless source of information and given that so much is free, you are leveraging the web almost every time you do a search and get value way beyond the cost of getting the information. .

Do you know about sites for sources of demographics and statistics. An example is Free Demographics (online application that lets you review data from both the 1990 and the 2000 U.S. Census). Another is Fedstats (directory of the immense number of US Government statistics).

If you want to do your own marketing research, try Survey Monkey (there is a limited version for free that you can use for the basics, then if you want to get more sophisticated, you can get the premium version). If you want to do email or online surveys for free, you can use Free Online Surveys. There are lots of alternatives. The reason that many web-based businesses do free-to-premium deals is that while their basic free product is good in itself, the use of it will tempt users to move on to the premium version.

Another great data source is the Pew Research Center’s Economics section. if all else fails try eHow.com; iof you want to start a bakery, your can get a short article which will give you good pointers.

The data that’s available all over the place means that you can check out almost anything before you commit to a course of action.

Marketing

Your website and blogs are vital

Your business presence of the Web must be a priority and you will leverage the web even if you do not do e-commerce. Even if you’re not going to use a website for direct sales, it will be a key part of your promotion, branding and recognition–it’s like extending and amplifying your business card. It will even be hard at work while you sleep.

Here is the best way to get going to build your own website!

If you are in business and do not have a Web presence, you will be automatically assigned second rank status. It is no longer possible to be in business successfully and not be there. Above all, the Internet is going to save you money and put you on a level playing field with established businesses.

There are many ways you can create a website without being an HTML techie. The two best I know are WordPress and Wix. WordPress is open source. There are two variants: wordpress.com where you create your own site or blog, with a free version where you would have www.mysite.wordpress.com, or a premium version where they will register and host your own URL) and wordpress.org. is for web software you can download and use to create a beautiful website or blog, by just downloading the software and then getting a webhosting company to host your site (that’s how startupowl.com works).

Moonfruit was founded in August 1999 with the vision to allow people to share their passions online, regardless of their skills and experience. Over 1.2 million business and individual websites have been built by people around the world using Moonfruit’s website building tool – SiteMaker. See what you think.

Wix is an amazing startup itself where you can create a Flash website in no time. They too have the free version with ads or the premium version without. The premium versions are under $5 a month for the standard version or under $20 a month for an e-commerce site. If you are aiming to sell online, there are many ways to go, often for free. They include: FreeWebStore, eCRATER, The Vendio Store, and if you like Open Source software, try oscommerce, that has everything you need to get started in selling physical and digital goods over the internet, from the Catalog frontend that is presented to your customers, to the Administration Tool backend that completely handles your products, customers, orders, and online store data.

Marketing your website ranks as being as of great an importance to success as the quality of your website itself. Fine to create a work of art, but what is the value of it languishing in the studio?

Your blog will enable you to update information concerning your business in an immediate manner; you can solicit instant feedback to help you to refine your offer– a way to leverage the web because once your blog is in operation, using it costs (virtually) nothing, except time. But beware, people are commenting about you on other blogs. So you will need to monitor what they say. One route is via Technorati which is a blog search engine. Another very easy way to do it is via Google Reader; there your can enter the word of interest and see the range of websites and blogs that are relevant.

Here are some specific sites where you can get marketing products and services, for free:

Booksmart is a way to create books and have them printed and bound, either one or multiple copies; excellent for marketing higher priced products, creating a company history or other professional book;
Blurb is another site where you can make a book about your product or service; then you have to promote the book to promote the product, but it gives you another dimension;
Free CRM does exactly what its name says: customer relationship management;
Free Online Surveys is another alternative and does what its name implies;
Logo Victory is a wonderful free logo design site; just go there and make sure to view the video instructions first;
Press Exposure is a Web press releases distribution service (I use it);
It is a sister site to ezinearticles where you can post articles and promote yourself as an expert (view my articles on ezinearticles);
Relenta CRM is a customer relationship management tool for sales, marketing or customer service (free for 2 users);
Survey Monkey does a similar job and offers you 10 questions and 100 responses free.
another free place to post articles, and focused on business, is work.com (view my work.com articles);
Zentation is a sophisticated free tool that lets you put a video and slide show presentation online—see Guy Kawasaki, the VC, present the Art of Innovation.

Above all, regular contact with customers and prospects is vital. Using an email newsletter is an excellent way to do it. I have used Constant Contact with great success.

Office Products

Under the marketing heading above, you have already seen examples of products that you can get for free or upgraded with premium versions. When you leverage the web this way, there is no obligation to spend, unless you see a clear advantage. There are thousands of others in many categories.

Administration

No reason to pay good money for office administration products when there are so many free and open source ones you can download or use online. Here are some:

Bubbl.us allows you to create colorful mind maps online; share and work with friends; embed your mind map in your blog or website; email and print your mind map; save your mind map as an image. Its creators are from Russia and Kazakhstan;
Docstoc is a great resource of documents on business, legal and other matters; there are some great presentations and how tos as well as templates that you can download; if you have something to offer, then you can upload it for others, too;
Freemind is a mind mapping tool for personal brainstorming, for project tracking, a knowledge base, preparing how to approach a business plan, and many more (it’s the software I use);
Google Docs is a natural online alternative to Microsoft Office;
JaxWorks offers hundreds of Free Excel workbooks and spreadsheets, and associated MS Word, PDF and HTML documents, that cover a number of financial, accounting and sales functions at all skill levels.
Mindmeister is a mind mapping tool, the basic version of which you can download for free. If you like this visual recording and creativity methodology, this is a good one;
Lovely Charts is an entirely free intuitive drag-and-drop chart drawing tool for helping thinking and communication.
For a dizzying array of 60+ collaborative tools, take a look at Mashable;
MediaFire is a file hosting service – uploads and downloads;
Mozy is a secure automatic remote backup service for any PC or Mac, via broadband; for Mac users with Leopard it may be a luxury, given Time Machine;
Open Office (and the Mac special version NeoOffice–which I use) are excellent open source productivity suite.
Roboform remembers passwords so that you do not have to; if you want it to remember more than 10, you will need to upgrade for $30;
Tech Support Guy: Free technical support. This site is run completely by volunteers and paid for completely by donations and sponsors. Mike Cermak started it in 1996. It covers Windows, Mac & Linux operating systems and many programs, from the widespread to the complex (e.g., Dreamweaver);
Tuneup Advisor is a free download that enables you to fix errors & boost PC performance’.
Google SketchUp enables you to model anything you can imagine. The free software can also be a pleasure to use – the secret is intuitive tools that work the way you think they should. You can build models from scratch, or you can download what you need. People all over the world share what they’ve made on the Google 3D Warehouse.

Finance & Accounting

ActiTime is time sheet software and has a module to connect with Quick Books accounting software;
AdminSoft offers a free bookkeeping package;
Blinksale is an invoicing system that is free if you are only likely to issue 3 invoices a month;
QuickBooks Easily Tracks Sales, Bills, and Expenses – Save up to 20% + Free Shipping (I use it);
Fresh Books is a billing product (it’s free for for a business with up to 3 clients, with unlimited numbers of invoices); you can also track time (for you and your staff). send invoices by snail mail or email, accept payment with PayPal;
GnuCash is personal and small-business financial-accounting software;
Google Spreadsheets is exactly what the name implies; it is now a part of Google Docs;
Less Accounting is a very simple bookkeeping tool that is free for 5 invoicing, proposals and expenses;
MyBizHomepage is a free, Web-based financial dashboard designed specifically for entrepreneurs and small businesses;
One Step Accounting is an easy to use accounting system that provides a total business solution to small and medium sized companies and version 4.0 is free;
Turbo Cash is Open Source accounting software;
Square is a revolutionary service that enables anyone to accept credit cards anywhere. Square offers an easy to use, free credit card reader that plugs into a phone or iPad. It’s simple to sign up. There is no extra equipment, complicated contracts, monthly fees or merchant account required;
Payment Reporting Builds Credit® empowers consumers and small business owners to establish and build a credit file and score, using rent and other recurring bill payments that can be used to demonstrate creditworthiness when applying for mortgage, credit, or insurance.

Networking

Online social networking hardly needs any introduction. In addition to the obvious suspects, I suggest that LinkedIn is a ‘must’ destination. LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 90 million members in over 200 countries and territories. I leverage the web this way, though I am really only a beginner. For instance I have just discovered LinkedIn Maps. If you are at all visual, you will find enormous added value through seeing how all your contacts cluster and where you could or should be adding more contacts.

I am just learning about how to make best use of LinkedIn. Here are some of the things I have discovered: lots of contacts make sense; you can add your blog (I assume you have one) feed to appear on your profile page–mine does; join relevant groups so that if someone you want to contact is in the same group, you can make direct contact–I just did that; if you are approached for a link, check the person’s profile–they may be ‘good’ for you; keep working at it–I learn something new each time I try.

Vator (short for innovator) is a professional network for entrepreneurs. Founded and run by veteran journalist Bambi Francisco, Vator.tv, is an excellent place to connect with other entrepreneurs and post info about your business, seek funding, post a video and who knows what will happen!

Networking probably impacts every activity you undertake in starting a business. You never know where a link will lead. I receive emails from people with whom I would not normally meet.

For instance, I make microloans through kiva.org. I noticed that one of the co-founders, Jessica Jackley had started a venture funding business based on social networking: profounders.com. Because I am such a fan of bootstratpping startups, it looked interesting. First I became linked with her through LinkedIn, then as I found out more, I began to sing the praises of the profounders, especially to one of my clients and a faculty colleague at the MBA where I teach. He is an entrepreneur and I convinced him to make contact, then I heard from him about a man there to whom he had spoken. The the profounders person and I made contact. We have interests in common. He seemed to like what I do and did a tweet referring to Startup Owl. The next thing I knew was having a person who’d read his tweet visit my site and made a blog comment. I contacted her… and so it goes on.

Here are some links to specific networking sites:

Bootstrap Network is where you can connect to fellow Bootstrappers with e-mail, groups, blogs, and forums. Post job announcements for your business in classifieds.
FastPitch is a business networking site that is a one-stop shop to network and market your business;
Founder Contact aims to help entrepreneurs expand business and investments contacts with + 8,000 entrepreneurs and 3,500 investors.
Intuit Community was created by QuickBooks firm Intuit and enables entrepreneurs to network (I use it);
LinkedIn is an online network of more than 8.5 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 130 industries (I use it);
Meetup helps people find others who share their interest or cause, and form lasting, influential, local community groups that regularly meet face-to-face.
Plaxo provides a way to keep your contact address book up-to-date and update your contacts’ address books when your details change and get a Plaxo alert when a contact’s details change;
Ryze is a business networking site that helps people make connections and grow their networks. You can network to grow your business, build your career and life, find a job and make sales;
Twitter is a free service for for staying in touch and keeping up with friends, family and co-workers, no matter where you are or what you’re doing;
Xing is a good networking site for business. It is Germany-based, so there is a bit of a Euro-bias, but it is growing fast in North America and elsewhere; there is an International Entrepreneurs Club and the Entrepreneurs Playground;
Zoom Info enables recruiters, marketers and salespeople to quickly and easily find useful information about people and organizations on the Web; if you sign up you can connect to your Xing profile (I use it);

Subcontracting

If you want to jump start a project, broaden your reach or just simply get things done, you will find that elance.com offers a ready, willing and qualified workforce of over 333,000 professionals. You can leverage the web, by finding your own freelance jobs on elance.

You can be quite precise about the skills and location you see, but it may take you a little time to find the gem you are looking for. When you find a provider you want to learn more about, you can view their profile, which will tell you about their work experience, ratings, feedback from prior employers and allow you to view their portfolio of work, all designed to help you select the best fit.

Elance makes money when the work is delivered and payments are made. When clients make payments to their provider, Elance deducts between 6.75% and 8.75% from each payment to cover its service fee, transferring the remaining amount directly to the provider’s Elance account. They even take care of 1099 tax filings for you.

But it is far from the only source of blinding people to do the jobs you don’t know how to do, or haven’t the time to do.

Freelancer.com is an outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace for small business. Guru.com provides businesses with the ability to find the help they need from a variety of talented freelancers worldwide.

Whinot was founded in late 2009 with the goal of applying the principles, value, and motivations behind crowdsourcing to a new discipline: business consulting. Go take a look and see what you think. I’d be interested to hear reactions. Kyle Hawke, a co-founder, based at the Darden Graduate School of Business where he is an MBA student says, “The value of crowdsourcing comes in two forms: reduced cost and varied perspective. Our process and platform helps clients realize a reduced cost, but our community of consultants bring the varied perspective.” The business currently works out of the Darden Business Incubator.

CrowdFlower operates within a specific segment of crowdsourcing, often referred to as Labor-on-Demand, which is especially useful for large-scale tasks that computers have difficulty handling, but people do well.

In each of these crowdsourcing websites, you can both post a job you need doing and/or offer your own services. It might be a way to supplement your income when your new business is in the fragile startup phase.

On the other hand you can use a dedicated virtual assistant. One service I have used is AskSunday.com, headquartered in Manhattan, their operations are based in Hyderabad, India. For example you can have a dedicated virtual assistant available for 10 hours a month at less than $150 a month. They can do Internet research; outbound calling; continuous processes; document editing; uploading content onto websites; managing online postings; coordinating and booking travel plans and the like.

Finding work

There are so many ways to find work. The Internet is fast becoming a major source. The sites mentioned above under Subcontracting are also places where you can post your services or products. Given that so many large companies are using crowdsourcing now, they are good places to visit. One of the most obvious to those of a tech bent, is GE Ecomagintation.