Starting a Business on a Shoestring

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I’ve talked to many people who glamorize starting a business. I must say it is very rewarding, but unless you are a lingerie photographer it is not very glamourous. It is hard work, hard thinking, and making choices.

Amongst the decisions you must make are what tools you will use. What hardware will I use? What communication systems will I use?

If you are starting from scratch, keep your costs low. I can’t stress this enough. The harder you make it for yourself to reach break-even the harder it becomes to maintain your motivation. Without motivation you will fail.

So here are some tips to keep costs down:

1. Communications - If you already have broadband, consider a voice over IP telephone provider like Vonage or Sunrocket. Read my review of Sunrocket vs Vonage. Shop and look for deals. I did and I paid $199 for 2 years of telephone service through Sunrocket complete with voicemail, unlimited long-distance, and $2 credit each month to apply towards international calls. I highly recommend it. The best part is you can unplug it and take it with you wherever you go (provided you have broadband in your hotel). If you sign up with Sunrocket and enter 9729922567, I will get some reward points with Sunrocket :o)
2. Register & host your domain with a good host. I highly recommend Dreamhost. I use them for my hosting needs. They provide several tools such as 1-click installs as well as email for your website. They have extremely affordable plans and it is an employee-owned company, something that appeals to my softer side. Check out my full review: Review: Dreamhost Webhosting
3. Use online-services that are free. I use gmail for my email, both for this site as well as passportinvestor.com, my international real-estate investing blog. You get up to 100 free email accounts, hosted by the king of the internet - Google for free using your domain. There is also a paid edition, but I think the free-version gives you all you’ll need with the professionalism of using your own domain such as tommmyboy@daxdesai.com. not a real address you spammers :op
4. Use open-source when possible. Start with my top-10 open-source software for Windows. I use activeCollab for project management/coordination to help me keep track of things. It is available as a 1-click install on Dreamhost. There is a website called basecamp.com that offers a service almost identical for a fee.   For the cost of basecamp, I can have my own hosted version on Dreamhost.

Related Posts:

Review: Dreamhost Webhosting

top-10 open-source software for Windows

Replaced Basecamp with activeCollab

Sunrocket vs Vonage