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How would you spend $1500 to launch a startup

by aspire7
16 replies
Hello,

I am involved with a start-up online business, it offers free help and promotion to startups.

We have $1500 for the first week to launch the site, $500 a month thereafter. We have a marketing plan etc. but want to post on here for comparison and ideas.

How would you spend it to get the ball rolling?

Its the kind of site that people would share once they see it.
#$1500 #launch #spend #startup
  • Profile picture of the author JosephC
    Every startup I have worked with is always trying to spend their money right away.

    I always tell them not to spend a dime until you have 3 customers. While doing this, you will find yourself tweaking the idea to get it to a point where customers will hand you money.

    A marketing plan is as good as toilet paper if you don't have proof people will open there wallets for you.

    After doing this, you have an understanding of who your customers are and where to find them. THEN you can start marketing. It will be much easier when you complete these first steps and know who/where your customers are.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    Its the kind of site that people would share once they see it.
    Did a psychic tell you this?

    Put the link in your sig. and let people have a look.
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  • Profile picture of the author dvduval
    The question is way too generic as there are many different types of businesses to "start up". Usually the biggest newbie problem is they spend money before they understand for themselves what they are doing. They want someone to tell them how to make money. Then there are people here who specialize in extracting a fee to tell people to make money.
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    It is okay to contact me! I have been developing software since 1999, creating many popular products like phpLD.
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  • Profile picture of the author jkruger
    Oh the irony, asking for help with his start-up which helps start-ups?

    Originally Posted by aspire7 View Post

    I am involved with a start-up online business, it offers free help and promotion to startups.
    Pay me $1500 and I will give you the best advice to move forward

    In all seriousness, the best plan is for you to keep that money in your pocket to cover overhead until you generate a customer or ten....
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  • Profile picture of the author IMGem
    I would be investing half of money to pay a Mentor (or top notch training) to guide about setting up Funnel right way & building a List and half of the money in acquiring leads. So in a month or two i have make my money back and reinvest it again acquiring more leads.
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  • Profile picture of the author Pushkar Gaikwad
    Originally Posted by aspire7 View Post

    Hello,

    I am involved with a start-up online business, it offers free help and promotion to startups.

    We have $1500 for the first week to launch the site, $500 a month thereafter. We have a marketing plan etc. but want to post on here for comparison and ideas.

    How would you spend it to get the ball rolling?

    Its the kind of site that people would share once they see it.
    Can you share the site with me ? I runs a startup and so it will be nice if it can help our bootstrapped startup to get some visibility.

    As far as your question is concerned, I am assuming it is like AppSumo ? You can be the sponsor for Hacker NewsLetter for $800 (I think) and you should read about 10000+ startups with that.
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    • Profile picture of the author aspire7
      Originally Posted by JosephC View Post

      Every startup I have worked with is always trying to spend their money right away.

      I always tell them not to spend a dime until you have 3 customers. While doing this, you will find yourself tweaking the idea to get it to a point where customers will hand you money.

      A marketing plan is as good as toilet paper if you don't have proof people will open there wallets for you.

      After doing this, you have an understanding of who your customers are and where to find them. THEN you can start marketing. It will be much easier when you complete these first steps and know who/where your customers are.

      I have changed my signature on this forum about two days ago and contacted a couple of people over these two days and have had a handful of people contact me and signup waiting for the site to be released. 100% of the people have signed up, some have gone and told their mentors and acceleration program members also. We are very in touch with our customers and their needs.


      Originally Posted by Brent Stangel View Post

      Did a psychic tell you this?

      Put the link in your sig. and let people have a look.

      From the people I have told about it most of them have then told their marketing mentors or start-up friends. Its free promotion for startups so most startups who know friends who would also benefit from it have shared it.


      Once its live we will place a link out, at the moment its just about making contacts, and they have come flooding in.

      Originally Posted by dvduval View Post

      The question is way too generic as there are many different types of businesses to "start up". Usually the biggest newbie problem is they spend money before they understand for themselves what they are doing. They want someone to tell them how to make money. Then there are people here who specialize in extracting a fee to tell people to make money.

      I don't want to be told how to make money, simply just getting marketing ideas and how other have spent their money on startups.

      Originally Posted by jkruger View Post

      Oh the irony, asking for help with his start-up which helps start-ups?



      Pay me $1500 and I will give you the best advice to move forward

      In all seriousness, the best plan is for you to keep that money in your pocket to cover overhead until you generate a customer or ten....

      I see the irony I simply wanted to double check we were on the right course. if there was a site that did what we do I would use them to help startup, but there isn't.

      Originally Posted by Pushkar Gaikwad View Post

      Can you share the site with me ? I runs a startup and so it will be nice if it can help our bootstrapped startup to get some visibility.

      As far as your question is concerned, I am assuming it is like AppSumo ? You can be the sponsor for Hacker NewsLetter for $800 (I think) and you should read about 10000+ startups with that.


      I will send you a PM.


      I think of our site as betalist on steroids
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  • Profile picture of the author James Druman
    It's really hard to say because there's no "one-size-fits-all" marketing prescription.

    It really depends on the business, the product, and the audience.

    If it's a site people would jump to share, though, an obvious place to get people sharing is social media.

    You might also see some results with PPC if those shares have a strong potential to lead to sales and profits (i.e. more exposure = more shares, right?). How PPC will perform for you really depends on how well-prepared your site is to convert and how much it will cost to target your ads to the right audience.
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    • Profile picture of the author aspire7
      Originally Posted by James Druman View Post

      It's really hard to say because there's no "one-size-fits-all" marketing prescription.

      It really depends on the business, the product, and the audience.

      If it's a site people would jump to share, though, an obvious place to get people sharing is social media.

      You might also see some results with PPC if those shares have a strong potential to lead to sales and profits (i.e. more exposure = more shares, right?). How PPC will perform you really depends on how well-prepared your site is to convert and how much it will cost to target your ads to the right audience.


      Thanks for the ideas. I agree social media has the most sharing potential and looking at our plan I think we need to change a few things based on that sentence alone so thanks! Sometimes things come to you when talking about it that you missed and seem obvious


      We are actually offering it all free for a good while until we gain a good amount of members. I think between 10-20k members we will introduce a paid option.


      We are using PPC on launch with different landing pages depending on the ad and will be tracking conversion and A/B testing these.
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  • Profile picture of the author kadyjoyce
    Banned
    Thanks for the wonderful experience
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  • Profile picture of the author JawadAshraf
    Nice ideas and great tips are being discussed here. Lots of things for learning.
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  • Profile picture of the author SMworkcafe
    First off, work on implementing your marketing plan. If you are seeing results, then take out your wallet to invest further. That's what I have learned after wasting $600 on solo ads. I didn't test my sales funnel and whether it worked or not. Yes, I was an amateur and learned A LOT out of this silliness.
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    Cheers!

    - Sana.

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    • Profile picture of the author aspire7
      Originally Posted by SMworkcafe View Post

      First off, work on implementing your marketing plan. If you are seeing results, then take out your wallet to invest further. That's what I have learned after wasting $600 on solo ads. I didn't test my sales funnel and whether it worked or not. Yes, I was an amateur and learned A LOT out of this silliness.

      yes very true, I think its important that during the week we launch we look at what ads and avenues are converting the best and adjust the funds accordingly.


      Thanks for the advice.
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      • Profile picture of the author discrat
        Always prudent to find really good content creators and start slowly buying more and more content whether that be copyrighters for sales pages or quality writers who can create great Articles for you


        - Robert Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    Originally Posted by aspire7 View Post

    Hello,

    I am involved with a start-up online business, it offers free help and promotion to startups.

    We have $1500 for the first week to launch the site, $500 a month thereafter. We have a marketing plan etc. but want to post on here for comparison and ideas.

    How would you spend it to get the ball rolling?

    Its the kind of site that people would share once they see it.
    Where is your target market?

    Get in front of them for free if you can and TEST...

    ...landing page layout, copy, CTA, offers, whatever you have to test to start getting action.

    A startup marketing to other startups...I'm concerned that could be a credibility issue. If you build that into the story of your site, it could become an advantage.

    Get a working funnel first, before you pour money into it.
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