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What are some of the hallmark qualities the best web hosting for small business websites will have? We’re glad you asked — and you’ll be thrilled to learn we have an answer to that question and more. Regardless of the size of your small business’s budget, the answer is that there’s a viable website hosting solution for you, and we’re here to help you find it.
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In the buzzing hive of social media, not all influencers wear crowns. Some wield power through genuine connections and heartfelt recommendations. Enter the micro-influencer—a unique blend of authenticity and influence.
Here’s what you need to know about how these gifted people can benefit your small business.
Here’s a word from Later: All-In-One Social Media Management Tool about ‘How to Work with Micro Influencers to Grow Your Business’ you can check 0ut after reading.
Who are these social media figures that seem to have such a strong influence online? Micro influencers, typically with a following ranging from 2,000 to 50,000, are making waves. While their follower count may differ based on who you ask, there’s no denying their significance. For small businesses on a tight budget, they offer a cost-effective way to deliver targeted advertising.
Jill Stanton is the Co-Founder of Screw The Nine To Five. She provides a definition that small businesses can use to get started.
“A micro influencer is someone who has a small, yet hyper-engaged following online of 2,000 to 20,000 followers,” she writes. “The followers read, watch, listen, click and buy anything these influencers put out there.”
Being authentic is one of the other attractions. That’s a big factor for selling in today’s markets.
“They are someone who prioritizes resonance and engagement with their audience over big, sexy numbers that can be faked.”
Some of what they do is the same as their bigger counterparts.
“They share glimpses into their daily lives, the products they use–ones they are paid for and ones they aren’t. Included are any products, programs or services they may be offering to their audience.”
Typically, you’ll find micro influencers on social platforms like Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, here are a few examples of the top micro influencers on Instagram from 2018.
According to Stanton, finding the right one for your small business means knowing how to narrow your search. She says looking through relevant hashtags on Instagram like #influencer #paid #partner helps. You can also search YouTube channels by looking at specific niches.
There’s one caveat. You might need to look under the hood a bit when sorting through Influencer Agencies.
“The only thing you have to keep in mind with these agencies is they typically represent larger influencers,” she says. “They may only have a few micro influencers who are looking to leverage their following.”
Ellie Shedden runs the digital marketing agency THE-OOP.COM. She explained why micro influencers would be attractive to small businesses with limited advertising budgets.
“The benefit of using a micro influencer over a macro influencer (those with >100k followers) is the price,” she wrote in an email.“Rather than paying tens of thousands of dollars for a post, micro influencers may cost less than $100. Their conversions are high depending on their engagement rate.”
You can run diverse campaigns and get more for your advertising buck. Reach different audiences with multiple campaigns and spread the net wider.
Jill Stanton adds they often incentivize followers with discount codes and allow SMBs to “fast track” brand recognition.
Both Stanton and Shedden provide valuable advice.
Stanton’s Recommendations:
Shedden’s Insights:
As you can see, engaging with micro-influencers can offer a substantial return on investment for small businesses. The following tables explore various aspects of working with micro-influencers, providing a structured guide to effectively integrate them into your marketing strategy.
Table 1 helps small business owners identify and understand the key characteristics of a micro-influencer.
| Characteristic | Description |
|---|---|
| Follower Count | 2,000 to 50,000 followers |
| Authenticity | Genuine connections and authentic recommendations |
| Engagement | High engagement rate with followers reading, watching, clicking, and purchasing |
| Content Style | Sharing personal life and product usage, both sponsored and non-sponsored |
Tablle 2 presents the primary platforms where micro-influencers are active and strategies to find them.
| Social Platform | Strategy for Finding Micro-Influencers |
|---|---|
| Use relevant hashtags: #influencer, #paid, #partner | |
| YouTube | Explore channels by niching down to specific topics of interest |
| Snapchat | Dig up clues about your audience’s interests, find official accounts, use a snapchat directory, trace influencers from other social networks, ask for a snap code |
Table 3 outlines the core advantages of leveraging micro-influencers for marketing.
| Benefit | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Cost-Effective | Less expensive than macro-influencers, possibly under $100 per post |
| High Conversion Potential | Higher engagement and conversion rates due to authentic connections with followers |
| Diverse Campaigns | Ability to run varied campaigns to reach different audience segments |
| Brand Recognition | Faster track to brand recognition through direct, authentic recommendations |
Table 4 compiles the recommendations and insights from Stanton and Shedden into a coherent checklist.
| Criteria | Stanton’s Recommendations | Shedden’s Insights |
|---|---|---|
| Alignment | Values and message should align | [Not specified] |
| Engagement & Resonance | At least 3% consistent engagement | Calculate Engagement Rate |
| Comment Authenticity | [Not specified] | Beware of bot-like or generic comments |
| Cost | [Not specified] | Ensure cost is within budget |
Image: Depositphotos.com
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If you want to supercharge your design efforts and create a more enjoyable user experience on your website, look no further than the double diamond design process to help you do so. By enacting this approach, you’ll create more effective solutions your users will love.
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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is amplifying its efforts to monitor high-income tax compliance by setting up a specialized unit to oversee significant or complex pass-through organizations. This initiative is part of the agency’s more comprehensive focus on reinforcing the nation’s tax regulations.
Nestled within the IRS Large Business and International (LB&I) division, the new unit will accommodate employees recruited through the IRS’s recent nationwide hiring initiative. The IRS declared last week its intention to fill over 3,700 roles, primarily to bolster the enforcement targeting complicated partnerships, substantial corporations, and high-wealth and high-income individuals.
IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel emphasized the agency’s determination: “We are honing-in on areas where we believe non-compliance among our wealthiest filers has proliferated over the last decade of IRS budget cuts, and pass-throughs are high on our list of concerns. This new unit will leverage Inflation Reduction Act funding to disrupt efforts by certain large partnerships to use pass-throughs to intentionally shield income to avoid paying the taxes they owe. These efforts are consistent with our broader commitment to use Inflation Reduction Act dollars to end the era of historically low error rates for wealthy and large entities, while making sure middle- and low-income filers continue to see no change in audit rates for years to come.”
Having recently concluded a comprehensive review of its enforcement protocols, on September 8, the IRS heralded a transformative strategy designed to reestablish balance in tax compliance. This strategy involves shifting a significant portion of its attention and resources to high-income earners, major corporations, and those potentially manipulating the tax system.
Pass-through entities, like partnerships and S-corporations, allow income to “pass-through” to individual or corporate owners’ income tax returns, bypassing the corporate income tax. Such structures, often utilized by wealthier demographics, can create intricate tax scenarios.
LB&I Commissioner Holly Paz, in her address to the Tax Executives Institute in New York, stated, “This new direction is crucial. Our focus in the coming months will be to facilitate a smooth transition to this specialized group.”
During this transition, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) will collaborate closely with the IRS. Paz revealed that while the formal inauguration of the workgroup is slated for the end of the following year, operations in pass-through domains will intensify concurrently. This collective will eventually comprise LB&I and the Small Business/Self Employed segment personnel.
The IRS’s broader compliance initiative, fueled by the Inflation Reduction Act funding from the previous August, will cast a sharper focus on sectors that have witnessed drastic reductions in audit rates over the past ten years. Leveraging advancements in technology and Artificial Intelligence, the IRS seeks to enhance its ability to detect tax irregularities, identify potential compliance risks, and refine case selection procedures, thus reducing unnecessary audits for taxpayers.
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What is bootstrapping in the context of business? In this piece we define what it means to bootstrap a company, with examples and the steps for how an entrepreneur fund for such a company. We point out advantages and disadvantages.
Bootstrapping means to get into or out of a situation using your own resources. A bootstrapped business is a company without outside investment funds.
Entrepreneurs refer to bootstrapping as the act of starting a business with no outside money — or, at least, very little investment. Bootstrapping means launching a business without the help of venture capital firms or even significant angel investment. Bootstrapped companies are not the kind that draw media attention from huge funding rounds.
The founding entrepreneur, known as the bootstrapper, is the one sole investor in the beginning. The founder’s only investment capital might be personal savings – and of course the time he or she spends working for free to get the business up and running. Bootstrapping requires plowing the money earned from customers back into the business . In other words, the bootstrapping entrepreneur relies on cash flow to grow their business in the place of outside capital.
You’ve heard the old saying about “pulling up by your bootstraps”. When it comes to startups, the bootstrap definition means to do something on your own.
You bootstrap a company by starting with a small amount of your own funds. As the business gets going, you re-invest revenue earned from customers back into the business to finance daily operations, development and expansion plans.
It takes three steps to bootstrap a company:
Start with personal savings, or perhaps some “friends and family” funding to get going. This is called seed money or a startup stake. A related technique at this stage is to start out with a side business, where the founder continues to work a day job to keep body and soul together. The founder then uses day-job earnings to fund the side business. In short, the founder manages to scrape up enough resources to get the business off the ground. The business is launched on a shoestring budget.
Release a minimum viable product as soon as possible. For a software company, online business or any business requiring advance product development, launch as soon as you have a viable offering. Fast is better than perfect. The faster you get going, the faster you get to the next step.
Get money from customers quickly, and use it to fund operations and expand. That customer funding is pumped back into the business. Therefore, it is essential to close sales early and fast. Sales revenue keeps the business operating and, eventually, finances growth.
Growth is often slow, because the company first has to meet its operating expenses to stay in business. But committed entrepreneurs find ways to increase sales, which in turn gives them more capital to invest in their business.
| Steps to Bootstrap a Company | Description |
|---|---|
| Find Seed Money | Start with personal savings or “friends and family” funding as seed money to initiate the business. Consider side businesses or part-time work to supplement initial funds. |
| Launch a Minimum Viable Product | Release a minimum viable product or service quickly, prioritizing speed over perfection, especially in software, online businesses, or ventures requiring product development. |
| Use Customer Funds to Grow | Generate revenue from customers promptly and reinvest those funds into daily operations and business expansion. Close sales early and focus on increasing sales for sustainable growth. |
For additional tips on how to bootstrap a company, read: 10 Tips for Bootstrapping a Startup.
Bootstrapping does not mean giving up a chunk of equity in exchange for bringing on investors.
Bootstrapping does not mean going out to get a big loan to start a business, either. Yes, some startups may take on loans or lines of credit along the way. Others lean heavily on credit cards. A few may even get microloans or small local grants.
But credit is typically a short term fix to fund specific growth activities such as buying equipment, or to smooth out cash flow dips. In a bootstrapped business, credit often comes later, not immediately upon starting up.
Getting credit at some point is a proven technique for companies to spread out the demands on their cash, through monthly payments. The trick to this technique is to seek credit only when revenue streams are finally reliable enough to ensure you can make the loan payments. Remember, the founder still has to pay the monthly payments or debt service out of funds earned in the business.
In other words, DO use credit wisely in targeted ways such as to even out seasonality or expand. DON’T saddle yourself with a big honking loan as the main source of funds to start the business.
Starting a bootstrapped business is a litmus test for an entrepreneur and a challenge for everyone involved in running the business. So what does it really take to start a business this way?
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines minimalism as follows:
“ …a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity.”
When companies use this approach for their business culture, they are practicing bootstrapping. Such businesses avoid spending except where absolutely necessary and work within their means, finding ingenious ways to get by with less.
There are some famous examples of bootstrapping. Think of all the stories you see on social media of a famous billionaire launching a business in a garage. That is a boot-strapped story. Let’s look at a few examples:
HP, Cisco, eBay, Oracle and Microsoft are other popular examples of companies that started from humble beginnings and grew. Other names are not quite as big, but still impressive. Braintree, TechSmith, Envato, Litmus, iData, BigCommerce, and Campaign Monitor were all started with “boots strapping”.
You can find a list of companies that started with little or no outside investment, grew organically and posted $1 million plus in revenues in 37Signals’ Bootstrapped, Profitable and Proud series.
| Examples of Bootstrapped Companies | Description |
|---|---|
| Spanx | Founder Sarah Blakely used $5000 from savings to develop undergarment products, running the business from her apartment and controlling costs as a one-person sales and marketing department. |
| Apple | Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple in a suburban home and later moved to a garage when they needed more space for their early computer development. |
| Dell | Michael Dell founded Dell from his dorm room at the University of Texas at Austin, building and selling computers made from stock components. |
| HP, Cisco, eBay, Oracle, Microsoft | These tech giants all had humble beginnings and grew significantly over time. |
| Braintree, TechSmith, Envato, Litmus, iData, BigCommerce, Campaign Monitor | These companies started with limited outside investment and achieved impressive growth organically. |
Enough people, resources and cash, that is….
Starting a business with nothing may sound romantic. But behind the cool “look at what I’m accomplishing” factor you must face the realities of limited human resources, tight budgets, and little or no growth capital.
Bootstrapping is not necessarily an easy route to grow your company. Because of the need to keep down the cost, bootstrapped companies face huge barriers to growth. Consider these downsides:
Yet, there are enough success stories to make bootstrapping a viable option for starting your next business.
Bootstrapping requires a very different mindset from the management mindset in a venture-funded or angel-funded company. Bootstrapped companies must focus on profits to keep on going. They have no outside investment dollars to spend — no ready pile of money to buy whatever they want. They must make money if they are to survive. Profits are the one way to keep funding the business.
When you have outside funding, your mindset and behavior will be very different. Outside investors are looking for high growth and an exit strategy. They want to make a return on their capital as fast as they can. They may push growth at a loss in the early years, marching toward that payoff when they can cash out.
A bootstrapped entrepreneur, on the other hand, is typically in it for the long haul. Usually the founding entrepreneur expects to be around for a long time, slowly and quietly growing.
And for that, a bootstrapper needs to deliver value and develop paying customers. He or she has to be able to make payroll, pay the bills, and still fund the company’s growth — all from the money the company earns.
Founders who bootstrap must amass a wide variety of skills, defy tradition, network like crazy, innovate on a regular basis and find answers to problems daily.
Bootstrapping also requires fortitude, guts and passion. Bootstrapping entrepreneurs have to do the following:
Every entrepreneur knows the startup statistics: about half of business fail by year five. A smart entrepreneur focuses on forward progress and never looks back.
Bootstrapping is a tested way to become a better business person, says serial entrepreneur Matt Clark. The founders end up learning about themselves along the way — and accomplishing more than they originally thought possible.
Bootstrapped companies are resourceful, accountable and careful. Successful ones usually find at least one high-margin product or service to start out with. They build loyal customers, partnerships, and recurring revenue streams into their business model. They gradually grow their marketing and sales, and scale up when they have the funds.
Their founders learn lessons the hard way, often becoming better business people. Many bootstrappers become walking examples of the old adage, “That which does not kill me makes me stronger.”
Bootstrapping brings out the best in entrepreneurs. Successful bootstrapping entrepreneurs are enthusiastic, passionate and relentless. They don’t give up on their dreams.
Bootstrappers wake up earlier, spend longer days at work, know how to keep their wits about them even under pressure, know how to eliminate unnecessary distractions and are often very productive, reports Fox News. Bootstrappers are also natural savers, can “go hungry” until they become profitable and are naturally minimalist in their outlook on life. They are also committed to the long-term.
That’s why teams that collaborate while bootstrapping stick together longer and the companies that bootstrap become inspirations for others.
Finally, people often ask, what are the best businesses to bootstrap? You can bootstrap any business that doesn’t require a large startup stake. The types of businesses that are the best to bootstrap can be started with little money. See: businesses to start with less than $100 or any one you start with $1000. Franchises, on the other hand, can require hefty up front fees. Therefore, franchises are not the best bootstrapping candidates.
Photos via Shutterstock: Question, Seedling, Mountain top.
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