Feedback On These Options Can Be Emailed To Budget: Fill & Download for Free

This depends on what type of campaign you’re running.If you’re running an opted-in campaign, then Mailchimp is a great option. It’s very user-friendly and their pricing ranges from a free tier (allowing you to send up to 2000 emails) to $299 a month which will allow you to send over 200,000 emails. Mailchimp is a tremendous platform that’s gotten very feature-rich over the years, but it unfortunately won’t allow you to send cold email campaigns.If you’re looking to launch a cold email campaign, Clickback MAIL’s pricing ranges from $350 a month (which allows you to send 100,000 emails to up to 25,000 contacts) to $1000 a month (which allows you to send up to 600,000 emails to up to 150,000 contacts). From those numbers alone you can see the scope and scale that cold email marketing allows you to reach. There are a few things to keep in mind, though. Clickback MAIL not only allows you to send cold email campaigns, it will also clean your list to ensure it’s free of spam traps, and will provide you with real-time feedback on the spam level of your email.Hopefully that’s helpful!Disclaimer: I work at Clickback.

First of all, don’t under-estimate 'you'! You are your most valuable asset.The next thing to do is take it one step at a time.You don’t need to give up the day job first. (baby steps!)You don’t need a perfect idea.You don’t need to beg, borrow or steal.Starting your own business, making that dream a reality, is an exciting but scary thought. Much can go wrong and some things will (you can count on it).It requires self-belief, boldness, courage, persistence and luck. You are stepping into the unknown.How you cope with those challenges depends on your mindset as much as it does creating a product or service.I have worked for myself for over 35 years and during that time I have re-invented myself countless times, often taking a completely different path with each new adventure.Some times it has not worked, and often the bank balance has hugged the ground more often than I would have liked.My point is, you can do it, and you should do it, life is too short to be in a job you hate. Live life on your terms, not your bosses.When we start a new business for the first time ‘we don’t know what we don’t know’. Therein lies the rub.Bootstrap it.The first lesson of intelligent bootstrapping is ‘you do need less than you think and you can do much more than you think you can’.Bootstrapping is hard work, but you will learn a hell of a lot in the process and gain a shed load of knowledge and experience along the way. You will learn very quickly how not to spend money and not to waste it when you do.In the beginning, there is a definite trade-off between time and money, and the chances are you don’t have much of either, so make sure you use your time wisely.Here is a couple of things to help you along the way:1. Bootstrap everythingIf you can do a task yourself, then do it. If you can’t, ask yourself ‘do I need it yet’? Bootstrapping is the process of launching a business using only what you can afford with the skills you have at hand.2. Use ‘free’ firstIn other words, don’t sign up to expensive third-party software, analytics and website add-ons on day one. There are plenty of free options out there that you can use until you start making money.I get tired of listening to online experts preaching about how to start your new business on a zero budget then proceeding to recommend dozens of expensive ‘monthly subscription’ software ‘must haves’, apps and email funnels.Suddenly you’re spending hundreds every month on stuff you can do without. Yes, some of these options can make life easier as you grow, but many can be replicated by other free solutions.In the beginning always look at the ‘free’ option, if it works.3. Don’t waste time on tasks that are not a priorityYou will overstretch yourself, de-motivate yourself and quickly resemble a headless chicken.“So often people are working hard at the wrong task. Working on the right thing is more important than working hard.”4. Don’t let your enthusiasm lead your decisionsEnthusiasm is essential in business, but enthusiasm alone can make for bad decisions.5. Don’t seek perfection on day oneOnce your business is out there in front of customers, you will soon realise that some of your early assumptions are no longer correct. You quickly go into a period of bug fixing, product tweaks and modifications based on customer feedback, supplier feedback and market conditions.6. Maximise social mediaFirst of all; you can’t cover all the different social media channels out there. There is not enough time in the day and you don’t need to anyway.Note: I am not a social media expert but what I have learnt is:Choose 2 or 3 social media channels on which to concentrate your efforts depending on where your potential audience hangs out.7. Eliminate uncertaintyAt the beginning of any new business venture, there is always a high level of uncertainty.At this stage, you are making lots of assumptions about how your new idea/product/service is going to work.These assumptions need to be quickly defined and tested. By doing this, you reduce uncertainty and the risk of failure.……………………………………………………………………………………………Thanks for reading this, it’s only the tip of the iceberg, but I hope it encourages you to start out on your own :-)Finally - If you want to succeed at starting without a budget try my free ’12 Simple Steps - for starting out lean and mean’ email challenge.

I'm obviously a bit biased, but Olark is a great option if you want to provide immediate, live support for your users. As a startup, it's the best way to get quick feedback on stuff you launch, so you can learn way faster. And you can learn more than you would with just email because you can have a true live conversation.