Here at Grasshopper, we have a very loyal and amazing customer base. They are continuously telling their friends about our service via Twitter, Facebook and of course through our referral tool, Spreadable.
What is Spreadable?
If you haven’t heard about Spreadable, it’s a new tell a friend tool from our parent company, Grasshopper Group. But it actually came to be right here on Grasshopper.com.
For those of you who have ever seen or used the Refer an Entrepreneur button on our site, that’s Spreadable!
A few years ago, we wanted a better way for our customers to refer our product. We tried a couple of different tools but nothing really fit our needs, so we built our own. The result?
* A tool that in one year gave us a 20% conversion rate and generated over $100,000 in additional word of mouth revenue! *
Posted in Marketing & Brands, Small Business | Tagged GH Group, Small Business, social media, Startup | 3 Comments
Over at Grasshopper Group there’s a great post on how to stick to your 2011 resolution of starting a business. We included several tips including “Think big”, “Think small”, “Keep your resolution every day” and finally, “Hold yourself accountable”.
One of the tips under “hold yourself accountable” is to actually do something for your business. Doing something or even buying something tangible can help motivate you and make the process more real.
Below we’ve outlined a few low cost actions that can help you get your business going this year:
1. Register a Business Name
You’ve probably thought about what you would call your business a million times. Now it’s time to take action and actually register it. You want to make sure it’s available and also protect it. Here are a couple of resources to help you:
2. Create a Logo
A website can be an expensive way to start, so let’s begin with a logo. You may not be a designer but there are a number of freelancers out there who can help and aren’t terribly expensive.
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Startup, Toll Free & Local Numbers | Tagged Entrepreneurship, Local Numbers, Startup, Toll Free Numbers, tools | 4 Comments
Starting a new business can be a turbulent undertaking. For one thing, there are no guarantees of success. Businesses fail every single day, and plenty of entrepreneurs come away with nothing to show for months or years of hard-fought effort. The idea of sacrificing a steady salary for an uncertain, hoped-for payday also tends to provoke anxiety.
While some are undeterred by these obstacles, others opt to play it safe and scrap their business plans altogether. Below are six of the most prevailing reasons why people are afraid to start businesses (and whether they make sense.)
1. The Economy
Some of the most common fears about starting businesses relate to how “the economy” is doing. If the economy is in a lull, many would be entrepreneurs assume that now must necessarily be the wrong time to get started. This belief is reinforced by nay-saying politicians and journalists who exaggerate even the very worst economic news.
Posted in Startup | Tagged Startup | 22 Comments
Every recession inspires government leaders to enact an economic stimulus plan. The assumption is that market downturns are intolerable and can only be cured by political intervention. Yet, it is unclear whether stimulus packages like President Barack Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 stimulate anything other than government spending.
The way to know for sure is to determine what, if anything, such plans do for entrepreneurs. John T. Reed, a Harvard MBA, points out that what actually needs stimulating is business profits, which supply the money for defense, Social Security payments, employee salaries/wages, business taxes and ultimately, the stimulus itself.
What Was Stimulated
The question of whether the stimulus is working, therefore, is really a question of whether it helps entrepreneurs be more profitable. Some aspects of the stimulus do appear to help.
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Small Business, Startup | Tagged Entrepreneurship, Small Business, Startup | 7 Comments
Recessions are frequently associated with bankruptcy, layoffs and business failures. For seemingly the entire duration, we are fed a steady diet of recession-related negativity by politicians and journalists. Unemployment soars, despair builds, and it seems like the worst is always yet to come. It might sound counter-intuitive, then, to suggest that a recession might be the perfect time to start a new business. But the idea makes more sense than many give it credit for.
For all the pain and hardships recessions cause, they also create unique opportunities for savvy entrepreneurs in general and certain types of businesses in particular. Today, Grasshopper explores why recessions can be an ideal time to get a business off the ground.
Lower Pressure & Expectations
A common barrier to starting a business is fear of failure. Entrepreneurs are often chastised by friends or family to pursue something more realistic (like a “guaranteed” job or career) than the company they dream of starting.
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Small Business, Startup | Tagged Small Business, Startup | 6 Comments ← Older posts
