marketing, sales, bootstrapping, b2bI am starting up a tech company (B2B) by way of bootstrapping. I also have a family and a full-time job with a 3hr daily commute. The business is going to be an IT consulting firm, but I’m having a hard time seeing how I could do this on the side of a full-time job.
I’ve been thinking of starting some web related business instead. Like selling (drop shipping with FBA) products in a niche to consumers. It seems interesting, but my long IT experience and passion for things like PowerShell automation etc. makes me torn. I’d like to do both, but my time is too limited and if I do that then both businesses will suffer. Now, I’m really just looking for advice from anyone who has been doing the same (starting up a company on the side by way of bootstrapping) and have some advice to offer about strategies.
Also, I’m an introvert, so cold calling and sales really frustrate me. I like inbound marketing a lot better, but it seems harder with B2B than B2C.
If you can somehow can get rid of your 3hr commute that would be a good start. If you work 260 days a year that is 780 hours of commute time a year. You should try to utilize your technical skills on Freelancing sites like Upwork. It can take awhile to get started. But you can get started with little or no cost. I got my start on Upwork using the free plan. I am not full time freelancing, but it’s given me a backup if something goes wrong with my primary job. Consider working cheap at first, and make customer experience the priority over profit. Your first couple projects may be disasters(mine were), but you get past that quickly. Building your experience, confidence, and reputation should come first when you are starting out. You will have to learn sales to do freelancing. But if you think about it, your whole life you need to be selling yourself somehow. Might as well try to get good at it. :-)
It is true that you will benefit from improving your “sales” skills, but that takes time. Places like Upwork are a great place to start, for various reasons: 1 - work to your strengths. If you think cold calling is not for you, then these sites do that side of the business for you. 2 - with all your responsibilities you have to manage your time very carefully, using these sites and other such resources to help bring you business means you spend your busy time on serving customers. 3 - you can start with a reduced rate in order to build up your ratings and feedback, ultimately your experience, rating, response rate etc. is what will get you clients on these sites, not just the price.
Over time, as you become more comfortable speaking to clients and understanding what they want, you will get more comfortable with cold calling as well. But most importantly: be realistic about the time you have available to determine what you should do yourself and what should be outsourced.
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