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Welcome back, fellow parent

Whether you’re a full-time entrepreneur, side hustler, or aspiring business owner, this newsletter is for you.

I’ve been receiving questions lately around starting and growing a business (I’m a marketing consultant and Fractional CMO), so I’m sharing a quick overview for anyone else in the community who may have the same questions.

Let's dive in.

Disclaimer: today's newsletter contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking the link, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.

How to Start a Business

Finding Your Passion and Skills

The first step in starting a business is identifying your passions and skills. This combination is crucial because it ensures that you’ll enjoy your work and be good at it.

Here are some ways to pinpoint your business idea:

• Reflect on Your Interests: Consider what you love doing in your spare time. Is there something you’re so passionate about that you could talk about it for hours?

• Assess Your Skills: What are you good at? Think about both your professional skills and personal talents. Are you a great writer, an excellent organizer, or a tech whiz?

• Solve Problems: Look around your community or industry and identify problems that need solving. How can your skills and interests address these issues?

Combining your passion with your skills will help you find a business idea that you’ll enjoy and be good at.

What You Need to Start a Business

You honestly don’t need much to get started nowadays for most businesses, but below is a short list of things to consider.

• Business Plan: Outline your business goals, target market, and strategies. This will serve as your roadmap. A solid business plan includes:

• Executive Summary: A brief overview of your business idea.

• Market Analysis: Research on your industry, market size, and competition.

• Marketing Strategy: How you plan to attract and retain customers.

• Financial Plan: Revenue models, funding requirements, and financial projections.

• Legal Structure: Decide on the legal structure of your business (e.g., sole proprietorship, LLC, corporation) and register it accordingly. This decision affects your taxes, liability, and paperwork.

• Business License: Obtain any necessary licenses or permits specific to your business type and location. This ensures you’re operating legally and can avoid fines or closures.

• Funding: Determine how you will fund your business. This could be through personal savings, loans, investors, or crowdfunding. It’s essential to have a clear plan for how much money you need and how you’ll use it.

• Bank Account: Open a separate business bank account to manage your finances. This helps you keep your personal and business finances separate and simplifies accounting and tax filing.

• Branding: Create a strong brand identity, including a business name, logo, and website. Your brand should reflect your business values and resonate with your target audience.

I spent way too much time on the above when first starting out, especially when it came to my company’s brand (I’m a marketer by day so not surprising).

I’ve learned a ton from that experience and would recommend launching a minimal viable product (MVP) as soon as possible, even if it isn’t perfect. A MVP will help you determine if a) there’s a need for your product or service and b) get customer feedback to iterate before expanding.

Take a demo, get a Blackstone Griddle

Financial operations heating up? BILL Spend & Expense can help you take control. Automate expense reports, set budgets across teams, and get real-time insights into company spend. Take a demo to learn how and we'll give you a 28" Blackstone Omnivore Griddle—so you can take control of your next barbecue, too.

Request a demo

10 Businesses to Start Today

There are countless ways to make money, especially with the rise of AI. Here are ten of my favorite ideas to start with. I’ve also pulled averages for both the estimated cost it would take to start the business, along with average revenue per year.

The above just scratches the surface. I also did a deep dive into 15 Food-Related businesses you can start if you’re looking for more ideas.

How to Grow Your Small Business

Now time for the fun stuff. Growth.

There are many ways to grow your business, and it honestly depends on your business model.

This email will focus on growing your business from a digital marketing perspective.

Get Online

You need to get online if you aren’t already. To start, I would keep it simple.

First, create a website. Ensure your website is professional, user-friendly, and mobile-optimized. Your website is often the first impression potential customers have of your business. Use clear calls to action and make it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for.

For an MVP, consider using a no-code solution such as Shopify, Squarespace, or even Canva. For example, you can get a Canva website up in a day, run paid ads to the page to generate some business before building a full website. It’s a great way to test your new business.

Despite what you may read online, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is still important. Optimize your website for search engines to drive organic traffic. This includes using relevant keywords, creating high-quality content, and ensuring your site loads quickly. Tools like Google Analytics and Ahrefs can help you track and improve your SEO efforts.

Build a strong presence on social media platforms where your target audience spends time. Regularly post engaging content, interact with followers, and use hashtags to increase visibility. Pinterest is a great way to grow your business - it’s a visual search engine and has millions of monthly users.

I’d recommend focusing your efforts on one platform at first. I focused on several for the first year of my business and burnt out fairly quickly without much to show for it. Hone in and build an audience on one platform before expanding.

If LinkedIn is your target, check out Taplio. It’s an amazing tool - it helps build content, schedule posts, respond to others, and even send messages. It’s been a game changer for my business.

Email Marketing

Email lists have proven time and time again to be crucial for business success. Especially for online businesses. Collect email addresses through your website, social media, and in-person events. Offer incentives like discounts or free resources to encourage sign-ups.

Keep your audience engaged with regular updates, offers, and valuable content. Personalize emails to address the specific interests and needs of your subscribers. Use segmentation to target different groups within your audience effectively.

Use email marketing tools like Mailchimp or Beehiiv to automate your campaigns. Set up welcome sequences, follow-ups, and re-engagement emails to keep your audience engaged and informed.

I personally use Beehiiv and would highly recommend it - it’s packed with growth tools and is extremely affordable. I love the brand so much that I became an angel investor and affiliate. If you use my link above, you’ll get 20% off three months. Let me know if you have questions around starting and growing a newsletter.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is constantly evolving. I’d advise to pick your favorite method of getting content out there and running with it. The top three at the moment include:

• Blogging: Regularly publish high-quality blog posts that address your audience’s pain points and provide valuable information. This helps position you as an authority in your field and drives organic traffic to your site.

• Video Content: Create videos that demonstrate your products, share customer testimonials, or provide educational content. Videos are highly engaging and can be shared across multiple platforms.

• Podcasts: Launch a podcast to discuss industry trends, interview experts, and share your insights. Podcasts are a great way to reach busy professionals who prefer to consume content on the go.

If you have time to do all three above well, I’d consider it. But if not, start with one and then move from there. It also depends on where your target customers are. If you’re selling video editing services, it’s safe to assume you should be making videos to attract customers and showcase your skillset.

Paid Marketing

Ah, the world of paid marketing. Depending who you speak to, you may hear that organic content is dead and the only way to reach an audience is by paying for it.

I wouldn’t disagree. It’s much harder to organically get in front of customers nowadays. Paid marketing is much faster and efficient.

To get started with paid marketing, focus on three areas:

• Google Ads: Use Google Ads to target potential customers based on their search behavior. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can drive targeted traffic to your website and increase conversions.

• Social Media Ads: Run ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to reach a broader audience. Social media ads can be highly targeted based on demographics, interests, and behaviors.

• Retargeting: Use retargeting ads to reach people who have visited your website but didn’t convert. These ads can remind them of your products or services and encourage them to return and complete a purchase.

At the end of the day, paid marketing comes down to solid math skills. If you spend $1 on an ad placement, you need to bring in more than $1 in revenue to stay positive.

I’d recommend starting with Google Ads for higher intent customers (actively searching for a solution to their problem), and then pick one social media platform to target low intent customers (mindless scrolling that gets interrupted by your ad).

Outside of the above, there are strategies for retail marketing, referral programs, loyalty marketing, affiliate and influencer marketing, landing pages, and conversion rate optimization.

I can help with all of the above if you need help growing your business. Drop me a note with any questions.

Take a demo, get a Blackstone Griddle

Financial operations heating up? BILL Spend & Expense can help you take control. Automate expense reports, set budgets across teams, and get real-time insights into company spend. Take a demo to learn how and we'll give you a 28" Blackstone Omnivore Griddle—so you can take control of your next barbecue, too.

Request a demo

Tools to Help You Grow

Here’s a quick list of tools I’d recommend to help you start and grow your business.

• Beehiiv for website design, landing pages, email and newsletters. Beehiiv is my top recommendation. I recently published comparison articles on Beehiiv vs. Mailchimp, Convertkit, and Substack if you want to learn more.

• Bluevine for banking. It’s online only but has been a great experience. Super fast to get setup, especially as a new company. I wrote up a review if you want to learn more.

• Taplio for LinkedIn growth. Can’t speak highly enough of this platform - it’s helped speed up content generation, scheduling, and outreach 5x.

• vidIQ for YouTube research. I’m just starting this journey but the tool is fantastic and extremely affordable.

• Squarespace for no code website development. There are pros and cons to Squarespace, but I was able to get my MVP up in a day versus spending months on my original website.

• Canva is a must-have tool if you’re creating content. You can do just about anything design-related.

If you’re looking for a recommendation on something specific, let me know. I’m always testing out new tools and am happy to provide a recommendation.

Ready to Elevate Your Marketing?

Time for a quick shameless plug.

If you’re a business owner and need help growing your business, I’m here to serve. Simply reply to this email and let’s chat.

I’m offering one-off marketing solutions, along with Fractional CMO / marketing consulting services. I can help you develop and execute marketing strategies, from branding and website audits to Go-to-Marketing strategy and product launches.

Feedback is a Gift 🤑

Thank you for taking the time to read today’s email. If you have a moment, please answer the one question survey below, it’ll help me create better content for you.

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See you tomorrow,

The Dollar Dad

P.S. Do you know a business that could benefit from our marketing services? Refer them to us, and if they become a client, I’ll send you a gift card as a thank you.