Free Business Starter Pack

So, you’re a bit of a DIY expert, you’re eager to learn and up for a challenge. We understand, and we can guide you, for free! We’ve included our top links for getting your business off the ground and growing your online presence. Everything included below will help you get your website up and running and drive more customers your way. Yes, we might be shooting ourselves in the foot by telling you what to do, but you know what, we’re nice and it makes us feel good.

Read on for everything you need to grow your business:

1.Domains and Hosting

Yup, you can’t start building your website without registering a domain and setting up hosting. This will also give you that professional email address you’ve always wanted. We HIGHLY recommend TSOHOST – they are UK based and have a fantastic support team.

As a bonus, you can get a 10% discount on us by using the code JDBM10.

Make sure to sign up for the annual package – we recommend just getting the Starter Plan – it’ll cost you less than £35 per year!

2.Premium WordPress theme

You want an awesome-looking website with minimal effort? You don’t need to be an amazing coder. By using WordPress and this fantastic theme from The7, you can create a professional, mobile ready website which is easy to customise to your requirements. A small up-front investment, but one you won’t regret.

3.Google G Suite

You’re not restricted to Microsoft Office anymore – Google has a fantastic offering in the form of G Suite which you can use on any computer, tablet and phone for creating documents, spreadsheets, presentations and managing your email. Best of all, it’s all in the cloud so you don’t have to worry about losing your files and can access them from any device.

4. People Per Hour

The largest online freelancer network, People Per Hour makes it easy for you to find the services you need, at affordable rates (there are also more expensive, premium services available). Everything from web design, branding, SEO, PR and social media is covered, and you can look at reviews for each service before you buy!

5. Fiverr – affordable labour for small businesses

So maybe you can’t quite do everything yourself, but budget is limited. Similar to People Per Hour, if you’re looking for some competitive offers on things such as logo design, admin assistance, creating videos and much more, it’s worth browsing Fiverr.

6. Digital marketing / SEO and other

Once you’ve got your website up and running, you need to get the word out and get it ranking in search engines. Obviously we recommend ourselves in this respect, but when the need arises we have utilised the services of some great freelancers who offer some excellent deals and results. Here are a few of our favourite essentials:

• Keyword research, the first step to making sure your business ranks for relevant search terms on Google – offer here.
• Website optimisation – helping your website’s key pages rank high on Google and other search engines – offer here.
• Backlinks – essential for showing Google that your website is authoritative in your niche – offer here.
• Company video – cheap but great company explainer video, excellent for promoting your business – offer here.

7.Brushing up on your marketing knowledge

Every business owner should read Seth Godin’s All Marketers Are Liars – this will inject new ideas into your business and encourage you to grow your business – essential reading from the world’s top marketer!

Check back soon – we’ll be adding more links every month!

About the author

Digital Marketing Consultant and founder of JD Business Marketing.