Ask Evan is a segment on this blog where I answer reader questions. This week’s question comes from Sunny:

My biggest challenge right now is advertising. I need someone to pound the pavement for me and pass out business cards and brochures. I just don’t have the funds to pay that person to do that for my business right now.

Thanks for caring,

Sunny

Dear Sunny,

Thanks for the great question – as entrepreneurs we never seem to have enough time, money, and other resources to get the job done. Here are my top 5 tips for you on how to promote your business with no money.

1) Partner Up

The fastest way to make sales and not spend on advertising is to find a company who is already selling to your target market and create a partnership where they promote your products or services to their customers in return for a percentage of the sale.

One of the easiest ways for a company to grow their business is to sell more to current customers so many business owners are open to the idea of promoting other products if there is something in it for them. The best part is: It doesn’t cost you anything until you make a sale.

Before approaching potential partners make sure you’ve done your research and are aligning yourself with someone who has the same company values as you. You don’t want to associate your business with a company that does not reflect the way you run your company so do your research and then get hunting!

If you’re looking for help but don’t have money, what else can you offer in return? Think about all the other resources and knowledge that you have – could you trade something else instead of money?

2) Commissioned Sales People

The best sales people are the ones who work on commission only but they very hard to find and usually gravitate towards the best opportunities. You might still try your luck in finding someone who wants to do it on a part time basis as a trial to see if they can generate an income from it.

You might also have to take a risk on someone with less experience and train them about what it is that you’re selling and what the key features are.

The benefit of commissioned only sales people is that, once again, you’re only paying once you get a result so the only downsides are the time you invest in the sales people and the risk that they don’t represent your company properly.

3) Barter Deals

If you’re looking for help but don’t have money, what else can you offer in return? Think about all the other resources and knowledge that you have – could you trade something else instead of money?

As an example, for one of my businesses I convinced a venture capital company to let me use their offices to incubate my company. Instead of paying them rent I helped bring in leads for their business.

What are you good at and what can you offer people to help you besides money? This can also work for your suppliers. When I was furnishing my first house I got thousands of dollars of free furniture from the company my wife and I liked in return for me giving them SEO advice.

What about making money first before spending it? Use some of the ideas above and tap into your entrepreneurial creativity to promote your business without spending money.

4) Use The Internet

Instead of printing off business cards and flyers, put them online and direct people to your website. It’s a whole lot cheaper and no matter what you are selling, people are looking for you online.

You can test out different keywords using Google AdWords on a limited budget and then focus in on your main keywords and build a SEO campaign around them. It will require work but you can do it yourself.

Online marketing consistently comes up as one of the most cost-effective ways that business owners are using to promote their companies.

5) Don’t Spend Until You Earn

This is one of the most important lessons you can learn as an entrepreneur trying to start a business. It’s easy to spend money – anybody can do it – and as entrepreneurs we sometimes feel like we have to.

We need an office, we need flyers, we need business cards, and the list goes on. What about making money first before spending it? Use some of the ideas above and tap into your entrepreneurial creativity to promote your business without spending money.

Once the money is coming in you’ll have a budget to expand but most entrepreneurs close their companies because they don’t give it enough time and they run out of money. Don’t be that entrepreneur!

If you’re looking for more ideas and inspiration on how to promote your business check out my blog post: How to Promote Your Business like P.T. Barnum.

Good luck Sunny!

Readers, do you have any other ideas for Sunny? How have you promoted your business without spending money?

I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

Photo credit: The Green Album