25 instruments for bootstrap companies
You heard the phrase about pulling up on your bootstraps, right? But what do we mean when we talk about bootstrap tools?
Pulling yourself up on the boot straps means being successful on your own without having to rely on investments or help from others. (Although the meaning of the phrase has changed over time.)
Bootstrap companies are companies that grow from the dedication of their founders, rather than relying on investors' cash flow. Basecamp, for example, is a bootstrap company. Apple isn't.
Bootstrap companies need to relentlessly focus on sales, cash flow, and profits because they don't have the luxury of VC investments to fall back on. You need to stay slim and keep costs to a minimum.
As a result, there is no room in the budget for expensive business tools. Fortunately, there are a variety of bootstrap tools that can help. Today I'm going to share some of my favorites with you.
What are bootstrapping tools?
Before we dive into the tool suggestions, let's talk about what bootstrap tools are – and why the distinction is important.
Starting a business, even a bootstrap, is expensive. However, you cannot build a great SaaS or ecommerce business without the help of digital tools. Unfortunately, the best tools for businesses on a tight budget are often prohibitively expensive.
The good news is that there are plenty of free, freemium, or affordable digital tools that you can use instead. These tools are often as powerful as corporate-level tools, and will help you generate positive cash flow and maximize your runway.
Bootstrapping tools for planning and project management
If you're serious about growing your startup, you may need to ditch your pen and paper to-do list and upgrade to a SaaS solution.
Wrike
Wrike is a versatile and comprehensive project management tool that is perfect for startups and companies of all sizes. It has all of the features you would expect from a SaaS project management tool, including Gantt charts, Kanban boards, briefs, and request forms.
Wrike also makes collaboration seamless with shared calendars, file sharing, and time tracking for team reports.
Wrike is used by some of the world's largest companies, including Google, Airbnb, and Dell. It also integrates with over 400 other SaaS tools and software platforms such as Salesforce, WordPress and Hubspot.
You don't have to worry about the security of your data – enterprise-level security is standard and everything is instantly synced to the cloud.
Wrike is forever free for up to five users. The professional version costs $ 9.80 per user per month for up to 15 users. If you need it, the business version is $ 24.80 per user per month.
Other Bootstrap project management tools:
- Asana offers a robust project management package with features that vary by account level. The free version includes unlimited tasks per team, projects in board or list view, unlimited file storage, an activity log and much more.
- Trello is a popular project management tool that offers a free basic version. Their free version offers 10 "boards" (project views) per team, unlimited "cards" (tasks) and 10MB per file attachment.
- Paymo offers the cheapest plan for $ 9.95 per user per month. This plan gives you access to features like task views, time tracking, project templates and recurring tasks.
- Microsoft projects starting at $ 10 per user per month. It offers grid, board and timeline views. Co-authoring and communicating on assignments; and project planning and planning.
Bootstrapping tools for building a website
You can't run a digital business without a website.
Even running a local business offline can be challenging without a strong web presence. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars on an expensive web design agency, however. It is possible to build a website from scratch with an intuitive website builder.
Webflow
One option is Webflow, which Smashing Magazine has named the “development platform of the future”. It is an extremely powerful website builder that anyone can use to create visually stunning websites without the help of a developer or designer.
It has CMS and e-commerce capabilities so you can customize the platform for any task or goal and integrate with countless leading SaaS and web apps. Hosting is built into the platform too, so you don't have to mess around with a separate hosting company.
It's not just a platform for startups and solo preneurs. Webflow has built some pretty important websites including Zendesk, Hellosign, and Dell.
You can use Webflow for free forever but you want to create a plan to get the most out of the platform. The basic plan is $ 12 per month and a CMS version is $ 16 per month.
Other Bootstrap website builders
- Contact contact is better known for email marketing and has a website builder that is great for bootstrappers. You don't need any SEO or developer experience to use it. Features include mobile responsive design, logo design, creating simple ecommerce websites so you can sell your products with minimal effort, and much more. The Constant Contact website service is $ 10 per month.
- place helps clients create a sleek and professional website design. You can also integrate some of your favorite SEO tools, access data analytics, and get help with your business blog. The cost of your account depends on the services you use. Squarespace offers monthly payments or a flat rate.
- HostGator only costs $ 3.84 per month for the cheapest package. For this plan, you have access to the website builder, website hosting service, and 12 months of ownership of your domain name.
- WordPress is one of the most popular website builders. The cheapest plan is $ 4 per month and includes free domain hosting, no WordPress ads, and free email support for a year.
SEO tools for bootstrappers
You need a strong game of SEO, especially if you are a bootstrap company that can't afford to spend a lot on Facebook ads or other online forms of advertising. However, you don't have to pay a fortune for the right tools or hire an SEO agency.
Ubersuggest
My SEO tool Ubersuggest is perfect for anyone running a bootstrap business as it is free. Even better, you'll get all of the insights and advice you need to get the most from your pages.
You will get an overview of your domain and its strengths and weaknesses, a report on the top pages in your niche and how to beat them, keyword suggestions with exact search volume, backlink data, content ideas and much more.
Even the premium version of the tool is inexpensive starting at $ 29 per month.
Other SEO tools for bootstrappers
- Moz: The free version of Moz offers robust services like keyword research, link explorer and domain analysis. It offers a pro version and a local version.
- Screaming frog: Screaming Frog's free website crawler alerts you to technical SEO issues such as broken links, metadata issues, and detecting exact duplicate content on pages.
- AnswerthePublic: AnswerthePublic is a tool that identifies opportunities for content topics by searching for people.
Each tool offers similar data and insights, but these are a bit more expensive than Ubersuggest. For example, Moz, Ahrefs, and Semrush cost $ 99 a month.
Bootstrapping tools for design, archive images and prototyping
Whether it's a beautiful header image for your blog, great looking photos, or a banner for your new Facebook ad, having access to a designer is invaluable. It's also prohibitively expensive for most bootstrap companies.
The good news is you don't have to outsource design to an agency or hire a full-time designer. Instead, use the tools below to create the designs you want.
ZeBrand
While there are plenty of free or cheap design tools out there, very few bring everything you need together in one place, like ZeBrand. With ZeBrand you can create logos, fonts, color palettes, inspiration boards and anything else you might need.
There is also a huge library of high quality photos that you can use for free. The platform even offers brand coaches, on-site experts who support you in creating and implementing your brand strategy.
The starter version of ZeBrand is available free of charge. The premium version is significantly more expensive at $ 399 per quarter including branded coaching.
Other design tools for boat rappers
- Canva:: Canva is known for its design skills. The free version offers a robust collection of templates for users to choose from. The paid version gives you access to designers, premium custom templates, premium fonts, and a background remover.
- Dribbble: The main goal of Cribble is to connect users with graphic designers or creatives. Users can hire freelancers right from their website.
- Crowdspring: In addition to designing logos and websites, Crowdspring also offers a service that allows users to find unique company names.
- Design pickle: Design Pickle offers graphic design services upon request. Your quality of work is great, but you will pay for it. Design Pickle is priced at $ 499 per month.
Automated email software tools for bootstrappers
Are you still sending email campaigns manually? Are new subscribers automatically added to your welcome email flow? Automating your email marketing can save you a lot of time, but it can also make your business a lot more profitable.
Removing as much value as possible from your email list when bootstrapping is essential. You don't have to waste your money on expensive enterprise platforms, however.
HubSpot
HubSpot is a freemium marketing automation platform that is perfect for any business, from a one-person startup to a company with 300 employees.
Creating and optimizing automated email campaigns is easy once you've set up the platform – and you can do it all yourself. Personalization is included to easily create specific email marketing waterfalls for different types of users.
You can also A / B test your campaigns to improve open and conversion rates.
However, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the HubSpot platform. You can also create landing pages to capture more email addresses, capture gate content already on your website, and get a full picture of how each lead got into your CRM.
HubSpot costs just $ 45 per month for up to 100 contacts.
Other automated email software for bootstrappers
If you're not a fan of HubSpot, here are some things to consider:
- Marketo: Marketo offers a wide range of marketing services, including email automation. Marketo's email solutions include making campaigns quick and easy, creating personalized emails, making sure you are targeting the right audience, and tracking KPIs.
- Foreclosure: Salesforce is the number one email marketing solution. The product offering includes customizing your emails for each step of the sales funnel, delivering engaging content to your email subscribers, and using AI tools to improve the process.
- Blue shift: One of Blueshift's product offerings is an email marketing service. They intend to generate emails quickly, send emails triggered by user behavior and sales funnel, and offer predictive segmentation.
Team communication tools for small business
As your Bootstrap team grows, communication becomes more critical. Emails, texts and phone calls will only get you so far.
It doesn't matter whether your team is in the same office or working worldwide. You need a SaaS communication tool to make sure you're all singing on the same hymn sheet.
Here are some of my favorite Bootstrap communication solutions.
Relaxed
It probably won't come as a surprise that I would highly recommend Slack as a Bootstrap team communication tool. Slack is the perfect combination of email, instant messaging, and voice calling, and it's available for just $ 6.67.
A limited version of the platform is available to small teams free of charge. What's better than that?
Other team communication tools for small businesses
If video conferencing is a more pressing need for your business, consider the following:
- Zoom became a household name during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since Zoom is free, friends and families are using it to stay connected during the pandemic. Zoom is also useful for businesses. You can use Zoom for team meetings, chats, webinars, conference meetings, a telephone system, and a marketplace.
- Microsoft teams is another popular tool for communication. Services include chat channels, video conferencing, screen sharing, and more. Teams is a great choice if you already use Microsoft products.
- Skype was one of the first iterations of communication software. You can use it to chat with your friends via messenger or video chat and make direct calls. Skype hasn't changed much since it began. So it might be a good solution if you're looking for something that is budget-friendly and has basic functionality.
Conclusion
So there you have it, this is my list of the top bootstrap tools to get you started.
Whether you want to get your projects up to speed, improve your SEO, evaluate your competitors, or automate your email, there is a tool that can help.
Which bootstrap tool will you try first?