Bootstrap 101: Start a Business For Pennies On the Dollar TODAY!

21-Jul-2016

I like this.

By







By Jud Anglin, Laissez Faire Today

In 2002 I had a crazy idea for a business.

After receiving VIP medical treatment in Bangkok in an ultra-modern 5-star resort, and paying only $16, I figured I should start a medical tourism agency to promote, educate, and facilitate surgery in foreign countries.

Now mind you, I did have a paying job at the time. So the first step was quitting.

Next, I needed a plan and some startup cash.

I made a list of all the items I needed.

  1. LLC registration and documentation
  2. website
  3. graphic design work
  4. legal warranties
  5. Customer database (CRM)
  6. Insurance
  7. Marketing/promotion
  8. Flights for visiting foreign hospitals

Just these items alone was $29,000…. Ouch.

And I knew this was just the beginning.

What was I to do? Should I call my family and friend and ask for funding for promoting surgery in Thailand, Malaysia, India? Nope. Wasn’t going to happen.

So I went to my local bank and got a home equity loan for $30,000.

With cash in hand, I started going down the list.

For the website I hired freelance web designer…$7,000
Graphic design work in Malaysia…$2,000
Legal advice and content…$3,500
GoldMine database with license for 4 employees…$2,000
Flights to Malaysia, Turkey, and India…$9,000

Next, I had to create the process and build the infrastructure.

This entailed hundreds of hours of sweat, blood, and tears in writing templates for customers and prospects. The so-called “drip campaign” which had to be automated though GoldMine

In the end, it all paid off as I established a profitable small business and helped thousands of uninsured Americans obtain surgical procedures at one-sixth the cost in the US.

Many of my clients saved over a hundred grand on their surgical procedures like spinal fusions, total disc replacement, and heart bypass.

But then after 12 years of successfully managing MedRetreat, I saw the need to expand my services.

The chaos and disruption caused by Obamacare has led to an explosion in healthcare cost for the average family.

Insurance premiums and deductibles continue to skyrocket. Too many individuals are dropping insurance and paying the IRS fine instead.

So last year I made the decision to launch a new business to provide little-known free-market solutions that are amazingly affordable. These solutions are right here in the U.S.

My new venture is called the Patient Advocate Partners of America.

But what I want to share with you here is the technical innovations that have blossomed over the past 12 years.

Starting a new business today is ridiculously simple and inexpensive.

Keep in mind that MedRetreat required that I take out a home equity line of credit in 2003 for $29,000.

My new membership portal is now open and ready to serve.

It cost less than $1,000 and has far superior technical capabilities than MedRetreat.

Here is how I did it…

  1. Free website through WordPress…$10.34 for domain registration, plus $107.00 for Ultimate WordPress package.
  2. Legal consultation through Legal Zoom…$167.00
  3. Digital Access Pass (DAP), which is a premium WordPress membership platform to create my fully automated, recurring subscriptions…$167.00
  4. Aweber as my email autoresponder, which enables me to create awesome sign-up forms on my website and create drip campaigns in minutes…$19/month plan.
  5. Programmer to help connect DAP and Aweber on the back-end of my website was $345. I found amazingly talented Indian programmer through Upwork, the freelance portal. I simply searched their online datables for programmers with experience with Aweber and DAP and found one in minutes that charged only $9/hr.
  6. For my graphic design work I use canva.com which is insanely awesome, simple, and FREE.
  7. Toll free phone service I use GrassHopper.com which is $10/month.

There you have it. Start-up cost $658.34, and my monthly recurring bills amount to $73.95.

Here are the websites of my tools…

WordPress
Digital Access Pass
Aweber
Upwork
Grasshopper
Canva.com

Now I have to admit here that I’m not much of a technical person. When I get stuck on any of these tools, I go straight to Youtube and watch how-to videos.

That’s how free market innovation works.

Now I look forward to sharing free market innovations in healthcare that very few know about!

I hope this helps.

If you get a chance, please visit my business sites.

MedRetreat
Patient Advocate Partners of America

All the Best,

Jud Anglin
Founder, Patient Advocate Partners of America


Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*

Subscribe without commenting