Don’t let money stop you from pursuing your dreams.
Having a solid, trusted brand is important for your company to thrive. If your target audience doesn’t know or trust your brand, how will you ever increase your customer base and sales?
If you want to start your own business but don’t have the funding, you can still get it off the ground in a number of ways.
As an entrepreneur myself, I admire anyone who wants to create a company.
It’s not easy.
In fact, only half of small businesses in the United States will survive through their fifth year of operation.
Furthermore, just 30% of those businesses make it through ten years.
Based on this information, it’s clear that failure is more frequent than success when it comes to startup companies.
So I commend you for wanting to pursue this path.
While running a startup may be difficult, it’s also extremely rewarding.
You’ll learn a lot along the way. There are plenty of things I wish I knew before starting my first company.
But getting your startup off the ground is the first step.
Like with most aspects of business, you’ll need some money to do this.
If you’ve never been through this process before, it may seem intimidating.
Not sure where to start?
There’s no one right answer.
In fact, you can get money from multiple sources.
I’ve also outlined 9 ways for you to get your startup funded below.
I’ll let you decide which ones are best for your startup company.
1. Create a detailed business plan
Before you do anything else, you need to have a clear understanding of how you plan to operate your business.
A business plan will increase your chances of securing funds:
Companies that have a business plan also have higher growth rates.
Here’s why.
First of all, it’ll be hard for you to raise money from anyone without a business plan.
Different types of investors, which we’ll discuss shortly, will need to see financial projections before they even consider giving you a dime.
This plan will also set you up for success.
Once you get into the daily grind of your business operations, you’ll always have your plan as a reference to remind you how to proceed.
You may forget some ideas a year or two down the road if you don’t have everything in writing.
Your business plan should have a clear description of your business.
Who are you?
What do you do?
It should also include a market analysis.
This will discuss information and research about your competitors as well as your target market.
You’ll also want to outline the organizational structure of your company.
Have clearly defined roles for managers and other positions within your organization.
Arguably the most important part of a business plan is the financials.
Do your best to include financial projections for the next three to five years:
Make sure your projections are realistic.
As you can see from the example above, this company doesn’t project profitability until the third year of operation.
That’s okay.
You don’t need to turn a profit on your first day or even your first year.
Just try your best to accurately predict your finances.
This section of the business plan will help you secure funding from other sources on our list as well.
2. Visit your local bank or an online company
Go to the banks you use for your personal banking needs or explore an online company like US Business Funding or Lending Club Business Loans.
I recommend starting with your local bank (if you use one) because you already have a relationship with those companies.
Set up an appointment with a loan officer.
Show up to your meeting prepared.
Dress professionally. Bring your business plan.
Explain to the loan officer how much money you need and what it will be used for.
Depending on your situation, you may qualify for loans for certain aspects of your business, such as equipment.
If the bank denies your small business loan application, you could also try to get a personal line of credit from that institution, or from an online company such as PersonalLoans.com.
You can use that line of credit to fund your initial business expenses.
Don’t quit after your first appointment.
You could try other banks and financial institutions if your first stop is unsuccessful.
3. Seek help from friends and family
In the United States, friends and family are second on the list for top startup funding sources.
These are the people who love you and trust you.
Most importantly, they believe in you and your potential.
Don’t be afraid to ask your loved ones for a loan.
Plus, unlike with a bank, you’ll likely be able to get some money from your friends and family without having to pay any interest.
Who knows, if you’re lucky, you might even get funds as a gift.
So talk to your parents, siblings, grandparents, or even your rich uncle.
Just know there are some risks associated with this approach as well.
You definitely don’t want to take a loan your friends gave you in good faith and lose it.
That could put both of you in a very uncomfortable situation.
With that said, I’ve talked to some entrepreneurs who said this had the opposite effect on them.
Loans from their family contributed to their success because they had extra motivation to not lose the investment.
They didn’t want to let their loved ones down.
4. Venture capitalists (VCs)
You can also secure funds from venture capitalists.
VC firms invest in the early stages of your company in exchange for an equity share.
If you decide to take this route, be prepared to give away a portion of your business.
That’s not always a bad thing.
If VCs have some skin in the game, they may be able to provide you with other resources that can contribute to the success of the company.
But just understand that smart VCs will only structure these deals if they are in their favor.
They don’t want to make a return on their investment in 30 years.
VCs want to make their money back, plus some, as soon as possible.
The likelihood of you receiving VC funding largely depends on your industry.
As you can see from this data, venture capital firms are typically drawn to startups within software and technology sectors.
So if your startup company is a local pizza shop, you probably won’t have luck with VCs.
5. Angel investors
Although these terms are often used interchangeably, angel investors differ from VCs.
While angel investors can take an equity share of your startup in exchange for their investment, their funding can also be exchanged for convertible debt.
It’s not uncommon for these investors to be entrepreneurs or former entrepreneurs themselves.
Although money is their motivation, they are more likely to be genuinely interested in your business as well as the growth and development of particular industries.
If you find the right angel investor, you may benefit from their expert advice and management skills.
It’s more common for angel investors to supply funding to businesses when they are still in the early stages, whereas VCs typically look to get involved a little bit later.
Unlike a VC firm that has a committee and advisors working together, an angel investor may make a decision on their own.
They may simply like your plan, trust your goals, and believe that your business will be successful.
That’s why it’s important for you to be able to articulate your business plan well.
A short meeting over coffee or lunch with an angel investor might be all it takes to get them on board to fund your startup.
6. Crowdfunding
Take advantage of the resources available to you online.
You can use crowdfunding websites to raise capital.
While most people think of Kickstarter when it comes to these platforms, there are some alternative websites you can consider as well.
Here are a few popular choices for startup companies:
All of these sites operate in more or less the same way.
Some put you in a pool of professional investors, while others let you raise money from anyone.
If your project is promoted properly, you can raise a ton of money.
Here’s an example to show you what I’m talking about.
In 2012, a company called Oculus Rift launched a campaign on Kickstarter with a goal of $250,000.
The company aimed to produce virtual reality headsets.
They ended up raising $2.4 million dollars, which was nearly ten times their goal.
It’s safe to say that funding was successful.
The money led to rapid success and growth of the company.
Just two years later, Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion.
It just goes to show crowdfunding isn’t just for college students or small side projects.
There’s real money to be found out there.
You just need to look for it.
Here’s a look at some of the other top crowdfunded startups in terms of capital raised:
But just because you secure millions in funding doesn’t mean your company will automatically be successful.
Pebble Watches raised over $10 million in 2012, which largely exceeded their $100,000 goal.
But a highly competitive space made it difficult for this company to stand the test of time.
In 2016, Pebble announced they were ceasing daily operations. They stopped producing watches and honoring warranties.
The company folded.
7. Dip into your personal savings
You could also consider funding the startup company on your own.
If you’ve got money saved up for a down payment on a house or some other big purchase, you could use it to launch your business instead.
It’s risky because you won’t have any money to fall back on if your business is unsuccessful.
But if you’re willing to bet on yourself, there are plenty of positive factors to this route.
First of all, you won’t have to give up any equity in your company.
You get to keep all the profits instead of sharing them with investors.
You also won’t have to pay any interest on a line of credit or bank loan.
If you pay for everything yourself, you won’t be letting down friends or family members who may have loaned you money.
This isn’t an option for everyone.
But if you have an extra $20,000 in the bank, consider using it if your startup costs are low.
8. Look for a strategic partner
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Two heads are better than one.”
Getting a strategic partner for your startup company can help accelerate the development of your business.
In fact, over 80% of companies say partnerships are essential to their growth.
Your partner has a bank account as well.
Between the two of you, you might have enough money saved to get your startup off the ground.
If not, it’s another person to help you secure funding through the other methods I’ve outlined in this post.
Partners also reduce your liability. You won’t be on the hook for as much if things go south.
On a flip side, you’ll only get half the profits.
You may get even less if you give away equity to other investors.
Make sure you find someone you can trust.
While your strategic partner may be able to bring new ideas and solutions to the table, there can also be conflicts and disagreements.
9. Try to minimize initial business costs
Reevaluate your startup costs.
You may not need to raise as much money as you initially thought.
Make the money you already have last as long as possible.
Instead of paying for an office, you could work from your home or a shared office space.
Pay for goods and services as you go instead of paying upfront for large quantities of products.
Use cost-effective materials.
Think outside the box.
And while this may not work for every startup, you can also barter.
Instead of paying for certain products or services, offer your own services in return.
This may be successful if you’re working with other startup companies in a similar to yours situation.
Just do your best to keep costs as low as possible.
Conclusion
Starting a new business is exciting.
But it’s not cheap.
Not everyone has enough money to get their startup company off the ground.
If you can’t fund your business on your own, try getting a loan or line of credit from your local bank.
You could always ask your friends and family for help.
Venture capitalists, angel investors, strategic partners, and crowdfunding platforms are also great options to consider.
It’s important that you always start with a strong business plan.
Come up with realistic financial projections.
This will make it easier for you to get money from investors.
You also need to keep all your costs as low as possible to make your funds last until you can get a steady income stream.
Follow these tips, and you’ll be on the right path toward raising money for your company.
Good luck!
Instagram can be a highly-targeted, visual marketing channel for your brand and an opportunity to build a loyal audience that grows with your business.
In fact, over 500 million Instagram users browse the app every day, making it home to some of the most engaged audiences around.
But like any social network out there, there are the right ways to use your Instagram profile, wrong ways to use it, and clever ways to use it.
In this post, we will show you how to most effectively use Instagram to increase engagement and grow a massive following over time—one that's full of real fans, not inactive fake accounts.
Free Webinar: How to Grow and Monetize Your Instagram Account
Learn how to grow your Instagram audience and monetize it with an online store.
How to get more followers on Instagram
There are 13 tactics that will help you reliably get more followers on Instagram:
Let's dive deeper into how to implement each tactic to get more Instagram followers.
Shopify Academy Course: Instagram Marketing
Gretta van Riel shares her proven framework for growing successful product-based businesses on Instagram. Find out what images work best and how to work with the right Instagram influencers for your brand.
1. Use the right Instagram hashtags
Your goal on Instagram is to engage your current audience on a regular basis while also growing your number of real followers. Posting new, interesting and engaging photos will satisfy the first requirement, but to begin growing you'll find hashtagging your photos to be extremely important. Hashtagging your photos makes it easy for people to find your photos that are searching for those specific terms.
So which hashtags should you use? Just like with Twitter and other social sites, users on Instagram use certain hashtags over others. If you use popular hashtags within your photos, you're much more likely to reach new users and be discovered.
Here are the current top 20 hashtags on Instagram:
- #love (1,271,692,015)
- #instagood (742,795,562)
- #photooftheday (507,358,504)
- #fashion (487,010,088)
- #beautiful (463,668,566)
- #happy (427,528,663)
- #cute (418,686,470)
- #like4like (417,887,839)
- #tbt (413,049,020)
- #followme (392,011,012)
- #picoftheday (380,504,677)
- #follow (371,102,705)
- #me (348,193,980)
- #art (343,874,151)
- #selfie (337,204,715)
- #summer (324,498,110)
- #instadaily (323,307,593)
- #repost (309,603,537)
- #friends (307,567,075)
- #nature (303,040,276)
If you looked at the list above and said, “But none of those apply to my products or brand”, you're likely correct.
Using hashtags is one thing, using the right tags is a completely different thing.
Popular tags like the ones listed above will likely net you additional engagement and likes, however they will not lead to increased long-term engagement, new interested followers, and most importantly, sales.
If you want to tag your photos properly, you'll need to find and use the most relevant hashtags. This means doing the appropriate research to make sure you're using hashtags that not only describe your brand, but are also being searched for on Instagram.
To find relevant hashtags, you’ll want to use a free online tool like IconoSquare or Websta to start.
Below, I used Websta to find relevant, related and popular hashtags for my men’s accessory brand by searching for key hashtags that are closely related to my brand.
As an example, searching the hashtag #MensFashion, I was able to pull the following list of additional keyword hashtags along with the number of times they have been used (popularity).
You can also find more related hashtags and their popularity if you search for any of your target keywords directly in the Instagram app.
You’ll want to go through this exercise trying different keywords that describe your brand and products, building out your hashtag keyword list as you go.
Keep in mind that Instagram allows for a maximum of 30 hashtags per post. Additionally, the popular words will change over time, so make sure you revisit your hashtag keywords every few months to make sure you're using the best possible terms.
You can also steal hashtag ideas from competitors or similar accounts that have the kind of following you aspire to have, but you ultimately want to create your own groups of hashtags to use that relate to your specific account.
Protip #1: Here’s a trick that I use for my ecommerce businesses. For every product and product category for my stores, I have done the research to see which are the most popular Instagram hashtags around those product categories. I came up with 15-20 popular hashtags for each category of products I sell, as well as a base of 5-10 popular tags that describe my brand and product offering overall. Finally, I also created a list of popular local specific hashtags that relate to my brand.
For example:
(Brand keyword hashtags)
#mybrandname #mensfashion #mensaccessories #mensgoods #fashion #mensstyle #instafashion #menswear
(Product category keyword hashtags)
#bugatchisocks #happysocks #corgisocks #socks #sockswag #socksoftheday #sockgame #sockswagg #socksofinstagram #happysockday #sockwars #funsocks #happysockday
(Location specific keyword hashtags)
#Toronto #TorontoFashion #TorontoFashionBloggers
All of these groups of keyword hashtags are stored in a page on Evernote. This makes it easy and efficient when I’m on the go to post a new Instagram image, optimized for the most relevant keywords.
I can easily open my Evernote and copy my standard brand, product and location specific hashtags to post with each photo. Some Instagram scheduling tools also let you save caption templates that you can use to store your hashtag groups.
Doing the work upfront of researching, organizing and saving the most applicable and popular hashtags will save you a ton of time down the road, increase your engagement and help garner new followers.
Protip #2: If you’ve been posting to Instagram for a while and feel like you’ve missed out on all these opportunities to build your audience by using keyword hashtags, fret not. You can still go back and post a comment with your new hashtag keyword lists and watch the likes and followers roll in.
Using hashtags in Instagram stories
Hashtagging on Instagram posts are a given, but you should also be using hashtags in your Stories for the chance to be seen by users who follow that specific hashtag.
You can use hashtag stickers (which can be found in the Instagram Stickers menu when creating a Story) or just hashtag directly in your captions for a chance to be featured in a hashtag story.
Now that users can follow hashtags, your stories on Instagram have a chance to be seen by both people who are following that hashtag and anyone who’s just checking it out.
2. Use the right filters on Instagram
Keyword hashtags aren’t the only thing you should pay attention to. The Instagram community responds to certain photo filters more favorably than others. Using these preferred filters can have an impact on your engagement.
Here are the 10 current most popular filters on Instagram according to Iconosquare:
- Normal (No Filter)
- Clarendon
- Juno
- Lark
- Ludwig
- Gingham
- Valencia
- X-Pro II
- Lo-fi
- Amaro
TrackMaven ran a study on Instagram accounts to see how filters affected engagement and found that Mayfair, Hefe, and Ludwig drove the most interaction.
But more important than the general Instagram community’s favorite filters, are your particular audience's favorite filters. Consider this custom graph which correlates filter usage to engagement from my own Instagram account:
You can use IconoSquare to review the performance of your own account to understand what is and is not currently working for you.
3. Post on Instagram at the right times
Beyond adding the appropriate hashtags and using the best filters, you should also be considering the timing of your posts.
A targeted approach is to analyze what has and has not worked for you in the past. By visiting IconoSquare’s optimization section, you can get a detailed analysis of your posting history vs. engagement. This report will also highlight the best times of the day and days of the week to post.
The dark circles indicate when you usually post media. The light gray circles shows when your community has been interacting. The biggest light gray circles represent the best times for you to post.
You can also get a lot of great insight from Instagram Analytics for Business accounts for free, under the Followers section.
You may want to consider using a social media scheduling tool to schedule and automatically publish your posts for when your audience is the most engaged.
4. Steal your competitor's followers on Instagram
One of the best ways to find and attract a new following is by seeking out your closest competitors' Instagram accounts and engaging with their audience. These people have already shown some level of interest in the products you carry simply by following your competitors' account.
So how do you effectively steal your competitors' followers? You can steal your closest competitors' followers by engaging with them. There are several ways to engage with Instagram users, and the more work you put in, the more followers and repeat engagement you’ll get out of it.
The three types of engagement on Instagram are:
- Follow a user
- Like a photo
- Comment on a photo
I ran an informal test with my business account to see how my competitors' followers responded to my marketing advances. I targeted the followers of a close, local competitor. Since I know many of his followers would be local, I added my city to my profile to create a greater sense of familiarity between my brand and the people I am targeting.
I began by simply following 100 of my competitors’ followers. Later, I followed another 100 but I also took the time to like one of their photos. Finally, I followed a third group of 100 and liked as well as commented on one photo from each account..
Here were the results:
- Follow: 14% followback
- Follow + Like: 22% followback
- Follow + Like + Comment: 34% followback
Although the are many variables and the test was far from scientific, the results were clear. The more you put in and engage with people, the more you’ll get out of it.
Note: While it's against Instagram's terms of service, some entrepreneurs use automation to follow the same process above. House of Hannie discusses this tactic and the pros and cons of it on the episode of Shopify Masters below.
Sell more with shopping on Instagram
Start adding products to your posts and stories to turn engagement into sales with the shopping on Instagram sales channel.
5. Pay for sponsored posts and product reviews
All this optimized posting to your account is great but if you really want to make an impact, you need to take advantage of influencer marketing on Instagram, exposing your brand to a wider audience.
So how do you do that? First, unlike the tactics above to grow your account this one usually isn’t free. However, if done correctly, it’s good value.
To get started, you’ll need to make a list of large accounts in your niche. For example, if you sell beauty products, you’ll want to find large accounts from beauty bloggers.
You may already be following these accounts, but if not you’ll need to find them. One of the best ways is to use Webstagram (mentioned earlier) and search for some of the closest hashtag keywords you uncovered in the beginning of this post. When you do a search for your keywords, not only will it show you the related keywords, but it also shows you the top Instagram accounts that feature those keywords.
There are a few things to look for in the profiles results:
- A large following—usually 20k to 200k
- An email address in the profile
If there is an email address in the profile, it usually means they're open to sponsored posts or a shoutout in a sponsored Story.
You’ll want to email them and ask them their sponsored post pricing. In general, I have found the average rate to be around $20-$50 per post, depending on the size of their following.
However, if you're selling a unique and original product, you may also want to consider sending them your product to review and post. The more natural and less advertisement-like the image, the greater the engagement and response usually.
You don't necessarily need influencers with a massive following, but rather ones with a high engagement rate (likes and comments relative to follower size), which many influencer marketplaces can provide.
6. Use geotags on Instagram for local discoverability
Besides hashtags, you can also make your Instagram posts and Stories discoverable by tagging your location, either the city you’re in or the venue where the photo or video was taken.
Locations not only have their own Instagram feed but also their own Story just like hashtags that you can contribute to when you use the location sticker in your own Stories.
Local businesses can get the most value out of location tags by posting regularly to these feeds and also engaging with posts from prospective customers who are physically in the vicinity.
7. Organize your Stories into Highlights
Whenever a potential follower lands on your profile, you have a short span of time to convince them to follow you.
One way to do this is by using the “Highlights” feature on your profile to organize your Instagram Stories in a way that communicates what your account is about.
Since Stories have a 24-hour lifespan, Highlights can be used to give them a second-life and entice others to follow you so they don’t miss out on more Stories in the future.
Use Story Highlights to:
- Create trailers that tease what your account is about
- Organize your Stories into themes (like countries you’ve visited to for travel accounts)
- Explain your products through pictures and videos
- Promote your products using swipe-up links (you need at least 10K followers and a Instagram Business account to do this with your Stories)
8. Ask for more followers
It sounds obvious, but it deserves to be said: Don’t be afraid to occasionally ask your audience to follow you.
The same way YouTubers ask their viewers to follow them at the end of their videos, you can also ask viewers to follow you for more content.
Sometimes people might really enjoy what you put out on Instagram, but need a nudge before they actually follow you. Sometimes you just need to remind the users of a platform that they can subscribe to get more in the comments of a post.
You can also do this in your captions or even work it into your content by pitching what your audience will get if they follow you or hinting at content that’s coming up that they won’t want to miss.
9. Hop on trends for more followers
When the opportunity presents itself, aligning your content with trending topics or hashtags can improve discoverability and engagement.
For example, you can ride the wave of a trending topic or event, such as a holiday, in a relevant way to boost your engagement and reach. Or you can participate in one of the many hashtag holidays that exist, such as #NationalCoffeeDay (falling on October 1st in 2018). Mark relevant events in your calendar so you can prepare relevant content in advance.
Be sure to join the conversation in a meaningful way and when in doubt, ask yourself if your target audience would actually pay attention to the trend.
10. Run a giveaway to attract Instagram followers
One of the best kinds of comments you can get on any social media post, not just Instagram, is a comment where one user tags a friend. Not only do these comments contribute to your post’s engagement, which in turn makes it favorable to the Instagram algorithm, but each tag brings you a new audience member who arrived through a recommendation and who you could potentially win over as a follower.
One way to encourage this behavior is by posting relatable content that begs for 1:1 sharing (e.g. A gym meme that asks you to tag a friend who skips leg day). But a more reliable way to get your audience to tag their friends is by running a giveaway that encourages your audience to tag a friend and follow your account.
Be sure to check out our post on running a giveaway for more, as well follow Instagram's promotion guidelines and any legal requirements for running a contest that apply in your country of operation.
For inspiration, here’s an example of a successful product giveaway from the5th that incentivizes people to follow their account and tag a friend for the chance to win two free products for the both of them.
11. Be consistent with your Instagram posts
Most of your followers won’t follow you for what you posted in the past but for the promise of what you’ll post in the future. Your audience wants to know what they’re going to get if they hit that follow button.
Having a feed with a consistent theme running through, where you publish at a consistent pace, can have just as much of an impact in growing a following as many of the other growth strategies we’ve covered above. Even a simple pattern can entice new followers, as long as it’s communicated at first glance to anyone who lands on your profile.
Consider your Instagram bio and your last 9 posts as your first impression on Instagram. Do they effectively communicate some degree of consistency through personality, filters, colors, or layout?
The layout of your grid is an often underestimated way to get creative with the aesthetic of your feed while adding a rhythm to your publishing strategy and consistency that's worth following.
In fact, many accounts that adopt this approach are often able to spend less effort on creating content by focusing on converting visitors into followers, producing text graphics or other content with a faster turnaround and streamlining the overall production of their Instagram content.
You can use a tool like Later to easily plan out and schedule the look and layout of your feed in advance. Sonnet Insurance is just one example of how far some brands go with the aesthetic of their Instagram layout.
12. Closely monitor your Instagram following over time
It’s not enough to get more Instagram followers if you’re losing them just as fast. Keep an eye on the rate at which you’re growing as well as how engaged your following is overall.
Social Blade is a great free tool for analyzing the growth of your following (or your competitors), showing you followers added and lost over time and on specific days.
With an Instagram Business account, you also get an Instagram Analytics dashboard which offers valuable insight for free that you won’t get anywhere else. You can see how many people are checking out your profile, how many people your posts have reached, what your most engaging posts are, and where most of your followers are from.
You can use this data to diagnose where you’re falling short and where you could do more.
Look for patterns in the posts that were the most engaging and try to replicate that in your future content.
13. Use the Instagram tools at your disposal
There are hundreds of Instagram tools out there that can help you and your Instagram strategy, but I mentioned three key ones to help you build your audience and engage with them over time:
- Later: Schedule and automatically publish your Instagram posts from your computer or mobile device.
- IconoSquare: Info, analytics and insights into your account and followers.
- Webstagram: Find the best hashtags for your posts and people for your sponsored posts.
Grow an Instagram following that grows your business
In this post we talked about the most effective ways to use Instagram to build a targeted following, but it's not always a numbers game. As with any social network, the most successful strategy overall is to be authentic and social.
If you focus on engagement, not just followers, Instagram can be a great home for your products and brand that can lead to a healthy stream of revenue for your ecommerce business.