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The process of converting an idea to launch can be a very difficult and expensive process for entrepreneurs. Adeo Ressi, founder of TheFunded and startup accelerator, Founder Institute, has a ten step plan to help all entrepreneurs.

According to Ressi, even though there is no foolproof recipe for every launch, his plan will help you to get a business off the ground for less than $2,000.

Ressi presented the program at the Founder Institute’s Boston location. This plan includes a few steps where you secure your startup’s online identity, enhance your appearance of legitimacy, understand your startup’s priorities and target consumer, and finally, get it to the point of a rough web launch.

Below is a bullet point summary of Ressi’s ten steps to launch-

1. Get your domain and e-mail working: “When you register your name, you should register the misspellings as a .com, you should register the primary and the .net or .org or it will be sold back to you for thousands of dollars later…”
Approximate cost: $160

2. Produce some mock-ups: “You want to show the key functionality that you’re trying to bring to the marketplace…You just need three sort of pivotal experience screens that will demonstrate your core idea or three…mock-ups of the physical product…you’re trying to capture how it will be done.”
Approximate cost: Free

3. Logo and materials: “Get a good looking logo so at least you look legitimate…” says Ressi who recommends 99designs. After you pick the winning design, “you contact him [the designer] offline, you say I want you to do my business cards, I want you to do my Power Point backup and I want you to do my mock-ups. Now for not so much money you’re getting everything you need to appear somewhat legitimate to the world.”
Approximate cost: $750

4. Pitch deck: “You always want to have a pitch deck; even if it’s bad…you need something to start with to go on that refining path.”
Approximate cost: Free

5. Create a landing page: Ressi recommends Unbounce.com, which is a drag and drop landing page.
Approximate cost: $60/year after free trial

6. Create a company blog: “I recommend doing blog.yourcompany.com…it keeps it in a consistent place as your company scales…You want to be posting on your blog, at this phase, one or two times a week.”
Approximate cost: Free

7. Test marketing: “First thing I strongly recommend is immediately test marketing using Facebook and Google ads. Not so much for the value of driving people to your bullsh*t website, but to understand what messages resonate with your target audience and then so you can then refine your marketing messages.”
Approximate cost: $250

8. Survey customers: “So now you’ve got these leads coming in, survey them… you want to understand, the demographics, who are they. You want to clarify what the pain points, like why did they sign up, were they just stupid and duped into it or did they really feel that something was valuable and what was it that they find most valuable.”
Approximate cost: $200

9. Create a sticky note roadmap: Write all of your company’s features on separate sticky notes and then group them in logical buckets. “What I do, is I put on the left side I put the most important group and then at the top, the most important features. So on the top left is the most important thing I have to do…When you have that roadmap in front of you, you can sort of visualize the one thing that flows through everything and usually there’s an unknown around that.”
Approximate cost: $100

10. Ghetto launch. Test the unknown. “Whatever you can find that can test out your core stuff that’s free…Identify the metrics, collect the data and validate…”
Approximate cost: $250

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Facebook Places has been launched recently. It is likely to affect other social networking tools like Foursquare, Gowalla and Whrrl, but it’ll be interesting to observe how. But, most people will forget to discuss how Facebook Places can help your business to grow. Here, we will try to help you understand how you can use Facebook Places for the advantage of your business.

Once you get a Facebook Place page for your business, it will help your customers to see a map from their iPhone or other mobile device. The map will include your business (the Place) and a list of the friends of the Facebook Places user who are currently checked in at your business. The map will also show the users a Friend Activity stream that consists of other friends who have stopped in your business at one time or another.

Your Facebook Place page will also include information about your business. You will be able to include your Place page on your Facebook profile using a simple “Share” button on the page.

It is very important to have a Facebook Places page for your business as a social marketing tool. The following strategies will help you to make the task of setting up a Place page easier:

1. First of all, you need to verify the location is yours. You’ll have to verify to Facebook that you are who you say you are. For that, you’ll have to find the Place on Facebook and then claim the place for your business by clicking the link that reads, “Is this your business?”
2. You will have to complete a simple verification procedure to get your Places page. You just have to follow the step as per instructions from Facebook. You’ll have to access the application on your iPhone using the new Facebook app (it can also be done using a web-enabled mobile device). When you “Check In,” you’ll have to click the “Add” button and then enter a name for the new Place. You’ll also be able to provide a description of your business there.
3. You will need to describe what you do at the new Place. After that, you can start tagging Facebook fans and friends. When you click on the “Check In” button, you can share your visit. Your friends, customers and other people will be able to find your new Place while visiting Facebook or the Places application.

It is very important to claim your Facebook Places today. People are jumping in the competition to get their own Facebook Places. When you claim and get your Place now, you will be able to use it in future, if not now, to attach the Facebook Places location to your business.

I do agree that determining the final value of Facebook Places for your business right now may be a difficult task, but it is very important to use the new Facebook element to bring in more customers and more revenue for your business. Facebook is offering you a chance to promote your business using your customers and prospects along with your friends, so use it.

It is possible to promote your business using your Facebook Place by means of advertising on your page. For that, you will have to click on the ad creation flow and then choose your Place from the menu.

Your local business is more likely to gain the most from Facebook Places. However, every business will be able to leverage Facebook Places for growing their businesses.

How can you grow interest of your customers and prospects in your business? You can offer rewards to people who write good things about you, your business, your services and products. You can rewards people who post their pictures, share their experiences with your services and products, people who offer constructive comments. The reward may be discount on your products and services. You can also offer coupons and discounts to people who visit your Facebook Places page. There are other ways to attract eyeballs- host contests, offer gifts or discounts to people who most often “check in” with your Place.

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Most of the technology startups start doing something else but ultimately ends up doing something different successfully. A few rules will help you , as an entrepreneur, to find out ways to make your startup a success and make money.

Kevin Ryan, founder of DoubleClick and Gilt Groupe, and Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape, share their decision-making tactics when information is scarce.

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