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Substitute brains for bucks. Make ‘creativity not cash’ your start-up mantra. Map out a budget you feel comfortable with and work within it. Barter early and often: It’s one of the smartest start-up moves you can make. One entrepreneur we know traded fitness workouts for legal advice; another traded gift baskets for professional photos for her website; yet another traded copywriting for graphic design services. The possibilities are endless, and the savings can be huge.

Don’t overspend on image. Confusing image with professionalism is one of the biggest start-up mistakes you can make. Avoid it! Don’t get carried away with buying state-of-of the art equipment or furnishing your home office expensively. Forget the super-slick packaging or a website with all the latest bells and whistles. Instead, keep your eye on delivering high quality and real value. Clients want service and results – they don’t really care about how you provide it.

Go the “guerrilla marketing” route. One of the biggest traps you can fall into is buying costly advertising or hiring a professional PR firm to make a splash in the media. Costly outlays on this front are rarely a sound start-up investment. No one is better equipped than you are to tell your story and promote your product. But make sure your pitch is newsworthy. Talk to other entrepreneurs about how they get the word out creatively and cost-effectively. As one expert observed, “You’re not in the business you’re in, you’re in marketing.” Mastering this skills is vital to your success!

Don’t outsource prematurely. Hiring other people to do work that you can do yourself too early can create a serious cash drain. Whether it’s creating stationery, writing a press release or sending an e-mail blast, you’ll be amazed at what you can do when you decide to “figure it out or find it out.” But make sure you don’t spend 80 percent of your time on trivial pursuits when you should be finding clients and marketing.

Build a support system for success. The biggest start-up hurdle women face? You might think it’s money. But seasoned entrepreneurs know that the real key to success is winning the “small-business mind game.” Staying motivated and rebounding from setbacks are at the heart of small-business success. That’s why you need a support system to survive the rocky emotional terrain you’ll face in the first critical 24 months. Read start-up action guides, listen to inspiring tapes, network with other launchers. Read more.

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