Powerful Stories with Tory ArchboldHow to launch a business with no money by embracing technology with Robyn Foyster
In this episode of the Powerful Stories Podcast, we had the opportunity to hear from owner and publisher of Women Love Tech, Robyn Foyster. She is consistently voted one of the most powerful women in media by B&T magazine and is a tech and media guru, board member and a super mum.
Today we are discussing how to launch a business with no money using the right technology. Robyn says, ‘Tech is an enabler and you need to update yourself - every successful business uses technology. On average we spend 3-4 hours on our smartphones and downloaded literally billions of apps. Robyn shares the favourites like Clubhouse for female entrepreneurs.
We all get overwhelmed by checking apps, tracking costs, analytics, downloads …. you name it. Robyn says, ‘Blocking time for yourself is so important – Calendly, Equiti as well as Google Calendar are all great apps to help you make time to detox from technology.’ She also recommends Slack for better connecting with teams. ‘Slack is great productivity app– I’ve been using it for a very long time. It means you can throw away the old email and it is a much more efficient way to keep people connected within your team.’
So, how can we launch a business with no money by embracing technology? Let’s say you are building a business and you want to invest in brand Y-O-U, at no cost. Robyn says, ‘LinkedIn and YouTube are both excellent places to start.’ YouTube is a fantastic learning platform and it doesn’t cost you anything. ‘LinkedIn is different to other platforms as the algorithms remain in your favour and rewards good content. The more activity in comments you get on LinkedIn the higher LinkedIn will push your feed to the top.’ And video content will always track better than written articles – most social platforms favour visual content.
We get Robyn’s recommendations for basic technology investments for new business– ‘most of the big tech platforms are free to start with like Vimeo, Canva, Dropbox, and MailChimp.’ You can literally start a business without any overheads. ‘Affiliate publishers can also help you track where your sales are coming from and you only pay when you get a sale’. Analytics are an essential part of all business. You want to understand how long people are spending on your content so you can create a funnel of sales and you can use apps like Socialbakers to do this.
Robyn is one of the powerful women in media – she has won several awards including the prestigious MPA Editor of the year award and attributes her success to surrounding herself with a good team and productivity. Since launching her media business after editing and publishing magazines including The Australian Women’s Weekly, Robyn launched a thought leadership agency called InProfile where she provides Linkedin workshops and helps build brand through thought leadership campaigns.
The biggest lesson Robyn has learnt in busines is ‘Focus’. She says: ‘Focusing on your tasks stops you from going off track’.
And her most Powerful Step? ‘Deciding to make the move to be my own boss was my most powerful step I took in business. Now I am the master of my own destiny and I would recommend it to those who want to go down their own path’ says Robyn.
So, sit back and enjoy learning how to launch a business at no cost with Robyn Forster.
Links:
Sign up to the Powerful Steps #coffeechallenge to gain Tory’s proven formula for building a global network, with three coffee dates a week. It’s how she connected with the guests on this podcast. Each one is an authentic and trusted connection
Follow @powerfulsteps on Instagram
Follow @robynfoyster on Instagram
Robyn’s list of the best apps you need!
