*Administrative help- "One of the most important investments that I've made was setting a budget to have office help. Although it was challenging to spend resources on hiring an administrator, the move turned out to be vital to the company's functioning. We have been more organized, more productive and I have had the time to think beyond the daily operations."
– Alexandra Mayler, founder of Thinking Caps Tutoring and author of "Tutor in a Book"
*Smart sponsorships- "I agreed to sponsor the state-wide gathering of the MCEEA (Michigan Career Educators and Employer Alliance). The price was right—only $300 for a Silver Sponsorship plus attendance and one year membership in the organization. It was a great investment! Not only was my name on the literature and all the PowerPoint presentations, but also I met great employers and candidate referrers at the conference."
– Adam Kaplan, Big Tent Jobs, LLC
*Tailor-made training- "We decided to invest in a more streamlined training program for our new employees. We created twenty 10-minute videos describing the different parts of our company, our procedures, and our history. The videos have been a big hit— our new hires love them, they save us time, and they guarantee that nothing slips through the cracks in our training program."
– Sander Daniels, Co-Founder of website, Thumbtack.com
*Buzz-worthy giveaways- "I've conducted giveaways of all sorts of products from T-shirts to electronics and have realized that I get the most bang for my buck through these sweepstakes...The better the prize, the more exposure. I've also given away an Xbox 360 and that received over 11,000 views and thousands of entries."
– Ismail Humet, Co-Founder of MyFreebeez
These are just of a few of the suggestions given in the article. As an ag entrepreneur, what kind of small investments have you made that have netted large returns? Have you or will you consider some of the above ideas?
