How To Start A Business With Little Or No Investment?

No Capital? No Problem…!

If you have the entrepreneurial spirit alive and kicking in you, “lack of capital” is not an excuse you should be making, especially in today’s hyper-connected world with the Internet and smartphones. One can easily start a business with little or no investment and reach out to millions of customers.

There are many low-cost ideas that can be taken up by aspiring entrepreneurs. The following ideas would help anyone interested in starting a business:

Get down and get dirty

Are you good at making something? “Handmade” is all the rage nowadays and if you are really talented, it won’t be long before you hit the steady revenue stream. Before Phillips – Van Heusen became a successful line of clothing, Moses and Endel Phillips sewed shirts by hand and sold them to coal miners in Pennsylvania from pushcarts.

Also Read: In Conversation with Nalin Agarwal, Co-founder & CEO, The Laundry Bag

Knowledge is king

You don’t need to have capital in order to sell your knowledge. You can do it through a million ways. Right from writing and self-publishing an ebook to tutoring people online, making YouTube videos or consultancy services; if you are good at it, the chances are that you would make money. All you need is a phone, a Facebook page, a free blog and an internet connection.

Techies are the new genius

If you are an IT person or someone with some technical knowledge, the world is full of people who know little or nothing about such things and would pay a handsome amount to someone else who can do it for them. While not everyone can write a software code, almost anyone can learn how to set up a WordPress blog or build a reasonably good website, and yes, a right app could be worth millions. All you have to do is push the right buttons, literally.

Also Read: 11 Things A Startup Must Know To Avoid Failure In 2016

A little hard work never hurts anyone

In the world full of couch potatoes, people who can do manual work, are going to hit a gold mine. From logistical services to babysitting, pest control, beauty services or the good old simple driving, these are the services where demand always exceeds supply. A little creativity combined with the old fashioned hard work would make you successful without almost any capital.

Now, that you have seen a few startup ideas, here’s how to make use of your limited capital.

Tighten the purse strings

How many companies and individuals you have heard about who went bankrupt trying to “promote” their business? No, sir, you don’t need a $10,000 website; you can build a Facebook Page and a WordPress Blog for absolutely FREE. You don’t need a TV a; a YouTube video would do. And you also don’t need a $5000 camera for shooting yourself cooking pasta; your phone camera would do all right. Craig Newmark, the person behind Craiglist, just wanted a way to connect with people of San Francisco Bay Area for local events. He started the site as an email distribution list to friends, which grew into the classified page for the Internet. Craiglist grew as word of mouth took off.

Renting can be fun

Well, talking of low budget, you don’t even need to buy a laptop. They are cheaply available on rent. You might want to try out a rented old Dell model and get some profit under your belt before you order that MacBook.

Borrowing is a risky business

At the risk of sounding like your wise grandfather, we would suggest that whatever you do, never borrow money to start a business. Starting a business on a credit card is one of the surest ways to fail your business and fall in the debt trap. You might want to go super low on cost and save some money for your next essential purchase or rent it as suggested above but stay away from borrowed money. If in the initial years you borrow the money, the interest would be enough to wipe out your profits. You don’t want to run on a treadmill forever. Yes, grandfather did make sense, didn’t he?

The world is a much better place for solo-preneurs and the Internet is a blessing for anyone who has a good idea and is willing to work hard. Today, more than ever, all you need to start a business is a good idea, passion, and the good old hard work. No capital is no problem.

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