how to start with no money?

[Sylas]

hello, i'm wondering how i can start a buisness with little to no starting money? the maximum i could probably invest is $100-$400... is it hard to start with that little?

 

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[Nicola]

If the business you want to start is passenger flights to Mars - then probably you can't get started with that little.

But a slightly more serious answer is - it depends! There really is no other meaningful answer until we know more about the business you want to start.

 

[Eos]

You may have heard of the old cliche that money makes money. I believe that this is true to an extent.

As nicola says it depends on the type of biz your looking at.
Small niche e-commerce site, probably not a lot. Brick and mortar business, a lot.

What are your goals?
To create passive income? An income you could live off? A saleable million dollar business?
You need to set out what you hope to earn/achieve before starting out.

You should also consider the return on your investment. If you are spending $400 dollars tops on the product/service, marketing, (assuming its an e-biz as a b & m is pretty much out of the question on this budget)
domain, hosting, design, coding then you will need high margins and high potential growth to create something worthy of your time.

Have you any particular expertise or knowledge that you could monetize? Do you spot an opportunity?
More importantly have you read MJ's book? It explains some concepts you should understand before you go any further.

 

[Rickson9]

Can you sell?

 

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[Knowledge Kick]

There are definitely ways to make money with little or no money. This is the same dilemma I found myself in when I first came here. You need to make money to fund your entrepreneurial efforts but you have none. It's tough. Truth is it won't be easy. You might have to get your hands dirty and mow lawns or something in your free time. You can get started in e-commerce for a relatively cheap price, but if you don't know what you're doing it can get expensive. For instance, with the money you have now you could buy a domain name, buy a hosting package, get a site set up and still have money left over. It'll take a lot of research and work but it IS possible. Good luck.

 

[Inphinity]

It's entirely possibly to start a business with little to no money up front, but it is going to depend on what you are doing and how you go about it. The internet makes it so much easier these days to start a low-cost business that can explode. That said, even with a product, if you can make a prototype and get some pre-orders, you can use the funds from the preorders to fund your startup

Something is only impossible until someone goes and does it.

 

[TK1]

Can you sell?

Exactly, that's the first thing that comes to my mind, too for about 99,99% of all business people and people that want to make money on their own.

What's your business concept and how do you see the money come in with it?

 

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[djs13]

Read Art of the Start.

Part of being an entrepreneur is being able to bootstrap. Find out what kind of business you want to start and see how you can get it off the ground. Even companies that have a good amount of seed funding need to bootstrap in some areas.

 

[gofalls]

$100-$400... is it hard to start with that little?

Its very easy starting with $100. You can start overnight with that kind of money. What do you have to loose? $100. Buy a used snow blower or lawn mower and bam, you are in business. In fact it becomes much harder to start with 100k or 1m.

 

[Sylas]

i have found a business which i beleive will boom, i won't disclose exactly what it is right now but i cant really lose on it.

 

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[ZCP]

You will lose only if you don't start.

 

[EdwardWhite]

I am in the same exact state as you are right now. I found that I had to start my business as a 1.0 state.

So for example if you wanted to create a music recommendation service, you would just first tell people to call you and tell them your favorite music.

You wouldn't try to start Pandora. Thats a 3.0 version or so. another 1.0 would just be a blog about music. build an audience, and then start adding more and more features, like adsense, then direct ads, etc.

So for another example, if your goal is to create a software product, you would create a small product, and get a few clients on board, then once your clients are serve, you could begin working out a system, and then creating a product. This also has bonus points, because your clients will reveal what software they really need, so you can create features that are really wanted, instead of what you thought they wanted.
Its how 37signals started their business(or I think they did it that way, could of been another business).

 

[oddball]

Right now I am starting with very little money. Trying to build up my funds while I am in school. I buy and sell anything and everything. If I can make money on it, I buy it. My method is easy too...

I go onto forums, look up used items. If the price/item looks alright to start, I head over to Amazon. I see what they sell for, always at the lowest price. If the price looks good on Amazon, I pretend to sell it. This will tell me how much after commission I will make. Then I head over to my excel sheet, enter the most I can pay in one column, and what I would make, after commission, into another column. Then it computes profit $ and %. If $ or % is good, I buy it. Once I get the items, I usually sell in anywhere from overnight to a couple weeks. So turnaround is quick. It's not much, but its money and its only growing.

The best part is its a model, I can do this with $100 items or $100,000 items. I'm learning with small money now so hopefully when I get to big money I have the concept down.

 

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[NHS]

Tons of ways to do it. My big project in May is to help setup a business for my wife to run. Already started explaining how it works and we even did a test run. So far so good. Gonna spend between $500-$1k to get it going.

Just have to be creative and willing to get your hands dirty.

 

[tonye]

My wife started her business with basically no money. Just enough for a domain and hosting, and the basics. She learned how to code her own website. Things started slow, but took off. Now she has people working for her, and her business is taking off.

Her idea wasn't original, and she isn't the cheapest (neither of us are big on making it based on price only)...she just offered amazing customer service, along with hard work and it's paying off.

 

[Sylas]

Right now I am starting with very little money. Trying to build up my funds while I am in school. I buy and sell anything and everything. If I can make money on it, I buy it. My method is easy too...

I go onto forums, look up used items. If the price/item looks alright to start, I head over to Amazon. I see what they sell for, always at the lowest price. If the price looks good on Amazon, I pretend to sell it. This will tell me how much after commission I will make. Then I head over to my excel sheet, enter the most I can pay in one column, and what I would make, after commission, into another column. Then it computes profit $ and %. If $ or % is good, I buy it. Once I get the items, I usually sell in anywhere from overnight to a couple weeks. So turnaround is quick. It's not much, but its money and its only growing.

The best part is its a model, I can do this with $100 items or $100,000 items. I'm learning with small money now so hopefully when I get to big money I have the concept down.

thats basically what i'm doing now i'm using eBay to buy bulk items (not items i can directly get from china) but items that are no longer mad,e and i will sell them individually, turning around a good profit. i also have an idea using Chinese connections, but i'm currently researching the best item to buy/sell.


can you tell me how you use your excel program? that sounds interesting and good for organization.

 

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[oddball]

thats basically what i'm doing now i'm using eBay to buy bulk items (not items i can directly get from china) but items that are no longer mad,e and i will sell them individually, turning around a good profit. i also have an idea using Chinese connections, but i'm currently researching the best item to buy/sell.


can you tell me how you use your excel program? that sounds interesting and good for organization.

My Excel is simple. I have a section for Possible purchases and an inventory section. When I buy something I put it in the inventory. It consists of about 6 columns, Item, Paid, Sold, Profit, Return %. What is great about Excel is you can type the equation once and drag in down the column, (click box with equation, bottom left corner or the box will have a square, click and drag down column to copy). Obviously Profit is Sold-Paid. Then return, %, is Profit/Paid. Then I just have totals at the bottom of each.

My research is essentially the same thing. I always save common items so I can do quick references when I come across another one later. But I have the same columns, Item, Pay, Sell, Possible Profit, Possible Return. The $ and % columns are setup with the same equations so all I have to do is enter the max I will pay and the low I would sell. Gives me a quick idea of what I could make. I also play with the numbers selling if I can get it for cheaper or sell for more, just for an idea.

Also, to make keeping records easier, make seperate sheets for each month on inventory. My Research is sheet1, the like April sheet2, May sheet3, etc etc. Makes it easy to see what you have made MTD, YTD, etc.