How turn ideas in business without money

[DiegoJI]

Hi guys, I had a small business and one of the reasons why I close it was I used to do everything by my self also financially and struggled to keep up. The point is, I think I have a lot of good business Ideas and good skills but how to convert my ideas in really profitable business. Now I'm broke and I think the best way to take the control of my life is do not give up and figure out how to make things work. Please anyone can give me some advice? I would really appreciate even a little one. Many thanks

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[Healthfulness]

Hi guys, I had a small business and one of the reasons why I close it was I used to do everything by my self also financially and struggled to keep up. The point is, I think I have a lot of good business Ideas and good skills but how to convert my ideas in really profitable business. Now I'm broke and I think the best way to take the control of my life is do not give up and figure out how to make things work. Please anyone can give me some advice? I would really appreciate even a little one. Many thanks

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

I can relate. Had the most amazing idea ever. Until I calculated how much it actually costs (product creation).. I simply did not have enough money to start it, so I had to figure out how to get that money using the resources I have. While I didn't have savings or high-paid job, I did have free time. So what I did is - learned skill I could do as a freelancer. It's obviously not fastlane, but works for me. It takes fairly short time to learn profitable skill and there's an opportunity to scale it. All while being self-employed, instead of slaving in 9-5 and trying to save every penny to breake out.
Which skill? Up to you, there are so many options - web design, copywriting, ad manager, social media manager, graphic designer and so on. All skills can be learned in few months up to a level where you can actually make decent money.
It looks somewhat like this:

1. Look at all the things you could do as a freelancer.
2. Choose one.
3. Now learn. There are amazing guy's here on forum who are providing all the information you need on copywriting, seo and web design. Some other skills too, but can't recall them at the moment.
4. Buy few udemy courses, books and register in appropriate facebook groups.
5. After few weeks of learning start applying for jobs on freelance platforms or offer your services to your network. Start with free jobs to build portfolio. Once you've got that, build a website and start working on client acquisition.
6. Once there's too much work for you to handle, hire someone.
7. Scale infinitely.

Edit: Obviously this is not the only way. Bank loans, kickstarter and investors are other options.

 

[Michael Burgess]

It's taken me a long time to support myself fully from my business alone, and there's still always challenges and growing pains. I have a long ways to go to be "where I want to be". Rather than giving up and quitting on business entirely, why not take on a regular job to support yourself, and build a business on your off time?

If you kept the money that you earned as profit in the company, you could reinvest it to improve your business, and just keep re-investing and learning more afterwards. Keep hammering on your weak points, and maybe a few years out, you'd be supporting yourself from your own company?

 

[DiegoJI]

I can relate. Had the most amazing idea ever. Until I calculated how much it actually costs (product creation).. I simply did not have enough money to start it, so I had to figure out how to get that money using the resources I have. While I didn't have savings or high-paid job, I did have free time. So what I did is - learned skill I could do as a freelancer. It's obviously not fastlane, but works for me. It takes fairly short time to learn profitable skill and there's an opportunity to scale it. All while being self-employed, instead of slaving in 9-5 and trying to save every penny to breake out.
Which skill? Up to you, there are so many options - web design, copywriting, ad manager, social media manager, graphic designer and so on. All skills can be learned in few months up to a level where you can actually make decent money.
It looks somewhat like this:

1. Look at all the things you could do as a freelancer.
2. Choose one.
3. Now learn. There are amazing guy's here on forum who are providing all the information you need on copywriting, seo and web design. Some other skills too, but can't recall them at the moment.
4. Buy few udemy courses, books and register in appropriate facebook groups.
5. After few weeks of learning start applying for jobs on freelance platforms or offer your services to your network. Start with free jobs to build portfolio. Once you've got that, build a website and start working on client acquisition.
6. Once there's too much work for you to handle, hire someone.
7. Scale infinitely.

Edit: Obviously this is not the only way. Bank loans, kickstarter and investors are other options.

Hi, thank you for your amazing story. Actually, this is what I'm doing at the moment I have a good experience as graphic designer using Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. Besides I'm passionated about personal development and I did and still doing courses and reading book every week. I'm applying for jobs in a couple of platforms and got some jobs done but it seems like that it's gonna take a long time to make a satisfactory amount of money. In a couple of months earned very low money. At the moment I have not a website and don't know how to work on client acquisition. This may be one of the key points. Many thanks once again.

 

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[DiegoJI]

It's taken me a long time to support myself fully from my business alone, and there's still always challenges and growing pains. I have a long ways to go to be "where I want to be". Rather than giving up and quitting on business entirely, why not take on a regular job to support yourself, and build a business on your off time?

If you kept the money that you earned as profit in the company, you could reinvest it to improve your business, and just keep re-investing and learning more afterwards. Keep hammering on your weak points, and maybe a few years out, you'd be supporting yourself from your own company?

Hi Michael, at the moment I'm forking as graphic designer freelancer but seriously considering getting a 8 hours job to save money for my business. But the point is always the same, is there any thing I can do to straight away to make money faster than that? I don't want it to be easy and painless, I willing to improve my skills and work hard but at the moment it seems to me that everything I did I messed up . Many thanks for sharing your experience

 

[minivanman]

Just a note to everyone...... great ideas to YOU, might not be profitable. Let the calculator tell you to take the next step or not. If it actually could be profitable, is it a great idea to everyone else or just YOU? Do you ever notice all of those food joints that pop up and quickly and go away just as fast? Mary's family told her she had the best meatballs in the world.... apparently the world thought they sucked. Jim was told he made the best tacos on the planet..... but the world thought they sucked...... both had to go out of business and lose money because their GREAT idea..... wasn't so great. I have great ideas every day..... some could make money and some can't. Some are really great ideas and others are only great in my mind. Just trying to warn everyone before you waste a lot of money.

 

[Michael Burgess]

Hi Michael, at the moment I'm forking as graphic designer freelancer but seriously considering getting a 8 hours job to save money for my business. But the point is always the same, is there any thing I can do to straight away to make money faster than that? I don't want it to be easy and painless, I willing to improve my skills and work hard but at the moment it seems to me that everything I did I messed up . Many thanks for sharing your experience

My experience has been that earning substantial money takes time - hopefully not something that takes 30 years, but it probably won't be 30 days either.

What are some of the ideas you have for current possible businesses?

Can you support yourself fully from a 9-5 job, and work as a graphic designer outside of those hours still?

Have you read G_Alexanders thread on "House Hacking"? It's a great way to potentially cut down on one of your biggest expenses, while building wealth. Something to consider!

 

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[Deleted52409]

Yeah I've run into this myself. In 2018 I attempted to start 2 high barrier of entry ideas. Both failed for multiple reasons but most importantly I could not financially afford it on my own. Lately I have been working on a service that costs me mostly with the time it takes to learn.

 

[Rabby]

There are a few things I see a lot, which could be improved. Maybe some of them will help.

Development mode
The first one I'm a little prone to myself, but being aware of it helps you avoid it. That is, spending a long time developing something before proving that people will pay for some lesser version of it.

If you're an "inventor" or "engineer" type you can empathize... you can embark upon a project that takes a year or more just to build. Well, don't do it! At least, not yet.

Don't build a whole software platform at first, build the smallest tool that solves one related problem that you think people care about. Test your hypothesis (whether they care) by selling or trading that. Then move onto the next step.

People "go to market" after building long projects, and that's a mistake if you're bootstrapping. It's probably a mistake if you're heavily funded too, even if not as noticeable. You shouldn't "go to market;" you should be in the market all the time.

Boom bust pattern
Another one is "timing." Not market timing, but the timing of behavior inside the business.

My favorite example comes from freelancers and service people. You'll see someone with no clients, and they are at every networking opportunity, and on sales calls, and writing letters.

Then they get a client and the shift from sales to "work." Here is a graph of their activity:

Work _____--------------_______--------
Selling -------_________-----------_____

Bad graphics, I know. It's like a sine wave and an inverted sine wave. The wave on the bottom influences the one on top, eventually. While work is "on," selling is "off" and vice versa. Because there is no "selling" during the period of "working," the work ends abruptly.

To improve this, the pattern has to change. For some period of every day or week, they should be selling (if it's only them). And for some period every week they should be doing the work of their business, even if they don't currently have a client. Why? Because the work of their business is what they're best at, presumably. So they should build tools and structural capital for working better while they secure clients. And they need to establish and test the pattern of their business, or else drift along helplessly in response to external conditions and internal moods.

Weak structural capital
Structural capital is fancy words for "write the how-to guides." I use single-task, one page, high level to-do lists. How do you start a marketing campaign? I can answer that with a single-task, one page, high level to-do list. How do you negotiate an acceptable contract and get signatures without making any errors? I can answer that with a single-task, one page, high level to-do list.

If there is anything I don't have such a list for, I know that I should. But why? Why bother myself with making things like this?

Because if I don't, I can't even train someone properly. My only option will be having them "shadow" me while I go through a long day of distracting side-jobs that are unrelated to what I should be training them on. I'll have to remember what I wanted to show them. That's just shitty. It won't work.

If I can hand someone a single-task, one page, high level to-do list, I am handing them their first job. We can follow the list and do the thing. They can get good at the thing, and once they are I can train them on the next thing. So instead of having all the "things" stuck in the owner, they can be moved around in the organization at will. And bonus! Other people can, and should, contribute to the documented structural capital.

When you document what you do, you can also design controls to ensure it gets done right.

Trying to keep it all
Would you like to make $500,000 per year and die a miserable wreck in your early 50s? Or would you prefer to make half that much in passive income, and choose what you work on?

If you prefer Option 1, keep working harder and increasing your income.

If you prefer the latter, work toward structural capital and delegation. Your goal is to give someone else an income... and yourself freedom from the jobs that person can do. You'll both be satisfied with the trade, no doubt.

I've seen amazing cases of this. People "trapped" in mid six figure jobs that they own... or that own them. Often it's because, in their personal lives, they can't control their spending. Poor them. They have a Ferrari and a mansion, but they lose it all if they stop working. Are they rich? Or are they high-income thralls working for car manufacturers, home builders, and mortgage bankers?

Related: are they in control of their lives? Their minds? Where do their wants come from?

Cashflow choices
One thing that can have a big effect on your business, and your moral, is cashflow. I think if you're a small business, you should collect money up front. Or at least partial money up front, using a retainer for example.

Realize that if you give someone 30 day or 60 day terms, you're extending credit to them. Credit! What business does someone have extending credit when they're broke? If you have 500k in the bank, think about whether you want to extend credit to someone. Otherwise, get your money first and then deliver your product/service. It makes you a lot more flexible.

If you lose an account, or a type of customer, because they "demand" terms, let it go. You're not passing up an opportunity to make money. You're passing up an opportunity to damage your heart with stress, and loan someone money you don't have so that they can pay you to do work. Ludicrous. Just figure if they can't pay you, they're not your customer.

Self abasement pricing
I charge $1,000 for my service, but I'll give it to you for free just this once! Hey, if you buy now it's 50% off!

Running a sale is one thing, and it's a good game for certain companies. I walked through J.C. Penny's yesterday, and literally every rack in the store said "Sale! 50% off!" Is it really?

But if you want to charge a price for something, you should just go ahead and charge that price. If someone wants it cheaper, and you're willing to bargain, ask them what they're willing to give up in exchange for the lesser price.

You want to buy this apple for half price? Sure, I'll sell you half the apple.

I see people get emotionally challenged by price. Someone tells them "that's too expensive!" And they believe this. They feel like they did something wrong by asking too much.

There is no such thing as the right price, and price has no moral component. You're not a bad person if you charge $1,000 per hour, as long as you're marketing honestly and genuinely offering value. Both parties should be enriched at the end of a transaction - this is a basic economic principle. Uphold this, and you are right.

It may be that nobody wants your product at the price you have set. That's fine. Treat it as a test. You offer a specific solution to a specific small set of people with specific problems. If those problems are more important to them than the money you asked for, and if they trust you, they will make the trade.

If they won't make the trade, evaluate these six things:

1. The group you're marketing to and whether they are the ones in greatest need of your help.
2. Whether the group you're marketing to is actually capable of making the proposed trade (no money or no authority to trade means no deal).
   
3. The magnitude of the need, which influences price.
4. The magnitude of value delivered by your solution, which may or may not be a 100% solution to the need.
5. The trust between you and the potential customer.
6. The success of your attempts to communicate the proposed value to the potential customer, or, your marketing message.

That list is the only place you need to look for an answer to why people are not buying at a particular price. (Well, so far as I can think it, anyway.) There's no need to get defensive or think your character is at stake. Just test the price. If it doesn't work, evaluate the things above. Then adjust your price, your value delivery, or your message.

--

Phew. So those are some of the things I've seen. Hope it helps.

 

[DiegoJI]

There are a few things I see a lot, which could be improved. Maybe some of them will help.

Development mode
The first one I'm a little prone to myself, but being aware of it helps you avoid it. That is, spending a long time developing something before proving that people will pay for some lesser version of it.

If you're an "inventor" or "engineer" type you can empathize... you can embark upon a project that takes a year or more just to build. Well, don't do it! At least, not yet.

Don't build a whole software platform at first, build the smallest tool that solves one related problem that you think people care about. Test your hypothesis (whether they care) by selling or trading that. Then move onto the next step.

People "go to market" after building long projects, and that's a mistake if you're bootstrapping. It's probably a mistake if you're heavily funded too, even if not as noticeable. You shouldn't "go to market;" you should be in the market all the time.

Boom bust pattern
Another one is "timing." Not market timing, but the timing of behavior inside the business.

My favorite example comes from freelancers and service people. You'll see someone with no clients, and they are at every networking opportunity, and on sales calls, and writing letters.

Then they get a client and the shift from sales to "work." Here is a graph of their activity:

Work _____--------------_______--------
Selling -------_________-----------_____

Bad graphics, I know. It's like a sine wave and an inverted sine wave. The wave on the bottom influences the one on top, eventually. While work is "on," selling is "off" and vice versa. Because there is no "selling" during the period of "working," the work ends abruptly.

To improve this, the pattern has to change. For some period of every day or week, they should be selling (if it's only them). And for some period every week they should be doing the work of their business, even if they don't currently have a client. Why? Because the work of their business is what they're best at, presumably. So they should build tools and structural capital for working better while they secure clients. And they need to establish and test the pattern of their business, or else drift along helplessly in response to external conditions and internal moods.

Weak structural capital
Structural capital is fancy words for "write the how-to guides." I use single-task, one page, high level to-do lists. How do you start a marketing campaign? I can answer that with a single-task, one page, high level to-do list. How do you negotiate an acceptable contract and get signatures without making any errors? I can answer that with a single-task, one page, high level to-do list.

If there is anything I don't have such a list for, I know that I should. But why? Why bother myself with making things like this?

Because if I don't, I can't even train someone properly. My only option will be having them "shadow" me while I go through a long day of distracting side-jobs that are unrelated to what I should be training them on. I'll have to remember what I wanted to show them. That's just sh*tty. It won't work.

If I can hand someone a single-task, one page, high level to-do list, I am handing them their first job. We can follow the list and do the thing. They can get good at the thing, and once they are I can train them on the next thing. So instead of having all the "things" stuck in the owner, they can be moved around in the organization at will. And bonus! Other people can, and should, contribute to the documented structural capital.

When you document what you do, you can also design controls to ensure it gets done right.

Trying to keep it all
Would you like to make $500,000 per year and die a miserable wreck in your early 50s? Or would you prefer to make half that much in passive income, and choose what you work on?

If you prefer Option 1, keep working harder and increasing your income.

If you prefer the latter, work toward structural capital and delegation. Your goal is to give someone else an income... and yourself freedom from the jobs that person can do. You'll both be satisfied with the trade, no doubt.

I've seen amazing cases of this. People "trapped" in mid six figure jobs that they own... or that own them. Often it's because, in their personal lives, they can't control their spending. Poor them. They have a Ferrari and a mansion, but they lose it all if they stop working. Are they rich? Or are they high-income thralls working for car manufacturers, home builders, and mortgage bankers?

Related: are they in control of their lives? Their minds? Where do their wants come from?

Cashflow choices
One thing that can have a big effect on your business, and your moral, is cashflow. I think if you're a small business, you should collect money up front. Or at least partial money up front, using a retainer for example.

Realize that if you give someone 30 day or 60 day terms, you're extending credit to them. Credit! What business does someone have extending credit when they're broke? If you have 500k in the bank, think about whether you want to extend credit to someone. Otherwise, get your money first and then deliver your product/service. It makes you a lot more flexible.

If you lose an account, or a type of customer, because they "demand" terms, let it go. You're not passing up an opportunity to make money. You're passing up an opportunity to damage your heart with stress, and loan someone money you don't have so that they can pay you to do work. Ludicrous. Just figure if they can't pay you, they're not your customer.

Self abasement pricing
I charge $1,000 for my service, but I'll give it to you for free just this once! Hey, if you buy now it's 50% off!

Running a sale is one thing, and it's a good game for certain companies. I walked through J.C. Penny's yesterday, and literally every rack in the store said "Sale! 50% off!" Is it really?

But if you want to charge a price for something, you should just go ahead and charge that price. If someone wants it cheaper, and you're willing to bargain, ask them what they're willing to give up in exchange for the lesser price.

You want to buy this apple for half price? Sure, I'll sell you half the apple.

I see people get emotionally challenged by price. Someone tells them "that's too expensive!" And they believe this. They feel like they did something wrong by asking too much.

There is no such thing as the right price, and price has no moral component. You're not a bad person if you charge $1,000 per hour, as long as you're marketing honestly and genuinely offering value. Both parties should be enriched at the end of a transaction - this is a basic economic principle. Uphold this, and you are right.

It may be that nobody wants your product at the price you have set. That's fine. Treat it as a test. You offer a specific solution to a specific small set of people with specific problems. If those problems are more important to them than the money you asked for, and if they trust you, they will make the trade.

If they won't make the trade, evaluate these six things:

1. The group you're marketing to and whether they are the ones in greatest need of your help.
2. Whether the group you're marketing to is actually capable of making the proposed trade (no money or no authority to trade means no deal).
   
3. The magnitude of the need, which influences price.
4. The magnitude of value delivered by your solution, which may or may not be a 100% solution to the need.
5. The trust between you and the potential customer.
6. The success of your attempts to communicate the proposed value to the potential customer, or, your marketing message.

That list is the only place you need to look for an answer to why people are not buying at a particular price. (Well, so far as I can think it, anyway.) There's no need to get defensive or think your character is at stake. Just test the price. If it doesn't work, evaluate the things above. Then adjust your price, your value delivery, or your message.

--

Phew. So those are some of the things I've seen. Hope it helps.

Hi Rabby, thank you very much. Your tips are amazing and definitely I will read those again trying to improve those where I'm not good at.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

 

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