From the course: Small Business Secrets

Launching a business with little or no money

From the course: Small Business Secrets

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Launching a business with little or no money

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So perhaps you're thinking, I should go into business for myself. But you're also wondering, I don't have money, Dave, how do I do this? Well, I want to talk to you about some things that you might be able to do, to start a small business with little or perhaps no money at all. The first thing is a service-based business. Now, if you try to start a product-based business, where you're manufacturing something, that's very difficult to start with no money because you have inventory costs, and production costs, and parts costs. Now, if you start a service-based business, where it's you selling your services, or even selling the services of someone else, it's much, much easier to start with no money. So I'd recommend, if that's your position, to focus your thoughts on service-based businesses. Number two is to begin in an industry that you know and love. Now, this is good recommendation even if you have lots of money, but it's even harder, if you have no money, to start in some industry where you have no experience. On the other side, if you already understand everything about that industry, if you've been working in it for several years, your costs are going to be lower. Rather than having to invest time and money into research and getting to know the industry, you'll be able to jump right in. Number three is freelancing. Now freelancing is a way of doing small work here and there, as you are building your business. Think of it like an apprenticeship. An apprenticeship is where someone practiced their skills and worked for someone else as they developed their abilities. That's how freelancing is in my mind. And you can go to various sites and freelance your skills out to other people, as you're developing your abilities, and getting more confidence, to make the leap to a full time business. Number four is sell what you don't have. Now, that may seem a little strange. What I mean is that you're selling a service to someone before you actually have it ready to deliver. Sound scary? It actually works quite well. I did this in my business where I sold a time management training program to people before I had fully developed the program. This not only gave me money upfront, but gave me time and extra motivation to complete the process, works very well. And number five is to work for free. Again, that sounds strange, but when you consider starting a business, even a service based business, marketing and advertising costs can be one of the biggest expenses in the beginning. If you work for free, for someone who is highly networked, someone in your area who everyone knows, you'll be able to get lots of referrals very quickly which saves you on marketing costs. You can go to that person and say, I'm going to deliver my product to you and you're going to give me lots of referrals if you love it. Do you agree to that? And if they do agree to that, that's a great way to grow your customer base very quickly. Again, this is a strategy that I used early on in my coaching career. Hopefully, these tips will give you a little more confidence to begin the process as an entrepreneur, even if you don't have a dime.

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