A lot of people think you need a lot of money to have your own business, not enough ask how to start a business from nothing. In reality you can start a business with less than $20 / £20 / in your pocket. I’m a fan of thinking big, don’t get me wrong, but from little acorns grow big oaks and much more than that from stability and risk mitigation grows a viable business. So it’s time to drop the ego and go after what you want. Are you ready to find out how to start a business from nothing?
Let me start with a story. When I was a kid I started my first business by accident. I went into school with some chocolate worth 0.25p and another kid wanted to buy it for 0.50p – that’s a good deal. If i was willing to go without my chocolate bar now, I could have two later. Or.. I could have one and buy another to sell. And very quickly my mind started racing.
And then it all changed
The next day I went in with more chocolate and sweets and it became like an auction, people were bidding each other up to get the items. I found it so odd, they could have bought them in the morning themselves, but instead they were pay, two, three, even four times the price buying from me. They wanted in then, they wanted it there and they were willing to pay the price.
Ok we are talking small numbers here but for a kid, still at school it was great. Before you knew it I was making and where from £50 – £100 a week. The money it gave me as young teen was good, the lessons it taught me were better and worth a lot lot more.
Business is the solution
I quickly realised you can provide a service to someone that wants it and they’ll pay you for your time, assets, experience or knowledge in return. Pretty simple. So if you’re trying to figure out how to start a business from nothing, first ask yourself:
- What skills / knowledge do I have?
- Who needs that?
- Does that work in person? Or online?
Now I’m a huge fan of a scalable business, specifically one that can be online and give you access to worldwide customers. But much like my little sweet shop or many other things I started out with, not everything needs to be that, nor does it have to start that way.
So lets start with some SIMPLE examples.
How to start a business from nothing – Start Easy
Everyone will tell you to do drop shipping or some online business and yes that can be great, but the truth is it takes money and time to start. So let’s look at something that we an do right now.
Tour Guide: Print or Buy a stock T-Shirt or Jacket that says GUIDE on it, head to a tourist spot near you with 5 or 6 different tour options that last an hour or so. Call out TourGuide, take the tour of X Y Z, charge £10 per person for a group and you’ll very quickly be earning £50-£80 an hour. Ok you need to know you’re area, you need to be confident enough to talk about it, but with nothing else, no more investment you are up and running and could easily do £300 – £450 a day.
Now it’s time to grow – get yourself on AirBnB and list yourself as an activity. There’s a whole sections for activities and things to do. Get yourself listed, get some reviews and start getting bookings rather than just having to “hawk” calling out.
Now it’s time to manage – imagine you’ve been doing it a while and you’re busy, you can’t respond to your bookings and enquiries quick enough because you’re doing Tours, so it’s time to get some people in and become a manger. Find a few actors or two pay them a percentage of what you make, set them up with the training of your tours, book the people in and before you know it, you’re growing. You figured out how to start a business from nothing, you did it and it’s working.
Different suggestion?
Ok lets look at a different option.
Reseller: This one is as old as time and can be done anywhere. Find a product used or new that is undervalued and sell it on. There’s a few ways of doing this. You can physically buy it, you can agree a service agreement with the original manufacturer, list it for sale or you can set up a proper drop shipping arrangement.
So lets talk the simplest one first.
Buy & Sell on – You know a particular products value or at least reasonably. You look online and deo your research, find the deal, buy it and sell it on. It’s really that simple. This will take a week normally because you have to do your thing and actually sell it but as you grow and do more volume it starts to really work out. But where can you get your items? Go to eBay, Facebook, Flea Markets, even stores like TJ Maxx /TK Maxx there will be great items selling at below market. You take the time to list them properly and sell at a profit.
There are a million option how to start a business from nothing – the only question it what works for you and what will you do.
Reality check:
- You don’t have to love that thing – what it gives you can be what you love
- Time will pass with indecision
- Success comes from hard work more than it comes from talent
So what is your idea? What are you going to do?
Need more inspiration? Read the blog here