If you Think you’re Too Broke to Start a Business, Think Again !!!

Get someone to pay you for something, & you have a business. Repeat, make it “scalable” with good Marketing & Sales and you have a successful business.

Topics: Afford, Example, Cheap or Expensive Startup? How? Resources for Prep. Raise Questions.

#1. You ”can” afford to Start a Business. Maybe you just can’t afford to start the one you’re envisioning with your promotion/user acquisition plan. But there are plenty of Startups that have launched with little to no money or investment. You’re just stuck on a particular way that you think it’s typically done. You need to change your mindset.

#2 a good Example. I launched MediaKix in 2011 with $100 – just the cost to file the paperwork to register it as an LLC. We’re now a multi $M dollar company and growing fantastically well. We were the first of our kind, an “influencer” Marketing company before anyone was really thinking about Influencer Marketing. The reason I could start the company with only $100 is because there were no overhead costs, and I went out and got my first paying customer right away.

#3a Cheap Startups start with “paying” Customers. Get someone to pay you for something, and you have a business. Repeat that process, make it scalable with good sales and you have a successful business. . . . or . . .

#3b Expensive Startups require product development & user acquisition costs. They’ll then require product & user acquisition teams and big bucks in funding. Why? Because building & maintaining product is expensive and acquiring users is expensive. Why start here unless you have the money or investors?

#4 How can I do it? Instead of thinking the next Uber, Airbnb or Facebook, think of a service or skill you have or could learn – that someone will pay you for. For ideas, dig around Upwork (a freelancer market place) and see what people charge for different jobs & skills. If you offer the right type of skill and you do it well enough, you’ll be able to charge by the project, instead of hourly. That way you can increase your margins. If your skill is in demand enough, then you can start to market it with a website, Google Adwords, etc. If you can do this well, you can build a company.

#5 Useful Resources. In any case, to build a successful start up, you’ll need to know a lot about business. Here are the books you should read before you get started:

1) The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business – This the #1 most valuable book to read before starting any business. Look at it as the aggregate of the best of hundreds of other books on business, sales, marketing and strategy.

2) How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It eBook – Mark Cuban’s biography. He defines hustle & being scrappy. He’s most famous for selling his company to Yahoo during the first Dot Com boom, but he’d started several successful companies before that.

3) The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, & Create a New Future !!!

4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, & Join the New Rich – A must read for anybody who wants to be an Entrepreneur. The Author has a unique view point that can dramatically affect how you think about your job, work & business.

#6 Raise Questions on Quora – the knowledge-sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, & Google+. More questions:

Entrepreneurship: How do I start a business with no experience?
Competitors: How do I find out if someone else has a product like mine?
Can I be Competitive? Better, Faster, Cheaper.
Who’s my Target? Who will buy my product?
How will I reach them? What free or low-cost techniques could I use?
Do I need to get Help? Partner, Advisor, Employees. How do I compensate them?
Startups Costs: What are some startup costs that people don’t anticipate?
How am I going to make Money? What do other charge for similar products or services? What Business Model is best for me?
Startup Advice & Strategy: How do I convince a startup investor to invest in my idea?

Comments: Do you know anyone who started a Business on a shoe-string? I started my first with $50.

from INC Zine 28 July 16 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz