The phrase “how to start a business from scratch” does not call for special trust. For some reason, it seems that behind it are hidden offers such as playing on the exchange or participating in network marketing. How to open your business from scratch, having no free money, no goods, no resources? Is it possible?
You can, you just need to look at the resources available to you in a new way. How to start your business from scratch? With an assessment of the available opportunities – education, skills, work experience, connections and acquaintances, the time that you are willing to spend and add a computer, phone, car. Already a lot. But what about money, the same starting capital? The fact is that starting capital in itself does not ensure success in business. If the measure of entrepreneurial success were only invested money, then reaching it would be much easier. So, besides money, you need something else.
What kind of business do you do?
Business is built on the satisfaction of the needs of customers and customers, and the profit is given to those who can offer the best combination of price and quality and good service. So, to open a business from scratch, you need to understand for yourself what value to the consumer you can offer. And, working on hired work, you provide this value, only between you and the consumer is the employer. This is a businessman who has chosen a niche, hired the right employees and organized a cycle of sales or services. And after all, perhaps, the same question stood before him: “How to start a business from scratch without money?”, Only he answered it already, but you have not.
Thinking of starting your business from the ground up, decide for yourself which direction is closer to you: services, trade or production? In each of these areas there are hundreds and thousands of ideas. As trite as this may sound, the recipe for commercial success will be different for everyone. There is not one 100% guaranteed idea, which without exception will work with a bang. And vice versa – there are ideas that many are evaluated as failures, but they have more than one example of a successful incarnation.
If you want to start a small business from scratch, then answer yourself to the questions …
- What and where did you study, what skills do you have well developed, or have you longed to learn from it?
- What kind of activities do you like? If on your permanent job you have to do things that do not bring pleasure, then do not build a business on this.
- What needs are you, as a consumer, experiencing? Perhaps you know how to render this service in the best possible way?
- Is there a demand in your settlement in the chosen niche?
- Is it possible to sell the selected product or service several times to the same consumer or is it a one-time sale?
- What will it take to make a profit from one transaction – what time and effort?
- Can you start your own business by continuing to work for hire?
- Do you know people who are ready to start with you, without requiring at the initial stage of payment for their labor?
Provision of services
It is generally accepted that the provision of services is the least cost, but this is not always the case. Indeed, if a service requires only a certain education, qualification, skills from the performer, then this activity is a good answer to the question: “How to create a business from scratch.” And there are services for which some skills and knowledge will not be enough, you will also need equipment, consumables, and premises. The scale of the organization of services also matters. For example, to independently engage in nail service or hairstyles, it is enough to buy professional tools and a small supply of cosmetics. You can serve the first clients at home. If you are dreaming of opening your beauty salon or hairdresser, then you need serious investments, from one million dollars.
We provide a list of services that can be started without attachments or using personal property …
- In business sphere – legal, accounting, consulting;
- IT services – creation of sites, adjustment and repair of computers, programming;
- Needlework – tailoring and knitting to order;
- Information and educational – writing texts, translations, tutoring, organization of courses and trainings;
- Repair – household appliances, housing, shoes, clothing, furniture assembly;
- Doing business: cleaning, cooking, caring for children and the elderly;
- Drawing paintings and portraits to order;
- Advertising – setting up contextual advertising, creating sales texts, developing business cards and booklets;
- Leisure – organization and conduct of holidays and events;
- Express delivery;
- Design and decoration of premises and open space;
- Mediation of the sale and lease of housing;
- Cooking – making cakes and ready meals.
Of course, the provision of services, if you do this in person, can not be called a full-fledged business, but it is a good experience to receive money directly from the client, and not through the employer.
Trade
How to start a business from scratch without money in trade? What to sell, if you do not have money to buy goods and open a store? The first step in this situation is mediation as a sales agent. Find buyers and sellers, connect with each other and get a reward.
How can I find out what buyers are looking for? You can do query analysis using the analytic tool. Select queries with the word “buy in bulk”, pick up 30-50 products that are searched, and find on the Internet manufacturers. Examine the commodity price, make a commercial offer, place it on message boards or forward it to wholesale buyers if you find their contacts. Interested in the buyer? Then contact the manufacturer and let them know that you can sell a batch of goods on the terms of a certain percentage. Of course, you can answer that manufacturers have their sales departments and there is no point in even trying to offer their services as an agent. But thinking in this way is the same as not daring to go to the sea for a catch on a rubber boat, because there are already full of large fishing trawlers there.
The possibilities of the sales departments of manufacturers are limited by the number of managers, in addition, you can be more convincing in negotiations with the buyer. Try again and again. Imagine that this is your own product, and you need to return the invested funds as soon as possible.
Another option is to take the goods for sale and offer them for sale in the current trading point on a commission basis. Yes, it is not so easy to find such options, but they also exist. Think about what ties and acquaintances with the producers you could attract? To an unauthorized person, products would not be given for sale, but they will be given to you, because you are a matchmaker, brother, a kum or just a good acquaintance.
The third model of trading without money is dropshipping. Here you reduce the manufacturer or major supplier not with the wholesale buyer, but with the end user. The downside of this model is that the buyer needs an advance payment, but there are sellers who agree to the terms of payment by cash on delivery.
In the book “Wholesale Trade” we have collected websites with up-to-date offers of manufacturers and suppliers and other important information. Access to the book you can get in your personal account.
Production
How to make your business with minimal investment, if your choice is production? Completely from scratch it is unlikely to work, because for the production of raw materials, tools, equipment is already required. First of all, these are the ideas of home production:
- Souvenirs, accessories, costume jewelery;
- Soap and bath balls;
- Agricultural tools,
- Stuffed Toys;
- Wooden and wicker products;
- Objects of everyday life and decor;
- Knitten things;
- Bags and other leather goods;
- Screens and curtains to order;
- Postcards and caskets of manual production;
- Advertising constructions;
- Bouquets of sweets and toys;
- Photo printing on clothes;
- Cultivation of mushrooms, flowers, vegetables, fruits, berries.
If you do not know how to build your business from scratch, because you can not do without premises and equipment in the chosen niche, then study the possibility to get the necessary leasing with the condition of payment for the products produced.
Do you have a working idea of producing a demanded product or even a patent for an invention? Refer to business angels or venture investors. Make a commercial proposal with the calculation of costs and payback and place it on bulletin boards and specialized forums. If the idea is really worthwhile, and for its implementation only money is required, then you will find them.
Let’s sum up: where to start your business from scratch, if you do not have available funds for it yet, but are you ready to invest time, effort, use personal property and dating?
- Decide which sphere attracts you most and select several suitable ideas.
- Become a member of thematic groups in social networks, they have many examples of failures, and inspiring stories. When someone has already chosen the road, it is easier to see errors in the realization of the idea and its hidden potential.
- Let’s advertise services and goods on free channels, for example, in local newspapers and message boards. Call the ads of customers or customers.
- Without a financial reserve, at least for six months you should not leave work, so choose an activity that will require you not more than 20 hours a week. In the round-the-clock mode, you will not last long, plus the quality of performance of your work duties will suffer.
- Bring your family members, friends, friends, like-minded people to their work with the condition of paying their labor in case of success.
- Do not stay long in the position of a freelancer-solo, invest your money in development, hire employees, enter partnerships.
