Owning a business may be your dream, but it can feel impossible to even start attempting to achieve it when you aren’t able to invest properly. Businesses, even those run entirely online, require money to advertise. Although you may struggle to get off your feet more than someone with a generous budget, there are some ways you can prepare to start one without extra funds. The first steps are assessing your resources, building a budget, identifying your values and using what you have.
Assessing Your Resources
You may not have the available funds to put into one right now, but do you have the time? Do you have a reliable internet connection and the willingness to spend hours researching your market, competitors and the logistics of small business ownership? If you intend to start one online from scratch, you’ll need to start a website. Do you know how to get started, or what elements you need to include? Anyone who has WIFI can learn how to start a business. The basics are entirely free, even down to logo making and website building. Find a checklist for starting one, and learn as much as you can now. This will pay you in its own way later.
Building a Budget
You may want to apply for a business loan later, but the first thing you should do is build a budget. Find a way to pool your own money without going into debt. If you can do this first, even to a small degree, you’ll be better off than someone who borrows thousands and doesn’t earn even a quarter of it back. Making a budget can be difficult without extra money, but there are some more crafty ways. First and foremost, cut down any unnecessary spending. Even $50 a month can go into savings or be put toward social media ads to generate traffic to your site. You could also look into refinancing your car. This process is fast; the application takes under 20 seconds to process, and you’ll be given a variety of potential savings options from WithClutch to choose from. Unlike many other types of loan refinancing, this doesn’t cost anything or impact your credit score. It’s worth exploring if you find your monthly car payment getting in the way of savings.
Identifying Your Assets
Sure, you don’t have money right now, but you have passion. You may have skills. You have ideas. Knowledge is highly valuable, and if you know how to market yourself, it can become one of your strongest assets as a burgeoning business owner. Entrepreneurship is about more than finances; while you will eventually need to generate revenue to succeed, you should also define what value you have. The more you understand yourself, the easier it will be to create a business that reflects your strongest qualities.
Using What You Have
You may not be able to buy a brick and mortar store, but could you sign up for a Shopify or Etsy account? You don’t have a professional marketing company, but you can learn how to manage Facebook ads, manage a business Instagram page and use Google Analytics. You can write blog posts to start gaining more attention and establishing credibility; you can design product packaging on Photoshop, or build a logo from scratch using a simple software. Find ways that you can start building your business now. Lay the framework today, so you can start to build more later. While money is something to strive for, you should focus on all the opportunity currently available to get started.
