How To Start A Business With No Money in 2021

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How to start a business with no money

This is a one of the most common questions which we often hear from students, housewives and employees who want to start a business, make money and improve their living standards.

If you are looking for the same query “how can I start a business with no money? or I want to start a small business but have no money” Then most probably, you will end up finding a lot of contents, claiming;

  • Starting a Business with Zero Capital and Investment
  • How I Started a Business with $100
  • X Business Ideas You Can Start with No Cash and so, on

But mostly contents, still revolves around the traditional approach. In this article, we will focus on “Alternative Approach” instead of traditional one.

Old School of Thought to Start a Business Without Investment

How to Start a Business with No Money

Technically speaking, starting a business requires capital. And this argument is somehow valid.

We all are used to follow the traditional approach like finding gaps in the market and establish a goal of starting a venture to fill that gap.

To get started, we look for resources especially the financing. We craft FY business plans and present it to the investors for seed funding.

If investors find our startup plan profitable, they finance our small business idea and help us to get started. And if not, the entire project idea and planning go in vein.

If you are the unlucky one who didn’t get financing, then no need to worry at all. There is still a way to start and build your business.

Alternative Approach to Start a Business with No Money

Instead of thinking about gap and filling it, think about what you have and what you know. This is the alternative approach when you literally have no money while starting a business.

Let’s dig into the detail.

1# Start with “What You Have”

When you have no cash to start a business, think about what you have. Do brainstorming and explore things which are helpful to start your business. Think about what;

  • Skills you’ve
  • Experience you gained
  • Knowledge you possess
  • Tangible resources you’ve in your access

I recommend you take a notebook and record your written responses. These responses will help you a lot throughout this journey.

2# Explore & Utilize Your Network Connections

Personal contacts are very useful when you are going to launch your startup. Explore it. Find like-minded people in your network, share your idea with them and get their feedback. This practice may help you to polish your startup idea, if they share their honest feedback.

Further, sometime, friends are also interested in the similar venture and this similar interest may land you to the new fruitful opportunity. You can work together and build a business and fill the gap.

Similarly, finding a co-founder in your network is also beneficial in various ways such as

  • Integration of new skills in your dream project
  • Addition of diverse experience & Knowledge
  • Sharing of workload / burden
  • Help in raising equity financing
  • Access to more resources and connections

3# Invest What You Can Afford to Lose

There are two different mindsets when you start a business with no money, and both have different outcomes.

Let say, you want to start with this perspective “I want to invest but I expect 40% return on investment (ROI)”. There are more chances that you will never take a leap and get started.

Contrary, if you think like “I can invest this amount on this idea. If it works, great. Otherwise, I can afford to lose this much” Most likely, you will start and achieve his dream as you maintain flexibility and reduce stress in managing it.

Basically, you are living out the alternative entrepreneurial mindset.

4# Experiment and Adapt

Business landscape is changing. Advancement in technology, new legislation, and innovative business practices are reshaping the business environment.

It is quite difficult for established businesses to reshape or adapt the new trends. However, entrepreneurs who are just starting out, have the flexibility and they can adapt to new trends to take advantage of such developments.

5 Types of Businesses You can Start with Limited Capital

There are numbers of businesses that fall in broad categories such as service based, event, performance, brokerage or education.

1# Service Businesses

These businesses depend on the skills and time. When you start a business, you make your skills available to others and get paid after completion of tasks.

There are numbers of service business ideas that do not require much capital. You just need the tools of the trade.

Some prominent service businesses you can start with zero to little investment, are as follow:

All the aforesaid businesses depend on the skills. You just need to explore your skills and make it available via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Freelancing websites.

These social media platforms and freelancing sites are free to use, and you don’t need to pay to showcase or advertise your services.

Similarly, you can also make your own business website and it does not require huge investment. In fact, service based businesses are the best businesses to start with little money.

2# Event Based Businesses

These types of small businesses are little bit complex but easy to start with low investment. You can start ventures that put-on concerts, expos, and sports events. But to get started and make it successful, you will need effective marketing.

3# Performance Based Startups

Performance based businesses depend on the creative skills of the entrepreneurs along with the abilities to market those skills to broader audience.

Comedians, motivational speakers, musicians, and singers all have the good potential to start these creative businesses even if they have no money.

4# Brokerage Businesses

These types of businesses are famous and some how more successful in 2021 and the upcoming years.

These are popular businesses among the people who have limited capital or investments. Brokerage businesses bring buyers and sellers together and they charge commission or service fee.

There are dozens brokerage businesses you can consider as good example. For instance, real estate websites and portals (Real Estate), B2B marketing portals (Hospitality), HR and recruitment websites (Recruitment Services), Ride Sharing apps (Sharing Economy) and the list is going on.

5# Education

This is another good niche and easiest business to start with no money. If you hold a college or university degree and have good teaching skills, you can provide teaching services to school and college students.

Similarly, in education niche, you can also offer IT and even sports coaching services. And this will not require high amount as capital to get started.

Note: Having no money while starting a business is just one perspective. There are other perspectives as well. Some people also find ways on how to start a business with no money and bad credit or no experience. If you are in the same line, then we have some useful resources for you. Read it and think how can get financing even with bad credit.

Wrapping Up

There are dozens of no investment business opportunities and literally easy to start. You just need to find the tools of the trade, freely & easily available resources, platforms and polished skills to get started.

Hope, you find this blog “starting a business with no money” useful. Best of Luck 😊

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