People love to ask, “If you were starting from scratch in 2019 with no budget, what would you do?”
And I always say the same thing.
GET A JOB.
If you’re thinking about starting a business, and the first thing that pops into your head is, “How can I do it without spending a dime?”
Let’s just cut the crap and fast forward 6 months.
You will fail.
I understand you’ve seen other irresponsible entrepreneurs talk about how easy it is to start a business with no budget.
And maybe you’ve even seen some case studies from people that say something like, “YEA BUT I STARTED WITH NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND LOOK AT ME! IM SUCCESSFUL!”
It’s called survivorship bias.
You only hear from the people who succeeded. What about the other people who failed?
“But Derek, I’m sure it’s possible, right?”
Sure.
It is possible.
But here’s the problem:
If you’re thinking about starting a business and the first thing you’re thinking about is “how do I do it with no money?”
You’re thinking about the wrong things.
You need to think about your CUSTOMER.
What are you going to do for them that makes their life better? More enriched? More fulfilling?
SOLVE THAT PROBLEM!
And you won’t regret it.
Now do me a favor.
Share this.
And tell me what you think in the comment section.
Also, if you want more REAL commentary about entrepreneurship, follow me on Instagram. I keep things much less intense, and more “behind the scenes” over there.
Amazing suggestions to start building your own business. It is really helpful post and seems really easy to work on will definitely consider for future investment.
Can’t tell you how many get rich schemes I’ve come across in this industry. I think that’s why so many people think they can start a business and make 6 figures instantly after starting with nothing. Don’t believe the hype. With money or without, starting a business is not easy and requires hard work and failures along the way.
For 3 years I was a stay at home mom. I thought that I could make money online. The problem was things like autoresponders and hosting cost reoccurring money, which I was too proud to ask my husband for. Later I got a job, which helped my pride; but now I feel like I’m dragging my feet. Struggling to make an online business work without money for so long kinda burned me out. I’m hoping for a fresh start in 2019. I’ve already started on my to do list!
I went full-time with my business after my 6th job layoff in 8 years. I had been in business part-time for 3 years and had built a large list and a big audience, so my business was already profitable. Even with the advantage of having 3 business degrees, many years of corporate experience, and an existing business, I had my ups and downs for the first few years.
It is possible to start a business with no money and make a profit quickly but the garbage that is spewed by ‘business coaches’ who simply parrot the latest illogical plan of the moment because they have no business experience or training (something they tend to think is a great thing to highlight), is fraudulent. ‘Buyer beware’ in this market – why would you team up with someone to teach you business skills when they have no business experience or education – but they have been a secretary, graphic designer, copywriter, high school dropout (these are not made up, they are actual claims made by today’s ‘million dollar’ business coaches).
I agree 100% and then not so much. It all depends on what you put inside the “Budget”. If you have a Burning Desire and a solid network of people that trust you; you can borrow a small amount of money to start a taco cart and sell tacos in some avenue. If you have a mild interest in becoming an entrepreneur and have a limited amount of friends that don´t trust you that much; then you really keep your day job and salary and dabble in some kind of small entrepreneurial adventure in your spare time.
This is 100% accurate. You can’t expect to properly promote yourself and run a business without making at least some sort of investment. I always say if you aren’t willing to invest in yourself and your own business, how can you expect anybody else to want to?
Here’s the really crazy thing: your odds of success actually go up if you don’t quit your day job!
That’s per actual data listed in my post below.
From my own experience, here’s what happens if you either quit your Day Job or get investment money for a startup:
– You’re in a panic to start making money in a hurry, either because you need to put food on the table or your investors are impatient.
– You bet way too much on various marketing programs because of that panic. They don’t perform as well as they should because you haven’t had time to learn how to properly reach your audience, and they haven’t had time to get interested in you. Man, you’re just cold chopped liver to them right now.
– So you panic even more and double down again in a last desperate attempt. BOOM! Your savings are gone, you think entrepreneurship is all BS, and your back scratching out a living in the salt mines.
DOH!
But, if you keep your Day Job, guess what?
You can’t really afford a lot of time, and usually not a lot of money either. This forces you to prioritize. It forces you to learn to do it right BEFORE you do it big. It forces you to grow as your audience grows and warms up to you.
There really is no better way. And it raises your odds tremendously IF you keep your Day Job:
After a year of struggling by with no capital, I can agree with this article, but what if you’re disabled and can’t work a regular J.O.B.?!
I can’t sit or stand very long, I can’t lift more than 20 lbs and there are days I can’t get out of bed, so I work from my bedroom where I can move around (Or not) at will. No, I haven’t made any money without capital to advertise it, but I do have help from an organization to write a business plan to present for funding.
If approved, they will grant me funding for three months which should give me the boost I need to really make this go. I am determined to make this work, not because I expect to get rich, but because I love what I do,
It literally blows my mind, how what used to be common sense is no longer common.
Some people act like having a JOB, starting SLOWLY, and building a business, with a solid foundation is a bad thing.
But, those are usually the same people who get spanked by “hype gurus”, lose what money they do have, and then spend the rest of their time moaning about how running a successful online business is a “scam”…….
I agree that those people could have their priorities in the wrong place where it’s about not investing in the business rather than serving the customer.
Yet, there’re surely many cases of people who have something valuable to offer but lacks funds for anything besides a domain and a web hosting. They could be producing their own content and using free (or cheap) advertising techniques.
I started my business from scratch, with no money…but, it took me 3-4 years before I was making a “real” income. After 7 years I quit my full time job to pursue it full time.
If you’ve got no money, get a job. If you want to start a side job go for it, but don’t expect to be making 6 figures anytime soon.
I couldn’t agree more.
Starting a business cold and with zero cash is just stupid.
You can save up, set a goal with a deadline and make it happen.
But out of all the dozens of people blabbing about awesome and successful they are there are thousands who’ve accomplished zero results. No one hears about those stories because no one knows who they are.
Get a job. Sell something. Sell more of it. Do the math. Be smart.