It is a common belief that if you want to start a business then you need a great sum of money to do that. However this is one of the greatest myths, you don’t always need a fat bank balance to start your own work. This interpretation is the same as saying “you need to have Nike shoes to run”. Nike shoes or money can be one of the ways you can run or start a business but they are not the only one. You can run even without the Nike shoes. There are lots of other ways as well by which you can kick-start your business or startup easily.
Problems that arise with starting a business
The first most essential part of a business is to study how you can reach your expected aim. You currently are at stage zero and have no earnings, so your aim should be to earn something and move from zero to stage uno. The real challenge that you are going to face is to change this digit 0 to 1 without any investment in the business. You need to be innovative and use your complete brain power to reach the 1st stage and once you reach the 1st stage you would have got a lot of knowledge and experience and you’ll be able to easily scale up from 1-n effortlessly. But before this, you first need to learn how to jump from 0-1.
Business idea
To reach the 1st stage there are mainly 2 methods, the minimum condition is that your business’ value proposition must be admired by customers. It shouldn’t seem like you have aimlessly started any business in hopes of getting returns. That would be similar to writing 10 useless answers in an exam and then complaining about why you didn’t score get any marks. Your business should help solve some problems or issues. The first method is therefore having a particular idea. You must think of ways on how to test that idea and how to sell that idea and get customer feedback without wasting a single penny. The second method is that you will have to understand the things that require an initial investment and after that, you will have to search for free or cheap alternatives for them.
Raw materials
To run a business the second most important thing you will require are raw materials. So to avoid investing in raw materials don’t produce your perfect product in the starting. Focus on your value proposition and take feedback from customers. On the basis of that, develop your product. Basically firstly make a Minimum Value Price(MVP), earn from your skills, and experience, gain knowledge, and build personality at first.
Identify consumers
The next problem that arises with a new business is identifying where to sell your products. If you open a shop then you’ll need to invest a huge amount in that, if the shop lies in a good location then the investment will also be very high. So, to avoid this problem we have various other alternatives as well. Flipkart, Amazon, Instagram, Facebook, and many other social platforms are available depending upon what you want to sell.
Marketing of product
The fourth big problem a business faces is of distribution. How to market your product? Marketing involves giving free samples, coupons, discounts etc. to the consumer. This also can be achieved through the applications mentioned above. Marketing on these platforms is almost free if you actually sell your product(s) to consumers and they like your product or service.
Different strategies to run a brand new business without money
Selling your experience
The first method to earn money or to start your business is to sell your experience. In this basically you will be answering customers’ ‘what to do’ questions. If you have a decent experience/training in something, whether it’s of running a successful business, being a successful YouTuber, a known singer or anything you are successful at; there can be people who will be rookies in the said field. They might seek your advice or help considering your expertise in the field to gain some insight. Helping the newcomers in all these things will earn you money. Newcomers will be able to get quick solutions to their problems through you. They won’t have to waste months entangling the problem. You can provide this consultancy problem-solving service through various social media platforms. You should always set up your solving service in a field you actually excel in because if you aren’t able to solve the problem then it will definitely not benefit you in any way. You can also open your own consulting company and hire well-experienced employees in some time.
Selling your knowledge
The second method to earn money is to sell your knowledge. In this, you will have to answer questions of ‘how to‘ to do something. It can be anything you have a vast knowledge of like coding, dancing, marketing, writing, acting etc. Share your knowledge of your field and teach people these things. In today’s world, every single thing is being taught, how to grow your Instagram followers, how to purchase the right utensil, how to buy a perfect gift and even how to sleep. You can teach it through various sites, do webinars, sell books or PDFs, do online live classes and so on. You can use various platforms like YouTube, Unacademy, etc. to earn money by teaching others what you know.
Sell your Skills
The third method is selling your skills. In this method, you don’t answer the questions but you yourself solve them. This includes almost all the freelancing jobs. You just need to have a skill set to sell. There are many different websites too to freelance, you just have to choose the one that works best for you. You can even sell your skills in things you are interested in.
Sell your personality
The fourth way to earn money is to earn through your personality. If you think you have a different personality like you are witty, funny, entertaining, smart etc. You can make your brand through your personality and earn from it. You just have to post videos that your viewers will be able to relate to. It is a very good way of earning money. One of the biggest examples of this is Logan Paul who earns $10 million from his brand every year. So there is a wider scope in this field.
Sell products
This is the most common type of business. You don’t need to sell high-value goods like cars, bikes or expensive clothes. Start from selling simple and affordable goods like personal care products, handmade cards, gift boxes, stationary etc. Or if you want to do something big you can also open your cloud kitchen. If you wish to enter the food industry then cloud kitchen is one of the best ways to start. If the quality of your food is good then you’ll be able to earn profits. You can also open E-commerce stores. But opening an E-commerce store is not that easy as we think. So, firstly it’s better to understand how to start an e-commerce business and what kind of difficulties you will face.
Build a distribution channel
Facebook and Instagram have democratized distribution but the users of these apps are so huge that you can easily make your own distribution channel. You can make a Facebook page or group, Instagram page or YouTube channel to build a distribution channel. Through this, you can build your own community with one specific interest. You can share quotes on that particular interest and you’ll get money for advertising and affiliate marketing. You must have seen the different meme pages on Instagram and Facebook. As they grow they make their own website. Inshorts which is a famous news aggregator app started as a Facebook page and now everyone knows the scale at which it works. You can build your own local community and then diversify.
These are the six methods by which you can start a business without any investment. You may start from any method and eventually incorporate other methods as well. If you start selling your knowledge next you can sell your experience and skills too. This will help in developing your personality and you’ll be able to sell products, make a good distribution channel and then develop it into a huge empire.
