Starting a business is the dream of many people: they love the idea of being able to work for themselves and make something out of nothing. It is a worthy dream, and for those who are successful, it truly can be the best thing they have ever decided to do.
However, if you only have a very small amount of money, to begin with, that dream may seem like an impossible one. That may not be the case in reality; there are ways to start a business on a small budget, and here are some of them.
Choose Something You Know
It can be an exciting idea to start a business doing something entirely different to what you have always known, but it can also be expensive.
You’ll need to invest in training, for example, to ensure that you can offer a good service. Or you might have to employ experts earlier than you intended.
The cost of employing people is a huge one, and isn’t something that all businesses can handle, especially at the start.
Finally, if you aren’t sure of what you are doing, you can easily make a mistake, and that could mean you have to start a project all over again (which costs money), or your reputation could suffer meaning you don’t get enough business.
Do As Much As You Can
Having the money to outsource as much as possible is ideal, but if that money isn’t available at the start, you will need to try to do as much as you possibly can so that your business can launch and get started.
Sometimes the only way to make enough money to outsource the tasks that you don’t want to do or aren’t confident in just to get started and save the money from your profits.
It could mean you need to learn all kinds of new things in a short amount of time, from marketing to design to accounting. If all goes well, though, you won’t have to worry about these parts of the business for long.
If you find that you absolutely cannot do some tasks that are required in your business, then it is best to find freelancers who can help you as this is a lot cheaper than employing people on a full-time basis. Doing so could help you save money.
Work From Home
One of the biggest expenses for any business, big or small, new or established, is office space.
Renting, or perhaps even buying, a premise is something that most business owners will consider in the beginning, but if you can work from home instead, you will save a huge amount of money and can, therefore, start your business sooner.
If you are very keen to work from an office away from your home, this is something you can work up to in the future once your monthly income is enough to cover the rental or mortgage payments as well as all the utilities.
In the meantime, it makes a lot more sense to work from home and not have any additional expense apart from the purchase of office equipment.
Working from home has a number of other advantages as well as saving you money and enabling your business to launch sooner.
Working from home often means that people are more productive, and they can work more flexible hours too.
Buy Used
Whatever type of business you are starting, you are going to need equipment in order to run it.
When you make a list of everything you need and add up all the costs, it can be rather surprising that it comes to so much, and your budget may not cover it.
Rather than getting into debt right at the start and borrowing money in order to pay for all the things you need, your best solution is actually to buy used. You can buy used construction trailer or computing equipment.
You can buy used manufacturing equipment, office furniture, and vehicles. Quite simply: anything you need for your business can be bought used.
Buying used doesn’t mean settling for second best, however. Many used items have hardly been used at all, and some might even be ex-display models.
Check everything out before you buy it and you’ll be amazed at the money you can save.
Get Referrals
Referrals and word of mouth recommendations are the best way to advertise your business on a budget because they cost hardly anything and can bring many new customers to your door.
It is a great way of advertising as it not only tells lots of people about what you do and the fact that your business exists, but it also shows that you are trustworthy and good to deal with.
After all, no one would recommend a business to their friends and family if they didn’t have a good experience with them themselves.
You might even think about opening up a reward scheme and offering loyalty points or money off discounts every time someone uses your services or recommends a friend.
This can be a great incentive to those who liked working with you but have forgotten (so far) to leave a review or tell anyone about you.
Social Media
You don’t need any money at all to advertise on social media which is why many small (and large) business like to use it.
Of course, you can pay to boost your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram posts, but this is not always necessary, and if you do decide to do it, you will find it is relatively inexpensive compared to other advertising methods.
Social media advertising will only work if your customers are the ones who actually use social media, so carrying out some market research first to ensure you’re focusing on the right people is essential.
To get noticed on social media, you will need to write engaging and interesting posts and interact with people who are commenting on them.
If you can do this, those posts are more likely to be shared around, and this is the best way for your business to gain recognition without you needing to spend any money.