More and more acquaintances are approaching me with the idea of starting a business with no money.
They ask me things like, “Franck, what kind of business can I start?” “How can I find a good business idea?” or “What kind of business should I start?”
The number of people who are unemployed increases day by day, leaving many without financial resources and forcing them to find a way to earn their own income.
In these turbulent times, there are basically only two options to achieve it:
- Or you are lucky enough to find a job, which will probably mean that you will have to give up many of the advantages you had in your last position (accepting a lower salary, fewer social benefits, etc.).
- Or you should invent a job and figure out what business to start.
I see many people who already have some professional experience and who are very lost. They are very valuable people who shouldn’t have so many problems when it comes to creating their own jobs.
This is not related to a lack of technical or business preparation, but to a lack of mental preparation: the ability to take initiative, to believe in oneself, and to take the plunge and start a business.
In today’s post, I’m going to show you what the initial step can be in the genesis of a feasible business project (without resources to launch it) that allows you to generate decent income on the Internet in the medium term.
What businesses can I start without money?
I want to talk to you about a concept featured in the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. In this work, the author tries to understand why some large multinational corporations succeed while their direct competitors, of equal size or strength, do not.
In general terms, the author’s conclusion is that there are 3 spheres that must come together to create a momentum of success in a business project.
What can you do?
On the one hand, you need to have skills. In the case of a company, this means knowledge, technology, manufacturing or sales processes.
If you’ve worked in a specific sector or functional area for 10 or 15 years, there are many things you know a lot about. Make a list of them all, without worrying for now about whether they’re worth anything in the market or not.
What things do you like?
The second sphere is that of the things you really like.
In this book, Jim Collins demonstrated that in absolutely every successful project, there was a management team that was truly passionate, not about management or making more money, but about the products themselves, about helping the people who bought their products or services.
This is the sphere of passion.
And I think there’s a fundamental message here: you’re unemployed, okay, but you hated your job.
So, if you didn’t like your job, now you have a fantastic opportunity to correct this aspect of your life.
And if you’re approaching your forties, it’s a good time to reflect on this and not spend the rest of your life doing things you don’t like.
Start preparing a second list in which you list absolutely all the passions you may have: your hobbies, the things you really like.
In a blog, it’s very important that people perceive not only good content but also that enthusiasm, that joy, that contagious energy that they feel when they enjoy doing what they love.
What do you know about selling?
The third sphere is the ability to sell.
In companies, the goal is quite obvious: to sell products or services and earn money to distribute to shareholders.
In your project as an entrepreneur, you must be very clear that in the short term, there is a need to sell.
I know many people who are technically very competent (excellent writers, designers, or programmers), but have no training or ability in management, marketing, and sales.
If this is your case, what you need to do in the very short term is to get trained.
If you agree with me that the future lies in the digital channel, my recommendation is that you sign up for a course that teaches you how to sell. Then you’ll master these tactics and, at the same time, try to implement what you’re learning in your own project.
You must realize that if you help a group solve important problems, you will always be able to sell professional services to that group.
And if you use a little imagination, you’ll surely be able to sell them physical or digital products too.
Where is your winning project?
At the intersection of these three spheres (skills, passion, and sales ability). When these three universes meet, that’s when projects truly succeed.
Learn to recycle your energy into something new in the market
The idea is to combine passion and skills.
So let’s imagine an expert consultant in change management who wants to reinvent himself, because his passion is psychology, and he is in a process of transformation to become a coach in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).
Instead of continuing with the topic of change management focused on large companies, the focus should shift to exploring change management in the sphere of people.
There are many things that are valid and can be reused. In marketing, we could say that it’s a shift in focus from large corporations to individuals.
I’m not telling you that you have to wipe the slate clean of everything you’ve done in the past. That would be a mistake.
You can be reborn from nothing, but the cost is high.
Imagine you’re a consultant and suddenly you wake up and want to be… I don’t know… a massage therapist, even though you have absolutely no training to be one.
This transformation process will take years because you must approach it seriously, earning a diploma and learning the trade. This is the right path.
If this is what you want, that’s fine by me. Go ahead. However, you’ll have to provide answers to some very complex questions:
- How do I transform myself from consultant to massage therapist over a period of time that may span several years, while living decently and earning at least enough money to pay the bills?
- Can I still live in a big city?
- Where do I find the time to study/learn a new trade?
For this, you will need to design an action plan that takes into account that it will be a long process and that it will not happen overnight.
To achieve this change, one must be aware of the costs involved in this transformation process.
How to start a business with no money?
I assume you’ve done the exercise I asked you to do and that you have a couple of ideas for creating a job. This will be the starting point.
If you lack resources, an online business makes sense.
If you don’t have the money to start your business and your only asset is your time, your enthusiasm, and your knowledge (which is no small thing!), you have no other option than to start your own online business.
Buying a domain, hosting, and setting up a blog will cost you around €60 for 12 months of activity. In fact, in this article, you can see how much it costs to create a blog on a budget that fits your needs.
Starting a business with less money is difficult to achieve.
What strategic approach should you take to your project?
Steer clear of the alluring sirens of online advertising (a news portal that generates revenue through advertising). It’s a highly unlikely business model, especially if you’re new to this.
The idea I propose is super simple:
- Identify a group that has problems in their personal or work life.
- To provide answers to these problems.
That’s all. You’re a sherpa at the service of your readers.
How to start a business with no money, step by step?
If you’re looking for an executive roadmap, here’s one in 5 easy steps:
- Work on your strategic proposal to consolidate your personal brand assets before making it public.
- Set up a blog to gain good visibility on the Internet.
- Selling professional services: 1-on-1 service (requires your presence).
- Selling derivative services (training): Service 1 to N (requires your presence).
- Sell digital products (ebooks or online courses): Products 1 to N (does NOT require your presence).
The advantage is that you end up selling products that can be bought and delivered 24*7*365 in a 100% automated way.
You’ll have a real business, a system that works without you.
It’s not about setting up a self-employment system and working as a freelancer, exchanging an hour of your time for an hourly rate.
1. Find out who your ideal customer is as soon as possible.
Since you’re going to launch a business project, you need to learn how to sell.
It is essential to understand that selling has nothing to do with being pushy and insistent, but rather with understanding who your customers are, what their needs are, and providing answers, presenting the offer, and letting people choose whether it is worthwhile to buy this service or this product from you.
There’s nothing easier than selling once you know who you’re selling to.
7 essential articles to help you position your business:
- Types of Internet businesses exist
- Do you know who your ideal client is?
- How to thoroughly spy on your main competitors?
- Benefits vs. Features
- Customer service is a highly effective differentiating factor
- Your unique value proposition is the DNA of your business
- The bikini strategy
2. Set up your online operations headquarters
You need a lead generation engine: a blog. What will make it work is your content. So, your content should be:
- Originals
- Useful
- Personal
- Focused on the group you are addressing
We’ve all started from scratch at some point. You’re no longer in a position to doubt or be afraid. It’s time to act. Every day you delay, every day you postpone launching your blog, will only make you feel worse.
Stop thinking about things from the past, start building your future today.
5 essential items to help you:
- How to create a blog?
- How to write a blog post?
- How can I increase visits to my blog?
- How to get noticed on social media?
- How to monetize a blog?
3. Make it very clear that you are available to work as a freelancer
It seems obvious, but if you don’t make it clear to your readers that they can hire you as a freelancer, it’s difficult to sell these services.
Your homepage is key to attracting potential customers, but you should also consider that each page of your blog is potentially a landing page where a prospective customer can land for the first time.
So put a huge, highly visible button on ALL your pages that doesn’t require scrolling and says:
“Shall we work together?” or “Services” or “Hire me”.
4 essential articles to help you:
- Advertising is not a good business model
- How to make money online without wasting time
- How to implement the funnel model in your business project?
- Working as a freelancer in Spain
4. Don’t make excuses
You can create a company for less than €100.
Understanding everything this entails is important.
Don’t be intimidated by the Spanish state’s armed robbery of all the crazy people who try to take the initiative and start a business in this country.
As Borja Prieto himself says :
You don’t need anything to start your business, and you should only worry about formalizing your activity when you’re drowning in unpaid invoices. Delay all non-essential payments as much as possible…
And how right he is… Before paying the revolutionary tax, validate your idea with a live prototype.
Ideas on how to make money from scratch
I know that, despite following this process, your mind may not be able to answer the question “What business should I start?”
That won’t be a problem either, since precisely to solve this difficulty, I have written a short guide with 100 proven market niches to start your online adventure.