Can You Really Start A Business for FREE?

Well, technically, yes.

You really can start a business for free.

Anything that you can do for free, someone somewhere will buy. Some people sell cuddles or have garage sales. Others get paid to talk, give advice or send photos. So, yeah, you can start some kind of business for free. But, is that what you are really asking?

When you ask if you can start a business for free, is it because you want to make a quick buck off of nothing, or is it because you want to minimize your initial investments in something?

If your real question sounds more like, “Can I start a business with minimal investment?” then you’ll be happy to know that my answer will still be, “Yes!”

What should I invest in first?

Now that you know you can confidently start your business without going all in on the expenses up front, let’s figure out what investments you should be thinking about first.

You might want to write these down or bookmark this article for later.

Knowledge

It’s fine to let your next move slip here and there to build hype around you starting a business, but until you have some idea of what you are doing, it’s best you don’t take anybody’s money. Luckily, there are free YouTube videos and articles online about how to do essentially everything. So if you first invest in some time to build up your skills, your first fruits will be that much more glorious!

Even if your trade is something that you are already skilled at, it wouldn’t hurt to brush up on what’s trending in your field. Hop on social media and do a search for the general buzz and follow it!

Passion.

If you don’t love what it is you are about to do, why are you doing it?

I know you want to do something that will bring in money, but don’t you want to bring in money doing something you enjoy?

Don’t worry. I know you are here because there is something that you love to do, and you want to make money doing it!

One of the biggest rewards of being passionate about your trade is that your enthusiasm will give you a unique view during your creative process. You won’t just keep mindlessly replicating everyone else’s work, you’ll have the desire to make all of it your own! And who knows, you may end up with a signature style that becomes a name brand one day!

Necessities.

Now that you know what you are going to do, and you are eager to do it, time to stock up on some necessities! What necessities those will be is up to you and what you need for your vision. Do some more research if you still aren’t quite sure, but most things will be obvious. If you want to be a painter, of course you need paint and canvas. If you want to be a baker, you need ingredients, cookware and recipes.

If you can’t afford all of the essentials at once, get some this payday and some next payday, and the next until you are ready to begin. For some trades, you can complete your projects in stages, so get what you need to complete a round of stage ones first. You may decide to photograph the raw pieces and share them to create buzz and get stir up interest in your product. You can actually do this even if you can’t start working just yet by taking pictures of your business supply hauls.

There also may be things that you consider a necessity that other people may not, or vice versa, and that is perfectly fine.

For me, I felt like I 100% needed to purchase a domain. Purchasing a premium website builder wasn’t that big of a deal, but being able to type DavisVirtualSupport.com was big to me, personally. Of course, everybody had their own ideas of what I needed to start with, and at the end of the day, I can respect their experience, but they don’t know my vision. What worked for them may or may not work for me, and that’s why I work for me. So, I don’t have to obey them.

What investments can I put off until I build my client base?

Even though your small purchase of necessities had gotten you a customer or two-or hopefully many-eventually you will need to, or might want to, increase your investments. Here’s a few suggestions, but if your heart or your clients are asking for other things, then those may be the investments needed for your business’s growth!

Marketing.

You may have gotten your first few customers from your social media posts or from word of mouth, but how about expanding your reach? Google ads, business cards, flyers, portfolios, trade shows, etc. The list goes on and on about ways you can spend your money to market your business.

Just an FYI, when you use Vistaprint to purchase business cards, they have an app called mycard that allows you to share a digital copy of your business card so you have something to give to tech savvy clients and classic, something-in-hand clients.

The nice thing about marketing is you can get real creative with your campaign supplies. Whereas you may choose to give out usual business cards or flyers, you can customize your offering to your business. If you are a welder, you may have your logo and website, or number burnt into a piece of metal. If you are a potter, you may paint your info on a ceramic disc. The possibilities only limit is your imagination!

Premium subscription services.

If your business includes any kind of digital component, you may find that some content you need, like images, storage, data processing, and the like are very limited if you don’t pay for it from one place or another. At first it may not seem-or even be-necessary to invest in these services. But as you build up your client base, increase your workload and take on more complex projects, you may find that you can’t put off certain services any longer. You will simply need or desire the benefits they offer.

Even if you have a physical product that you create, you may find that you want a premium website or that some of your supplies need replenishing on a regular basis. You may be able to find companies that allow for recurrent shipments and you can get a restock of supplies right when-or right before-you need them!

Employees.

To be honest, employees, team members, assistants, whatever, should be the last thing you think about investing in because quality help can be the costliest investment of them all. So, if you can keep up with the demand of your clients and go to bed satisfied, then I would not worry about building a team. On the other hand, if you do find things spiraling out of control, hiring someone to do something may be the best investment you could make.

Who you should hire depends on what you need help with. If you are fine all week long, but freak out when it’s time to package and ship orders, you should probably hire someone to help part time. Specifically for that time. If business is booming and you need two or four more hands around the clock, then between family, friends and Facebook, you’re bound to find your next employee! (Make sure you understand everything that goes into hiring your first employee.)

If you find that your books, records, emails and communications are getting neglected due to the need to fulfill orders, you may want to hire a Virtual Assistant, like Davis Virtual Support, to keep your back office spruced up while you focus on what you love! Because I am an independent contractor, you only pay for the time and projects you need!

What if I spend more than I make?

If you avoid ever dipping into the red with your expenses, please start a blog with your tips! But, if you are like most other business owners, your first year or two will look red, or close to it, pretty often. But, it is something that you can manage!

Evaluate your prices.

Odds are you priced your products early on in your business. You were so excited to get your products into hands that you probably took what you calculated you should charge and slashed it.

You didn’t want to charge too much. You wanted to be affordable so you can reach a wider audience. You didn’t know if you could charge that much! I completely understand those feelings. But now you’re selling and your profit isn’t really matching the number of clients or orders you’re getting so you’re thinking about increasing your prices. Should you?

Well, it’s your business.

If you want to raise prices, raise them. Gas isn’t $1 anymore and people buy $30 mascara, so I’m pretty sure you have plenty of wiggle room. Plus, I always look at it like this, my clients got great deals for purchasing from me early on. That’s all there is to it. If they want to, they can continue to support you as you increase the price of your products to reflect their value. Easy, peasy. The real question is how are you going to raise the price?

I’ll tell you this, I do not recommend jumping up a large amount all at once. That may be okay for new clients, but it will cause a murmur in your previous clients. I would recommend raising prices gradually. Say, something like increasing $1 a month for every $5 worth of your product or releasing each new series with a slightly higher price.

Evaluate your costs.

If your costs are outrageous, raising prices alone may not be able to get you out of the red and you can always evaluate costs before raising your prices, but the way you go about it is up to you. You may dread raising prices or you may be 100% opposed to cutting costs or you may find a happy balance of both! Either way, the only way to see which costs should be considered for the chopping block is to keep an income/expense log that will show an accurate view of which investments aren’t returning a profit or could be reduced.

If you aren’t sure which expenses are not profitable and you haven’t kept an income/expense log, consulting an accountant or bookkeeper can give you an idea of where costs can be cut.

Evaluate your expectations.

Everyone starts a business to make money, so when you see you are actually losing money, how do you respond?

If you are depending on the money from your business to make ends meet, or you are just anxious by nature, that negative number in your balance book may be freaking you all the way out! And, to a degree, it should. Let it motivate you to logically evaluate your prices, expenses and expectations. Have you created a goal planner for your business? How many products do you have to sell in a month to cover all expenses? Make that your first goal. Then, your second goal would be how much do you have to sell to make a nice net profit?

Breaking down your business into periods of time, like weeks or months, and breaking down your goals into smaller achievable goals now, allows you to not only make achievable progress but also to have a constant chart to look back on to chart your progress!

Ready for your brand new business?

Now that you know you can start a business without having to cough up cash for all of the required investments at once, are you ready to get started?

Remember, knowledge and passion are free and you really only need the basic essentials to get started. After you increase your clientele and revenue starts pouring in, you may need or want to begin investing in more assets for your business like marketing, software or supply subscriptions, and employees. Even if you end up going overboard on your expenses, you can always reel them back in or raise your prices.

I know starting a business can be crazy/beautiful and you probably have more questions then just if you can start it for free. Don’t ever think you have to figure everything out on your own. There is a whole world wide web out there for you to ask questions, find answers and get help!

And us here at Davis Virtual Support send you hopes of success in your new business!