If you have not read part 1: Low (or no) budget business startup part 1
And part 2: Low (or no) budget business startup Part 2
I would suggest starting there. Part three is going to be handled today, and
this one is titled “Keep it simple!” The
overall premise of this low (or no) budget business startup guide is to show you that
you can get up and running for very little (if any) money out of pocket. I am not saying that this no budget business
would be sustainable throughout all time, but at least you can get running to
build some capital.
Keeping it basic means exactly what it sounds like; don’t overdo
it! We are going to be keeping our
outlay of cash at the beginning as minimal as possible, and sometimes we are
going to have to cut some corners for the short term! IF you plan on focusing on online selling
(ecommerce) to get you started, I would highly recommend looking in to drop
shipping. I am actually writing a drop
shipping guide as well, but unfortunately that is not ready for your eyes
yet! Drop shipping is pretty simple, the
basic premise is:
-Sell an item (you do not have this item on hand)
-Receive payment for the item
-Purchase the item from your drop shipper of choice
-They ship the product to your customer
-Happy customer=profit! (you hope)
I have seen plenty of people try to start with this method
and fail, for various reasons. Some of
the most common reasons are:
-Try to compete on price point right out of the gate. You need to know your profit margins, to know
what to list your item for. If you are
trying to keep up with Company ABC (who is doing $1 million in revenue) from a
price perspective, its just not going to happen. They make it in volume, and heavier wholesale
discounts. This will not work for you,
and you will just end up losing money and being out of the game before you even
started. My goal here is to price myself
somewhere in the middle of the road for the products that I offer. I am typically not the least expensive and I
am never the most expensive. I find that
to be a pretty sweet spot for my business model.
-Sell the wrong products.
This is a tough one, and there is definitely a learning curve. My personal favorite sales platform is Ebay,
which gives you some great tools to find what is selling, and how much it is
selling for. I have seen new business
owners load listings with 1000’s of products, buy tons of equipment, and spend all of the money in the world to
look big and play with the big boys, only to fail because they don’t end up
selling. Do your research!
Keep your over head low!
-Don’t go out and buy the best laptop in the world; use your
personal laptop or buy an inexpensive one to get you started.
-Don’t buy 1,000’s of dollars of inventory before you know
what you will sell, and at what rate it will sell.
-You do not need to subscribe to the latest and greatest
software programs to get started, keep it simple and there are plenty of free
programs out there that work just fine!
-Treat this as an actual business!
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