How to Start a Business If You Don’t have money

 How to Start a Business If You Don’t have money 

I know so many people who wish they could own their businesses, and every single of them thinks money is what is stopping them. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll understand that the reason why most people can’t start their businesses isn’t money. Now, if you wish to start your business but you don’t have money, there are things you have to understand and do. 

No. 1 Understand the position of money in business. Someone once told me that he wanted to start a business, but money is what was stopping him, so I asked him if you want to be a soldier, what do you think you need first, a weapon or the military skills? He answered, “The military skills”. I then explained to him; You see, if you see a 25-year-old man who wants to be a soldier today and give him a rifle and ask him to go to the war front, you can be 100% sure that such a man will not come back. The man who goes to war with weapons but without the military skills will not come back because though he has weapons, he lacks the skills to fight in a war. The same thing happens in the business world. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, if you don’t have the skills and mindset it takes to build a business, you’ll fail, and that’s why most businesses fail. What’s my point here? Don’t overrate the importance of money when it comes to building a business. Ask Yahoo!, Nokia or Blackberry. Ask MySpace or Segway. These were companies with millions and billions of dollars, yet they failed. If money is the most important in building and sustaining a company, Yahoo! Will still be the King of the Internet. If money is the most important thing needed to build a business, Facebook will not kill Myspace. If money is the most important in making a business successful, Blackberry and Nokia would still be relevant today, so don’t overrate the importance of money. Focus instead on building the important skills needed to build and sustain a business. Read tens of books on marketing, learn everything you can learn about leadership, negotiation, human relationship, business system, and cash flow management. If you’ve not read at least 200 books about business, who told you that you can build a business, even with a million dollars? 

No. 2 Connect hungry men with food seller, I have an Agriculture Technology company that connects those who want to start Agricultural business with those who are already in the business, for training and consultancy. We connect the hungry people with the food sellers and get the commission as an intermediary, and this whole operation cost us almost nothing to get started. Get your head thinking, “How can I connect a hungry man with a food seller and get the commission as an intermediary?” If you can connect a seller with a buyer, the seller will be happy for getting a customer, and the buyers will be happy for getting what they want, then you can make money in-between. Countless people have built companies around this cheap model. Some of those companies are today making billions of dollars in annual revenue. Google, Uber, even YouTube are using this model, and you don’t have to be as big as these giant companies before you can do what they did, just as my company’s story shows you. Think. Think. Think. How can you connect the hungry people with the food sellers and make commission along the line? 

No. 3 Start with services, I’ve heard several people saying, “I want to start producing XYZ. I’ll need $200,000 for factory and equipment and &100,000 for office and marketing” When you’re getting started in business and have no money, the best place to look is yourself. Look at the services you can sell. A consultancy service could be started with only your laptop. Other service businesses cost little or no capital. Put your product manufacturing on hold. Brainstorm about a service business you can start, and if you succeed, you can easily start a product business. 

No. 4 Get into partnership Building business is all about learning how to use leverage. In fact, after more than a decade in the business world, I can tell you that the most important word for any entrepreneur is LEVERAGE because, without leverage, there will be no entrepreneurs. You must learn and master how to use what you don’t have. This includes the money you don’t have, the skills you don’t have, or the time you don’t have. If you know how to get and use what you don't have, you can easily get someone who has money to partner with your business idea. This is not always very easy. You must truly be passionate about your vision to endure getting rejected again and again, but it’s what you can do. Don’t tell me it’s impossible because I’ve done this again and again. Don’t tell me that you can’t do it because you're smarter than me. 

No. 5 Master negotiation skills, I traveled to a town in the year 2009 and got my business started there without having money to rent an apartment or to get raw materials as I needed. I got everything I needed by negotiating for it. Yes, it does take a lot of time and ability to endure rejections, but if you’re not stubborn enough to endure a thousand rejections, who told you that you can build a business? Over the last decade, I have got many people to give me their resources, time, and money just by negotiating for it. I sometimes get strangers to give me what I needed just by mastering the art of negotiating. I recommend you read a book by Herb Cohen-title, 'You Can Negotiate Anything' so that you can learn how to get whatever you want from people by negotiating for it. 

No. 6 Focus only on the important business assets, a few weeks ago, one of my protegees came to my office to show me his business plan, which he needed about $25,000 to finance. I looked at his plan and crossed out more than 90% of the things he wrote there. This is a big mistake I see people making trying to get everything right from the beginning. You want to start a business, and you want to start by renting an executive office in the most beautiful street in your country. You want to pay for the most beautiful website and buy everything you think a business needs to run. Well, Google would not have existed if Larry Page and Sergey Brin thought like that. Apple or Facebook would not have existed if Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg thought like that. All these guys got started in their rooms and garages. I started in business with less than 100 dollars. I know you may not believe that, but you see, if you can’t start with whatever you have, you can’t start at all. 

No. 7 Sell your knowledge online. Yes, growing an online presence takes time, but who doesn’t have the time? If you have time to read what your friends write on social media, you have time to write blog posts. If you have time to consume this video, you have time to make a video. So, if you think there are things you know which other people around the world will appreciate reading or watching a video about, go ahead and start a YouTube channel or a blog and start posting. Yes, it takes a lot of time, learning, and patience, but you can do it if you want to do it. 

No. 8 Be willing to crawl spent almost eight years in the business world without any visible results. Those were tough days, but it’s about crawling before walking or running. So many people who want to start a business simply want to fly. Nothing works that way. You must crawl before you’ll walk, walk before you’ll run, and run before you’ll fly. If you don’t have the thick skin needed to go through these stages, I’m sorry, you’re not made to be an entrepreneur. Go, and start with whatever you have. Get started, and do something about your idea every day. Learn, and grow. Be willing to crawl. Endure the walking stage. Understand that it will take time before you can run and even more time before you’ll be able to fly. In short, entrepreneurship is sweet, but not many people are willing to pay the price. If you are a coward, don’t bother yourself. Simply pray and get a good job. 

However, if you care about building a business, I can tell you that not having money is not an excuse not to get started. 

• Don’t overeat the importance of money. Build entrepreneurial skills first. 

• Think about how to connect hungry people with food sellers. Connect people who need a product or service with people who sell such products and make a commission as an intermediary. 

• Start with services because it’s easier and cheaper 

• Get into partnership with someone who has money, this usually requires that you learn how to negotiate with people so, master negotiation skills. 

• Don’t try to buy or pay for everything. Focus on only important business assets.

• Sell your knowledge online 

• Be willing to crawl before, you’ll walk or run. 

• Don’t be deceived. 

Every great thing takes time, hustling, and persistence. If it were that easy, everyone would do it.