Starting your own business always sounds like a good idea but still risky, isn’t it?
The business environment has been changed since covid19, which is a big opportunity for startups to enter the market.
Funding was always the first step when thinking about starting a business, but it’s not anymore.
Startup:
You don’t need an office and expensive equipment to go ahead, even big companies are currently working from home which will help you lower your budget by saving an office rent, equipment and salaries.
“Your website is your office and zoom is your meeting room”
Note: some clients will ask to visit you in your office, you can just apologize and advise that your office is currently closed during the pandemic and face to face meetings can be set at the client place.
Your current low budget will help you have very competitive prices for your products or services.
Hint: Sometimes you will find that you can lower your prices to up to 50% than the competitors, but don’t do that, clients will feel that something is wrong, 20% to 30% will be really fine and still very competitive.
It’s easy to have a professional website but it’s not so easy to have a luxury office, so consider your website as your office, never forget that.
Every business should have a portfolio, if you were working for another company in the past, you can add projects you worked on as your work history. If not, consider providing 2 or 3 free or very low prices for one of your products or services. Take care of the quality, this will be your work history!
Hiring:
Start hiring employees based on high commissions, or you can take on freelancers, this guarantees you zero risk.
Note: You can find qualified freelancers on websites like: upwork.com and freelancer.com
Operations:
With your current low budget you will have to do almost 80% of the business yourself; campaign management, sales calls, meetings, presentations and business development.
Act as the job:
Always act as the job, making the sales call as if you are sales representative and not as the managing director etc.
Business development & marketing:
Starting your own business with a low budget doesn’t mean you don’t need the standard business tools like a business plan and swot analysis. Deciding the startup cost will help you determine the perfect growth plan and analyze your business very well. You don’t need classy ads on the highway or tv, nowadays social media ads working better than those expensive ads.
Final advice:
Once your business starts generating revenue and making profit don’t forget to save some money as you will need a future office and everything you didn’t pay for at the start you will pay for later.
