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The $100 MBA Show
MBA2516 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Start My Business With Zero Dollars
00:18:56
Is it hard to imagine starting your business with zero dollars? Does it feel impossible to ignite a successful venture without an initial capital investment? Think again. This episode is here to walk you through the exact steps needed to launch your dream business without breaking the bank.
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Race the rudders. Raise the sails. Race the sails.
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Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over.
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Roger, wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution? Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title and more. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started today at LinkedIn.com results, terms and conditions apply. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do@mintmobile.com.
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Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees, extra fee, full terms@mintmobile.com foreign hey, welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host Omar Zenholm. And today's episode is Q and A Wednesday where we answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners, one of our subscribers, one of our community members. If you want to ask a question on Q and A Wednesday, you could submit it over on our website at 100mba.netq for question. It's super simple. Today's question is from Adam. And Adam asks how do I start my business with $0? I love this question. I love this question so much because this is a reality for some people. A lot of people don't have a lot of money to get started. I was one of those people. I was coming from teaching. I was a teacher before that. I had some Runway, had some savings, but I didn't have much right. And I pretty much started with $0. So instead of me telling you what to do, I'm going to tell you what I did. I'm going to share my story, I'm going to tell you what happened. But then I'm going to wrap up today's episode with some action steps for you to follow so you can implement and start with $0. But before I get started, did you know that some of the biggest companies in the world started with little to no capital? This is according to a study by Small business trends, over 20% of small businesses start with less than $5,000. And today I'm going to show you how you can start your business with $0. Forget 5,000 $0 by sharing my own story and giving you those action steps for you. Let's get into it. When I left my teaching job and I started my full time business, it was a consulting firm called Business Republic. I was side hustling for 10 years building businesses on the side. And a lot of friends and family were asking me, hey, how do I build a website? How do I create a logo? And. And I knew this is something I could start out with as my full time business because I had a lot of experience helping other people. So that became my first kind of full time career or business as an entrepreneur. So I didn't want to reinvent the wheel. I wanted to do something that I was ready doing to give myself a chance to hit the ground running. So when I created this business, I didn't have much money. I knew that I needed a few first clients to get started. So I started to attend local events. My first client came from attending a local conference. It wasn't a paid event. It was one of those white and cheese mixers. It was a free meetup that I found on meetup.com. at this meetup, I connected with somebody who needed a website. And I landed my first $500 project. Very cheap for building a website and all the time I put into it, but it was my first paid client. I needed the gig and it was a great start. But I quickly realized that I can't keep chasing clients. I have to find a way to get clients for me, somebody who could help me. So at another meetup, at another networking event, I met this guy named Justin Belmont. Justin Belmont, shout out to you, man, you helped me big time. When I was getting started, I really needed that kind of hookup. And I'll tell you what the hookup is, guys. He had a company called Prose Media. It was a writing service that he ran. He would write blog posts for people that need blog posts, articles. And a lot of his clients didn't have blogs. They're like, I want you to write me a bunch of blog articles. And they're like, okay, great, where's your blog where I could post them? And they're like, oh, I don't have one. So when I met him, I said, hey, I create blogs for people on WordPress. I create websites, you know. And I didn't like say, hey, do you need work? He just came to me and said, hey, I actually need somebody who does that, who actually creates blogs. Cause I have a lot of clients that want blog posts and don't have blogs. So he would refer me clients. So they would say, hey, I need a blog. Great. He would refer me, the client. The client would come to my inbox, and I would build them out the website, and it would build out the blog for them. And then he would give me the blog post to populate that website. And big shout out to Justin because he never asked me for commission or kickback or anything. He was just happy that I was able to service customers, and he really helped me when I was getting started. So shout out to Justin Belmont if you're watching. With a steady stream of clients I was getting from Justin, I was able to reinvest the revenue I was making and build my own website. And I was then able to get some referrals from my past clients. So I had, like, by this point, five or six clients. And I would reach out to them and say, who are three people that, you know, that might, you know, enjoy a service like mine, Right? Who need a service like mine? Mind you, it's really important to word it that way. Who do you know? Not do you know? Who do you know? Makes them think about, who do I know? And it's good to put a number, like, who are three people that, you know that could benefit from my service or need my service or would like to work with me, whatever you want to phrase it, but who is a good kind of keyword to get referrals? Anyway, I started to reinvest in myself and in my business by going to bigger budget conferences, bigger events. At the time, I was going to Las Vegas for these conferences. There were, like, blogging conferences, things like that. And this allowed me to scale my business further because I met other clients and other partners that can refer me to clients. I want to stop here for a second, because when I share the story with some people, they think, well, Omar, you got lucky. You know, you met Justin and he gave you all these clients. And I want to say something about that, okay? I didn't feel lucky at the time, scraping together money so I could start my business, you know, struggling, you know, to make rent. That was my reality in New York at the time, right? I didn't feel lucky. But you have to do things to kick up dust and create your own luck, right? They say luck is when preparation and opportunity meet. Well, you got to get. Get out there. The reason why this even happened in the first place is not because I was sitting in my apartment moping around. Got out. I went to events. There were free events. But I just decided I need to do something. I gotta meet people. I Gotta talk to people. Worst case scenario, I'll learn. I'll learn something. I'll hear a story or two. I'll be entertained. I'll have some cheese. Whatever. The point here is that you gotta kick up dust. You gotta do things and create your own luck. You can't just sit down and do nothing. Now if you feel like, hey, Omar, I'm an introvert. I don't really enjoy, you know, going to meetups. It's not my thing. Totally understand. But guess what? Part of business is doing things you don't feel like. Part of business is changing who you are. Part of business is doing things that put you out of your comfort zone. If we were going to just be comfortable all day long, we wouldn't get anything done. Okay? So I'm going to ask you if this is something that you don't look forward to. I totally understand. I hear you. But you're going to thank yourself for doing that by getting out there, meeting people. You don't have to talk to everybody, but talk to a few people. Maybe your one goal is like, I'm going to go to a local meetup this weekend and I'm going to talk to two people and I'm going to get their contact. That's it. Two people and I'm out. All right? And then you could build up from that 2 to 3, to 4, to 5, to 10, to. It's fine. I can go to big conferences and I can network. The point here I'm making here is that you need to do things, okay? That's what business is all about, is actually doing one thing after another. And when you don't have any business, you guess what, you have a lot of time, okay? And when you have a lot of time, you can start to meet people. Start working on your elevator pitch when you meet people and talk to them, work on how you describe yourself and what you do. Get familiar with your own voice and feel comfortable as an entrepreneur. In the beginning, you don't really feel comfortable talking about your business because you haven't done it before. You're maybe in a career for years. Like I was, right? So you want to get comfortable with that. And I am so thankful I did that because it allowed me to get out of my comfort zone, allowed me to meet people, allowed me to realize, oh, there's business out there. I just need to go out and get it right. There are people that need. What I do right at the time was building websites, and I was like, I can help people with my service. They're out there. It's not like there's no customers out there. There's no business out there, but it's just not going to come to your front door. You need to go out there and get it. So let's break down the steps I took and how you could apply them to start your business with $0. Okay, number one, attend free networking events. You should go to meetup.com, go on Google, and Google any local events in your industry, e commerce business, podcasting, YouTube, whatever it might be. I guarantee, unless you live in a very rural area, you will find a meetup. Now, even if you're in a rural area, you will find a forum, you'll find a Reddit group, you will find people on X dot and you could find some threads. You can network people virtually on Zoom. There are all these things you can do. And if you can, if you can move to a city that makes this easier for you. Okay, I know that sounds really drastic, but I moved. I moved to New York City because I knew that that's where people chase their dreams. I have a dream. I want to go there. You have to go to New York. You don't have to go to any major city that's expensive and uproot your whole family and things like that. Like I'm saying, you could do it from where you are, but if you can change your location if you're up, that's going to make things a little bit easier for you. So I attended these conferences, I attended these meetups, some local, some outside my area, some international. Once I was able to reinvest in myself and I was able to meet people that can introduce me to other people I can meet, maybe direct clients or people that know clients or know somebody that can help me. By the way, a lot of people ask you, how do you get your first customers for your software company, Webinar Ninja? Your software product, Webinar Ninja? Uh, we had 250 beta users. How do we get them? Well, I went to this conference in Vegas called New Media Expo. I met some amazing people there. I made friends with them. And then when I was launching Webinar Ninja, I emailed them and I said, hey, I'm launching this new thing. If you think it's cool and you think your audience would like it, can you include it in your newsletter? Can you give me a shout out on Twitter at the time or Facebook? And some did it and some didn't do it, but many of them did. Many of them didn't do it. But many of them did. They actually put a little line at the end of their email newsletter every week, or they put it in their blog, or they tweeted it out. And it helped me tremendously get those first users. And it was all because I met them in person in an event. Number two, tap into your existing network. If you can't go to a meetup or a conference or something like that immediately, I'm sure you have friends that might be interested in what you do. They could be online friends, they could be offline friends, they could be family members. Let them know about your new business. Ask if they need your service or if they know somebody who does. Right. Many of my initial projects came from friends and family who knew I was good at building websites and logos. They just were curious about what I was doing. I'm not afraid to take money from friends and family. I know that sounds a little bit strange, but listen, here's the truth. If you can't sell your product or service to a friend or a family member, you definitely can't sell it to a stranger. Because they are not biased. Right? Friends and family are biased. They like you. They want to see you succeed. Okay? And they might even force themselves to buy it. So if you can't sell something to a friend or family, then you need to really think about, is this product worth being out there in the world? You know, so it's a good kind of warmup before you talk to strangers. Number three, form strategic partnerships. Partner with complimentary businesses that already have the customers that you want. Instead of trying to chase down customers, find people that already have your customers and create some sort of relationship. Just like I talked about with Prose Media, the writing service that my New York friend and neighbor, by the way, he was just living a couple streets down the road. I didn't even know that Justin Belmont. So Justin had the clients I needed already, and I was just able to build websites for him. I wasn't competitive to him. I was actually helping him fulfill his service and service customers. So if you sell T shirts, do you know anybody that's in fashion or fashion design consultants or is a private shopper for people? You have some really beautiful iPhone cases that look really cool. Why don't you go to your local phone shop and ask them, hey, would you stock my phone cases? You sell iPhones already? Look at this beautiful case. Check it out. If you like it, how about we put a display in your store, try it for a month, see how it goes. If you like it, this is how much I'd like to kind of give you for allowing me to have my display. You got to get out there and make things happen.
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Race the rudders. Raise the sails. Race the sails.
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Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over.
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Roger, wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution? Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title and more. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started today@LinkedIn.com Roger. Results, terms and conditions apply. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try.
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@Mintmobile.Com Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month. Required intro rate first 3 months only. Then full price plan, taxes and fees extra. See full terms@mintmobile.com number four. Offer value first. See if you can provide some sort of value to your customers in exchange for referrals. I knew when I was getting started that I needed to use the customers I had already to get more customers. So I had to ask my customers for referrals, right? And we used that question, who do you know? Or who are the three people you know that would need my service or can use my service? But what I did also is in the beginning when we were negotiating price, I would say, okay, this is the project. Let's say for example, the project was $5,000. I will do the project for you for $4,000 on the condition that you give me three referrals. Now that discount means something to them. They're like, okay, I can save a thousand bucks if I refer them three people. Yeah, Let me think about who would use my service. Actually, my cousin told me that they're starting a website. Maybe they need some design. Oh, actually so and so is doing a new design label. They need a logo, maybe they can use his. So then all they had to do is just give me some real referrals. People that they know that would be interested. A warm welcome with email saying, hey, I'm working with Omar. You mentioned to me that you needed a new logo. I think he'd be great for you. And then I'll let you take it from here. And I took it from there. And I would try to close at least one of three. So for every customer I got another customer at least. Number five, use free tools and platforms. My first website was on WordPress. It wasn't even like the self hosted WordPress right that I mentioned in an earlier episode. So use any tools that are free to get started in the beginning and get your first clients maybe with your. With some free platforms like upwork costs you nothing to get started with them or fiverr, they just get a cut of your pay when you get paid from the client. And then lastly, reinvest and scale. The lesson here is to kick up some dust, keep reinvesting and start seeing your revenue as a way to grow your business and not a way for you to spend it. Okay, I know that in the beginning when you don't have much money, you want to take that great gig, that great revenue you made and treat yourself, okay? Treat yourself to something small. Don't spend it all on yourself, spend some on your business. Reinvest back in your business so that you can get a bigger payday and a bigger payday. So reinvest and some things you can reinvest in is like your website, your marketing materials, right? Maybe your design and just making things look better and more professional. Again, go to conferences, go to meetups, paid events where you can be in the room with real important people or movers and shakers in your industry that can one, help you along the way, that you can learn from them whether they're on stage or you're just talking to them over a meal or drinks. And two, you can learn about the industry you're in. You can learn what are some opportunities that you can start to grow. Oh, what are you doing to get clients? Oh, you're on this new website, what is it called? That's how it all works. Sitting at home. You're not going to hear about it. Okay? Go to conferences, go to meetups. If anything that we learned from COVID is that in person connection is so valuable, there's nothing like it. Just to recap again, what are the steps you're going to take? Number one, identify your networking opportunities, the local events, maybe some events around your area, free events. Check out meetup.com, eventbrite. There's all these great sites that you can find, great events in your area, in your industry. Number two, leverage your network, your existing network, your friends and family. Ask them if they know anybody, ask them if they're interested in what you offer. That's what I did, right? Number three, form some partnerships with people, find out who has the customers you need already and See if you can have a relationship where it's not competitive, where you can supplement what they do, even if they get a cut, it's well worth it. You're getting free business. Number four, make sure that you offer great value. Ask for referrals, maybe if you want to offer a discount. So that way you can get those referrals like I mentioned. And number five, use the free tools that are out there. Whether it's WordPress.com or using Upwork to get clients or Fiverr, there are tools out there that you can use just to get the ball rolling. So, as you can see from my own story, starting a business with $0 is possible, right? It's challenging, but it's rewarding. I'm telling you. It teaches you to be resourceful. It teaches you to be creative. You really feel like, I did this, I made it happen, right? Because you didn't have anything to start with. That's what's amazing about entrepreneurship. You create something out of thin air. That's what makes it magic. Okay? So leverage those free events, leverage your opportunities and network. Get to know people. Get comfortable talking about your business and being yourself and forming this new identity as an entrepreneur, right? This is going to allow you to build a great, solid foundation for your business. Reinvest in your business with what you earn from these referrals and the business you get. Continue to reinvest in yourself. Because when you reinvest in yourself by growing, by learning, by going to these events, you become better, you become more valuable, and therefore you can demand more in terms of prices for your business. Thanks so much for tuning in to the $100 MBA show. I hope you found this episode valuable. If you did, why not share it? Share it with a friend that you know, share with somebody. You think you would think it's cool or valuable in any way. Just go ahead and share the link via message. Say, hey, I was thinking of you caught this episode. I think you'd love it. Thanks in advance for doing that. There you have it. Start that business of yours. Even if you have $0, you can do it. I did. I believe in you. I'm rooting for you. If you need any help, you know, you can go to our website, 100- MBA-NET. We got a plethora of tools and resources and worksheets for you to check out. And of course you can just keep on consuming this podcast, right? Keep listening. We have over 2,500 episodes in our podcast archive as well as we're going to be pumping out more and more videos on YouTube. Three videos a week. Can't wait for you to enjoy those. I'll see you in the next one. Take care.
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And we're back, folks. It looks like Jim from sales just got in from his client lunch and he's got receipts. His next meeting is in two minutes.
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The team is asking, can he get.
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Through his expenses in that time? He's going for it. Is that his phone? He's snapping a pic. He's texting Ramp. Jim is fast, but this is unheard of. That's it.
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He's done it.
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It's unbelievable.
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On ramp, expenses are faster than ever. Just submit them with a text. Switch your business to ramp.com.