Thursday 6 September 2012

How to Start a Business with No Money

          How to Start a Business with No Money

1.            Make the decision to start your own business

No one wakes up and opens a business; you must first make up your mind and prepare yourself for the challenges of the business world. Now why Do You Want to Become an Entrepreneur? How do you know if starting a business is for you? You can begin by checking your present financial status. Most people come to me asking me how to become a millionaire fast; but i laugh and tell them i don’t know. Starting a business to become a millionaire is not a good enough reason to do it.
Are you contented with where you are now? Are you in control of your financial future? Are you tired of your job and want to quit? Do you have brilliant small business ideas within you? These questions will help you decide if to start a business or not. But whatever your reason for starting a business; make sure that it is strong enough to propel you through the several business challenges you will encounter. The resources below will help you further strengthen your decision making process.

2.            Develop your mindset

After you have made up your mind to be an entrepreneur; the next step to starting a small business is to develop your mindset and toughen your skin against competition and challenges of building a business. To succeed in business, you need to possess the mindset of the likes of Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, etc. The resources below will help you develop the entrepreneurial mindset.

3.            Sharpen your business skills

The next step after getting in the right shape of mind is to sharpen your entrepreneurial skills. “Skill” and “competence” is what separate the successful entrepreneurs from the mediocre. Without having the right business skills, forget about becoming an entrepreneur. Example of business skills you need include selling skill, accounting skill, leadership skill, negotiation skill, etc. The resources below will help you sharpen your entrepreneurial skills.

4.            Create a business idea or find a business opportunity

The idea is the foundation on which any business is built. It could be a service or a product idea but it needs to be solid and should solve a problem. Over time, i have shared a lot of ideas on this blog ranging from green business ideas, entrepreneurial ideas and social entrepreneurship ideas. The resources below will help you develop brilliant startup business ideas fast.

5.            Conduct feasibility study

The world is filled with brilliant million dollar ideas; but the world lack brilliant entrepreneurs. Most business die without getting off the drawing board; they never cross the idea development stage. Now how do you differentiate a winning small business idea from a dead one? How do you decide if a business opportunity is worth pursuing or not? Conducting feasibility study was how I came up with this list of business ideas in Nigeria and business opportunities in Nigeria. The resources below will help you filter and screen your ideas.

6.            Write a business plan

Most entrepreneurs don’t know how to write a business plan; so they launch their businesses without a plan. You can keep yourself ahead of others by writing a business plan for your idea. But you shouldn’t allow the process of making a business plan result to analysis paralysis and hinder your launch. Remember that in business and investing, timing is everything. The resources below will practically show you how to write a business plan.

       How to Start a Small Business with No Money

7.            Raise capital

One of the most critical challenges entrepreneurs face is how to raise capital and unfortunately, raising capital is the primary task of an entrepreneur because without it; even the best of ideas will not survive. To succeed in business, you must learn how to raise startup seed capital from family and friends, raise money from your customers and suppliers. You must also learn how to raise capital from Venture Capitalists and angel investors; and also know how to obtain start up business loans

8.            Find a business coach

No matter how hard you study and try, you will never know it all and that’s why you need business coaches, advisors or mentors. They will help you avoid some deadly mistakes that most startups make in their early stage. You can learn how to find a good business coach from this famous entrepreneurs list.

9.            Incorporate your business

Most businesses operate as sole proprietorships, general partnership and limited partnerships. But if you are really serious about building a solid business that can grow without you, then you must incorporate your business. The resources below will be of tremendous help to you.

10.          Start your business

If you can diligently follow step 1 to 12; then you are set to launch your business. At this stage, you can choose to start a home based business and work from home or open a business within a corporate district. The resources below will walk you through the details of starting a business with or without money.

11.          Build a business team

Business is a team sport, so also is investing. One untold reason why most businesses stay small and fail after five years is because they are competing against well organized businesses with strong management team. If you plan to build a big business, then you need your own business team. Here’s a tip on How to Build a Strong Business Management Team from Scratch

12.          Grow your business

At this stage, you must have mastered how to start a small business with no money, so your business is now on a roller coaster. All I can do now is tell you How to Run a successful Business on a lean budget and wish you the best of luck because at this stage, you must have gained some experience and our mission is complete. We have taken you from a novice and nurtured you into a successful entrepreneur.

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