Four Easy Steps to Starting a Business With Little Money

by bhuber
Entrepreneurs start businesses every day without having a lot of money for operations. They rely upon making money by focusing on creating happy customers with sales of a good service or product. The best small business startups keep costs low and get their corporations launched with minimal capital.
Step one is to remember that a little money can go a long way. Many big companies started as home-based businesses. With today’s means of communicating, a service business seldom has face-to-face meetings. In fact, most clients don’t want to meet because they can’t spare the time. Order fulfillment services allow a product-oriented small business to contract for shipment of merchandise. There’s no need for a small operator to maintain a warehouse.
You can bring together colleagues as well as meet with customers or suppliers by utilizing temporary office space. In most metropolitan areas, there are providers of office space by the day or even by the hour. These facilities also include technology infrastructure such as Wi-Fi Internet and telephones.
Step two is learning to do things on your own instead of hiring an expert. Develop your own advertising; create your own website; maintain your own bookkeeping; prepare your own tax return. You may have to first locate some experts for initial help. But they will gladly direct you to resources for getting started. They often don’t charge anything because they know you don’t have enough money – yet. They hope you’ll succeed in business and eventually need to hire them to perform services you’ll no longer have time to complete yourself.
Step three is using suppliers who will ship orders to you on credit. If you need a piece of equipment, find a seller who will finance it for you. When you need inventory for resale, find a supplier who gives you 30 days to pay for it. You can even make arrangements for payment terms with office supplies. In fact, by obtaining the private-label credit cards of some office supply stores, you get a big discount on your first order.
Step four is to keep a lean workforce. Don’t hire someone to answer your phone and perform the filing when you can do that yourself. At some point, you’ll probably need to add employees. But that only occurs when absolutely necessary to keep the business operating smoothly.