Many would be entrepreneurs think that it takes a lot of money and courage to start a small business. They held back by this belief and wait for the right moment to come. Nothing could be further from truth. Starting a small business on a budget is not only possible, but your fellow business owners and entrepreneurs are doing it every single day. Obviously, you are going to need money, but the question you’ll want to know is how much and, unfortunately, I can’t help you with a figure because every industry is completely different and they all come with a range of different costs. But I can provide you with valuable tips that will help you get there. Continue reading to find out what they are.
Establish the Budget
The very first thing you need to do, aside from establishing what business you want to start up, is to work out how much money you have to spend on the new venture. Take a look at your finances and those of anyone who is entering into the business with you and then see about getting a loan. Even people with poor credit can get quotes and loans from certain companies. Just click here for help with that. So now that you’ve established your budget and you’ve got some money in the bank, how do you ensure you stay within it?
Physical or Virtual
If you’re purely virtual then you will save money on having to have a physical premise as you can work from home, however there are still costs surrounding a virtual business, like web hosting, domain registration and design, and your internet connection. If you do need a physical location, then the same rules apply when trying to find a cheap house or flat.
Equipment
If you were in a young couple and buying a flat together, would you then buy a new bed, sofa, fridge, curtains, etc.? You would probably try to root around and find old ones from family and friends. This is the same case with offices. You don’t want to be buying desks, computers, and chairs when you can probably find a lot of this stuff for free. You should also limit yourself when buying non-essential equipment that might prove useful (despite what this list says, this is the equipment you don’t need). You will have to make do with the bare minimum until you get enough of a profit margin that you can afford nice shiny equipment.
Employees
When starting a business on a small budget, you are going to want to spend as little cash on employees as humanly possible, which means that you are going to have to undertake as much of the work as you can, alone, which will be very difficult and you’ll probably get next to no sleep for those first six months to a year, however it will turn out alright in the end. After putting in all the hard work, you will eventually be able to start hiring people and finally get some sleep. If there are some tasks you just cannot undertake by yourself due to time constraints or lack of expertise, then instead of hiring someone, just find a contractor. They will usually be cheaper; they don’t have to enter into a contract with you and they cut down on loads of time consuming paper work.
And there we have it, help on starting a business on a budget. It is probably harder to start a small business on a budget than a big business, however if you persevere and be patient then you’ll have a massive multi-national conglomerate in no time.
