No Money to Start a Business? No Problem. Try These 5 Options.

You might be limited to a strict budget when you want to start a business, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have any options. It is possible to start a business with very little money, if you have the right combination of skills, work ethic and marketing know-how.

According to Chris Guillebeau, author of The $100 Startup, “To succeed in a business project, especially one you’re excited about, it helps to think carefully about all the skills you have that could be helpful to others and particularly about the combination of those skills.”

Follow these simple guidelines to start a business when you have little to no money. Learn how to make money today.

1. Make something.

Yes, making something does take an initial cost in supplies, but oftentimes, these products can be sold for many times over their actual cost. What you decide to make is up to you, but there are several places you can sell your handmade options online:

• Abe’s Market deals in natural and organic goods, such as lotions, candles, granola, and more.
• Etsy is one of the largest online markets for almost anything homemade, from jewelry to wooden toys for kids.
• Bonanza is another growing handmade marketplace, similar to Etsy. According to PC World, it boasts over 10 million visits per month.
• eBay is one of the biggest online ecommerce marketplaces in the world, and its streamlined store options, easy checkout through Paypal, and customisable listing options make it a great choice for selling items.
• Many business owners sell their products on multiple platforms to get the most exposure possible. It is important, however, to make sure your inventory stays updated on all sites you have a storefront on. If you want to learn about more resources for selling homemade items, check out this Lifehacker post.

2. Resell something.

If you don’t want to make anything (or you don’t consider yourself a creative person), many business owners have grown large businesses just be reselling products that have already been made. This can be done through a variety of ways or channels:

• Drop shipping: Set up an online store and partner with drop-shipping companies that will do all the order fulfillment for you. Online ecommerce platform Shopify has a great drop shipping guide, and Tim Ferriss does a good job of explaining drop shipping in his well-known book, The Four Hour Work Week.
• Thrift stores and garage sales: If you know where to look, you can find items at thrift stores, antique shops, flea markets and garage sales and resell them online or in your local community for more than you purchased them for. One extremely successful example of this is Sophia Amoruso, the founder of Nasty Gal. Amoruso started buying and reselling vintage and unique fashion pieces on eBay, and her company has grown to a net income of $24 million in 2011 with over 200 employees. Her book, #GIRLBOSS, is in inspiring look into how she got started.

3. Sell your services.

One way to start a business with little to no startup capital is to sell your services, instead of a physical product. There’s a huge variety of services you can offer, depending on your background and interests.

Some will require advanced degrees, such as accounting, while others require little more than a working knowledge of how it’s done (such as babysitting, lawn mowing or personal assistance).

Because you are selling your services, you will need a branding plan to make sure your name and company gets in front of the people who may need the service. Some places that are free for promoting your services include Fiverr, Craigslist, Elance, Taskrabbit and Skillshare.

It’s also useful to have a website to show examples of your work, list your experience, and blog about your industry to draw visitors. If you want to learn more about branding and online marketing, check out Buffer’s social-media blog, Hubspot’s blog, Content Marketing Institute and CopyPress.

4. Barter to get what you need.

Unfortunately, it’s extremely hard to start a business without any type of funds at all. Even creating a freelance-writing business utilising Upwork and a free Wordpress or Wix website will still require a computer to work on as well as Internet. However, there are ways to get supplies you need for starting your business without money.

For instance, if you find yourself in need of a used laptop, try to barter for it. Build a new website for a used electronics supplier, or offer babysitting services to your neighbour for their old Macbook.

5. Utilise low-cost services.

As mentioned previously, you can use sites such as Fiverr or Upwork to advertise your products and services on, but you can also use these platforms to build up your own company. For instance, many designers offer $5 to $25 logo designs (that come with free revisions). Sort by reviews and look at past examples to find a designer or service provider that matches your style.

This is a great way to get branding materials, printed items (Vistaprint and Zazzle are great places to buy personalised items), or other needed items without much cost. And for additional savings, be sure to look for coupon codes on sites such as RetailMeNot before checking out at any online retailer!

Starting a business requires ingenuity and a passion for what you are doing. Once you find yourself doing something you enjoy, you will be more likely to find ways to make it all come together.

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5 Reasons Your Online Business Needs Social Media

Marketing online continues to evolve and grow and these days social media takes a front seat in most online marketing strategies as supports the growth of business. The reasons to use social platforms to engage and reach customers are plentiful; here are 5 of the main ones.

Reason #1: Reach

Why do the managers of these sites spend countless hours planning, posting, testing, and perfecting their platforms presence online?

• There are 3 billion active Internet users and 2.1 billion of them have social media accounts.

• YouTube has more than 1 billion users, more than a 1/3 of all web users. Each and every day web visitors view hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube that generate billions of views.

• Facebook has nearly 1.4 billion users, that's 47% of all Internet users. 4.5 billion Likes are generated daily and nearly 75% of Facebook's revenue comes from mobile advertising. 936 million Facebook users login in at least once daily and 52% of marketers found a customer on Facebook in 2013.

• Twitter has 316 million monthly active users that 500 million tweets each day

• Google+ has 363 million users that hit the +1 button on 5 billion times per day

• Pinterest has 100 million users, 85% of which are women. 47% of Pinterest users purchase a product based on pins, with the average sale being $58.95. 67% of pinned content is from a business site and 82% of Pinterest users would rather follow a brand than a celebrity.

Impressed yet?

These stats are just one reason to use it to market your business that really illustrate the reach that it can have on your business, be it online and brick and mortar. Here are 4 more reasons to make social media a part of your marketing plan.

Reason #2: Building Relationships

Using it allows you to reach people at a more personal level. Many marketing experts explain that social media is about relationships building, that as a side effect brings about conversions for calls to action. When you connect with people and they connect with you, they are more likely to follow your brand and all it has to offer.

Reason #3: Show Off Your Best Content

It allows you to show off your best content, and highlight all your brand has to offer. Whether you use text, images, video, or all of the above, you can tailor your campaign to present and impress your target audience with the very best content, products, and services that your brand has to offer. Tailoring your campaign through social media allows you to meet many objectives, including, building brand reputation, customer engagement, a better customer experience through valuable information and any other goals that meet your marketing needs.

Reason #4: Steady and Reliable Traffic

Who isn't sick of fighting for organic traffic when Google keeps wiping sites off their SERPS with one after another of their ongoing updates? Social media can bring a steady, long term, reliable and ongoing stream of traffic to your sites and blogs, without having to worry that some entity will come along and wipe you out.

Reason #5: Control

One of the greatest benefits of using it is that you have full control of what is presented about your company, brand, and website to your target audience. You can tailor your marketing plan to meet specific goals and not leave anything to chance. The multitude of tracking, and testing tools available, such as, Klout, SumAll, BuzzSumo, and TweetReach, just to name a few allow you to enhance and tweak your campaigns as needed to constantly improve your efforts to boost conversions.

Bottom Line

There is no better time than now to take advantage of all these sites have to offer. If you have an online business and do not have a social media presence then you are behind the times, it's really as simple as that.

There are many expert guides online to get you started, and educating yourself on the intricate process that is social media marketing is critical to your overall success.

There is also the option of hiring a marketing expert. Take care to choose a competent professional, it will not be cheap, but may well be worth it when they bring the results your business needs to succeed.

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How to Start an Internet Business Using the Product Creation Model

If you think that finding a profitable market is difficult, think again. Did you know that using your innate talents, skills and hobbies can help you earn money? Through an Internet business model known as Product Creation, you'll be able to start your own home-based business, increase your income and have fun on the side.

What is Product Creation?

Product creation can be done through several means; one is by selling eBooks. These online books can be about almost anything. With your creative mind and writing skills, you can write instructional, informative eBooks that your readers and maybe even advertising firms can purchase. If you are into trivia, history or current events, your skills can still be useful in writing online books for people to read and purchase.

You can also start creating video and audio training materials and other instructional guides and sell them online. Teasers for each should be posted on your own website and/or social networking sites to entice people to read, watch, listen and purchase your audio or video "books." You can easily find audio book contents online. As a matter of fact, you can even base them on your hobbies, interests and current events.

Selling software can also be a great way to earn a living. If you are into software programming, you can sell your designs over the Internet. You can look for new projects on oDesk and other similar freelancing sites where employers and job seekers meet to find virtual work connections.

How to Start an Internet Business Using the Product Creation Model

Starting this type of business can be achieved by following these three guidelines. These steps will help you create the perfect products to sell online.

Step 1. Invest in your strengths. Create a list of the technical and Internet related skills at which you excel. Next, write down all the things that you enjoy doing, such as baking, writing, blogging or photo editing. If you're good at marketing and developing programs that organize and edit pictures, these skills would help you set up your new internet based business.

Step 2. Narrow down your list and come up with a plan of action to find out your target market. Study the specifics of the line of business you have chosen to find out what level of competition you'll have.

Step 3. Now you have chosen and created the product that you want to sell, it's time to develop a strategy to attract more buyers. One way is to post your products on your own website. You can also offer the articles, programs and tutorials on classified sites such as Craigslist or Gumtree and freelancing sites such as ELance, oDesk and Freelancer. Offer affordable packages for your software and throw in a bunch of freebies as extra enticements if possible.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Product Creation Model

Starting a product creation business can be advantageous because you can get to do the things you're good at and enjoy. Not only will you be able to reach out to many people through an Internet business such as this, you will also be able to hone your skills and get your creative juices flowing at the same time.

Although it is not a guarantee that you will earn money quickly, which is considered as one of the downsides of product creation, earning a lot of money from your sales is possible. You also need to be really good at what you do and should be open to improving your skills to help you continue to generate lots of sales.

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Websites That Pay

Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way. There are all kinds of websites that will pay you for various things, such as shopping, taking surveys or testing products. No, I’m not getting paid to promote any of these and no, these websites won’t make you a millionaire, but they are great for earning some extra cash. I’ll leave out the scams.

Here are some legitimate websites that pay:

• Swagbucks – Swagbucks is great for earning some extra cash. You can do a variety of things to make money, from taking surveys to using their search engine. You won’t get rich, but you will earn a few bucks. If you have the time to kill, you can spend it earning some extra cash, instead of surfing the web.

• InboxDollars – InboxDollars is similar to Swagbucks, since you’re going to be taking surveys, shopping, etc., so if you want to maximise your return, sign up with both websites. They also offer a search engine that pays you (like Swagbucks) and you get $5 just for signing up.  I won’t continue to list survey sites one after another down the list, but if you want to get paid to take surveys, also check out GlobalTestMarket, E-Poll Surveys and Survey Club.

• Project Payday – Project Payday is one of those sites that has testimonials of people who have earned thousands of dollars by getting paid to get trial offers. I’m not saying you’ll earn thousands, but it is legit and you can earn some extra cash. They assume that by paying you to do a free trial, you’ll either like the product and purchase it, or forget to cancel the trial and get charged for it. If you can keep track and cancel before you get charged (if you don’t want the product), then this is a great site for making some money.

• User Testing – User Testing pays $10 a pop for testing websites. A test usually takes about 15-20 minutes. The purpose is for a website owner to watch someone, who is new to their site, try to navigate it. The value that the site owner gets by watching an actual user experience is worth a ton, but $10 isn’t a bad pay-out.

• Fiverr – Fiverr is a great place to make a few bucks or spend a few bucks if you need some of the services people offer. Basically, everything is $5. You either pay $5 or charge $5. They call them “gigs.” You can offer your services however you choose. If you sell art and you’re fine selling pieces for $5 each, that’s a gig. If you’re a graphic designer and you want to offer your services for $10/hour, simply offer a 30 minute gig. If they need two hours of graphic design, they pay you $20, or $10/hour by buying four gigs.

• IZEA – IZEA works in addition to a blog or on its own. You get paid to blog, tweet, take photos and take videos. The pay is mostly based on your following, so if you want to make money with your tweets, you’ll need to grow you Twitter following.  Likewise, if you want to make money with blogs, you’ll need substantial blog traffic (more on blogging below).

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