5 proven tips on starting a business with no money

Starting a business can be intimidating for anyone, and money should not hinder you from getting started.

There is a lot of advice, support networks, and services to help you in your self-employment journey. Here are some tips, with advice from ETC’s Business Advisor, Shannon.

1. Find the right support service

When you first start your own business, you’ll likely be labelled as a “sole trader”. Don’t let this term scare you into thinking you’re on your own! The small business community is collaborative and there are numerous services available to you to lend support. When you’re exploring your business, here are some support services you can consider:

Self-Employment Assistance

Workforce Australia – Self-Employment Assistance helps people start successful small businesses with government funding and support. Through the program, you may receive access to:

• Exploring Self-Employment Workshops – A one-week workshop designed to assist you to understand what’s involved in starting a business.
• Business Plan Development – Tailored, expert, one-on-one advice to help you develop a business plan and decide if self-employment is right for you.
• Small Business Training – Accredited qualifications in Business.
• Small Business Coaching.
• Business Advice Sessions.
• Business Health Checks.
• Income Support for up to 39 weeks (Eligibility Criteria applies).
• Rental Assistance for up to 26 weeks (Eligibility Criteria applies).

The kind of support offered through this program is often a significant expense many small business owners incur by purchasing advice from private business coaches. The ability to jump into a government-funded program is a great way to get started with professional advice without breaking the bank.

Shannon, one of ETC’s Business Advisors with experience operating his own business and mentoring small and startup businesses, said this; “Having run five businesses myself, I know what it’s like to face financial constraints and the fear of failure. My journey has been a rollercoaster ride, with both successes and failures, but it has taught me valuable lessons about resilience, creativity, and the true essence of entrepreneurship.”

Learn more about Self-Employment Assistance provided by ETC >

Talk to your local chamber of commerce and attend their networking events

We can’t overstate the importance of creating a network of other small businesses that can advise and support you throughout your entire entrepreneurial journey. Your local chamber of commerce acts as a hub to all things local business.

You can find a national chamber at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry or search for your local chamber online. Subscribe to their newsletters to stay in the loop with all the latest events in your area.

2. Make to order before you invest in inventory

If you’re unaware of a made-to-order style business, it’s pretty self-explanatory. Rather than investing in high inventory costs of bulk quantities of your product before you receive a purchase, you make your product as the order comes in. There are some key benefits of approaching your product supply in this way:

• It significantly cuts out one of the most significant initial expenses: investing in Inventory.
• It allows your business to receive cash flow before expense rather than the other way around, which can help in the first few months.
• It can help you to test the market and generate valuable feedback from your customers on a product before investing in a bulk supply down the line.

This is not to say that this method is superior to investing in a bulk supply of inventory in the long term. You will find that approaching your business as made-to-order will increase the per-unit cost of your product, and that does come with sacrifices, whether that is an increase in your price or a need to use lower-quality materials. You will also find that your turnaround time is longer than if you had a bulk supply ready. The method works best for:

• Clothing lines – many publicly accessible suppliers can make your designs and ship them directly to your customer without excessive turnaround time.
• Handmade products – If you are making handmade goods yourself, you can likely benefit from making them to order without excessively increasing outright costs. However, you will likely suffer from longer turnaround.
• Perishable goods – If your product is perishable in some way, such as a food product, you can benefit from make-to-order and avoid risk of your product spoiling without making a sale.

In summary, the made-to-order method isn’t intended as a long-term solution, but if you have a product and can’t afford to invest the time and money into creating it in bulk, you can make some short-term sacrifices in quality or price to penetrate the market and start some initial cash flow.

3. Identify a Niche and Offer Value

When starting your business, a common trap is entering a business with the mindset “Everyone is a potential customer”. Although technically correct, this approach encourages businesses to make generic products and promotions without targeting a specific audience to stand out. Identifying a niche offers a variety of advantages:

• To save money, focus on a smaller range of products or services. Targeting products to a niche audience will often yield better returns than spreading yourself thin over a larger variety.
• You avoid competition. The more competitive your business is, the more you’ll need to spend on advertising to attract customers from existing competitors. There is no reason your business can’t expand down the line to compete with others, however your early costs will skyrocket if you’re trying to enter an overly competitive market out of the gate.
• You create loyal customers. Customers who feel as if they are offered a personalised and niche product or service, that they can’t find elsewhere, will be more likely to follow your business in the long term and offer continued support to your ventures.

“I built a loyal customer base and steadily grew my business, Focus on what you can offer that others can’t, and use your creativity and expertise to carve out a place in the market,” said Shannon.

4. Be willing to learn

Starting a business may tempt you to spend money on hiring someone for website creation or social media management. However, it is possible to avoid these expenses.

There are many great platforms that allow you to build a website with limited web design knowledge, and there are a tonne of free tutorials all over YouTube to get you started.

Learn how to build your website yourself. WordPress is the world’s largest website builder and offers intuitive options for making sales and generating an audience. You can get started for free and start paying down the line when your business will start benefitting from the paid features like access to custom domain names.

Learn how to utilise SEO and Keywords. Once you’ve learnt how to build your website, your next step is to learn all about the world of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). SEO is all about getting your website featured on the front page of a search engine when people are searching for things related to your business.

This is achieved by having your website filled with valuable keywords, links and content that a search engine will automatically read and rank you on in order to decide where you will be featured on a Search. Try this SEO Basics blog by Semrush to get started; it’s an ongoing skill that you will need to hone over time, but learning how SEO works will result in a completely free way to improve traffic to your site.

5. Time is your greatest resource

The reality of owning a business is that saving initial costs often needs to come at the sacrifice of an increased investment of your time; time is money after all. Whether you are spending time networking, doing market research or learning skills yourself to avoid outsourcing, you’re spending time away from the core operation of your business.

This may seem counter-intuitive to the rest of the tips mentioned, but it is to stress the point that there is no such thing as a sure-fire strategy to start a business, every single entrepreneur’s journey is going to be different.

These tips are helpful and have been proven to work in many situations. However, you may not have time to implement them all. Instead, it is up to you to assess when and where is right for your business to take this advice on board.

“Starting a business with no money is undoubtedly challenging, but it’s not impossible. My personal journey is a testament to the fact that success comes from hard work, creativity, determination, and good time management, not just from having deep pockets,” said Shannon.

“Embrace your limitations, focus on offering unique value, and be willing to take calculated risks. Remember, every successful entrepreneur started somewhere, and their journeys were often filled with struggles and setbacks. So, if you have a passion for your idea and the willingness to work hard, go for it! The sky’s the limit!”

Workforce Australia – Self-Employment Assistance

 Self-Employment Assistance provides a range of services for current and aspiring business owners.

Find out more >