There may come a time when you feel that you need to quit your nine to five job and start something new, like your own business. It could be that you are bored or unchallenged, or that it simply doesn’t pay enough with no reasonable expectation of more. Whatever the reason, starting your business is possible for just about anyone.
The tricky part is starting when you don’t have a lot of money to your name. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, then taking the leap can seem especially daunting. If things are that tight, then you may need to start saving and wait a bit before getting your business going, but you can still do it.
Here are some of the top tips for starting your business on a tight budget.
Do It from Your Home
One of the biggest costs for any business is leasing space to work. It can be thousands of dollars every month, plus taxes depending on your situation. Working from home is a great solution to prevent this. Not every business can be run out of a home, but if you can make it work, you are already ahead of the game by cutting out one of the largest potential costs – especially when starting your own business.
It has never been easier to work from home. There are dozens of affordable and easy to use software solutions for pretty much any business task. You can do your accounting, sales, marketing, and anything else remotely while still being in touch with your customers and your team.
When Covid-19 forced millions of workers to work from home, the market was flooded with products to make the transition easier. You can take advantage and save some money.
Be Lean When Starting Your Own Business
When starting your own business, there may be all sorts of things you want to buy to invest in your business. However, the best approach when your budget is restricted is to think about every cent that you are going to spend.
Is it going to ultimately serve your customers better? If it’s not serving your customers better, then the question is whether it will help to bring you more customers. If the answer is no to either of those questions, then you should hold off on that purchase.
As you grow your business, you can then start to think about investing in those extras, such as higher quality packaging, training courses for staff, or revamped websites. These are all great things to have, but with a tight budget you simply don’t have the luxury yet.
Being lean also means rationalizing the expenses that you have to have. For instance, you definitely must have insurance, but how much do you need to pay? Some businesses get general policies that may not entirely apply to them.
You can find a tailored professional liability policy that is built for your business sector or business type but doesn’t have the extras that you don’t need. Every year, check over your insurance policy and see if there are things you can change or cut to save money. Do this with all of your regular expenses.
Do What You Can On Your Own
Even if you don’t have money to invest, you do have time to invest, which doesn’t involve taking anything out of your bank account. Take stock of your talents and put them to good use in your business. Do what you can on your own before getting others to do some things for you.
Are you a good accountant? Do your bookkeeping and reporting. Are you great at networking and sales calls? Then you are the sales department.
Whatever you can handle on your own, even if it’s not something that an owner would traditionally do, will save you money. That way you can be as efficient as possible with your talent and planning on what talent you need to hire when first starting your own business.
Outsourcing
Speaking of talent, if you are missing something, then it’s never been easier to get it. Outsourcing is a great way to reduce your staffing budget. In many cases, you might only need a certain task done for a short period of time, or for only a few hours a week. In those situations, it is not practical to go through the process of recruiting and hiring someone to do it.
Outsourcing will give you access to experts who can get started on what you need right away after you give them instructions. Whether you need writing for your website, personal assistant services, bookkeeping, or anything in between, you can outsource and only pay for the hours that are needed.
Start as a Side Gig
This is how many people start their own business. They keep the day job and work on the business in the evenings and on weekends. That way they still have a steady stream of income coming in, so they aren’t hanging off a cliff with no protection.
That said, this can be incredibly hard. You will be working long hours and have to sacrifice socializing and relaxation to make it work when starting your own business.
However, ideally it would be a short-term solution as you build to a point where you can quit your job and run the business full-time. At that point, it will have been well worth it.
Buy Used
There’s no reason for you to pay full price for equipment when you are first starting out. Even if you have to shop a large item across the country, the savings can still be significant. Even small things, like phones and laptops can be refurbished and save big dough.
Unfortunately, there are always companies going out of business that need to sell off assets. You can take advantage of this and get great deals on things you need.
Final Thoughts on Starting Your Owen Business
Starting your own business is hard, and it’s impossible to do without at least a little money to put towards it. However, even if your budget is going to be small, you can still make it work. With these tips, you can get your new venture off and running and build towards the point where you can increase your budget to invest back into the business.