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Thinking about starting a business but low on startup funds?
No worries, I’ve got 5 awesome business ideas you can start from home with no out of pocket expense.
If you have always dreamed about starting a business but were held back by the startup capital, you won’t have to wait any longer. Check out these 5 smart ideas to start a business with no money.
How to Start a Business with No Money
You have to pick a service business, first of all. Product businesses are those where you sell products, like home goods, apparel, etc.
Service businesses are where you offer a service, like accounting, bookkeeping, tax prep, graphic design, etc.
Service businesses are ideal to start with no money because you’ll have low or no overhead and no up front service cost.
A lot of service businesses can start just using a laptop and an office.
Check out these ideas to give you some inspiration.
5 Smart Business Ideas to Start with No Money
1. Graphic Design
We mentioned it above. A graphic designer creates beautiful illustrations and designs for others. This could be…
- Website design
- Logo design
- Business card design
- Flyers
- Book cover design
- And, more!
If you are a creative and have knowledge of how to use graphic design software like Adobe Photoshop or even Canva, then you can look at becoming a designer.
Small projects like logo design can range for $50 and up. Larger projects like website design can go upwards of $10,000. There is a lot of flexibility and this is the perfect business to stretch your creative spirit.
2. Copywriter
This is where I got my start. Prior to starting my first product business, I did copywriting. I did it on the side while I worked my primary job and I absolutely loved it! I still do copywriting today. In fact, I’m the head of content for a few companies.
Copywriters create content for others, like:
- White papers
- Blog posts
- Magazine articles
- Product descriptions
- Sales page copy
- And, more!
If you love writing and can follow directions well, you can look into copywriting. Entry level copywriters can charge $.05/word and if you write 50,000 words/month, that’s around $2,500 in income.
This is also a great business to turn into an agency. A content agency will have multiple writers on staff so you can get large orders for content and simply outsource it to your staff.
You can keep freelancers on board, that are paid after the client pays you, and you get a cut of their work.
For example, if you book a $5,000 project, you can outsource to a freelancer and give them half, or $2,500 and you keep the other half. This is a great way to make a lot of money fast. A lot of new agencies that have popped up make money quickly, even from the start.
3. Accountant
If you know accounting, you can help others with the “books.”
You can manage their accounting business throughout the month and do this with multiple companies, making a nice living.
This is for people who are certified in accounting. It’s really not the kind of job that you can self-teach yourself like writing or graphic design, so keep that in mind.
4. HVAC Repair
Do you know how to repair A/C and heating units? A friend of the family does this and he makes a nice living. He loves the freedom and flexibility it gives him. He is out and about fixing HVAC units during the day. He makes his own schedule and the time goes by so fast.
5. Social Media Manager
Get paid to play on social media. I do this too! I absolutely love it because it allows me to help businesses grow on social media. You can grow their social presence, get them followers, and create traffic from social networks back to their business.
This is great for Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and other networks.
If you’ve never done this before, this is the kind of job that you can teach yourself. Or, better yet, take a class on Skillshare! Skillshare offers a library of 20,000+ online courses on everything from French baking to digital marketing to copywriting, learning Spanish and everything inbetwen. It’s only around $10/month and you get unlimited access to the courses. I’m a member!
So get on Skillshare, take a course on social media marketing, practice on your own accounts then start getting clients.
SMMs can charge $1,000/month or more depending on how many networks they manage, per client. Ten clients per month means $10,000/mo.
Final Thoughts
There you go!
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