Today I want to dispel a common myth about starting an online business. I’m not sure where or who started this rumor originally. I’m actually amazed it’s endured this long and is still considered to be a valid excuse for delaying starting your own internet based company.
Sometimes when I talk to friends about money I answer without thinking, “You should start an online business.” Honestly, I don’t know why I even get into it anymore. I’m already sick of hearing the multitude of replies to this answer.
I don’t know how to create a website.
I don’t know what to sell.
I don’t have the time.
I don’t have enough money.
That last excuse is my favorite. If only the people who respond with that knew that I started my online business for virtually nothing. I mean like a couple hundred bucks. Plus if I had it to do all over again I know I could have begun with even less start-up funds.
I guess people think they need massive amounts of cash to get into the online game. Or that they need to be friends with people who are willing to lend them thousands of dollars. Or that they need to get a bank loan.
Whatever the myth, rumor, falsehood is about having enough money to start up an online business, it’s wrong. You simply don’t need to have a lot of money in the bank to get this kind of business going.
That is one of the biggest upsides to starting an online business. Besides it being easy, not taking up a lot of time, you can start this kind of business with only a few bucks in your pocket.
I’ll admit I had some things going for me that helped me start up my business really cheaply. In fact I had five specific things that were invaluable to me in the first few months of business.
1. I worked out of my house. In the beginning I had fears just like you might have. Can I make this business work? Do I know enough to be successful at this? Will I make any money? All those are stressors that make you question your decisions. I took one stressor off my plate right away when I chose to work from home.
By deciding to throw a desk in the corner I said “No thanks” to putting the added weight of paying for an office space. Leasing a space to work out of would have cut hundreds, perhaps thousands of dollars out of my budget. And that is NOT how I wanted to spend my money. With a tight budget I tried to stretch every dollar I had, so I chose to work off a black card table with foldable legs pressed up against the wall for the first year I was in business.
And you know what? No one even knew it. It was easy to conduct business from my home. Web based businesses are perfect for starting out in a corner of your home or spare bedroom. I took business calls while sitting on my couch and wrote advertisements with my laptop laying across my thighs while sitting in bed.
This brings me to the next thing that was really advantageous to me in the beginning.
2. I kept my equipment needs to a minimum. I already owned much of the equipment I needed to run a business. I had a laptop, internet access, a cell phone, and a desk in my possession before I started this business. And I used them once I started my business.
What I didn’t do was go out and purchase a brand new, high speed computer or upgrade my internet access to a T-1 line or buy a smartphone when I started up my business. No. I used the equipment I already had in my house to keep my costs down.
If you have those things (and really the desk is arguable since you can work from any flat surface really) already, don’t go out and purchase new ones. Use what you already have so you can funnel more of your budget to the areas that really need cash flow. Trust me, equipment and a leased office space aren’t where you want to funnel your money to.
I also benefitted immensely by…
3. Not sweating the small stuff. I’ll never forget this one experience I had while speaking at a conference about internet business building. A woman from the crowd came forward and asked me, “What about the taxes?” I remember blinking a few times and staring at her, certain that I hadn’t heard her correctly. Here she was at an event to launch her online business and she was letting her fear of not knowing how to pay taxes hold her back from getting rich. It was unbelievable to me.
You can’t let fears of the unknown hold you back. When I started my business I didn’t know if I should be an Inc, Sole Proprietor, or Corporation. I didn’t know squat about those government born words. But you know what? I didn’t let it stop me from making my first sale. I focused on the things that would make me money and did not sweat the small stuff like that.
There are going to be things that you don’t know what to do about in the beginning stages. In addition to figuring out what type of business you want to be you’ll wonder about banking, hosting, taxes, and whole host of other government, bureaucratic bullshit. Honestly it’s all just red tape. Don’t let your uncertainty shift your focus from making money to making sure every little detail is in place. Those things are not as important as jumping in and getting started.
Know what else I didn’t let faze me, or keep me from making money with my online business…
4. Not letting a lack of products to sell hold me back. When I made the decision to start my own online business I didn’t have the slightest idea what my first product would be. I knew I wanted to teach others how to make money online, but I didn’t know the best way to go about it. I’d heard of e-books, webinars, virtual content and downloads before, but I didn’t have any of that sitting on the side lines just waiting to be sold.
But I didn’t let that faze me.
Instead I sold other people’s products. I emailed other companies that were in the same market as me and asked to become an affiliate. Or I searched through sites like Clickbank.com for products I could sell and make a commission on.
I worked on getting sales and creating some cash flow. Once I had built up some cash reserves from those sales I poured the money back into my business and created some of my own products. I think my first product was an e-book. It cost me nothing to write and only a few bucks to have a designer create a cover and turn it into a PDF format. I think the next product I came up with was an audio file that I recorded on my computer. I only had to buy a microphone, which cost me just a couple bucks.
The point is to jump in, and don’t let something like not having any of your own products hold you back from making a ton of cash. Just focus on making money at first and everything will follow after that.
In addition to not having anything to sell, I also didn’t know jack about HTML, coding, creating a website or possess any of those other technical skills. Which brings me to my next point. I did…
5. Not let a lack of technical skills stop me. I am not in any way shape or form technically skilled. I have never written code, designed a website or anything of the sort on my own. But I sure as heck wasn’t going to let that stop me from becoming wealthy.
There is always a cheap work around for any task you don’t know how to do. Don’t know how to create a website? WordPress offers free templates to help you. Don’t know how to write code? Hire someone who does at rentacoder.com. Can’t figure out how to design a cover for your e-book, seek help from someone who does at elance.com.
When you bought your first house did you know how to fix a leaky faucet or mow the grass? Maybe, maybe not. But you didn’t let those things hold you back from achieving the American Dream did you? No.
Don’t let not being technically savvy hold you back from achieving wealth. What did you do when something like a leaky faucet or an overflowing toilet happened at your home? You figured it out. And that’s exactly what you’ll do in your business. A problem will come your way and you’ll figure out a way to solve it. Nothing is impossible, especially not in an internet business. Honestly if you are going to go into business for yourself, starting an online business has the fewest hurdles to overcome out of any kind of business. You can overcome anything.
You just need to get started. Take hold of every advantage and the money will come.
Good Luck!
Ethan Warrick
