Three Hacks to Build a Business on a Budget

Starting a business is intimating to begin with, but the costs of creating one can be another limiting factor between you and your dream. In fact, Forbes shares that financial limitations can be one of the biggest barriers to starting a business.

But, when we are starting out, we often do not know where to invest.

Too many entrepreneurs jump to outsourcing a tech project or buying loads of inventory before they have even tested the market to see if this business idea has legs.

Today, I want to encourage you that you can test out your business idea with little to no money involved, so that when you are making sales, you can invest your money wisely and where it matters.

Here are three hacks I have found to build a business on a shoestring budget.

Figure Out Your Simplest MVP

MVPs, or minimum viable products, are the simplest way to test your business idea. I mean bare bones, scrappy, and simple.

Instead of building your final product that you think people will love during your first iteration, we want to build something we can test and get feedback on, so we can iterate and then design a product people will truly love.

For example, if your vision is to support women with PCOS via nutrition and fitness and you want to eventually build an app, what could be your first iteration of testing this idea?

I think one of the easiest way you can test this idea would be with a simple Google form for their weekly check ins and old fashion email communicating their nutrition and fitness plans. With these zero cost ways of support, you can test if your methodology is right, before shelling out cash to a software engineer to build a app.

Now, you may say, well my idea is a product... and my response would be the same rules apply. You can test your product idea via mock ups, landing pages, and pre-order forms to see if people will want to buy--all before you get any inventory involved.

Embrace Free and Freemium

There are so many incredible free and freemium tools out there to start up your business, whether you want to build an app or start a consultancy.

I felt like when I was starting out, I did not even know where to look!

When you are on a budget, try before you buy, and leverage the power of really user friendly no-code tools, free trials, and freemium support (Hello free version of Canva!).

(To give you a jumpstart, I created this free guide to Build Your Business with Zero Money. )

Decide on tools with ROI

If/when do have some funds to start out, I recommend every entrepreneur to create and understand their budget.

The worst thing you can do as a business owner is having the "bridal dress" dilemma. You may know the story: the bride falls in love with a wedding dress way over budget and walks home disappointed and empty handed (or waaaay over budget.)

Whether that budget is $50 or $1,000, it is important to know going in what your budget is to test your business idea. Then, once we know the budget, you can create the biggest ROI on your investments.

For example, if you are running a supply chain consultancy business, you may get more ROI on a tool like Zapier to clear your inbox and automate your client processes than maybe something like a marketing and design platform like Canva.

Budget twice, buy once.

How have you hacked your early days of business with a little budget?

If you want to hear more about this topic, check out my podcast episode Building a Business with No Budget .

And, would love to hear how you have started your business with little to no money. Drop your lessons in the comments below.

WHAT TO DO NEXT:

1. Listen or Watch the Everyday Entrepreneurship Podcast where we have talk about the real issues like we talk about here facing REAL entrepreneurs.
2. Book a Business Power Hour so we can deep dive into your current business challenges, design your leanest MVP, and ignite energy, strategy, and insight back into your business.
3. Download the Build Your Business for Zero Money and start building your MVP without dropping a dime.