Starting a business with no capital

It’s one of the very often asked questions at startup events. One of the unique skills of an entrepreneur is to create something with nothing. If you would have capital you would probably become an investor, not an entrepreneur.

One day a young entrepreneur asked me: “But I have to live and eat and I have no savings”. I asked him if he has a car. After answering, yes, an old BMW. I asked him to sell it. He looked at me like I’m from a different planet…. I told him that I sold my drums – which is much harder. He just walked away shaking his head. Recently somebody was much more appreciative. So here is my response:

1. Create a sound plan about your product or service
2. Look for customers who would want to buy it if you already had it
3. Verify your idea based on their feedback
4. Create a website with your plans and describe what you are going to offer
5. Invite people to review and make sure any ordinary customer would
   a) understand, b) get excited and c) wants to buy it when you have it
6. Start a crowdfunding campaign to ‘pre-sell’ your solution
7. You got your first revenue so you can now build what you promised to provide.
8. Do more of what worked well

Obviously there are quite some things to do during the process. I.e. to start with, find a co-founder, register the business and so forth. But I guess you get the idea.

It sounds not easy – but becoming a millionaire is simply speaking not easy. That’s why we have a growing gap between rich and poor. The number of people going for easy and enjoying a 360 degree social and live ensurance just have a hard time to get the extra mile hundred times a day.