“I can’t start a business because I don’t have the money.”
Does this sound familiar? It does. Because this is you. You’re either a freelancer or someone looking to get into freelancing. You’re number one excuse is usually money. Number two is time. When given money and time, your next excuse is an idea. Today we’re going to focus on money.
How will you finance your business? How will you survive? These are legitimate questions that I’m going to address here.
How the hell can you keep your business expenses low? How can someone totally clueless about saving money manage to keep expenses low?
The obvious answer is that you can start an online business with no money right now. If you do start a business that’s more than a simple blog, below are a few tips to help you keep your expenses low:
Learn how to barter.
Bartering is great for many reasons. You can negotiate the prices, ask for a discount, or you can exchange services. Whatever happened to the old fashioned system? Instead of paying for something in cash, you should try to exchange good or services. This will help you keep your expenses low and hell, you might even have some fun.
Ditch the office space.
Do you really need an office space? Do you need any additional office space? I really don’t think so. Ditch the office space and embrace the nomadic office (any coffee shop in the world).
Know when to DIY and when to outsource.
Doing-it-yourself can save you money. Outsourcing can save you time and stress. There are times where it makes sense to do it all on your own. There are also those occasions where it makes much more sense to just outsource the task so that someone else can figure it all out.
Your job as a freelancer is to know when to do-it-yourself and when to outsource. Doing-it-yourself isn’t always the cheaper option. You can cause yourself more stress and waste lots of time, especially when you’re not talented in one specific area.
Don’t hire anyone.
You don’t need to hire anyone. You don’t need any fancy business cards. You don’t have to hire an account, lawyer, and sales stuff. You can start off solo and keep it at this level for as long as you want.
There seems to be this myth that you need to hire staff to hit it big time. That’s not true. You don’t need to hire anyone. You can save tons of of money by doing most of the work on your own.
That’s how you can keep your business expenses low. Don’t be afraid to start freelancing right now (hint hint).
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Martin, I agree. There is absolutely no reason you need to spend money to start freelancing. Other than $7/mo for hosting your own website, if you’ve got a computer, you can easily start freelancing from home with a few spare hours every night. Once you start making a few bucks you can put them back into the company, but their is little investment required up front. I’m quite surprised that most people don’t think to do it. You just have to put yourself out there!
Right on Geoff. All you need to risk is a few dollars. Nobody has an excuse.