How to Start Your Own Business With Little or No Money, Part 1

Many people long to own their own business, but don’t know how to get started. Thanks to the Internet, many people are now able to start their own business and work from home, using the assets that they already have.

If you are eager to start your own business, but think you can’t because you haven’t got a lot of spare cash, here are some ideas that can help you get started today.

1-Clean out your house, and buy garage sale or eBay items to re-sell them for a profit.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Clean out your house of any old items you no longer use or might already have replaced with a newer model. Why have it cluttering up the house when you can sell it and put that money in the bank or pay off your debts?

Spending Fridays and Saturdays snapping up bargains from garage sales and selling them at flea markets or on eBay can be very lucrative. So can buying items in bulk at wholesale prices from websites or eBay and selling them on your own site or in the Amazon Marketplace. In the past decade or so since Internet shopping has taken off, this has become a profession that provides a full-time living with part-time hours for many people.

You need to know your niche and the prices for things, and what is hot at the moment, to do really well financially. You will also need to know about packaging and shipping rules and have a good customer service mind set in order to get good reviews. The good reviews will help keep repeat customers coming back for more. If you have a particular skill set or in-depth knowledge of a certain topic, known as a niche, you can do well by providing exactly what the people in that niche are eager to buy.

2-Try landscaping.
Landscaping has become a profitable hobby or full-time living for many. If you have a way with plants and an eye for design, you can charge some good professional fees for doing some landscaping. Start with your own garden and those of as many neighbors as possible to get your portfolio going, and then you should be able to start charging competitive rates to new clients.

3-Make money from your hobby.
You can build furniture or decorative items, arts and crafts, create personalized scrapbooks, home-made gifts of all kinds, and so on. If you don’t have a hobby like this, the skills for many of them are easily learned and enjoyable as well. Sell your items at flea markets, on Etsy.com or eBay, or spread the word through friends.

(Continued in Part 2)

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Top Tips on Outsourcing For Your Small Business, Part 2

(Continued from Part 1)

* What to Outsource
The first few things to outsource are:
1. Low-level tasks that take up a lot of time
2. Things that take up a lot of your energy
3. Things that you are not very good at, annoy you, or you dislike

By easing the burden on both your time and energy, you will feel less drained and be better able to tackle the really important challenges in your business.

* When to Outsource

The real answer is as soon as you start your business, but you might not have the cash for that. However, do include it as a built-in part of your business plan. Once you have some cash coming in, go to the freelance marketplaces and fiver.com and see who you can find to lend a hand with certain tasks. You can easily get rid of the bad workers and find some reliable good ones to help you. Just remember that outsourcing should actually make you money, not cost you money.

For example, if your work is ultimately worth $50 an hour but you are spending your time on $10-an-hour tasks, you can hire 4 workers at $10 an hour and still be making a profit, but you will have reduced the value of your time. However, if you can boost the value of your time to $100 an hour because you are free to focus on what you do best, then your outsourcing will more than pay for itself and leave you plenty of profits besides.
* Outsource In All Areas of Your Life the Box

Don’t just outsource things inside your business, but in your personal life as well, to help you become more efficient. You might not like the idea of people ‘waiting on you’, but especially in this economy, think of all the people you can help earn money in gainful employment.
If your time is worth $50 an hour, then by all means pay someone $10 an hour to do your laundry, clean your house, shop for your essentials, and so on. Even if you are only paying your child or spouse, remember that there are many acceptable tax deductions once you own a business.

It might seem like an extraneous expense, but again, every extra hour you can put into your business is more money earned. More money earned means more success for you and your loved one, and more ability to help others.
*Outsourcing Online
Outsourcing online can give you access to people all around the world willing to work to earn money. In this case, you might not outsource ongoing tasks, but small projects. Logo creation, website creation, and other one-off projects can all be running in the background simultaneously while you do other work. You can also outsource ongoing tasks like attending to customer service, virtual assistant tasks and more. See how you spend your time every day and what you can safely hand over to others and free up your time to generate more revenue more rapidly thanks to outsourcing.

FURTHER READING
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR PROFITS THROUGH OUTSOURCING

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