Entrepreneur and avid explorer of entrepreneurial opportunities. Master of Business Administration & Sigma Beta Delta honours society member.
What Stops Most People From Getting Into Business for Themselves?
Is it a lack of money? No, that's not it! Most of us have some form of a resource at our disposal that we can use to multiply our assets. Do you have a Nikon D5100 DSLR camera sitting on your side table at home? Then what's stopping you from becoming a photographer? Don't you dare say you don't have the skills—those are things you could pick up on YouTube.
The thing that inhibits us from starting a business is a lack of adequate motivation. Good God of Moses, we live in the world's largest economy! You could poop in a bag, label it hot cellulose, tout some organic benefit, and people would line up to buy it. Maybe that's a stretch of the imagination; however, there are actually people who make money flipping other peoples' garbage. Check it out:
Motivated 14-Year-Old Turns The Things That People Throw Away Into Profit
Are You Highly Motivated, Want to Start a Business, But Don't Have The Capital?
If your answer is yes, then these businesses/opportunities may be the perfect fit for getting up and running with little or no cash. They are scalable, and can generate tremendous revenue but will require a decent amount of effort and may also require some skills. I don't want you to be misled or have any illusions that these are going to be 'get rich quick schemes' or cash on delivery tasks. I recommend that you pursue these start-ups while you still have the safety net of a full-time job or a salaried position and it remains as a side gig until you're able to turn your new business into sufficient income to give up your job but not before then. Let's discuss.
1. Affiliate Marketing
Like Amazon, many powerful brands have an affiliate program that allows influencers to promote their products and services to earn a commission
Photo © Angelo Grant
How Easy Is It To Become an Affiliate Marketer?
This is the right hustle for someone who has the finesse to make a sales pitch sound like good advice and the ability to garner a following with their content. Just about anyone can attempt to become a successful affiliate marketer and the only tool required is a cell phone with a data plan or a laptop with internet access. Affiliate marketing is the use of personal influence to get others to buy items you endorse or review, take surveys or some other activity related to a connection made through you. The affiliate marketer is subsequently paid for generating this activity. Blogs, videos, images, and podcasts are all great examples of publications that affiliate marketers can utilize to expand their influence. Some helpful skills in this business would include charisma, creative content generation, and search engine optimization.
I started my journey as an affiliate marketer by building a free website with Google then signing up with Amazon as an affiliate, it was pretty easy to get into their program. I ran Google Ads through AdSense. And later signed up as a publisher with Commission Junction and LinkShare these partnerships allowed me to add product feeds to my website and share links via various social media platforms from some of the world's most notable stores and brands.
Please understand that building a sufficient following that will allow you to be able to produce income from your own website will likely take over a year even if your website offers super-rich content exploding with keywords. However, sites like YouTube for video content and HubPages for articles are platforms that offer an opportunity to be a successful influencer right out the gate.
2. Solve A Popular Problem With An App
Even simple apps that do the simple task can become great income generators.
Screenshot by Angelo Grant of the Changed App from the Google Play store using an android device.
Tech Is The Future, Become an App Creator
The Changed App featured on Shark Tank season 9 episode 20 was developed to round up purchases, accumulate spare change then automatically make payments toward student loans. After just $800 in revenue, the app creators valued their company at a swell of $1.6 million and managed to attract the investment of billionaire Mark Cuban who seeded $250,000 for 25 per cent equity.
Building an app for computers, businesses, Android or iOS can be life-changing for the creator and its users. Apps tend to either entertain, educate and or improve the overall quality of life and there is a wave of investors seeking to invest in the next life-changing app. To become an app creator requires more than just a creative idea you’ll need technical skills. However, outsystems.com and several other DIY mobile app creation platforms are opened source and offer free tutorials.
Even though I haven't created an app as yet it is something I hope to get around to in the next few years. I have seen apps that simply complied and featured YouTube videos on a specific topic such as affiliate marketing or muscle building workouts rake in passive income which makes the effort worthwhile.
3. Become a Social Media Guru Like Tai Lopez
365 Deals Co. is a project I'm currently working on it involves building a community around the concepts of frugal living and personal finance.
A social media guru can take the form of a tutor or manager of social media. There are thousands of 'mom-and-pop' stores, small business and even government agencies that would like to have a strong social media presence but don’t want to be bothered with the nuisance of interacting on the various platform. Therefore, they will pay someone to do it for them. According to payscale.com (2018), a Social Media Manager average salary is about $49,010. An interesting way of scaling this business is to create courses for those clients that would like to purchase your know-how. This can be done with platforms such as Teachable and Udemy.
Some helpful knowledge in this field includes content creation, optimizing paid advertising for keywords, social media setup, and management tools.
4. A Small Commission Selling Big Ticket Items Can Provide a Rewarding Career
Real Estate Agents earn a commission for representing buyers or sellers in a transaction.
Photo © Angelo Grant
Real Estate Agent: A Small Investment for a Lifetime of Opportunities
One of the attractive elements of being a real estate agent is the ability to be your own boss and determine your own hours. It can also be very lucrative depending on your market as well as your ability to land clients. For under $1,000 and 100 hours of training, you’ll have the education and licensing to go make about 3.5% commission on every house bought or sold. According to payscale.com (2018), the average real estate agent makes about $46,724 per year.
Do it to Gain Financial Independence or to Increase Your Income
A healthy number of banks offer zero-interest credit cards for 12-15 months. This is a good method of funding small investments like the education necessary to become a real estate agent.
5. Launch a Web Store: As Easy As Setting Up a Lemonade Stand
Photo shows a T-shirt I personally designed with Photoshop and launched through Amazon Merch for sale in the Amazon marketplace.
Photo © Angelo Grant
Yes, It's That Easy!
Once upon a time getting into retail required a storefront or going door to door with brochures. Now, it is far less capital intensive and much less personal. Entrepreneurs can launch a web store completely stocked with a fully functional shopping cart and a payment system in place all within a couple of hours or less depending on your prowess. There are several well-established platforms that allow entrepreneurs to expedite the process of store ownership a lot of them are free including Amazon where you can get into the high margin business of selling merchandise even by simply uploading designs. They take care of the materials, printing, customer service and you reap the royalties. Other platforms. for example, Shopify will get you set up on some of your favourite social media platforms where you can list merchandise that will ship directly from a wholesaler all you have to focus on is building your brand and acquiring customers. Platforms that charge a fee typically come with a trial period.
No More Excuses!
These five unique opportunities show how much the landscape of starting a business has changed and why entrepreneurs can easily overcome the obstacle of having no money to start a business. Whether an entrepreneur has the capital to purchase an emerging business outright or starting up with no cash there is still risk associated with any venture. Emerging businesses as well as, the opportunities listed can take time to become successful and may fail for several months to turn out sufficient or dependable revenue. But you have nothing to lose and everything to gain especially if the time you will invest in these opportunities would have been spent languishing. Why spend your time aimlessly when you could invest that time in changing your life for the better?
No more excuses!
"Excuses are like armpits, we all have them and they all stink"
— Anonymous
If you're still shakey about getting started in business I've embedded a video below of four young men who each explain how they stumbled into the different ways they have managed to become entrepreneurs. It will inspire you to see how young they started and how little they started with as well as how long it took for them to achieve their level of success.
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