★What is the best business to start with the lowest overhead?
I don't have a lot of money. I also don't have any real skills (i.e. video editor, designer, writer, etc.). What kind of business could I create that wouldn't cost a lot of money?
122 Answers
Andrew Burnett-Thompson, {insert witty self promotion}278 upvotes by Quora User, Edward Liu, Sanjiv Kamate, (more)Loading...
Hey there,
I just got this in my daily digest. I didn't intend to add too long an answer, just to say I had a similar scenario to yours - not a lot of money, but I did have time. Also I have a skill in that I can write software.
In my spare time (before work 5am - 8am, after work 7pm-10pm) I wrote a piece of software which I now sell online called SciChart. I did this with almost zero budget and canvassed to get my first sales before the product was even finished. I released early and got both interest and promise of sales before it was completed, so long as I could add X feature.
... Two years on revenue has grown +25% per quarter every quarter and now has customers in over 40 countries and thousands of end-users worldwide. I have never borrowed or sought investment and have turned a profit each and every month. Many of our customers now say we are 'the best' in the niche and if you read the testimonials (http://www.scichart.com/
Rather than come up with an 'amazing idea which no-one had done before' I took an existing idea which most could not be bothered to do, and I believed could be done better. Granted, I had the expertise to build this software, however I would say it is 90% sweat and 10% skill starting any business. Most don't bother because its really hard, not because they can't, and many do not realize that its not about the idea, but about doing something well that people want (regardless of whether existing companies do similar things).
There was a case study I saw on Mixergy entitled SnapInspect: How To Find A Software Idea And Pre-Sell It Before It’s Built (Without Any Coding Skills Or Capital) – with Sam Ovens
Watch this, it's amazing. This is about a guy that started his own software sales business without having money or technological know-how. This is what he did (the process)
The important point here (similar to my own story) is he sought early feedback to tell him if an idea was viable, he listened to what the customer wanted (and was willing to pay for) and only built it when he had good feedback.
If you create something people want, sales will follow, but your idea of what the customer wants is often very wrong, so actually seek potential customers first!
Hope this helps
So in answer to your Q - home website / software business is the lowest cost business to start up, but requires the most work :-)
I just got this in my daily digest. I didn't intend to add too long an answer, just to say I had a similar scenario to yours - not a lot of money, but I did have time. Also I have a skill in that I can write software.
In my spare time (before work 5am - 8am, after work 7pm-10pm) I wrote a piece of software which I now sell online called SciChart. I did this with almost zero budget and canvassed to get my first sales before the product was even finished. I released early and got both interest and promise of sales before it was completed, so long as I could add X feature.
... Two years on revenue has grown +25% per quarter every quarter and now has customers in over 40 countries and thousands of end-users worldwide. I have never borrowed or sought investment and have turned a profit each and every month. Many of our customers now say we are 'the best' in the niche and if you read the testimonials (http://www.scichart.com/
Rather than come up with an 'amazing idea which no-one had done before' I took an existing idea which most could not be bothered to do, and I believed could be done better. Granted, I had the expertise to build this software, however I would say it is 90% sweat and 10% skill starting any business. Most don't bother because its really hard, not because they can't, and many do not realize that its not about the idea, but about doing something well that people want (regardless of whether existing companies do similar things).
There was a case study I saw on Mixergy entitled SnapInspect: How To Find A Software Idea And Pre-Sell It Before It’s Built (Without Any Coding Skills Or Capital) – with Sam Ovens
Watch this, it's amazing. This is about a guy that started his own software sales business without having money or technological know-how. This is what he did (the process)
- He discounted selling to consumers in a recession and decided to create a business-to-business sales company. He researched job-sites to find which sectors were hiring. The rationale sectors who were hiring in a recession means they have budget to spend
- He canvassed local business in that sector he chose (which was Real-Estate lettings) to ask them "What do you hate about your job?" e.g. what pain points, what did they really not like doing.
- After time a recurrent answer would come back - real estate agents really disliked doing inventories for lettings. This process involved visiting several properties, taking photos, notes, then going back to the office and marrying up photos with notes into an Office doc which would become part of the contract. It was error prone, slow and frustrating work.
- He began to ask if software could help them, e.g. what if there was an iPad app that could do this for them? They of course said yes! He asked them if I build it, would you pay for it? Yes again!
- His next step was to then come up with requirements for this iPad app. I say again he had no techical experience but could design the pages / workflow of the application. He went back to his would-be customers and got their feedback.
- Over time a process of narrowing down the requirements by simply discussing with the customer what their pain point was and what they needed, he actually managed to design an application which was saleable. The next step was genius, he managed to secure several pre-orders from customers, a heavy discount if they committed to buy now. Using this funding he hired a team of developers to build the application.
The important point here (similar to my own story) is he sought early feedback to tell him if an idea was viable, he listened to what the customer wanted (and was willing to pay for) and only built it when he had good feedback.
If you create something people want, sales will follow, but your idea of what the customer wants is often very wrong, so actually seek potential customers first!
Hope this helps
So in answer to your Q - home website / software business is the lowest cost business to start up, but requires the most work :-)
Andrew Bellay, 3-time Founder1.7k upvotes by Haribabu Thilakar, Gva Dharanan, Abbe Diaz, (more)Loading...
I need to be brutally honest here. I typically reject requests to answer questions like this but you (and others) need to hear this. Your question demonstrates that you don't really have a clue, but that's OK as long as you're willing to learn and bust your ass.
The best way to start a business (especially one with low overhead and one that doesn't require a lot of skills) is to cheat.
No, don't cheat, but... C.H.E.A.T.
1) Choices
2) House Advantage
3) Experience
4) Attitude
5) Team
In your specific case - given that you're a recruiter - I'd recommend that you start a recruiting agency on the side. There's no overhead, you simply take a 10-25% cut of first year's salary as a success-fee, you already have many of the skills & experiences that you'd need, and you wouldn't have to quit your day job until you were ready! That's the best business for you to start with the lowest overhead.
1) Choices - Use history, the advice of others, and the experiences you've already had in life to make the smartest decisions possible. Believe it or not, you ultimately choose which games you're going to play in life. Pick a game that you can win at or create one where you can't lose. I noticed that you're a corporate recruiter - can you moonlight in a non-competitive way to get your own recruiting business off the ground?
2) House Advantage - You have resources available to you now - use them. For example, I see that you live in Dallas. Dallas - and much of Texas - has a much stronger economy that the rest of the US right now. How can you leverage that to your benefit? Maybe you can build ties with UTDallas, UTArlington, and other local universities to build a recruiting funnel?
3) Experience - Get out of your comfort zone and try new things that might open new worlds of opportunity for you. Get new experiences while fully leveraging your past ones. You have experience recruiting already. What experiences would you need to gain before you felt comfortable leaving your current job and started working for yourself?
4) Attitude - Recognize that you are in control and that failure is simply a pre-requisite to learning. Stress, fear, anxiety, and most emotions are often times a choice. How can you fail in safe ways while also realizing that failure isn't usually as bad as we fear it will be?
5) Team - The coolest thing about a small business or start-up is that a few bright & hard-working people can come together and literally create value out of thin air. Build the right team around yourself and learn to effectively lead. You'll have both an optimized business where people are reaching their full potential, but also have a fulfilling work-environment that you love to come to every day.
You already have a big team on your side. Think about all of the people who you've interacted with as a recruiter. You have a budding relationship with each of them and it's your choice to either nurture those relationships or not!
In broader terms & so that this answer is useful to other folks: C.H.E.A.T.
Plus: see Mike Driver's (and many other amazing) addition's below!
Check out my other, less snarky, posts here: Meta Style
Follow me here: Andrew Bellay
[EDIT: This is one of the top 100 answers in Quora history!]
[EDIT: I'm seriously blown away - & humbled - by how much attention this answer has gotten. Thank you to everyone for the up-votes, dozens of DMs, comments, and other awesome answers. ...some folks were turned off by my honest approach to a question that can only be summarized as: "What business can I start without any real skills?" (read the question). But as I said in my answer, I feel the need to brutally honest when answering questions like this - but my aim is always to be hard on the issues and softer with the people! Thanks again!]
[EDIT: After nearly 18 months of this question being collapsed - for reasons that escape me - Quora mods have finally made it live again! If you like this answer, pretty please (with sugar on top) share it by clicking the share link below! Thanks, bellay]
The best way to start a business (especially one with low overhead and one that doesn't require a lot of skills) is to cheat.
No, don't cheat, but... C.H.E.A.T.
1) Choices
2) House Advantage
3) Experience
4) Attitude
5) Team
In your specific case - given that you're a recruiter - I'd recommend that you start a recruiting agency on the side. There's no overhead, you simply take a 10-25% cut of first year's salary as a success-fee, you already have many of the skills & experiences that you'd need, and you wouldn't have to quit your day job until you were ready! That's the best business for you to start with the lowest overhead.
1) Choices - Use history, the advice of others, and the experiences you've already had in life to make the smartest decisions possible. Believe it or not, you ultimately choose which games you're going to play in life. Pick a game that you can win at or create one where you can't lose. I noticed that you're a corporate recruiter - can you moonlight in a non-competitive way to get your own recruiting business off the ground?
2) House Advantage - You have resources available to you now - use them. For example, I see that you live in Dallas. Dallas - and much of Texas - has a much stronger economy that the rest of the US right now. How can you leverage that to your benefit? Maybe you can build ties with UTDallas, UTArlington, and other local universities to build a recruiting funnel?
3) Experience - Get out of your comfort zone and try new things that might open new worlds of opportunity for you. Get new experiences while fully leveraging your past ones. You have experience recruiting already. What experiences would you need to gain before you felt comfortable leaving your current job and started working for yourself?
4) Attitude - Recognize that you are in control and that failure is simply a pre-requisite to learning. Stress, fear, anxiety, and most emotions are often times a choice. How can you fail in safe ways while also realizing that failure isn't usually as bad as we fear it will be?
5) Team - The coolest thing about a small business or start-up is that a few bright & hard-working people can come together and literally create value out of thin air. Build the right team around yourself and learn to effectively lead. You'll have both an optimized business where people are reaching their full potential, but also have a fulfilling work-environment that you love to come to every day.
You already have a big team on your side. Think about all of the people who you've interacted with as a recruiter. You have a budding relationship with each of them and it's your choice to either nurture those relationships or not!
In broader terms & so that this answer is useful to other folks: C.H.E.A.T.
1) Choices - This is all about strategy
- Use history, be educated. Life's too short to reinvent the wheel. Use the past as a beacon for your future.
- Know the rules, master the game. Sometimes in life you have to play by the rules (let me know when you defy the rules of gravity…), but you better damn well know what games you're playing and what rules you're playing by. Wherever possible, break the rules or - better yet - redefine the game with the rules in your favor.
- Only you make it happen. Persistence pays off and there are a million examples to prove it. Ask until they say "Yes" or "Fuck off" - put the other person in the position to be the asshole. Find your well and go back often to get a drink and get rejuvenated.
- Stop screwing around and devote yourself. Way too many people are half-committed to things. And I'm not talking about spreading yourself thin - that's another issue. You can have 10 projects and be devoted to each one… You can't be 100% devoted to each one, but you can really be passionate about each one and move each one forward at a reasonable pace.
- Quit your day job (when you're ready). Your day job is so over-rated. It's expensive, tears you down, and it's not even a good investment. You're not learning anything anymore, you're not progressing in the world anymore, you're not having fun, you're not even making that much money. What a shit deal. Quit, put your feet to the fire, grow, learn, and crush life.
- Fail fast through experiments. I believe in chance. I don't believe in luck. We all throw around this luck word all the time and yet only idiots truly believe in it. Stop hoping to get lucky and play the odds in your favor. Stop making bad investments of your time and money and start designing smart experiments to separate good and bad experiments.
- Fake it til you make it. Create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Project your future success and you will be a success. Project your failure and you'll be a failure. You're not always going to have the resources that you need at your finger tips. Beg, barter, and steal what you need to be a success. Put yourself in a position where you have no choice but to succeed.
2) House Advantage - Stack the cards in your favor
- Money, Time & Energy. Your time and energy are your most scare resources. When working, have a process in place to first make decisions and then execute on them. Focus on high-leverage, high-ROI, effective activities.
- Maintaining & Gaining Perspective. Get mentors, get peers, get mentees, practice being creative.
- Leverage What You Have To Get More. You're building something on your existing foundation. Ask for help. Find people who will buy-in to your vision (you need to craft a vision first…) & partner with them. Your time is a great currency to buy other things (not money) with.
3) Experience - Get all you can
- Knowledge As An Experience Substitute. Borrow and Steal from everyone else - Read the top 2-3 books in each field of interest, network with people who know things you don't (relative experts),
- Fail Fast Through Agressive Experimentation. There’s honestly not much more to say here.
- Fake It Until You Make It. Do things you're not qualified to do.
4) Attitude - Be all that you can be
- Everything Is A Learning Opportunity. Change your attitude: Everything is a learning opportunity. Write - when you write you start processing experiences in new ways and actually learning from them.
- Persistance And Confidence. Be ego-less & learn to make smart decisions. Define go/no-go points for ALL projects so that you don't over do it. Teach yourself decision analysis.
- Execution Is Everything. practice executing; pick your top three priorities of the week; make tiny goals; divide the tasks ruthlessly into the next actionable step; execute, measure, improve; Dread List (change tires, change health insurance, sell some stuff on Craigslist…); 1) write it down, 2) keep it in front of you 3) id metrics, establish go/no-go points, execute, stick with them.
5) Team - People are the best and worst of life
- Network Building. Its not what you know, its who you know; People, Relationships, and Networks are everything; You are not squeezing enough out of your network, because you don't have the right tools.
- Incentives Are Everything. Always remember incentives for yourself and for others… starting with Basic Needs; When someone isn't acting according to plan, review their incentives; Alter them by making them more time-relevant; Build in the tightest feedback loops possible.
- Learn To Negotiate. Separate people from principles, don't bargain for positions, get emotions on the table if you have to, state interests, brainstorm solutions, etcetc; None of this is possible if your attitude sucks so fix that first. Go take a walk, have a drink, punch a wall, call you mom, dad, mentor, or trusted friend, whatever you need to do to 1) calm down and 2) gain perspective on the issue.
Plus: see Mike Driver's (and many other amazing) addition's below!
Check out my other, less snarky, posts here: Meta Style
Follow me here: Andrew Bellay
[EDIT: This is one of the top 100 answers in Quora history!]
[EDIT: I'm seriously blown away - & humbled - by how much attention this answer has gotten. Thank you to everyone for the up-votes, dozens of DMs, comments, and other awesome answers. ...some folks were turned off by my honest approach to a question that can only be summarized as: "What business can I start without any real skills?" (read the question). But as I said in my answer, I feel the need to brutally honest when answering questions like this - but my aim is always to be hard on the issues and softer with the people! Thanks again!]
[EDIT: After nearly 18 months of this question being collapsed - for reasons that escape me - Quora mods have finally made it live again! If you like this answer, pretty please (with sugar on top) share it by clicking the share link below! Thanks, bellay]
Clayton Hockenbery, Enjoying the journey19 upvotes by Richard Eby, Dylan Wilson, Quora User, (more)Loading...
What I did to start my first business was to just walk into places and ask for work. I was 10 at the time and ended up sweeping the sidewalk in front of a store. I went to the stores on each side of the first one and got them to pay me to do their sidewalk. Eventually I had a whole block of about 8 stores each paying me. Various shop owners would have me do other odd jobs that they paid extra for- wash the car and so forth. Nothing glamourous, but I was making more in two days than I could spend!
A friend of mine started cleaning chimneys. He owned a shop-vac when he started. Now he pulls in about $300,000 per year by hiring people who know about other things, too and he learned from them to clean air ducts, grease traps and such. Again, it's dirty work, but I'll shower numerous times for a quarter milion a year.
My main suggestion is to get out and ask people. I have pulled weeds and mowed lawns for way beyond minimum wage by selling the project instead of my hours of work.
By the way, most millionaires are folks with service businesses. They do pest control, auto mechanics and roofers and similar jobs. They start with the willingness to work and learn a lot as they go.
One of my favorite guys was a ditch-digger for a plumbing company, learned the business and retired with one of the largest pool companies in the state.
Another hero of mine got going with a saw and bicycle. At 16 he wanted to buy a car, could climb trees and was willing to work. He now owns the largest tree service in his local 5 states.
Go for it!
A friend of mine started cleaning chimneys. He owned a shop-vac when he started. Now he pulls in about $300,000 per year by hiring people who know about other things, too and he learned from them to clean air ducts, grease traps and such. Again, it's dirty work, but I'll shower numerous times for a quarter milion a year.
My main suggestion is to get out and ask people. I have pulled weeds and mowed lawns for way beyond minimum wage by selling the project instead of my hours of work.
By the way, most millionaires are folks with service businesses. They do pest control, auto mechanics and roofers and similar jobs. They start with the willingness to work and learn a lot as they go.
One of my favorite guys was a ditch-digger for a plumbing company, learned the business and retired with one of the largest pool companies in the state.
Another hero of mine got going with a saw and bicycle. At 16 he wanted to buy a car, could climb trees and was willing to work. He now owns the largest tree service in his local 5 states.
Go for it!
1. Start a Services business. Do not even think about launching a product. Product development requires money. It sucks your time. Also, after you have invested 6-12 months of your precious time, most products do not sell. You need to do Business Development + spend money on Marketing etc. Long story short.....do not start a product business. Instead, look for services business.
2. Every person has some skills. Dog-walking is a skill. Being a nanny is a skill. You do not have to be technical person to have "skill". Maybe you are good in building relationships: You could provide recruiting services. Find your strength. Thats very important. Once you know your strength, you can find services that can be created based on that strength. Do not try to be what you are not. Think positive, and have perseverance. You will succeed!
2. Every person has some skills. Dog-walking is a skill. Being a nanny is a skill. You do not have to be technical person to have "skill". Maybe you are good in building relationships: You could provide recruiting services. Find your strength. Thats very important. Once you know your strength, you can find services that can be created based on that strength. Do not try to be what you are not. Think positive, and have perseverance. You will succeed!
Edward Liu, Lean Startup Practitioner, Growth Hac... (more) Lean Startup Practitioner, Growth Hacker, SEO White/Black Hat14 upvotes by Richard Eby, Quora User, Quora User, (more)Loading...
1. eCommerce/eBay: You could set up an eCommerce store that does pre-orders - meaning you won't have inventory until you get orders.
Check out http://www.alibaba.com and import some stuff that you think people will need. Many merchants give you free samples that you can check out first, and you can post pictures online first so people can pre-order.
This is really the best way. I know many people who have made a fortune doing this. However, obviously it's a lot of hard work and you need to really know how to market your products.
2. Start a blog on your hobby: Also, you could start a blog focused on your own hobby where there's not too many other blogs writing about. Use Google Keywords Tool and Google to find some good long tail keywords and write articles targeting them.
Then, you can submit your guest post to a more popular blog to get their users to come check out your blog. Once you have more following, you should put up Google Adwords to make some money off that.
Many SEO folks have actually made tens of thousands of dollars per month doing that. That's also the main business of huge companies like Demand Media (eHow, Livestrong, Cracked, etc.).
- If you hobby is related to complimentary products, you can even make a lot of affiliate money by selling these products.
3. English Tutor: There are a lot of people overseas like in Japan that would love to learn English from you.
4. Be a broker of some goods.
5. Be a contractor of SOME skill that you have.
6. Go to http://fiverr.com, http://taskrabbit.com, or http://zaarly.com and help people do tasks to make money.
The truth is that you can learn to do some programming. It's crazily beneficial to do so. This guy learned Ruby on Rails in 1 month: Learning Rails in One Month. If he can do it, you can too.
You can email me if you're more interested in learning about how to do that. ed@startitp.co
If you want to get a better idea how about to start up a business, check out this great guide that helps you get from an idea to growth and funding. StartitUp - Start a Startup.
Check out http://www.alibaba.com and import some stuff that you think people will need. Many merchants give you free samples that you can check out first, and you can post pictures online first so people can pre-order.
This is really the best way. I know many people who have made a fortune doing this. However, obviously it's a lot of hard work and you need to really know how to market your products.
2. Start a blog on your hobby: Also, you could start a blog focused on your own hobby where there's not too many other blogs writing about. Use Google Keywords Tool and Google to find some good long tail keywords and write articles targeting them.
Then, you can submit your guest post to a more popular blog to get their users to come check out your blog. Once you have more following, you should put up Google Adwords to make some money off that.
Many SEO folks have actually made tens of thousands of dollars per month doing that. That's also the main business of huge companies like Demand Media (eHow, Livestrong, Cracked, etc.).
- If you hobby is related to complimentary products, you can even make a lot of affiliate money by selling these products.
3. English Tutor: There are a lot of people overseas like in Japan that would love to learn English from you.
4. Be a broker of some goods.
5. Be a contractor of SOME skill that you have.
6. Go to http://fiverr.com, http://taskrabbit.com, or http://zaarly.com and help people do tasks to make money.
The truth is that you can learn to do some programming. It's crazily beneficial to do so. This guy learned Ruby on Rails in 1 month: Learning Rails in One Month. If he can do it, you can too.
You can email me if you're more interested in learning about how to do that. ed@startitp.co
If you want to get a better idea how about to start up a business, check out this great guide that helps you get from an idea to growth and funding. StartitUp - Start a Startup.
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