How to Become an Entrepreneur with No Money or Cash Upfront

Last updated: January 23, 2024

There’s something so magical about becoming an entrepreneur. You’re building something you can call your own, potentially generate endless amounts of money, and eventually sell it for a higher amount than it costs to start with. Building a business isn’t something only the rich can do. Anyone can become an entrepreneur, even without a single dollar invested into the business. Creating a business that doesn’t cost a dime isn’t an easy thing to do. So, in this guide, we’re going to share all the secrets you need to know on how to become an entrepreneur with no money invested.

1. Come up with business ideas for your online business
2. Avoid getting a business loan or business loans
3. Create a one-page business plan
4. Build a website for free
5. Come up with marketing ideas that don’t need cash
6. Use free entrepreneurial resources
7. Network with other entrepreneurs
8. Make money from cold emails
9. Reinvest your profits
10. Keep your business lean as long as you can

How to Become an Entrepreneur With No Money

1. Come up with business ideas for your online business

To build a business with no money invested at all, you’ll need to be strategic about the types of business ideas you can explore. For example, you can’t build a business that requires inventory, as you’ll need to spend your savings to buy it or take out loans. If you need to buy things for your business without money, you can always take on an angel investment. However, you’re giving up a piece of your business early, which will mean you’re giving up a more significant percentage. So, what kind of business ideas can you take on? You can create digital products like online courses, ebooks, membership sites, software, services, or even freelance writing ventures. To build a business for free, you’ll need to create your own products or trade your time for money. Check out these side hustles for introverts for some business ideas.

2. Avoid getting a business loan or business loans

It is possible to start a business with no capital. There’s no need for business loans to set you back or put you deeper in a financial hole. Small businesses get started every day without any loans. You don’t need to borrow money from friends or family. A business loan will have to be repaid even if you don’t generate any sales. All successful startups started from zero. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. You may have to hustle a little harder or find a creative path when you lack money, but it’s not an impossible accomplishment. Before you head to a bank or someone you know to ask for some money, ask yourself if you’re willing to hustle the entrepreneurial way. If you aren’t ready to do that, maybe becoming an entrepreneur isn’t for you. Most entrepreneurs started their businesses from their homes, and they didn’t have a fancy office or anything like that. Instead of borrowing money to “look” like an entrepreneur, put in the hustle to “act” like an entrepreneur. You can accomplish anything, even if you’re short on cash. Every day, entrepreneurs set their eyes on their goals with no upfront capital to make their dreams come true. You can do this too.

3. Create a one-page business plan

Entrepreneurship doesn’t need to be complicated. You can write your entire vision for your business idea on a one-page plan. Your business plan should list who your target audience is, your timeline to achieve your targets, a marketing strategy, the strengths and weaknesses of this opportunity, the viability of your industry, and a financial summary. Listing all the ways you’ll generate money for your business through your business plan helps you focus your business in a direction to ensure you achieve the desired results. It would be best if you had a plan of action for marketing that doesn’t cost any money since you’re starting this business with no capital, so listing advertising won’t make sense for this venture. Your business plan needs to come up with free ways to generate sales for your business, and it needs to be a business idea that can start without any upfront investment.

4. Build a website for free

To be an entrepreneur, you’ll need to have a website. Most website builders charge a monthly subscription, or if they have a free plan, it has limited functionality or features. Fortunately, we knew this was a problem for many entrepreneurs starting out, and we wanted to give them a solution they’ve long awaited. Payhip is a free website builder that charges a 5% transaction fee on your sales. So, if you haven’t made a sale yet, you won’t have to pay a dime. You can design a beautiful website for your services-based business, online course, online store, or whatever small business idea you’ve come up with.

Unlike most website builders, Payhip has special features that allow you to easily sell digital products and services online. For example, if you want to create an online course, you can add various lesson styles, such as quizzes, downloads, surveys, assignments, and more. If you want to create membership sites, you can sell multiple plans, share files, offer a free trial, manage memberships, and more. Payhip is the most beginner-friendly tool you can use when starting without a budget, and you can start selling for your online business from day one.

5. Come up with marketing ideas that don’t need cash

Marketing doesn’t need to cost money. People always say it takes money to make money, but that’s not necessarily true. It’ll take longer to achieve big numbers, but it’s doable. You can build an audience on social media for free. You can write blog posts on your website and drive traffic from Pinterest. Generate demand by speaking at events or conferences (and maybe even getting paid for it). Ask friends or family to refer your business or share your services with their friends. Host a giveaway where you give a complimentary service or consultation. Network with other entrepreneurs at free networking events. Offer a free checklist, guide, or resource as a lead magnet for a higher-tier product. Word-of-mouth marketing can be highly impactful. You can also reach out to journalists about your business. You can market your business for free in many ways without being extravagant. Offer someone the right product or service when needed, and you’ll be well on your way to selling courses, services, or whatever digital product you create.

6. Use free entrepreneurial resources

No matter your business niche, there are so many free resources you can check out online for free. You can use Coursera to find free online courses about business, marketing, and finance. YouTube has an endless sea of free video content, tutorials, and tool hacks you can find to help you learn how to master your career as an entrepreneur and take your success to the next level. You can find subreddits on entrepreneurship and business on Reddit, where you can virtually meet with other entrepreneurs. You can also ask for advice on skills or how to market your digital products, stores, or businesses. If you prefer in-person events, your local library or city center might have free lecture series or business classes to help guide you as you build your new company. You can find free tools like Payhip to build your website, Canva to design graphics, Google Trends to analyze industry trends, Slack for communication, Keep for managing to-do lists, and so on. Most of the education and resources you need to succeed are free, so you don’t need to worry about the rates or costs of free tools. There’s an abundance of high-quality free content available out there that can spark a new idea or help you grow your company.

7. Network with other entrepreneurs

To start free businesses, you’ll need to learn the tricks of the trade from people who’ve done it. Networking with other entrepreneurs can help you figure out how to make more cash without spending too much. You can also reach out to people with marketing director roles to see if you can pick their brains to learn how they’ve accomplished their goals on a small budget or without needing credit cards. When networking with business people, ask them, “How did you bootstrap your business?” “Which marketing activities have you had the most profitable gains from?” “Which skills have you needed the most to achieve your goals?” “Where do you learn most of your skills from?” “How did you get support to help grow your business on a budget?” and “What have you read lately that helped you in your business?”

8. Make money from cold emails

When building businesses from scratch without a budget, sending cold emails will help propel your cash levels. To successfully generate cash from a cold email, you’ll need to offer something to people, such as a free sample (if selling physical products), a free trial or consultation, a free chapter of your ebook, a free first lesson of your online course, or a free printable. Notice how you have to give something to get something back. As long as it’s legal to provide them with one of these things because you’ve created it yourself, you should be able to entice them to at least consider your product. If they like what they get, they’ll come back to purchase. Once you’ve got the sale, you can increase average order value by up-selling or cross-selling.

9. Reinvest your profits

When you start with no money, you need to reinvest your earnings to grow. Don’t pocket your profits in the early days; otherwise, you’ll run out of cash eventually. When reinvesting profits, don’t do anything risky. By risky, we mean putting all your eggs in one basket thoughtlessly. Investing money into stocks and ads when you’ve never done it before requires thought and research. It’s not a put money in and get loads of money back situation. You can lose money– you can lose all of it. If experimenting with other marketing methods, put in a portion of your earnings so that if it doesn’t work out, you haven’t risked much. Alternatively, you can save your money in a high-yield savings account until you have a substantial amount that allows you to test the waters a bit more.

10. Keep your business lean as long as you can

When you start a business with no money, remember to keep your business lean for as long as you can. It will feel like money will never run out when you start seeing it float in; however, that mindset has recently hurt a lot of companies in the tech industry. People kept shouting that this was the new normal when it wasn’t. And eventually, interest rates changed, money started running out, companies were bloated with too many hires, and layoffs were necessary. If you bootstrap your business for as long as you can, save as much as you can, and avoid making expensive financial decisions, you’ll weather financial storms better than your competitors with time. Avoid paying yourself a salary from your business as long as you can, and when you do start paying yourself, put it on the books to keep it legal. If you want a business that continues to grow for years to come, you’ll need to run a lean business in terms of costs but that grows profitably nonetheless.

Conclusion

You can credit your success to building a business the right way (profitably) when starting a business with no money. It’s true that it can take years to build it up to where you hope to grow, but it’s not an impossible accomplishment to achieve. By staying lean, using free tools and products, reinvesting your profits, and finding free marketing channels, you can grow your business profitably with no money. If you’ve been thinking about starting a website, sign up for Payhip’s Free Forever plan where you’ll have no monthly subscriptions and all the benefits of a fantastic website builder.