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If you have decided to start your own business, most probably, you do not have much money, but we are sure that you've got a number of questions, problems, doubts and fears. We have compiled a list of the greatest pieces of advice on how to start a business without vast investments. No doubt, you will find them useful.

Basic Principles

There are two main principles of starting any business by people who do not have much money:

• Do almost everything yourself, spending your time.
• Do not be in a hurry to spend money until your business starts bringing profit.

The following pieces of advice will help you to launch your business and make it successful.

Choosing the Right Business

Try to find an urgent need and then satisfy it. This old formula has been working for thousands of years. If you walk along a street in a hot day and cannot buy a soda anywhere, you know what business will be profitable in this place.

Analyzing the Market

If you like your business idea, it does not necessarily mean that you will get a number of customers who will want to buy you products or services.

Never rely on your assumptions, but always research the market. You should talk to you potential clients in order to know if they are really interested in what you are going to suggest them.

Writing to blogs will help you to test your business ideas. Just pat attention to what people write in comments.


Planning

A business plan¹ is obligatory if you are looking for investors, but it would do no harm to you even if you start a business on your own.

Specify your objectives, paths of development, and a general roadmap. Of course, you will change your business plan eventually, when you get more information about the market, but anyway it will be very useful from the very beginning.

Eliminating Expenses

Do you really need an office? Or can you work at home? There are many ways to meet your clients in other places, like restaurants, hotel lobbies, etc.

Hire employees only if you cannot go without them. Do everything yourself.

Forget about lawyers. You can find necessary legal documents in the Internet. What is more, there are many websites, where you can get free lawyer advice. Don't pay for what you can get free of charge.

Making a Business Website

We hope you understand that you need a website. It is an indispensable condition for every business in the modern world.

You can begin with a free website at wordpress.com if your funds are too limited. But it will be better to buy a cheap domain name and hosting. Try to use the most important keyword in the domain name.

There are hundreds of beautiful free Wordpress themes that can be installed by any person. You do not have to be a professional programmer to do it. Just read instructions carefully.

Create several pages on your website, including About, Testimonial, Contact, etc.

Do not forget that you are creating a website for a business, so its design must be appropriate.

Getting Free Website Traffic

• Learn the basics of SEO².
• Choose the right keywords, which will bring you customers.
• Write several good articles with links to you website and try to post them on popular resources.
• Try Google Adwords programs.
• Post your videos on YouTube.
• Register your group in most popular social networks.

In fact, there are very many ways of getting free traffic, though many of them require much time.


Learning from Others

You can always find people who have already conducted the business that you want to start and who will share their experiences with you gladly. Look for them on specialized websites, attend conferences and webinars, sign up for training courses, get free books, read interesting blogs, etc. Never stop learning from people who know how to start a business better than you.

Creating Your Logo

Brand building specialists will tell you that it is necessary to entrust them with the important mission of creating your logo, choosing corporate style, etc. But for starters, you can make the logo by yourself, using services like LogoYes. Many world-known logos were created by amateurs (read the story of Apple logo).

Producing Information Products

There are many ways of making info products without anybody's help. You can find free templates of e-books, presentations, and ads; shoot educational videos using regular webcams, etc. This way you will save a lot of money.

Dealing with Mistakes

Do not let mistakes to demoralize you. Every successful person made a great number of mistakes, learnt a lot from them and moved on.

Good Luck!

Some more ideas on how to start a business you will find in the following video.

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