MBA2516 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Start My Business With Zero Dollars

0:05Hey, welcome back to the$100 MBA show. I'm your host Omar Zinhome. and today's episode is Q &A Wednesday where we answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners, one of our subscribers, one of our community members. If you wanna ask a question on Q &A Wednesday, you could submit it over on our website at 100mba.net slash Q for question. It's super simple. Today's question is from Adam and Adam asks, how do I start my business with zero dollars? I love this question. I love this question so much because this is a reality for some people. A lot of people don't have a lot of money to get started.

0:43I was one of those people. I was coming from teaching. I was a teacher before that. I had some runway, had some savings, but I didn't have much, right? And I pretty much started with zero dollars. So instead of me telling you what to do, I'm gonna tell you what I did. I'm gonna share my story. I'm gonna tell you what happened, but then I'm gonna wrap up today's episode with some action steps for you to follow so you can implement and start with$0. But before I get started, did you know that some of the biggest companies in the world started with little to no capital? This is according to a study by Small Business Trends.

1:18Over 20 % of small businesses start with less than$5 ,000. And today, I'm going to show you how you can start your business with$0. Forget$5 ,000. $0 by sharing my own story and giving you those action steps for you. Let's get into it. When I left my teaching job and I started my full-time business, it was a consulting firm called Business Republic. I was side hustling for 10 years, building businesses on the side, and a lot of friends and family were asking me, hey, how do I build a website? How do I create a logo? And I knew this is something I could start out with as my full-time business because I had a lot of experience helping other people.

1:57So that became my first kind of full-time career or business as an entrepreneur. So I didn't want to reinvent the wheel. I wanted to do something I was ready doing to give myself a chance to hit the ground running. So when I created this business, I didn't have much money. I knew that I needed a few first clients to get started. So I started to attend local events. My first client came from attending a local conference. It wasn't a paid event. It was one of those white and cheese mixers. It was a free meetup that I found on meetup.com. At this meetup, I connected with somebody who needed a website and I landed my first$500 project, very cheap for building a website and all the time I put into it.

2:38But it was my first paid client. I needed the gig and it was a great start. But I quickly realized that I can't keep chasing clients. I have to find a way to get clients for me, somebody who can help me. So at another meetup, at another networking event, I met this guy named Justin Belmont. Justin Belmont, shout out to you, man. You helped me big time when I was getting started. I really needed that kind of hookup. And I'll tell you what the hookup is, guys. He had a company called Prose Media. It was a writing service that he ran. He would write blog posts for people that need blog posts, articles.

3:14And a lot of his clients didn't have blogs. They're like, I want you to write me a bunch of blog articles. And they're like, okay, great. Where's your blog where I could post them? And they're like, oh, I don't have one. So when I met him, I said, hey, I create blogs for people on WordPress. I create websites. And I didn't like say, hey, do you need work? He just came to me and said, hey, I actually need somebody who does that, who actually creates blogs because I have a lot of clients that want blog posts and don't have blogs. So he would refer me clients. So they would say, hey, I need a blog.

3:46Great. He would refer me the client. The client would come to my inbox and I would build them out the website and it'll build out the blog for them. And then he would give me the blog posts to populate that website. And big shout out to Justin because he never asked me for commission or kickback or anything. He was just happy that I was able to serve his customers and he really helped me when I was getting started. So shout out to Justin Belmont, if you're watching. With a steady stream of clients I was getting from Justin, I was able to reinvest the revenue I was making and build my own website.

4:15And I was then able to get some referrals from my past clients. So I had like, by this point, five or six clients and I would reach out to them and say, who are three people that you know that might, you know, enjoy a service like mine, right? Who need a service like mine? Mind you, it's really important to word it that way. Who do you know? Not do you know. Who do you know makes them think about who do I know? And it's good to put a number like who are three people that you know that could benefit from my service or need my service or would like to work with me, whatever you want to phrase it.

4:49But who is a good kind of keyword to get referrals. Anyway, I started to reinvest in myself and in my business by going to bigger budget conferences, bigger events. At the time, I was going to Las Vegas for these conferences. There were like blogging conferences, things like that. And this allowed me to scale my business further because I met other clients and other partners that can refer me to clients. I want to stop here for a second because when I share the story with some people, they think, well, Omar, you got lucky. You met Justin and he gave you all these clients. And I want to say something about that, okay?

5:23I didn't feel lucky at the time scraping together money so I could start my business, you know, struggling, you know, to make rent. That was my reality in New York at the time, right? I didn't feel lucky. But you have to do things to kick up dust and create your own luck, right? They say luck is when preparation and opportunity meet. Well, you got to get out there. The reason why this even happened in the first place is not because I was sitting in my apartment moping around. I got out. I went to events. There were free events, but I just decided I need to do something. I got to meet people. I got to talk to people.

6:00Worst case scenario, I'll learn. I'll learn something. I'll hear a story or two. I'll be entertained. I'll have some cheese, whatever. The point here is that you got to kick up dust. You got to do things and create your own luck. You can't just sit down and do nothing. Now, if you feel like, hey, Omar, I'm an introvert. I don't really enjoy going to meetups. It's not my thing. Totally understand. But guess what? Part of business is doing things you don't feel like. Part of business is changing who you are. Part of business is doing things that put you out of your comfort zone. If we were going to just be comfortable all day long, we wouldn't get anything done.

6:38Okay? So I'm going to ask you, if this is something that you don't look forward to, I totally understand. I hear you. But you're going to thank yourself for doing that by getting out there, meeting people. You don't have to talk to everybody, but talk to a few people. Maybe your one goal is like, I'm going to go to a local meetup this weekend and I'm going to talk to two people and I'm going to get their contact. That's it. Two people and I'm out. All right. And then you could build up from that two to three to four to five to 10 to it's fine. I can go to big conferences and I can network. The point here I'm making here is that you need to do things.

7:14Okay. That's what business is all about is actually doing one thing after another. And when you don't have any business, guess what? You have a lot of time. Okay. And when you have a lot of time, you can start to meet people, start working on your elevator pitch when you meet people and talk to them, work on how you describe yourself and what you do, get familiar with your own voice and feel comfortable as an entrepreneur. In the beginning, you don't really feel comfortable talking about your business because you haven't done it before. You're maybe in a career for years like I was, right? So you want to get comfortable with that.

7:46and I am so thankful I did that because it allowed me to get in my comfort zone, allowed me to meet people, allowed me to realize, oh, there's business out there. I just need to go out and get it, right? There are people that need what I do, right? At the time I was building websites and I was like, I can help people with my service. They're out there. It's not like there's no customers out there or there's no business out there but it's just not gonna come to your front door. You need to go out there and get it. So let's break down the steps I took at how you could apply them to start your business with zero dollars.

8:17Okay. Number one, attend free networking events. You should go to meetup.com, go on Google and Google any local events in your industry, e-commerce, business, podcasting, YouTube, whatever it might be. I guarantee, unless you live in a very rural area, you will find a meetup. Now, even if you're in a rural area, you will find a forum. You'll find a Reddit group. You will find people on x.com and you could find some threads. You can network with people virtually on Zoom. There are all these things you can do. And if you can, if you can move to a city that makes this easier for you, okay? I know that sounds really drastic, but I moved.

8:59I moved to New York City because I knew that that's where people chase their dreams. I have a dream. I wanna go there. You don't have to go to New York. You don't have to go to any major city that's expensive and uproot your whole family and things like that. Like I'm saying, you could do it from where you are. But if you can change your location, if you're up to that, that's going to make things a little bit easier for you. So I attended these conferences. I attended these meetups, some local, some outside my area, some international, once I was able to reinvest in myself. And I was able to meet people that can introduce me to other people.

9:30I can meet maybe direct clients or people that know clients or know somebody that can help me. By the way, a lot of people ask you, how do you get your first customers for your software company, Webinar Ninja, your software product, Webinar Ninja. We had 250 beta users. How do we get them? Well, I went to this conference in Vegas called New Media Expo. I met some amazing people there. I made friends with them. And then when I was launching Webinar Ninja, I emailed them and I said, hey, I'm launching this new thing. If you think it's cool and you think your audience would like it, can you include it in your newsletter?

10:02Can you give me a shout out on Twitter at the time or Facebook? And some did it and some didn't do it, but many of them did. Many of them didn't do it, but many of them did. They actually put a little line at the end of their email newsletter every week, or they put it in their blog, or they tweeted it out. And it helped me tremendously get those first users. And it was all because I met them in person in an event. Number two, tap into your existing network. If you can't go to a meetup or a conference or something like that immediately, I'm sure you have friends that might be interested in what you do.

10:38They could be online friends. They could be offline friends. It could be family members. Let them know about your new business. Ask if they need your service or if they know somebody who does, right? Many of my initial projects came from friends and family who knew I was good at building websites and logos. They just were curious about what I was doing. I'm not afraid to take money from friends and family. I know that sounds a little bit strange, but listen, here's the truth. If you can't sell your product or service to a friend or a family member, you definitely can't sell to a stranger because they are not biased, right?

11:11Friends of them are biased. They like you. They want to see you succeed, okay? And they might even force themselves to buy it. So if you can't sell something to a friend or family, then you need to really think about, is this product worth being out there in the world, you know? So it's a good kind of warm-up before you talk to strangers. Number three, form strategic partnerships. Partner with complimentary businesses that already have the customers that you want. Instead of trying to chase down customers, find people that already have your customers and create some sort of relationship. Just like I talked about with Prose Media, the writing service that my New York friend and neighbor, by the way, he was just living a couple of streets down the road.

11:50I didn't even know that. Justin Belmont. So Justin had the clients I needed already, and I was just able to build websites for him. I wasn't competitive to him. I was actually helping him fulfill his service and service customers. So if you sell t-shirts, do you know anybody that's in fashion or fashion design consultants or is a private shopper for people? You have some really beautiful iPhone cases that look really cool. Why don't you go to your local phone shop and ask them, hey, would you stock my phone cases? You sell iPhones already. Look at this beautiful case. check it out. If you like it, how about we put a display in your store, try it for a month, see how it goes.

12:31If you like it, this is how much I'd like to kind of give you for allowing me to have my display. You got to get out there and make things happen. Number four, offer value first. See if you can provide some sort of value to your customers in exchange for referrals. I knew when I was getting started that I needed to use the customers I had already to get more customers. So I had to ask my customers for referrals, right? And we use that question, who do you know, or who are the three people you know that would need my service or can use my service? But what I did also is in the beginning, when we were negotiating price, I would say, okay, this is the project.

13:12Let's say, for example, the project was$5 ,000. I will do the project for you for$4 ,000 on the condition that you give me three referrals. Now that discount means something to them. They're like, okay, I can save a thousand bucks if I refer them three people. Yeah. Let me think about who would use my service. Actually, my cousin told me that they're starting a website. Maybe they need some design. Oh, actually, so-and-so is doing a new design label. They need a logo. Maybe they can use his... So then all they had to do is give me some real referrals, people that they know that would be interested, a warm welcome with email saying, hey, I'm working with Omar.

13:50You mentioned to me that you needed a new logo. I think he'd be great for you. And then I'll let you take it from here. And I took it from there. And I would try to close at least one out of three. So for every customer, I got another customer at least. Number five, use free tools and platforms. My first website was on wordpress.com. It wasn't even like the self-hosted WordPress, right? That I mentioned in an earlier episode. So use any tools that are free to get started in the beginning. And get your first clients maybe with some free platforms like Upwork costs you nothing to get started with them or Fiverr.

14:23They just get a cut of your pay when you get paid from the client. And then lastly, reinvest and scale. The lesson here is to kick up some dust, keep reinvesting, and start seeing your revenue as a way to grow your business and not a way for you to spend it. Okay? I know that in the beginning when you don't have much money. You want to take that great gig, that great revenue you made and treat yourself. Okay, treat yourself to something small. Don't spend it all on yourself. Spend some on your business. Reinvest back in your business so that you can get a bigger payday and a bigger payday. So reinvest.

15:02And some things you can reinvest in is like your website, your marketing materials, right? Maybe your design and just making things look better and more professional. Again, go to conferences, go to meetups, paid events where you can be up in the room with real important people or movers and shakers in your industry that can, one, help you along the way that you can learn from them, whether they're on stage or you're just talking to them over a meal or drinks. And two, you can learn about the industry you're in. You can learn what are some opportunities that you can start to grow. Oh, what are you doing to get clients?

15:39Oh, you're on this new website, what is it called? That's how it all works. Sitting at home, you're not going to hear about it. Okay. Go to conferences, go to meetups. If anything that we learned from COVID is that in-person connection is so valuable. There's nothing like it. Just to recap again, what are the steps you're going to take? Number one, identify your networking opportunities, the local events, maybe some events around your area, free events, check out meetup.com, Eventbrite. There's all these great sites that you can find great events in your area, in your industry. Number two, leverage your network, your existing network, your friends and family.

16:17Ask them if they know anybody. Ask them if they're interested in what you offer. That's what I did, right? Number three, form some partnerships with people. Find out who has the customers you need already and see if you can have a relationship where it's not competitive, where you can supplement what they do. Even if they get a cut, it's well worth it. You're getting free business. Number four, make sure that you offer great value. Ask for referrals. Maybe if you want to offer a discount so that way you can get those referrals like I mentioned. And number five, use the free tools that are out there, whether it's WordPress.com or using Upwork to get clients or Fiverr.

16:53There are tools out there that you can use just to get the ball rolling. So as you can see from my own story, starting a business with zero dollars is possible, right? It's challenging, but it's rewarding. I'm telling you, it teaches you to be resourceful. It teaches you to be creative. You really feel like I did this. I made it happen, right? Because you didn't have anything to start with. That's what's amazing about entrepreneurship. You create something out of thin air. That's what makes it magic, okay? So leverage those free events. Leverage your opportunities and network. Get to know people.

17:26get comfortable talking about your business and being yourself and forming this new identity as an entrepreneur, right? This is going to allow you to build a great solid foundation for your business. Reinvest in your business with what you earn from these referrals and the business you get. Continue to reinvest in yourself because when you reinvest in yourself by growing, by learning, by going to these events, you become better, you become more valuable, and therefore you can demand and more in terms of prices for your business. Thanks so much for tuning in to the$100 MBA show. I hope you found this episode valuable.

17:59If you did, why not share it? Share it with a friend that you know. Share it with somebody you think you would think it's cool or valuable in any way. Just go ahead and share the link via message. Say, hey, I was thinking of you. Caught this episode. I think you'd love it. Thanks in advance for doing that. There you have it. Start that business of yours, even if you have$0. You can do it. I did. I believe in you. I'm rooting for you. If you need any help, you know you can go to our website, 100mba.net. We've got a plethora of tools and resources and worksheets for you to check out. And of course, you can just keep on consuming this podcast, right?

18:35Keep listening. We have over 2 ,500 episodes in our podcast archive, as well as we're going to be pumping out more and more videos on YouTube, three videos a week. Can't wait for you to enjoy those. I'll see you in the next one. Take care. We'll be right back.