Three Businesses You Can Start With No Money Up Front

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1:31Head to granola.ai slash MBA and get three months free with the code MBA. That's granola.ai slash MBA and get three months free with code MBA. If not having enough money is the thing that's stopping you from starting a business, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is you don't need money to start a business. The bad news is the excuse is officially off the table. Today, I'm going to walk you through three real businesses you could start with no money up front, not low money, not a few hundred dollars, zero dollars. Okay. And these are not theory. These are businesses that I've either built myself or I've seen built successfully over and over again.

2:21Welcome back to the$100 Dollar MBA show. I'm your host, Omar Zinhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to help you start, grow, and scale your business. I got a quick favor to ask. If this show has helped you in any way, leave me a quick review. You could do so wherever you listen to podcasts. This helps me and my team reach even more people who need the same no-fluff practical business advice that you're getting from the show. It only takes a few seconds, but it makes a huge difference. Thanks for being a part of our journey to help others on their journey.

2:58Business number one, the event business. This is one of the most underrated business models on the planet. I'm starting to talk about it more and more because I believe it's one of the best businesses to start if you've never started a business. And it works because of one beautiful thing. You get paid before you spend any money. That's the dream. And here is how it actually works. You sell tickets to an event before you book the venue, the food, the experiences, or any of the logistics. So people buy first and then you use their money to make the event happen. And you can get a lot of things booked or reserved or at least earmarked in the calendar of the venue so you have a date for the event before you even put any money down.

3:42I know this because I've run several events, one day events, three day events, trips, excursions, like five day events in other countries. I've done this over and over again, and I never spend before I receive. I've talked about this in a previous episode, and I want to reinforce it because it's so powerful. An event doesn't have to be massive. It doesn't have to be this huge conference. It could be a dinner. It could be a networking lunch. It could be a mixer. It could be a game night. It could be a day out. It could be a walk. It could be a go-karting night. It doesn't have to be this fully-fledged five-day event.

4:19What you have to understand in this type of business is that you're not selling a venue. You're not selling food. You're not even selling the activities. You're selling a complete experience and access to people, really. And the reason why this business works so well is that cash flow is positive from day one. You collect money up front. That removes 90 % of all the risk. You don't need permission. You don't need certifications. You don't need a license or a big brand. You just need to organize people and basically invite them to a party. What's also great about this type of business is that you build a powerful network fast.

4:51You become the connector and that positions you as an authority and it opens doors. I can tell you right now that as somebody who's run a lot of different events, a lot of people come to me for advice because they just see me as somebody that they can trust because of the events I've run. I'm flattered and everything, but I know the truth is that because they see me as a connector, they see me as somebody that has opened doors for them. Also, what I love about this business model is that it validates a demand. If people buy tickets, you know you're onto something. And if they don't, you can adjust.

5:21This is one of the fastest ways to make money, build an audience, and gain credibility. And it costs nothing to start. I'll give you a real-life example. I ran an event recently called the Crazy Ones Christmas Party. And basically, it's a Christmas party for independent entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs, they don't get to go to a Christmas party. Either they have to throw a Christmas party for their staff, but they don't get to have fun. So I decided to do that for fellow entrepreneurs. Number one, easy to sell tickets because it's fun and people want to have fun and they want to have fun with like-minded people, other entrepreneurs.

5:54Number two, it was so simple to be profitable because I sold tickets before I even needed to put a deposit. I just contacted the venue, which was like this like go-karting fun place that had video games and bowling and go-karting, all that kind of stuff. And I said, hey, I want to book a Christmas party here. This is the day I want to book it for. Can you just hold my reservation for about, you know, 60 days? Because I kind of booked it in advance and there are more than happy to do that. And from there, I just go ahead and sell the tickets to the people that I'm inviting. Now, selling tickets to the sub event is quite easy and you can actually have a pretty good markup and make a good profit because there is more to the event than the actual event itself.

6:35The thing is that the typical person that's going to come to your event, they can't pull this off on their own. They can't curate these people. They can't invite all these people and get them in one place. And that's what makes you different is that you're willing to do that and do all the leg work and contact all these amazing people and create a great vibe and a great connection and a great experience for everybody. And that's really what they're paying for. That event had a profit margin of 120 percent, and it was easy to sell. Now, we gave all that money to charity because that's what our intentions were with that event, but it doesn't change the fact that it's very profitable.

7:07Missed calls and slow follow-ups are silent killers for your business. And that's exactly how businesses leave money on the table without ever realizing. That's why today's episode is brought to you by Quo, spelled Q-U-O, the business communication system built so you never miss a call. With Quo, calls, texts, voicemails, transcripts, the contact details, they're all in one clear view. So your team always has the full picture and can follow up for every customer conversation, ensuring a seamless and more personalized experience. Everyone on your team sees the full thread, replies are faster, and customers actually feel like they're taken care of.

7:46And Quo works wherever you are, right from your phone or computer. Keep your existing phone number, add teammates in minutes, sync your CRM, and let the call routing handle itself as you scale. Money's on the line. Always say hello with Quo. Try Quo for free, plus get 20 % off your first six months when you go to Quo.com slash MBA. That's Q-U-O.com slash MBA. One of the biggest growth hacks is realizing you don't have to do it all yourself. That's how you can scale your business. This is why I'm so excited to have Upwork as a sponsor because I've been using Upwork for over a decade. Why? Because it makes it easy to bring in the right freelancer when you need them so you can stay focused on what you do best.

8:34Upwork is a one-stop shop platform to find, hire, and pay expert freelancers across web and software development, data and analytics, marketing, business operations, and more. I've made some of the best hires in our company through Upwork. I'm talking about people that have changed the trajectory of our entire business. It's free to sign up to Upwork and And posting a job is super simple and easy. Upwork helps grow your business by giving you fast access to specialized talent across 125 categories. It makes it simple for you to just fill in those skill gaps, to launch projects faster, and scale your support up or down without committing to full-time headcount.

9:14And let me tell you about Business Plus. It's a game changer. With Business Plus, you can access the top 1 % of talent on Upwork. And with AI-powered shortlisting, you'll get matched to the right freelancer in under six hours. No endless searching required. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That's Upwork.com to connect with top town ready to help your business grow. That's U-P-W-O-R-K dot com. Upwork.com. Business number two, a coaching business where your knowledge is the product. And let me be clear about something right away. You don't need to be the world's leading expert.

9:55In fact, it's better for you to be just a few steps ahead of your students because you still remember what it's like to be like them. You can coach people on anything you have experience in. Like I have a lot of entrepreneurs right now that are really fascinated by the fact that I'm into poker and they want to learn poker. So I can actually coach people how to get into poker, how to learn poker, poker strategy. I'm not an expert. I haven't won a world title, but I know more than them. You could teach people how to save money while traveling. You can help people build a winning wardrobe for their brand and business.

10:25You can help people get fitter. You can help people become more confident on camera. Whatever your area of expertise or experiences, okay, this works because people don't pay for information anymore. Information is everywhere. It's on YouTube. It's on Google, ChatGBT. There's so many ways to get information. They are paying for implementation. They are paying for clarity. They're paying for structure. and accountability. And that's where coaching, I believe, is going to skyrocket in the coming years because ChatGPT doesn't give you that. So what do you actually need to start a coaching business?

10:57You basically just need your phone. You need Google Meet, which is free, just a meeting software. Google Drive, which is also free with Gmail. And that's it. You can host live group sessions on Google Meet. You can record them. You can upload the recordings to Google Drive and then share them with your clients. No Zoom subscription needed, no fancy software, no upfront costs. Okay. Now, if you want to start upgrading your tools and your setup later, once you start making some money, cool. But in the beginning, you don't need anything fancy. So how do you start a coaching business? Let me give you some step-by-step instructions really quickly.

11:31Number one, pick one problem you can help people solve. One problem. Number two, create a simple offer, a weekly group coaching call for 48 weeks, 12 weeks, a year, whatever you think is going to get the mission accomplished to get them to solve that problem. Number three, invite people personally or post about it on social media. Number four, run the calls live, record them and save them in your Google Drive or wherever you want to save them to share them with the students. And number five, improve as you go. That's how every coaching business, every great coaching business starts. And yes, group coaching is the move because you can scale your business a lot easier and make more profit.

12:13It scales your time, it increases your income without increasing your workload. If this episode is helping you rethink about what's actually possible for you right now, make sure you subscribe to the podcast because I'm working on an episode right now that you don't want to miss. It's called The Most Reliable Way to Earn More Money, no matter what your circumstances are. And I've really worked hard on this episode because I really believe it's going to tie everything together in terms of action, leverage, and control so that you can make sure that you know for sure that if I do these things, I will make more money.

12:47All right, so make sure you subscribe because when I release that episode, I don't want you to miss it. Business number three, a service-based business. My first business when I became a full-time entrepreneur was a service-based business. It's one of the fastest way to start earning money with no money up front. And it's simple. You just provide a skill. Someone pays you for it. That's simple. And that skill for me was creating websites. I built websites for entrepreneurs. And your skill might be graphic design. It might be video editing. It might be copywriting. It might be party planning. It could be babysitting services, right?

13:21It could be anything that you feel you can add value to. And if you don't have a skill yet, you can learn one in a couple of weekends. It's that simple. I'm not exaggerating. Let me give you my own example. I build websites for new business owners, and I didn't go to school for it. I don't have a degree in computer science. I didn't have a mentor. I learned WordPress by watching videos online. I read books in the library, and I turned that skill into income. That simple. I just learned something, and I used that skill to deliver a service. So what do you need to get started with this business?

13:55Well, you need a simple website, and you can make one for free with Canva. Super simple, right? You need to send invoices to people so that you can charge them for your services. You can use Stripe. Stripe is absolutely free. There's no upfront costs. They will charge you for the transaction, but you only pay when you charge a customer. And it's very competitive and it's minimal. You need a clear offer. That's the third thing you need. You need a clear offer saying, hey, I will accomplish this. I will get you this outcome in exchange for this amount of money. That simple. That's it. No office, no employees, no startup capital needed.

14:25You sell your time, your skill first, and then later you can systemize and start delegating it and turn it into something bigger like an agency. This is how real entrepreneurs get started. I'm telling you right now, the bigger lesson I'm trying to share with you here is that you need to stop waiting. You got to stop waiting for things to happen. You need to make them happen. Nothing's going to change unless you change what you do every day. Stop waiting for funding. Stop waiting for confidence. Stop waiting for perfection. for the timing to be right. Stop waiting for permission. No one's going to give you permission.

14:59You need to give yourself permission. You're the one who gets to do everything. You're the one who makes the decisions. You're the one who is going to move this thing forward. No one's coming to save you. No one's going to come and tell you, hey, now it's the perfect time. No, the perfect time was yesterday. Okay, but that's not possible anymore because you don't have a time machine. So the next perfect time is now. You start with what you have and momentum beats money every time. If you get momentum, you're going to feel motivated and you're going to feel proud of yourself. And the point I'm trying to make here today is that the honest truth is that you haven't started because you are a little bit scared.

15:33And it's okay. I was that way too. I was scared too. It's scary. Change is scary, guys. Okay? There's no doubt about it. So let's just face the fact that, hey, this is going to be a little bit scary, a little bit adventurous, something I haven't done before. But the risk is low because you're not spending any money. The only thing you're spending is a little bit of time. And that's okay because you got time. Because when you don't have money, usually you have a bit of time. Now, even if you have a limited time, even putting in a bit of time every single week into building this business and start offering your services or your product or whatever it might be, then it's still worth it because you're making progress.

16:10Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I want you to start. If you haven't started something, start now. Now, I'm telling you right now, my biggest regret in life is I didn't start entrepreneurship earlier because the earlier you start, the earlier you get to live the life you want. Think about it. Let's say, for example, you fulfill all your goals and your dreams in the next five years. It takes you five years or even 10 years to get to where you want to go, your ultimate dream life. Every day you delay, you're pushing that one day less, yet one day less of that dream life, one week less of that dream life.

16:45A month goes by another month of not living that life. So stop stealing your dream life from yourself and start today. If you found this episode helpful and you're ready to get started and maybe you've already started and you're making progress and you're starting to succeed, then I recommend an episode that I published recently called Why People Turn Against You When You Start to Succeed. because growth changes how people respond to you and you need to be ready for that. If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast.

17:24Hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now, whether it's Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically and it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free, and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. And now that you've subscribed, I'll check you in the next episode.

18:06what he's spending. I keep track of hundreds of things every day. Jenny, get out of there. Thankfully, Walmart business lets me keep track of all our expenses in one place. Aaron, don't eat that. Michael, uh-uh. It's Walmart. Built for your business. Who knew? Eligible organizations. Additional terms apply.