How to Start Your Online Business if You Don’t Have Enough Money 

After solving the issue of not having the time to work on your business, I now want to talk about another common problem - not having enough money.

I fully understand this because I struggled a lot with this before as well. But I gotta tell you, most successful marketers out there also started with not having enough. So if you are in this situation right now, let me share with you things that you can do to overcome this problem.

But like solving the problem of not having the time, I also have to warn you that this is not the easy road to go. Because if becoming successful is so easy, then all of us should be millionaires. The fact that only a few made it from having nothing to becoming very successful, only shows that there’s just a small number of people who worked it out to get there.

First off, stay in your job (or find one if you’re unemployed at the moment)

Yeah, I know what you’re probably thinking while reading this. It might go something like this…

“Are you kidding me? I thought you’re going to teach me how to start my business even if I don’t have money? Why are you asking me to find a job?”

I hear ya…

But you gotta understand that building an online business is not an overnight matter. So while you are building your online business on the side for now, you should have something that sustains your needs. If you currently have a job, stay in that job for now. And like I said about making time, you should only resign once your side business is already making the amount of money you’re getting from your job.

But what if you’re unemployed?

Well, you might not like what I’m going to tell you but… find a job, okay? If you cannot find a job locally, there’s a lot of online job opportunities out there and all you have to do is get one. Simply go to sites like Upwork, Outsourcely, Truelancer, etc. and apply for a job.

Again, the purpose of you needing to have a job for now is to sustain your daily needs while you’re still working on your business on the side. Another reason is that, when you’re going to start your online business, there are still a few fees that you have to pay. I know some gurus out there are telling that you can start an online business even if you literally have no money at all. But in my experience, that’s not true. You will surely have to spend something for the online business you are building.

Stop spending on unnecessary things

The funny thing with most people is that, they always say they don’t have money when it comes to building a business. But when it comes to the latest smartphone and other gadgets, surprisingly, they have the budget for it. Some even loan for money just for them to buy the latest gadgets.

I’m sorry but if you want to successfully build an online business, you have to learn to have a minimalistic living. So even if your friends, neighbors, cousins, and colleagues bought the latest smartphone or laptop and bragged about them on Facebook, you should not try to compete by buying one as well. Instead, be as frugal as possible and try to set aside some amount of your income from your job for your online business.

Online business that you can start with minimum capital

Teach at Udemy

The good thing about Udemy is that, you can sell your courses in their platform for absolutely free. They handle your video hosting and all, plus they have a list of students who might pick up your course. I think they are even advertising courses in their platform as well.

I haven’t tried Udemy myself but I’m seeing some people who are really successful in selling their courses there. Just check out the best selling courses there and get some ideas on what course should you make as well.

Offer services on Fiverr

Fiverr is a place where you can offer almost anything – from graphic designs, to voice overs, to video creation, etc. So if you have any skill that you can offer as a service, start providing it at Fiverr.

Sell on Ebay or Etsy

If you have some items that you can sell, why not sell them in these places?

Sell affiliate products

You can apply as an affiliate to sites like Amazon and Clickbank and sell products from there to gain commissions. You can start by creating a free website and sell affiliate products there. Although if you want to be more successful in affiliate marketing, I still highly recommend that you create your own website.

“But I want more than doing any of these”

I know, those things I mentioned have limitations. But those are the things you can start doing if you really don’t have a budget to use for now.

But if you are willing to spend a bit and go the next level, I highly recommend that you start your own website. And whatever you want to do (teach, offer services, sell products, sell affiliate products), just do them in your own website. That way, you can have the full control of almost everything.

Just buy a domain name and get a basic shared hosting for now and then create your website. If you don’t know how to create a website, you can probably buy a course on WordPress site creation. And to gain traffic to your site, you can learn about Youtube video SEO and probably do some Facebook ads as well.

So as you can see, you need to spend something and learn a few things when you want to do your business in your own site. However, I can tell through experience that it’s a lot better to do things in your site because you can control most aspects of your business.

This is another reason why I said you need to have a job to sustain your needs while building your online business. This is because you have to pay for some tools and training to learn some internet marketing skills (like web development, Youtube SEO, Facebook ads, video marketing, etc.).

So all you have to do is start something – teach, offer a service, sell your product, or sell affiliate products. But I don’t recommending doing a lot at once because you’ll just end up not finishing anything. Just pick one thing and focus on building your business on that single endeavor.

And right now, you should not think of having not enough money as an excuse to build your online business. Just apply the things I shared to you here and you’ll surely make it soon.

I look forward to seeing your successful online business!