4 Businesses You Can Start with Minimal Funds

One of the biggest barriers to starting a business is the startup costs. But if you’re entering the right industry, you can start a business with no money. And for some businesses, you can get started without spending a single dollar. Check out these 5 business ideas if you’re looking to become an entrepreneur without making a huge investment.

Home Cleaning

You can make a pretty penny cleaning other people’s homes, and you could feasibly get started without spending a dime. Most people have the cleaning products needed to supply this service in their own homes. If you have the supplies you need to clean your own home, then you can use those to clean other people’s homes as well, minimizing any cost of starting the business.

You can start by offering your services to friends and family, and use the money you make to grow and expand your business over time. Invest in business cards and other marketing essentials, hire employees, and expand from cleaning homes to cleaning office buildings. In a short amount of time, you could have a booming cleaning business.

Carrie H. Johnson did just this. She was a single mom living in government housing and decided to start a cleaning business with her sister and a friend. This grew into a multi-million dollar business with 165 employees.

Tour Guide Service

What Uber has done for the transportation industry, Vayable has done for the tourism industry. You no longer have to print business cards and go around to travel agencies, looking for someone who will recommend you to their clients. If you know your area well, you can sign up to become a Vayable Insider. They’ll bring customers to you, for a small cut of the income.

If you do your job well, you can begin to rely on word-of-mouth and the recommendations of your satisfied customers. Eventually, you could turn your tour guide services into a full-scale business, with vehicles, employees, and scheduled tours.

Tutoring

If you have a knack for teaching skills and subjects to people, you can start a business as a tutor. Websites like Tutor.com can help you to find students who need tutoring on academic subjects. Not an academic? Don’t worry.

If you prefer to teach people other, non-academic skills, look into Wyzant.com. You can sign up to teach everything from piano to cooking lessons, and everything in between. Once you have a regular base of students, you can branch out on your own and continue growing via referrals and your own marketing efforts.

Business Consulting

Becoming a business consultant is something that can literally be done in a day, and it requires virtually no overhead. As multimillionaire consultant Sam Ovens said in a recent YouTube video, all you really need is “a cellphone and a laptop, and the skills you already have.” And since most people already have those things, you can start your consulting business at zero cost.

Start by offering your services to someone you know. Work with them on one small project, and ask for a referral. Ask your friends and family to spread the word. Once you’ve worked with a few clients, you’ll begin to get natural referrals that will lead to a thriving consulting business. Just be sure to do your job well and choose a niche that’s a good match to your skills. Reinvest your profits for business essentials like a website, business cards, and a few employees. Soon, you can have a full-scale business that earns you more than a livable income.

Being an entrepreneur doesn’t have to mean fighting for a business loan or dumping your life savings into startup costs. These 4 businesses can all be started with zero upfront investment, and each of them can turn into a successful, thriving business over time.