Shoestring budget? No problem, start a business with it

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Everybody wants to escape those endless zoom calls and start their own ventures. But that's a tough nut to crack. Here are some practical ways (that I personally used) to start a business on a shoestring budget 👇🏻

It was mid-2019 when I was approached by a family friend. He wanted to invest in my work, anticipating the future of digital marketing. After several hours of discussions & meetings, we settled into an agreement.

Though we couldn't keep the business alive, not because of covid, instead, because of difference in opinion. But I've learned a lot from those 18 months of being a co-founder. This is that story.

#1 Go offline: Coming from a country like India, where a huge portion of business happens offline and is unorganized, I should've explored an untapped opportunity. I had that chance. I didn't, and it was a mistake. Find a problem offline and solve it with tech.

#2 Reinvest: I was lucky enough to not waste money on personal expenses. Although I never knew about it, I didn't feel the need t waste money on less important things. I invested money in operations, research & experiments.

#3 Keep books: I'm horrible at managing my finances. I'm much better than I was before, but still horrible for a person of my age. Maintain separate accounts to keep personal and business expenses. Backtracking is confusing, boring & tiring.

#4 Have common grounds: Remember I told you, we couldn't keep the business alive? Yeah, this point is about that. Although we had differences in opinion, we were mature enough to agree to disagree with each other which is rarely found these days. Meet somewhere in the middle.

#5 Have bandwidth for marketing: Be quick to create and MVP & quicker to make your first dollar. Marketing is the way by which you can make that dollar. Seriously, make your first dollar, even at a loss, take feedback & then improve from there.

Before you go out and start your business, talk to people who've experienced that journey. This doesn't guarantee that you won't make mistakes. Don't be afraid of mistakes. Mistakes are great teacher if you're a great student. Make new mistakes.

If we're meeting for the first time, I'm Shubham Davey & I talk about Business, writing & marketing. I would love to help you succeed online. You can keep in touch with me @bydaveyji & help me reach more people like you, RT the first tweet to enable it.