Starting a new business can be hard, especially when it’s “writing”, and although there are many funding options out there, such as loans, crowdfunding, investors, personal savings, help from family and friends, etc., yet securing the required financial assistance from these outlets can be daunting, and sometimes seemingly impossible, even saving to reach your goal can be hard with several bills to pay and very little income. However, all hope is not lost as there are still methods you can apply on your own when you’re totally working alone with no financial assistance and employees.
1) Discover your sweet spot on your own:
You are starting your business alone with no money, no workers and no eager customers. It could also be that you can’t afford online or in-person courses as I believe you’re working on a strict budget right now. Therefore, the most available option is for you to discover your “sweet spot” on your own. You have to understand your own personal and most effective marketing techniques which you’ll apply.
This was what the Red Bull first boss, Chalerm Yoovidhya did when he initially manufactured his first product in Thailand under the name “Krating Daeng”. There was a lot of competition especially in the cities, therefore he focused on new tactics that he could uniquely apply, and this started off as approaching the “neglected market”. The thing is that many people don’t understand the importance of selling goods to less-infested market targets such as the middle class, low income areas and the most rural areas. Since his competitors sold at prices which the middle class could not afford, he took advantage of that and released his product with this customer base in mind, making it as affordable as possible.
2) Give out free helps:
This allows you to show the quality of your products or services and helps you gain customer base faster.
You can utilize social media for this, such as Instagram or YouTube.
This is definitely not an overnight wealth strategy for someone who is new to both social media and business, and who works 100% alone, however, it is a long-term strategy. As you create free samples and help people for free, these satisfied customers would mention your business to others who’d end up paying for your services and these people themselves may also be willing to pay for more of your products or services.
When Red Bull was introduced in the Austrian market for the first time after the new Austrian partner Dietrich Mateschitz joined the business, sales were tough because there was even bigger competition abroad than there was in Thailand since there were more companies producing energy drinks, the now two owners decided to give out lots of free drinks to popular kids at school and anyone they could think of, they began associating their drinks with power and positivity and soon they were able to make sales. It was hard to break even during the first year, especially considering the amount of free drinks they had to give away, but by the 3rd year, the story positively changed and there was enough money in their bank accounts.
3) Promote other people:
Promoting others is also a way of promoting oneself, because when they hear about them, it is through you, so they know you too. However, as a new name, it’s more advisable to tap from the glory of already existing big names, no, I don’t mean, chasing clout, I mean mentioning them between your speeches. You’ll often find this being used in headlines on blogs and YouTube channels.
For example, if your awareness outlet is YouTube, try including the name of a popular person, product or service in the title of your video, but make sure it’s relevant. For example, the title used in this writeup “No money? No investors? You can run your business alone and succeed like J.K Rowling and the founders of Red Bull, KFC, Rolex watch, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers.”. What’s the advantage? When people are looking up Red Bull or any of the other names mentioned, they might stumble upon your material just because of this title.
4) Reinvest:
Whatever little money earned must have a portion of it set aside for reinvestment. This is how you grow without having investors or a loan. Many successful people have done this, for example, the founder of KFC (Colonel Harland David Sanders), the founder of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers (Todd Graves), even the first founder of Red Bull (Krating Daeng)!
The advantage of this is that when you successfully grow a business without investors, you get to keep all the extra profit you make after deducting the portion that’ll be reinvested in the business. But during your first year, no matter how much you make, wisely reinvest a greater portion of the money in the business, don’t take the larger sum for your upkeep just yet, pour in the biggest amount back to the business, that’s how you grow.
5) Do things differently:
Apart from being creative in drafting your own path or sweet spot, one thing you should not forget is to “always switch things up”. Why you should switch things up is to discover what works best. Even if your current method is a hit, you could still low-key try another method to know how it’ll be received, you never could tell, it might even work better. For example, although handing out free drinks to popular people was a hit for Red Bull, they decided to switch things up a bit and take things a step further, they started sponsoring high-risk events that drink companies were too self-absorbed to sponsor, such as motorcycle racing. In 2012, there was this once in a lifetime stunt they sponsored, of a diver falling from a frightening height. They decided not to use the popular overused method of creating adverts with the product in question handy, they went super subtle and only often show their logo instead of the actual product, this makes the audience receive the advert with a more relaxed and decisive feel, because although it was clearly an advert, it didn’t feel like one, and people are more likely to remember this logo from their favourite andrenaline-inducing event than when a celebrity advertises it on their Instagram page, or when it is shown in-betweeen a movie premiere.
You don’t have to do anything completely new and out of the blues though, you just need to know how to creatively adjust existing methods.
6) Be persistent:
Almost all industries are already saturated, so it’s hard to stand out. This is why you should never give up. After the second world war, business was very sore for the original KFC founder, Colonel David, he had to take the destiny of his business into his own hands traveled round the country for franchise. He would go from one fast food to another hoping for a chance, but he was rejected 1,009 times, yes! The figures aren’t a typo, “one thousand and nine” times, yet he persisted.
J.K Rowling was rejected 12 times before Bloomsbury accepted her manuscript, the same manuscript that has become the bestselling series in history with over 500 million copies sold.
It’s even easier to survive in many other career paths, but surviving as a writer is a whole new world, which is why you need to be brave and have a good portfolio as well. In many countries, there’s hardly funding approval for writers and book launches from new writers because many people than you’ll believe still see writing as more of a hobby or side-hustle than a real business, therefore they see no possibility of profit through investing in a writer’s dream. This is why you must double up your persistence and perseverance and not let anything pull you down or discourage you.
7) Don’t sell yourself short! Promote yourself. Know Your Worth:
Being humble about your business won’t get you the expected results. Yes, bragging and being arrogant won’t get you anywhere good either.
So, what are you advised to do?
Don’t speak down on your own efforts and the capacity of your products or services. Show real value and believe in what you represent. People are likely going to mirror you in this regard. If you give off the vibes that you’re shy about your product, it might come off to people as though you’re ashamed of your products quality. A similar thing happens when you brag about or over-hype your product or service, angry people will stop at nothing to try to prove you wrong, and this isn’t good for business.
8) Utilize Scarcity:
People value scarcity more than availablity, so try not to overproduce. When the demand is greater than the supply, people are more likely to have more regard for the product or service.
One of the reasons for the high value of Rolex watches, Hermes and Louis Vuitton handbags isn’t because they’re the best products in their respective industries, it’s simply because the demand and supply ratio is uneven, with demand being far greater.
First step to achieving this is by making sure that your product or service is really of great quality, then release them on limited editions or limited spots depending on whether it’s a product or service. People value something more when it’s rare or difficult to find, yet good enough.
With good marketing along with the right type of scarcity application, your product will gain more value.
9) Tell people about your business:
One of the reasons people are scared of mentioning their business is to avoid negative reactions. Other reasons are shame and shyness.
What I learned:
There’ll always be someone who’ll love your business no matter how bad you are at it, because there are people you know better than in your field.
Ironically…
There’ll always be someone who’d hate what you do no matter how good you are at it. Look, even if you’re the next best thing on earth, there’ll always be tons of people who’ll find you unattractive and uninteresting.
10) Understand that your business won’t blow up overnight:
Don’t be discouraged when things don’t work out instantly, keep moving at it. Remember that most successful business persons, social media content creators and bloggers didn’t succeed on their first trial. For example, Kevin Systrom didn’t create Instagram at first to be a picture sharing app, neither was Instagram it’s original name (Burbn) or business model, it was originally a location sharing tool, but through user feedback, he realised what the users liked more about the app and realized that it was the picture sharing feature.
If you read more and more billionaire success stories, you’ll realise that the only failure you have is when you give up. Imagine if the KFC founder gave up after that much rejection, imagine if the Red Bull founders gave up because of the intense competition and their inability to break into the Western energy drink market. Many successful content creators took years of consistency and failures before they could reap the rewards of their persistence. The worst thing you can do to yourself is to give up due to setbacks and fear.
