Zero capital start ups

While it’s not exactly true I started Stay Human with zero capital it is true that is started it with only one thousand dollars and I blew all that in the first week buying equipment. Now six years later it’s paying the rent and earning about 30-40k a year. Not a monster business by any stretch of the imagination but I’m pretty happy considering where I started off and what I want out of it.

I think most people would assume that you need a lot of money to start a business and that it’s also going to be a risky endevour that could involve you losing that money. While it’s true that 90% of small businesses fail within the first year and that often involves them losing a lot of money and basically going through self inflicted hell. Most people start businesses in ways that are a lot more risky than they need to be because they lack patience. People think start a business and they think open a shop. But the reason all these 90% of businesses are failing is because the people running them are really good at signing themselves up to fixed costs when they have no fixed income.

You can start a business with just a good idea and time. You can start off with a website that you run while still keeping your day job, you can start with weekend markets, you can start with a catalog and a home office, you can start by stocking other peoples shops with your items. These are ways to get the ball rolling. Stay Human is making me a living wage now, but it’s been going for six years and it certainly wasn’t making me enough to live on in the first couple. The reason I didn’t go bust is because I never expected it too and I never depend on it’s income to pay the rent. With a zero capital start up you have to be realistic in what you expect from the business in terms of return, if you invest no money in adversting other than some flyers and the website can you really expect people to give you the $50,000 a year you need to quit working? Or is it more reasonable to figure I’ll start off slow, build up and up over time and eventually I’ll be doing business full time and my call centre job will be just a bad dream.