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How I Started My Business



I started my business with no capital. You don’t always need a lot of capital to get a business started. Sometimes you can get started with little to no funding. Starting a business with no money might initially seem like an unlikely idea, however, it’s not impossible. 

When I started Orange Memo Virtual Assistants, I only had my skills, qualifications, and experience. And I capitalized on those three things. Two questions came into mind:

1.“How can I monetize them and earn a living in this economy where there are no jobs and businesses are downsizing?”
2. With the tools and skills I have, which gab can I close add value to the world?

It’s easy to come up with a list of obstacles standing in the way of you and launching your business. It’s often harder to come up with a list of opportunities that are right in front of you. If the thought of starting a business with no money scares you, stop and reflect on what you can do without right now.

So, ask yourself what can you do and get for free?

What’s important to your business?

Do you need a fancy, custom-designed website when you’ve only perfected three items for your new store? 

Could you do with creating a Facebook page to promote your business locally, instead? 

Would it make more sense for you to design your marketing materials in Canva? 

Could you barter and trade your skills/products/resources with someone else instead of payment?

There are a lot of free resources on the web. Make a list of what you need for your business and then research free alternatives on the web. It might take time, and perhaps even require you to pick up some extra digital skills, but you’ll save funds.

Setting goals with an end in mind is mandatory for the success of your business, as you need to know your current position to avoid running a business blindly. Successful people and businesses set goals to reach success. Goals help people and businesses achieve more, faster, with less.
 
The best goals are set with a clear vision of where you want to go. In fact, that’s the most basic definition of a goal: the intent to get somewhere. Goals without results don’t even really count as goals.

Unfortunately, the list of potential challenges that you might face is long. One of the biggest challenges I had to overcome was the wrong pricing strategy, my rates were expensive because I didn’t do the most important step every business owner or aspiring entrepreneur must do i.e. competition and audience analysis. 

It’s not about what the product/service is worth, it’s what you can price it to remain competitive and reach the maximum profit. Once I established a strong presence and gained some authority, I then increased the rate.

You might succeed where all the others fail and then fail where no one else has failed before. Nonetheless, just because you can’t foresee every difficulty that your enterprise might encounter, this doesn’t mean that you can’t be prepared for some of the most likely startup challenges on your path.

How did you start your business?

And if you haven't, WHY?

Are you looking into starting your own business and do not know where to "start" DM me for a FREE 8 Week Mentoring Program? 

- Gugu Motsoeneng 
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