Saturday, May 28, 2011

46 Ways To Start A Business With No Money

Most people who want to start their own business don’t have a ton of money laying around and it’s probably one the most common questions I get emailed about: How can I get started without a lot of cash?
Well I’ve put together a list below of the best ideas I’ve heard and personally used. I hope you find it useful!
The three basic strategies to starting a business without much money are:
  • Delay the normal “business starting” activities like incorporating, hiring, renting office or retail space, etc until AFTER your business has started earning money. This is known as bootstrapping.
  • Doing everything yourself and spending your personal time instead of hiring an expert. (Takes longer but costs less.)
  • Using some neat tricks and little known deals below.

Start With The Easy Stuff: Eliminate Expenses

1. Don’t rent an office! – work from home. Or better yet work from the best free office with locations everywhere: Starbucks. If you need to meet with a client and are worried about seeming small time without an office, don’t be. Just meet them at a restaurant for a lunch meeting. This is what people with the nicest offices do anyway.
2. Don’t hire any employees! – do it all yourself until you have some $ coming in the door.
3. Don’t hire lawyers, technical people, graphic designers, or assistants (see below)

Legal Stuff and Incorporating

4. Get a free lawyer and legal advice from the mentors at Score.org
5. Find a website with a similar legal document and modify it to your needs
6. An LLC is probably the best business structure, but don’t worry about incorporating until you’re earning money, just do a sole proprietorship, you can always incorporate later (you can get it setup with the IRS in just a few minutes by calling them at 800-829-4933)
7. Learn how to do your own financial statements for your business in Excel instead of hiring a CPA or bookkeeper (again you can do this after you’re making money)
8. Take a Quickbooks class at your local community college

Make a website for your business

9. Don’t pay a premium for a top end domain name, there are plenty of good ones left
10. Test out your ideas by writing to a blog, you’ll get feedback on what people like and don’t like
11. Get a free business website at www.wordpress.com or tumblr.com. It won’t be your own domain (it will be something like yourbusiness.wordpress.com) but…
12. When you’re ready to have your own domain, register it at domain.com and add this as a custom domain to your WordPress or Tumblr site.
13. Get a professional website design for free with a wordpress theme that you can install with a few clicks (no programming knowledge needed)

Getting a Logo

14. Don’t hire a fancy graphic designer. At least not yet. Use LogoYes to create your own logo (or at least get ideas that you can recreate on your own for free)

Accepting Credit Cards

15. Don’t bother with a full merchant account to start off with, they are complicated, come with monthly feeds, and require programming expertise. Instead try a simpler (and much cheaper) solution like Google Checkout or Paypal
16. For a more professional look and a complete shopping cart for only $5/month use E-Junkie, its great and I use it on this site
17. If you have lots of physical products, try a Yahoo Store

Starting a service business where you consult, coach, teach, etc

18. Create several pages on your wordpress site: one for your experience, testimonials, rates, availability, etc
19. Pick a domain name with your #1 keyword in it! (Assuming it isn’t a very competitive keyword you’ll rank on the first page of google within a month or two for that keyword which means customers!) here’s some more info and an example

Creating Info Products

20. Use an ebook template like these from Eben Pagan
21. For print books, self publish it at www.lulu.com and use print on demand (they don’t print a single book until someone buys it which means you have zero up front cost for inventory!)
22. Use a $20 webcam or digital camera to create educational video products
23. Use camtasia ( $200 for PC) or iShowU ($20 for Mac) to record your screen and make great videos like this one. Or record powerpoints and do the voiceover to make great educational products. Update: even cheaper use ScreenToaster.
24. Use a mac to edit your videos (iMovie is free) and you can even produce DVD’s

Before investing in a retail location…

25. Go to a local fair or festival and rent a booth to see if anyone buys your product. Talk to potential customers and get feedback.
26. Try selling it on ebay

Always be learning about business

27. Go to a meetup.com groups in your city related to business/entrepreneurship
28. Read all the best business books by getting them from the library
30. Make friends with other entrepreneurs and share material
31. Install the stumble upon toolbar and choose business/entrepreneurship as one of your interests to find all the best videos and talks out there (this is literally like going to a free semester of business school, you get to see all the best speakers and thinkers of our time, and those of the past)
32. Read blogs like this one in google reader

Marketing, free website traffic, and getting your first customer

33. Get 250 full-color business cards for free to hand out to people you meet
34. Post an offer on craigslist
35. Post videos on youtube with links to your website
36. Post the same video to all video sharing sites (Google Video, Yahoo Video, MySpace, Revver, etc) at once with TubeMogul (this is some of the best free marketing you can do)
37. Generate leads by offering an incentive on your website for people to give you their contact info (some incentives that work well: Top 10 reports like the top 10 myths about…the top 10 thing you should know before…etc, videos, audio interviews, one page cheat sheets, free ebooks)
38. Write a good article and send it to more popular websites (include your byline at the bottom). This is also known as doing guest posts and is the #1 thing I used to grow this blog when it first started out.
39. Learn how to use google adwords and spend $10 and see if it brings in at least $10 (if so keep going!)
40. If you can’t afford to get links from expensive directories like Yahoo ($299) useDirectory Submitter to get links from hundreds of smaller directories for free
41. Pick a good domain name with your keywords in the domain (use hyphens if necessary). This will help you rank in Google for that keyword and get visitors to your website.
42. Do some basic on page SEO
43. Research what keywords will bring you the most traffic (and are least competitive) with keyword discovery, Wordtracker’s Free Service, and (probably the best option) WordTrackers free trial of their full service (just have to remember to cancel within 7 days to not get charged!)
44. See which keywords are likely to bring buyers (instead of tire kickers)
45. Get more incoming links to your site by creating a Squidoo page (these rank very high in the search engines for some reason!)
46. Send an email to everyone in your email program’s contact list with a short friendly note letting them know you are starting a business and ask if they could forward it to just one or two people who might be interested. Offer something free for the first 10 people. This has an exponential effect because it not only reaches who you know, but everyone who knows who you know (an order of magnitude bigger group of people.)

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10 Steps to Hiring Your First Employee

10 Steps to Hiring Your First Employee

The good news is that business is booming. The bad news is there's only one of you. Perhaps it's time to take the plunge and hire some help.
There are many good sources of information about finding the right people, writing job descriptions, interviewing candidates and managing people once they are on board. In addition, you'll need to understand your regulatory requirements as an employer because it is crucial to the success of your business. These 10 easy steps will help you ensure you are compliant with key federal and state regulations when hiring.

Steps for Hiring Employees

1. Obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN)

Before hiring employees, you need to get an employment identification number (EIN) form the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. The EIN is often referred to as an Employer Tax ID or as Form SS-4. The EIN is necessary for reporting taxes and other documents to the IRS. In addition, the EIN is necessary when reporting information about your employees to state agencies. To obtain an EIN, you can contact the IRS directly or apply online.
U.S. Internal Revenue Service
Phone: 1-800-829-4933

2. Set up Records for Withholding Taxes

The IRS states that you must keep records of employment taxes for at least four years. Also, keep good records for your business to help you monitor the progress of your business, prepare your financial statements, identify source of receipts, keep track of deductible expenses, prepare your tax returns, and support items reported on tax returns.
The following describes the three types of withholding taxes:

Federal Income Tax Withholding (Form W-4)

Every employee must provide an employer with a signed withholding exemption certificate (Form W-4) on or before the date of employment. The employer must then submit Form W-4 to the IRS. For specific information on employer responsibilities regarding withholding of federal taxes, read the IRS' Employer's Tax Guide.

Federal Wage and Tax Statement (Form W-2)

On an annual basis, employers must report to the federal government wages paid and taxes withheld for each employee. This report is filed using Form W-2 Wage and Tax Statement. Employers must complete a W-2 Form for each employee to whom they pay a salary, wage or other compensation.
Employers must send Copy A of Form W-2 to the Social Security Administration (SSA) by the last day of February (or last day of March if you file electronically) to report the wages and taxes of your employees for the previous calendar year. In addition, employers should send copies of Form W-2 to their employees by Jan. 31 of the year following the reporting period.
Visit the Social Security Administration's Employer W-2 Filing Instructions and Information for further guidance and assistance.

State Taxes

Depending on the state where your employees are located, you may be required to withhold state income taxes. Visit the state and local tax page for more information.

3. Employee Eligibility Verification (Form I-9)

Federal law requires employers to verify an employee's eligibility to work in the United States. Within three days of hire, employers must complete an Employment Eligibility Verification Form, commonly referred to as an I-9 form. This requires you to examine acceptable forms of documentation supplied by the employee to confirm the employee's citizenship or eligibility to work in the U.S. Employers can only request documentation specified on the I-9 form. Employers who ask for other types of documentation not listed on the I-9 form may be subject to discrimination lawsuits.
Employers do not file the I-9 with the federal government. Rather, an employer is required to keep an I-9 form on file for three years after the date of hire or one year after the date of the employee's employment termination, whichever is later. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency conducts routine workplace audits to ensure that employers are properly completing and retaining I-9 forms, and that employee information on I-9 forms matches government records.
Employers can use information taken from the Form I-9 to verify electronically the employment eligibility of newly hired employees through E-Verify. To get started register with E-Verify to virtually eliminate Social Security mismatch letters, improve the accuracy of wage and tax reporting, protect jobs for authorized workers and help maintain a legal workforce.

4. Register with Your State's New Hire Reporting Program

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 requires all employers to report newly hired and re-hired employees to a state directory within 20 days of their hire or rehire date.
Visit the New Hires Reporting Requirements page to learn how to register with your state's New Hire Reporting System.

5. Obtain Workers' Compensation Insurance

Businesses with employees are required to carry Workers' Compensation Insurance coverage through a commercial carrier, on a self-insured basis or through the state Workers' Compensation Insurance program.

6. Unemployment Insurance Tax Registration

Businesses with employees are required to pay unemployment insurance taxes under certain conditions. If your business is required to pay these taxes, you must register your business with your state's workforce agency. The state taxes page includes links to your state's agency.

7. Obtain Disability Insurance (If Required)

Some states require employers to provide partial wage replacement insurance coverage to their eligible employees for non-work related sickness or injury. Currently, if your employees are located in any of the following states, you are required to purchase disability insurance:
  • California - Employment Development Department
  • Hawaii - Unemployment Insurance Division
  • New Jersey - Dept. of Labor and Workforce Development
  • New York - New York State Workers' Compensation Board
  • Puerto Rico - Departamento del Trabajo y Recursos Humanos/Department of Labor and Human Resources
  • Rhode Island - Rhode Island Dept. of Labor and Training

8. Post Required Notices

Employers are required by state and federal laws to prominently display certain posters in the workplace that inform employees of their rights and employer responsibilities under labor laws. These posters are available for free from federal and state labor agencies. Visit the Workplace Posters page for the specific federal and state posters you'll need for your business.

9. File Your Taxes

If you are new employer, there are new federal and state tax filing requirements that apply to you.
  • Generally, each quarter, employers who pay wages subject to income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes must file IRS Form 941, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return. Small businesses with an annual income tax liability of $1,000 or less may file IRS Form 944, Employer's Annual Federal Tax Return instead of Form 941.
  • You must also file IRS Form 940, Employer's Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return, if you paid wages of $1,500 or more in any calendar quarter, or you had one or more employees work for you in any 20 or more different weeks of the year.
New and existing employers should consult the IRS Employer's Tax Guide to understand all their federal tax filing requirements.
Visit the state and local tax page for specific tax filing requirements for employers.

10. Get Organized and Keep Yourself Informed

Being a good employer doesn't stop with fulfilling your various tax and reporting obligations. Maintaining a healthy and fair workplace, providing benefits and keeping employees informed about your company's policies are key to your business' success. Here are some additional steps you should take after you've hired your employees:
  • Set up Recordkeeping
In addition to requirements for keeping payroll records of your employees for tax purposes, certain federal employment laws also require you to keep records about your employees. You may be subject to state recordkeeping requirements as well. Therefore, it's good practice to set up a sound, organized system for maintaining all personnel records. The following sites provide more information about federal reporting requirements:
Resources and tools aimed at helping employers maintain their tax records.
Employment laws such as the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), have certain recordkeeping and/or reporting requirements.
  • Adopt Workplace Safety Practices
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) Quick Start tool provides a clear, step-by-step guide that helps you identify many of the major OSHA requirements and informational materials that may apply to your workplace.
  • Understand Employee Benefit Plans
If you will be providing benefits to your employees, you should become familiar with the uniform minimum standards required by federal law to ensure that employee benefit plans are established and maintained in a fair and financially sound manner. See the chapter on Employee Benefit Plans in the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment Law Guide for more information.
  • Learn Management Best Practices
While you aren't legally required to be a good manager, it sure helps when trying to recruit and retain good employees. Our Guide to Managing Employees provides sound guidance on hiring, motivating and directing employees.

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