If you’re exploring the idea of entrepreneurship or would like to launch a business with no money, these tips can set you up for success.

Keep Your Day Job

As soon as you decide to start a business, it may be tempting to immediately leave your full-time job and fully commit to your venture. Doing so, however, is risky, especially when you have minimal or no funds available.

If you maintain your job and focus on your business in the evenings, on weekends or whenever you’re not at work, you won’t have to live off your savings or credit cards. You’ll have a steady income that allows for greater flexibility.

Once your business is in full swing and you’re confident you earn enough to cover your business expenses and live comfortably, you can reduce your hours or quit.

Choose a Business Idea That Doesn’t Require Upfront Capital

The most difficult yet most important part of entrepreneurship is figuring out a business idea. If your goal is to start a business with no money, consider a service industry business. Here are several small business ideas to inspire you.

• Freelance writing: You can write content for a variety of businesses and publications. This might include website content, blog posts, brochures and e-books.
• Virtual assisting: As a virtual assistant, you offer administrative services to various clients. Your clients may ask you to make phone calls to their customers or vendors, plan events, schedule appointments, manage databases or book travel.
• Social media management: Social media management is when you help businesses promote their offerings via Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and other social media platforms. You’ll also interact with their fans and followers.
• Graphic design: The goal of graphic design is to create eye-catching designs that can be used for various marketing collateral, such as brochures, posters, packaging and logos. You can get hired by advertising or marketing agencies or businesses directly to create graphic designs.
• Tutoring: If you’re patient and specialize in a certain subject or topic, you may want to tutor. You can tutor virtually, in your home, at libraries or coffee shops, or in clients’ homes.
• Bookkeeping: Bookkeeping is a tedious and time-consuming task that many business owners don’t have the time or desire to perform. As a bookkeeper, you’ll reconcile bank accounts, generate income statements and balance sheets, and clean up general ledgers.
• Home organizing: Home organizers help clients sort through their clutter and create clean, organized spaces. With this business, you’ll visit client homes and assess their organizational needs. Then, you’ll design a strategy to get rid of unnecessary and unwanted items, and a way to store and organize the ones they keep. You might organize their entire home or just a room or two.
• Photography: Photography can give you the chance to express your creative side while providing your clients with photographs they’ll cherish for years to come. You can offer a diverse menu of services or niche down and specialize in family photos, professional photos or maternity photos, for example.
• Dropshipping: Dropshipping is when you sell things without buying inventory. A customer will pay retail price on an item from your online store. Then, you’ll send their order to your supplier and pay them the wholesale price.

Perform Market Research

Before you move forward with your business idea, you should determine whether it’s actually viable through market research. Identify your competitors and figure out your unique selling point, which is essentially what you can do better than them. Perhaps your services will be faster, more innovative or less expensive. You can also host focus groups and speak to potential customers directly to get a better feel for their needs, wants and buying behaviors. In addition, don’t hesitate to utilize social media and online reviews of similar businesses.

Write a Business Plan

A business plan is a road map for how you’ll grow your business. With a well-written business plan, you can anticipate potential challenges and plan for them accordingly. You may also attract investors and employees as well as secure financing. As you write your business plan, emphasize why your offerings stand out. Also, avoid industry jargon and use plenty of visuals to break up the text and make your plan more visually appealing. The key parts of a business plan include:

• Company overview: This is a description of the business you’re about to start. Be sure to mention your business model and legal structure, such as an S-corp or LLC.
• Market research: Summarize your market research findings. Don’t forget to explain how your products or services will meet the needs of your target audience and allow you to stand out from your competitors.
• Marketing strategy: Marketing strategy refers to how you plan to promote your business to reach new customers. This may include email marketing, social media marketing or event marketing, depending on the nature of your business.
• Financial plan: The financial plan should outline what you’ll do to earn and spend money. Ideally, it would feature a balance sheet, cash flow projections and other financial data and documents.

Wear Many Hats

In the future, you may be able to hire help for your venture. But when you first launch, you’ll want to be a “Jack of All Trades,” and handle various tasks on your own. For example, if your business idea is virtual assisting, it’ll be up to you to market your services, create client contracts, perform the work, send invoices and collect payments. Keep in mind that while you may not be able to do everything perfectly, you’ll learn a lot and save a great deal of cash right off the bat. Hiring help too soon is risky, especially when you don’t have much money to start with.

Run a Trial

While you can go ahead and officially launch your business once you have a legal structure, business name and marketing strategy in place, it’s wise to have a small local launch before you go big. This way, you’ll be able to pinpoint potential challenges and make proper adjustments. During your trial, ask your customers for their honest feedback and what you can do to improve your offerings and service. Chances are you’ll learn about some pitfalls that you didn’t know about before and reduce your risk of failure.

Scale Up

Your business will likely start small. But as you achieve success and meet your goals, don’t be afraid to grow. This may require you to cast your products and services to a wider market, hire a few employees to boost productivity, expand your marketing efforts or find a larger workspace. It’s in your best interest to scale slowly but surely so that you can make small changes without impacting your limited funds.

Use Free Resources

Believe it or not, there is no shortage of free or low-cost resources to help entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners such as yourself. To find them, perform a Google search and look for workshops, mentorship programs and networking opportunities in your area.

You can also take a trip to your local library and ask about any resources it might offer. Don’t forget to check out national options as well, such as the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. By taking advantage of free resources, you can reduce your spending and launch your business in the most cost-effective way possible.

Network

Sometimes, it’s not what you know but who you know. If you’d like to start a business with no money, network, network and network. Build connections with industry professionals, potential investors and other entrepreneurs. They can share meaningful advice, introduce you to others who can help you, promote your offerings to their customer base and even provide you with funding. You may network online or attend networking events in your local community. It’s also a good idea to look for conferences and trade shows related to your industry.

Design a Savings Plan

As an aspiring business owner, it’s up to you to build a savings account for your venture. To do so, track your spending and identify your costs. You may also want to get a business credit card with perks such as cash back and travel points. In addition, set up a monthly budget and make every effort to stick to it. While your unique situation will dictate how much money you should save, a good rule of thumb is to save up at least six months’ worth of savings for business expenses.

Look for Alternative Funding

Fortunately, there are many places you can turn to for small business funding. Here are some options:

• Friends and family: If you have a loved one who supports your business venture, they might provide you with some capital in the form of a low- or no-interest loan or grant. Just make sure you put the terms of the loan or grant in writing so that everyone is on the same page.
• Venture capitalists: Professional investors such as venture capitalists offer money in exchange for a percentage of your business profits or stock. You’ll likely need to share a business plan and financial statements to secure this type of funding.
• Angel investors: Angel investors differ from venture capitalists because they use their personal money to help fund your business. In many cases, they’ll serve as mentors and guide you as you launch and grow.
• Grants: While grants for small businesses are difficult to find and land, they do exist. To find them, turn to federal and state government entities as well as community development corporations.
• Incubators and accelerators: These programs are designed to mentor high-potential businesses. If you become a part of one, you may be able to receive capital too.
• Crowdfunding: Crowdfunding is when you ask prospective customers to provide you with money upfront in exchange for a unique perk or promise down the road. Fortunately, there are many online crowdfunding platforms to help you set up a campaign, such as Kickstarter, Fundly and SeedInvest.
• Small business loans: Banks, credit unions and online lenders all offer small business loans for startups and small businesses. Typically, you need good credit to lock in low rates and favorable terms.