Starting a business - Is it possible?

[questions]

I was recently laid off from my job. I will be looking for a new job, but I can only look so many hours a day. I figure that I will have an extra four hours where I have nothing to do until I find a new job. I want to make these hours productive and I've decided to start a business.

The problem is that I don't have any money to start the business. Is it possible to start a business with time, but no money and earn an extra $1000 or so a month? What types of businesses can I start with my current situation and what recommendations do you have for me as I get started?

[Car Insurance Guy]

Having experience with a few businesses, I believe it's possible to start a business with a little money and a lot of time. Starting with NO money, meaning $0, that would be quite an accomplishment. You might consider delivering pizza to fund your business account in the mean time.

That said, I've become a fan of internet businesses. They are not free. But they are cheaper than any other business I'm aware of. I just started a website that mixes my interest, my experience, and hopefully the needs of the market (see link below). The needs of the market is probably the #1 factor for success in any business. We'll see how it goes. I fully expect it to eventually take up 2-3 hrs a day at some point. No, it's not pulling in a $1K/month, but that's definitely an expectation in the not-too-distant-future.

I've been pursuing this interest in one form or another for 2 years. There's a ton to learn. But there's so much free information online that I think it would meet your criteria. I am fully convinced you could make $1K a month in a few hours a day. It may take 1000 hours of part time work to get to that point, but I think it's more than possible with the right internet business.

[jeffrey]

The key question is do you want the $1000 a month right away or is it OK to have it come over time. If you want it right away, it's going to be nearly impossible. If you can wait a year or two for it to start producing the income (and as an added benefit, it will be passive income from that time on), this is what I would do.

I would open an account on blogger.com and I would create 5-10 page niche sites on whatever subject you can write that many pages about. Then open up an adsense account and place adsense on the pages and leave them there linking them among each other.

If you built one a day for a year (something you should be able to do in about 4 hours), you would have 365 websites at the end of the year. Both blogger and adsense are free so there is no cost but you time.

That would mean that each of the websites would need to earn $3 a month (or $0.10 a day) for you to earn your $1000 a month. While $0.10 a day doesn't sound difficult, it's probably harder than you think, especially if you never update the site again. The hope is that a couple of the ones you make earn significantly more than that to make up for all the sites that don't make it.

I think it is reasonable to assume that this would work from my own experience and if you write good quality content on the niche sites that you create.

I'm sure there are other ways to approach this, but that is immediately what came to mind when I read this email.

[disneysteve]

I think there are certainly things you could do with no start-up costs or maybe a couple of dollars to put up flyers in the neighborhood: dog-walking, baby sitting, yard clean-up, etc. Word of mouth is free advertising. Just tell all of your friends and neighbors that you are looking for clients.

Ebay is always a good place to start. If you could sell a few items that you have lying around the house, you can then use those proceeds as seed money to buy more items for resale.

[jIM_Ohio]

Depends what you are selling. (Services vs product). In an economy like this, services tend to not do as well (people will only pay for necessary services).

For example I am preparing to start a financial planning business. It will cost me around $200 for the tax class I am taking now and probably another $500 for a series 6 course and test. I could get the $1000/month you suggest you need with 24 clients. I would not expect to have that level of support for a few years after starting though.

[disneysteve]

Depends what you are selling. (Services vs product). In an economy like this, services tend to not do as well (people will only pay for necessary services).

I think that depends on the situation. Some folks will pay for services because it allows them the freedom to work extra hours or a second job to increase income. If you have to rush home to let the dog out, you can't stay late at work. If you have nobody to watch your kid after school, you need to be home to do that yourself.

Also, there are some services that have to be done no matter what. If you can find folks who aren't able to do things themselves, you can do well. Lawns have to be mowed. Leaves have to be raked. Dogs have to be walked. Snow has to be cleared. Even in a down economy, those things are necessary and some people will continue to pay for them. Plus, if you can undercut the competition, that can give you an advantage in finding clients.

[MaxPowers]

I built my computer. My friend liked it and has me build his. Then like 5 other people asked me to build them one. At the time, I said no. Only now do I realize I could of had something going. I am in the Army, so word travels very fast. I will get into it when I get back to the states.
Many people don't have computer knowledge, and think their only choices are Dell, ASUS, Mac... If you show them the possibilities, they will pay a good penny to have you make them one.
There are also little devices you can make at home. One that comes to mind is one of those altoid box amplifiers. Real cool gaget. Get good at making something like that and pump them out. All kinds of step by step instructions for cool stuff.
Back in the day, I knew a guy that used to mod either PS2s or Xboxs. Made some money doing that.
Think of a skill you have you could use, or a hobby you could sell, or just something someone doesn't want to do.

[jIM_Ohio]

I think that depends on the situation. Some folks will pay for services because it allows them the freedom to work extra hours or a second job to increase income. If you have to rush home to let the dog out, you can't stay late at work. If you have nobody to watch your kid after school, you need to be home to do that yourself.

Also, there are some services that have to be done no matter what. If you can find folks who aren't able to do things themselves, you can do well. Lawns have to be mowed. Leaves have to be raked. Dogs have to be walked. Snow has to be cleared. Even in a down economy, those things are necessary and some people will continue to pay for them. Plus, if you can undercut the competition, that can give you an advantage in finding clients.

My point was that in a down economy, that the "average" person will not have the opportunity to make more money, so those services become "not necessary".

How you and I define average and not necessary might be the issue though...

For example- if people have one spouse not working because of downsizing, the need for that daycare service is no longer there. If a person cannot work Saturdays because business suggests they only have a 30 or 40 hour workweek, then they can mow the lawn on Saturday. If business picks up, and then Saturday/weekend work is required to make the business work, then hiring someone for $15 to mow the lawn while person earns $500 working on Saturday makes sense.

[jIM_Ohio]

I built my computer. My friend liked it and has me build his. Then like 5 other people asked me to build them one. At the time, I said no. Only now do I realize I could of had something going. I am in the Army, so word travels very fast. I will get into it when I get back to the states.
Many people don't have computer knowledge, and think their only choices are Dell, ASUS, Mac... If you show them the possibilities, they will pay a good penny to have you make them one.
There are also little devices you can make at home. One that comes to mind is one of those altoid box amplifiers. Real cool gaget. Get good at making something like that and pump them out. All kinds of step by step instructions for cool stuff.
Back in the day, I knew a guy that used to mod either PS2s or Xboxs. Made some money doing that.
Think of a skill you have you could use, or a hobby you could sell, or just something someone doesn't want to do.

Add to that building cable descramblers. The part which makes this a good business is that it provides a tangible product. People have to go somewhere to get the product- so if you can build the product for cheaper than the retailer sells it for, you have a strong sustainable business.

I tried building a PC once (my first PC). It would have been cheaper for me had I bought it at a retailer.

[simpleyme]

in those extra four hours I would just look for odd jobs

actually starting a business depending upon what it is, can take licencing and insurance and some work that can take a while before you make any money

[michaelo]

If you are a decent writer, you build up enough money to get started. You don't need a website right away, but you will have to have a way to show samples of your writing.

Give away some free writing samples to build testimonials. Once you have those you can offer your writing services in some places for $7/500 words. Yes, you can earn more, but I have found that is a really good price point to get people to take you up on the offer.

Use the money you make from this to buy your own domain name and get a hosting account.

You can start with $0, then write the articles to make what you need to get up and running. Keep re-investing in your business, and you should see good growth if you do things right.

By the way, this is a very simplified version, it takes some work, but it does work. I have helped many people do just that.

However, don't get stuck in the stage of trying to figure out what to do. Take action and best of luck.

~michaelo

[Ryan_Taylor]

Yes, you can start with no money and no experience... but that's a risk. Why don't you use that extra time to go out and network?

Join professional organizations, join some sort of group, or start getting your skills polished. With the job market the way it is, you need connections and a way to make yourself stand out from the crowd.