How to Start a Business Out of Nothing at All

Courtesy : By Anisa Virji (Common Sense Living)

Last week I wrote about a couple of entrepreneurs who had given up cushy jobs to take off on their own internet startup adventures. The most striking thing about their business ideas was not what they needed to start this business, but what they didn't!

Here's what you don't necessarily need to start a business:

Space: If you think you need to rent office space whether for an army of staff you hope to build or even just for yourself that's not always true. An internet business needs no physical space whatsoever, except maybe a little real estate on your lap for a laptop.

An army: You also don't need a gang of minions running around doing the thousand different things you imagine a business has to do, like marketing, selling, photocopying and whatnot, again that's not necessarily true of businesses. Not only are there many options for internet marketing and sales you can take on yourself, you can easily get virtual freelancers online, at freelancer.in for example, who will do that for you as well.

An endless bankroll: At least you need capital to start a business, right? I mean, isn't that basic common business sense? Not anymore. We live in a wonderful world where you can take nothing and make something out of it.

You can take your time, your energy, your passion, and your free Wi-Fi connection from the local Starbucks coffee shop and start making money. Funding will, of course, make life easier. It will help your business grow faster. And not to mention, it will give you something to live on while you are starting up. But you don't need much to get started.

50 hours in a day: So many people who want to start something don't because they simply don't have time, caught up in the web of demanding jobs and other responsibilities. But you can now start a business online with as little as a few hours a day if you know how.

It's not as complicated as you think

Source: enciktat / Shutterstock

Truckloads of talent:A little talent, or even no talent can get you a long way in the type of business we are recommending here. Not only do you not have to be a genius prodigy but you also don't need any extraordinary skill or knowledge to start this type of business. Maybe like our wealth guru Mark Ford says, all you need is the mindset of a champion.

Friends in high places: If they didn't have any of the above, these guys must have had a lot of connections to start a business, right? After all without either money or connections how far can you get nowadays? They did have connections, friends who were willing to support them and share their skills, experience and ideas, family that believed in them. And partners they could trust. Those are connections you certainly will need. Friends in high places can help, but that's not as important as just having friends.

Perfectionism: A perfectionist entrepreneur believes she has to do everything perfectly, unless things are all perfectly in place she won't start. And if she won't start, she certainly won't get anywhere. If you think 'I'd rather do nothing than do a sloppy job', you will not be able to start that business. Instead think 'even if I do a sloppy job at first I will just get started and learn as I go'.

If you're letting a lack of any of these things stop you from starting a business, you are probably considering the wrong kind of business.

I'm here to tell you that the type of business you should be thinking about starting early in your entrepreneurial venture needs exactly two things:

Idea: You need a product, something to sell. But I'm not talking about a physical product necessarily; you can sell your thoughts, your words, and your passion. That's what I'm doing, right? Sending out my words, getting you to read them, and if you like what I say or how I think, you buy my product. Costs me nothing to sit here typing. All I do is write what I think. Put my ideas down on paper. If you can put yours on paper, you can start a business.

An Internet Connection: Whether you are putting your ideas down in a book, a blog, a website, or somebody else's website, you need an internet connection to get them out there.

Kshaunish Jaini had an idea and an internet connection and he started a travel startup. Harsh had an idea and an internet connection and he started a money-making blog. The Bansals had an idea and an internet connection and they started a Flipkart.

And Mark Ford had an idea and an internet connection and he started Common Sense Living. For the past year we have been sending you these ideas, and you have been signing up. Today, we have 88,000 readers who come to us for our ideas.

If you have an idea and an internet connection, you can add to it a smidge of passion, and a sprinkling of persistence to create and online business that brings you an income, from home, in your pyjamas, at any age, and leave your legacy in the world.

An online business can leverage your skills, reach clients across the globe, offer many avenues for sale both physical and digital, get profits based on results (not hours), and give you a life of complete financial freedom.

Mark writes a series on how you can start businesses with a minimum of resources. Common Sense Living is also working on an entrepreneurial guide that shows you how to start a business. If this is something that appeals to you stay tuned...

Can you find in you the belief that you do in fact have a valuable idea, an area of expertise, a know-how in something you want to share with the world? If you can believe that - if you can you get that image of a 20^th century brick-and-mortar business out of your head, then you can enter the online world where businesses are made out of nothing at all.

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Anisa Virji is the Managing Editor of Common Sense Living and Wealth Builders Club India, and authors the Common Sense Living Letters. To write to Anisa, please click here.