With the explosion of digital tools, every entrepreneur has more opportunities to than ever to fund their business.
It is absolutely possible to start a business with no money down, or at least very little money down. This is applicable if you are ready to apply really hard work, productivity, uniqueness, resourcefulness and ingenuity to your business to have it goto market in no time.
Here are some proven tips on how to begin any business with no money down.
Validate your product/service as quickly as possible
If you are starting a business on the cheap, chances are you need to generate cash quickly. The fastest way to generate cash quickly is to sell something that you are 100% sure people will need and want, not something that is "nice-to-have".
"Don't find customers for your product. Find products for your customers," says renowned american author Seth Gordin. "People don't want what you make. They want the way it will make them feel, and there aren't that many feelings to choose from."
Since the paid-up capital is low, it is more essential that whatever you sell will make anyone feel they absolutely need it.
Use a simple sales process
While there are many elaborate sales process that you can use, there are even more simple sales processes that can already get you the sales you need.
One research shows that 87% of buyers want to understand the relevance of your product/service. Help them do so by being exceptional in your discovery process. Engage in personal interaction (in person when possible, or virtual when that’s prohibitive) early in the process with plenty of tailored content. SiriusDecisions reports that it takes up to 17 pieces of content for a rep to woo a buyer. Our research also found that we need to engage buyers at the various points in their buying cycle. And by engage, I don’t mean pitch, I don’t mean dump data, I mean meet the buyer where they are by asking enticing, relevant questions.
Our experience is that 75% of the time salespeople ask questions that just scratch the surface of the buyer’s issue and that are primarily based on situation and circumstance. Instead, you must go beyond generic questions and ask for detailed and specific information, such as finding the actual problem you may be able to solve, to create an opportunity and differentiate their offering in the prospect’s mind. The power of value-based selling is to go deep into the customer’s perspective to fully qualify the opportunity, and then create a need for your product or service.
There are two key elements of this methodology, create an effective prospecting cadence and avoid unwinnable opportunities.
A sales cadence is a sequence of strategically choreographed sales activities that a rep follows to connect with prospects. It requires scheduling non-negotiable blocks of time for social media interactions, email exchanges, and phone calls. Sales cadences are a helpful part of the sales process as they give sales reps a systematic framework to follow. When you keep things simple your team is more likely to implement the plan and fill the revenue pipeline with qualified prospects.
Unwinnable opportunities waste time because they will likely not win and are not unqualified. High-performing reps continuously qualify all their opportunities. They are rigorous and understand that qualification is a process and not an event. Qualification is best when we understand and are completely knowledgeable on the five questions buyers ask when making a purchase.
- Why should they buy this?
- Is it worth the investment for them?
- Is this the right person to speak to about the purchase?
- What must happen for them to be convinced?
- When will they buy if they are convinced?
Network with Communities of support
There is no need to go it alone when you jump into entrepreneurship. And in fact, joining in-person and digital communities of like-minded peers can be an incomparable help in moving you forward.
Network communities like EGN Singapore help to connect you with like-minded people. EGN has up to a 1,000 executive members in Singapore alone and the return on investment is simply the instant word-of-mouth that you can from connecting with fellow members during peer group meetings and networking sessions.
Tapping into such networks who provide knowledge, advice and even funding is a fast-tracked way to appoint stakeholders without going through the process of cold outreach on your own. You build alot of authenticity, goodwill and congeniality by working with people who understands the process entirely.
Raise money from other sources
If you are not interested to bootstrap or you have grown out of bootstrapping to a point that cash is required, then here are some outside funding sources which you can consider. And mind you, Singapore is one of the best locations to access new capital because we have a myriad of auxillary platforms that helps with the below.
- Crowdfunding
- Grants and government assistance
- Incubators and Accelerators
- Friends and Families
- Private angels