How do you start a business with no money or experience?

One may think that traditional employment has many benefits such as stable income, guaranteed bonuses and career opportunities. But is true?

In fact, your boss can fire you any moment for whatever reason from lack of professional qualities to staff reduction. So stability is an illusion.

Solution? Self employment!

When you are the boss, it’s you who decides what to do, when and how much money to pay. And there’s definitely no risk of being fired. But starting a business with no money or experience sounds crazy! Fortunately, nowadays one can choose from a lot of options.

Ecommerce as self employment

Of course, building a multinational business empire is something out of your reach. At least, at the starting point. So a small online business is a good solution. It doesn’t require an office or a lot of staff. In fact, many ecommerce entrepreneurs start all alone.

And you can choose from any niche:

• You can develop mobile applications;
• Write ebooks, make video tutorials and courses;
• Make money with affiliate marketing;
• Create a web store;
• Start a dropshipping business

Unfortunately, most of such businesses require certain skills or talents. It’s unlikely that just anyone can write a good book or that a good tutorial can be made by someone with no knowledge in the given area.

So the only way out is the traditional buy and resell business. However, it has a number of drawbacks too.

Online retail and its downsides

This business models is hundreds years old. The fact that people buy stuff on the web instead of a brick and mortar store doesn’t really change anything. But a beginner entrepreneur will face a number of obstacles here.

1. Money

If opening a store was so easy, we would all become shop owners! One needs money. Lots of it! And if you have no savings and can’t get a loan in a bank because of your account issues from collection agencies like AFNI collections on your credit report. This path is most likely closed for you.

2. Warehouse

Although a web store sells products online, the goods are real and have to be kept somewhere. So one needs a warehouse, and that means additional expenses. Or you could just stockpile everything in your apartment.

3. Risks

Any business carries risks, not to mention starting a business with no money or experience. The thing is before selling something, you must buy something. But after you’ve spent money on purchasing goods, you can’t be sure someone will buy them.

Dropshipping and why it’s different

In any kind of retail, a product starts its way from a wholesaler, then goes to a retailer, and finally gets to a customer. Unlike traditional business, dropshipping models enables retailers to send goods directly from a wholesaler to a customer.

As a result, you can benefit from the following advantages:

1. Since a product is sent directly to clients, there’s no need for a warehouse of any kind. You don’t stock goods, but order them only after a purchase was made.
2. Since you contact a wholesaler only after a client places an order with you, you will most likely sell them without any problems. There are chances customers will ask for refunds, but such losses are incomparable with what you can lose because of unexpected low demand.
3. Since you don’t have to rent a warehouse or buy goods beforehand, you don’t need a lot of investment to start. Yes, you still need money to make a web store, start a marketing campaign, order your first products – but it’s nothing compared to traditional retail.

Today a lot of people use dropship website to resell goods from popular marketplaces such as eBay, AliExpress and Amazon. And most of them say they had no experience in this business whatsoever. Which means literally anyone can do this.

Steps required for starting a business with no money or experience

1. Choose a niche. That is decide what you are going to sell – clothes, handbags, accessories, fan merchandise, etc. A general store is usually harder to promote.
2. Buy a hosting and a domain name somehow associated with your web store’s niche. You need these to run a web store.
3. Create a web store. It is highly recommended to use WordPress as it’s easy to handle even if you’re a newbie.
4. Install payment processors and all necessary plugins depending on which marketplace you are going to use.
5. Upload products to your store and start a marketing campaign.

Of course, it sounds easier than it is, and some of these steps will require several dollars to invest. But still, almost anything that looks unfamiliar can be learnt from various forums and tutorials you’ll easily find on the web. Many dropshippers share their experience. And it’s all for free!

Dropshipping model is a good and effective alternative to traditional retail which is beyond most simple people’s reach.