Starving entrepreneur!

53 replies
Looking to start a business. But finances are limited. Any good ideas?
#entrepreneur #starving
  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    What niches do you feel passionate about?

    What feels fun to you?

    If you are cash-strapped, you need to be all in on the energy side of things, to spend the months then years learning from pros, studying, practicing, creating and connecting.

    When you pick a business you feel passionate about, then you can begin doing research on finding a pressing problem to solve in that niche.
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    • Profile picture of the author Keith Mack
      Thanks I'm interested in financial business sector.
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      • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
        Banned
        Why not change your "Mindset" from "How can I make money" to ... "How many People can I help?"

        2c.
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        "Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman
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        • Profile picture of the author quadagon
          Originally Posted by Jonathan 2.0 View Post

          Why not change your "Mindset" from "How can I make money" to ... "How many People can I help?"

          2c.
          because he wants to start a business not a charity.
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          I've got 99 problems but a niche ain't one
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          • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
            Banned
            Originally Posted by quadagon View Post

            because he wants to start a business not a charity.
            Lol. Helping/empowering/etc. People and creating a successful Business go hand-in-hand. (IMO) I'm sure OP could create a whole boat load of money if he were destemmed enough ... However for me that's not as important as really providing great value.
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            "Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman
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            • Profile picture of the author Keith Mack
              Ok. I appreciate the information.
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          • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
            Banned
            P.S.

            A good example would be Jack Canfield's "Chicken Soup For The Soul" book. Do you think those guys were just in it to make money? No.
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            "Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman
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            • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
              Originally Posted by Jonathan 2.0 View Post

              P.S.

              A good example would be Jack Canfield's "Chicken Soup For The Soul" book. Do you think those guys were just in it to make money? No.
              Do you think they don't know their target market? Publishers don't publish books without commercial intent, that's ridiculous.

              They know exactly what people like you will buy into, and what you'll pay.

              Buffaloed - to impress or intimidate by a display of power, importance, etc.
              Buffaloed | Define Buffaloed at Dictionary.com


              Brent
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              • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
                Banned
                Originally Posted by Brent Stangel View Post

                Do you think they don't know their target market? Publishers don't publish books without commercial intent, that's ridiculous.
                No. I agree: Of course the Book had "commercial intent" (as you put it).

                My point was simply that it wasn't a great success just because a Publisher liked it .. It was because they had the aspiration to bring comfort (etc.) to People through their stories.
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                "Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman
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              • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
                Banned
                P.S.

                It's not always about making money
                /Tip.
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                "Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman
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                • Profile picture of the author Keith Mack
                  Ok. Thank you for the advice.
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              • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
                Banned
                P.P.S

                Show me any successful Entrepreneurial venture... And I will show you something that brings great value via their Product/Book/Website/etc ... To their "Market."
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                "Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman
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                • Profile picture of the author Keith Mack
                  I truly see where you're going. Thanks
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            • Profile picture of the author Keith Mack
              Ok. Thanks for your advice.
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        • Profile picture of the author Keith Mack
          Thanks I definitely like that.
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        Originally Posted by Keith Mack View Post

        Thanks I'm interested in financial business sector.
        Ok lets look at this for a moment.. you are basically broke, but you have interest in the financial business sector.

        So you basically want to start a business about how to make money, but don't have any.

        To be honest.. its not going to work for you.

        Now if you are going to say.. Oh I have a business and make money and have a system in place that I can replicate my success and share with others.. that would be totally different.. but I think we all know that is not the case.

        Start with what you know.. something you can replicate success with.. something you can share with others to create success In their lives... You might know how to draw... share that.. you might know how to weld share that... you might be good at taking notes in class.. share that.

        Start with a level of authority on a subject you understand, and work on subjects you aspire to...
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        Success is an ACT not an idea
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        • Profile picture of the author tritrain
          Yeah, there's a certain irony there!
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          Domains for sale - see seopositions.net
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        • Profile picture of the author Keith Mack
          Thank you for the information. I kindly appreciate it.
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  • Profile picture of the author superowid
    OFFLINE: Do any of Street Food business.
    ONLINE: Be an affiliate.

    Good luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author Keith Mack
      Thanks I appreciate the information. I'll consider that.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Keith Mack View Post

    Looking to start a business. But finances are limited. Any good ideas?
    Lol. Well it's kind of a broad question ... So it's kind of a broad answer:

    Part I. Find a need that People/Niche have that you're "passionate"/interested about. (Could be anything from curing acne to surfing The Stock Market." Part II. Then provide those People/Market with solutions.

    (HTH)
    P.S. The more People you help, the more successful you will be.
    : )
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    "Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman
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    • Profile picture of the author Keith Mack
      Thanks I appreciate the information. I'll keep that in consideration.
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  • Profile picture of the author tritrain
    You really should sit down and write out all the things you're really passionate about. Then mark down ways that you could make money doing those things. You'll start to narrow the list as you realize that some things are feasible. Once you've got a good list.

    Come back here for help in further narrowing things down, and to give you ideas about how you could do those things and make money.
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    Domains for sale - see seopositions.net
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  • Profile picture of the author DIABL0
    If you lack funds and have a skill, you could offer it as a service.

    Otherwise, there's affiliate marketing, where you promote other companies products / services. However, finding an offer to promote is the easy part, how you market it with your lack of funds is another thing.

    I've been promoting affiliate / CPA offers for a little over 17 years now.

    I heavily promote PPL (pay per lead...lead generation) offers. This is because there is no credit card / purchase required to complete an offer. All a user has to do is fill out a form, so conversion rates are typically much higher compared to offers that require a sale to be made.

    I favor offers that have a make, get or save money benefit to them, as they have overall worked the best. They also tend to have the greatest mass appeal (will be of interest to a large general audience), so the potential exists to produce high volume and they are fairly easy to cross promote on the back-end.

    Some of the verticals (niches) I have done extremely well with are: education, insurance, loans, debt, credit, mortgage, assistance, discount offers, homeowner offers, etc...

    Bottom line, it's far easier to get someone fill out a short form than to get them to pull out their credit card and make a purchase. So why struggle with trying to sell this or that, when you can provide free information that users want/need and get paid well doing it.

    Something to consider.
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    • Profile picture of the author Keith Mack
      Great advice. I'm going to check into this. I appreciate it.
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  • Profile picture of the author addaminsane
    Art: painting ... drawing ... sculpting ... acting ... music ... MMA ...
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    You need a focus...no one can give you the magic bullet of "what should I do?"

    Start by making a list of things you like talking about.

    Take a few days to make that list. Then see what problems you can solve in those areas that people are already paying money to solve.



    Then you can sort down to the one that makes most sense. But at the foundation is the fuel of your interest level: you won't have to force yourself to be interested or stay motivated.

    The most important thing is to get conversations with qualified prospects. That's how you make sales. Anything else is a distraction.

    A conversation can be a sales page--that's a one-way conversation. You want a qualified prospect to see it, and have that conversation, and be presented with something to buy at the end (that's also called an offer.)

    This is where to begin.
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    • Profile picture of the author Keith Mack
      Thank you much. I value your knowledge.
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  • Profile picture of the author discrat
    Curious, but do you mean "starving" as in that you have tried IM and can barely stay afloat

    OR

    "starving" in that you are hungry for success ??
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    Nothing to see here including a Sig so just move on :)

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    • Profile picture of the author Keith Mack
      I mean hungry for success. I've tryed a few businesses
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      • Profile picture of the author discrat
        Originally Posted by Keith Mack View Post

        I mean hungry for success. I've tryed a few businesses
        Come on now....you posted 9 new posts to just give arbitrary 'Thanks'. Use the 'Thank' button lol

        Originally Posted by TrickyDick View Post

        Start here....

        Get Eric Louviere's classic book for free...

        DON'T BUY ANYTHING ELSE OR HANG OUT ON WARRIOR FORUM! :-)

        Read it 6- 8 times...

        Follow what he suggests...

        $0 required...
        Yep, unlike some certain people here.... I agree. Eric has some quality stuff that has helped me in the past
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        Nothing to see here including a Sig so just move on :)

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  • Profile picture of the author Maxxx333
    The most important questions you should try to solve are first what do you want to work on, where could you get the good offers, what will be your audience, what traffic source will you use to promote, what tools do you have as support in any trouble case, and then you could approximately know how much will be needed for this! One think i could suggest you is to go for mobile marketing, cause it doesn't request too much money, and the potential leads are really many, so you could make it really easy!
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  • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
    Originally Posted by Keith Mack View Post

    Looking to start a business. But finances are limited. Any good ideas?
    Yes. Give us more to work with - such as your experience, skills, interests, long-term ambitions, and the reasons you consider yourself an entrepreneur.

    Otherwise, we're all just shooting in the dark.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kurt
      Originally Posted by Frank Donovan View Post

      Yes. Give us more to work with - such as your experience, skills, interests, long-term ambitions, and the reasons you consider yourself an entrepreneur.

      Otherwise, we're all just shooting in the dark.
      I'm really tired of posts where people don't give us any info to go on...

      It's like asking for driving directions without telling us where they are. If you're driving to Yellowstone and want directions, it's helpful if you tell us if you're driving from Seattle or Miami.

      Or calling the fire department because your kitchen is on fire, but not telling them where your house is.

      The more info people give, the better the help they'll get.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    Originally Posted by Keith Mack View Post

    Looking to start a business. But finances are limited. Any good ideas?

    Keith,

    As you look at starting a business online or offline, here are a few tips I'd like to share based on my long career in small business development:

    1. Most every professional career I know takes years to prepare for and get good at. Internet marketing is no different despite the never-ending hype you will experience that suggests anyone can make thousands of dollars very quickly and effortlessly online. This is not to say that it takes years before you can begin to create income. I think IM (Internet marketing) is best learned as "on the job training." So start your business and learn and profit as you go. If you have no money in reserve to pay the daily bills, don't bank on this career to all-of-a-sudden dump a full time income into your lap. Keep a full time job - but work nights and weekends to begin learning about and growing your online business.

    2. Others are telling you to follow your passion or what interests you. Said slightly differently . . . Inventory your knowledge, passions, past work experience, education, training, hobbies, and things you are good at doing to see if you have an advantage of knowledge in a particular topic. This could be a place to start (but doesn't have to be) as you contemplate what type of a business you want to set up. Having an "advantage" in a topic means that you already have knowledge, experience, and some authority to share with others about that topic. You will need to figure out how to increase and monetize your advantage, but that is not real difficult once you understand what your audience wants. Which brings us to #3.

    3. Everything starts with identifying and defining your audience ... those people you will serve as prospects, subscribers, and customers. Market research and study online will help you to understand your marketplace and who is in it, what they will buy, who the competition is, what products are currently available, what they sell for, where this future audience can be found online ... and most particularly, what problems, wants, desires, and dreams they have. You are establishing, for your future business, where there is buying demand from prospects in your marketplace.

    4. Always sell into established demand. You are not Apple or Microsoft or a huge company ready and able to spend millions on developing new and cutting edge technology and products that don't exist today. Instead, you should focus on creating things (mostly information products and services) that your audience is already clamoring for. Locate demand first, as we mentioned in #3 above, then work on finding a way to supply that demand with an excellent product or service. It's how profitable businesses have been created for hundreds of years all around the globe!

    5. Your business model will be the way you operate in connecting the demand with the supply. The identification of a particular business model is where many people wrongly begin their journey in IM. A better way to decide upon a business model is to look at what makes the most sense when considering a delivery system of your solutions to your audience. It could be affiliate selling (where you get a commission for delivering buyers to other product creators), or direct marketing of your own goods to your audience, or selling physical goods (e-commerce), or blogging where you profit from making recommendations to a loyal audience, or running a membership site where you charge for private knowledge, or consulting with clients for a fee, or . . . ??? The point is, there are many different business models available to do online selling. I'm suggesting you let your audience, their demand, your chosen supply system, and also the success of others in similar circumstances be your guide in determining which business model works best for your situation.

    6. Build an email list of subscribers from the very beginning. No matter what niche, what audience, or what business model you go with, it's important to build a contact list of people that you can serve within the topic you've chosen. As you serve them, they become trusting, loyal, and your "bread and butter" as your own private audience (marketplace) for paid solutions you offer. Many business owners will tell you their subscriber list is the single most important asset their business owns.

    This is just a beginning. I hope you will keep these tips in mind no matter what you choose to do. The failure rate in this landscape is very high. I attribute that fact to so many people coming into online business with unrealistic expectations and without laying a solid foundation on proven business principles.

    Others with experience are here to assist you, but they can't make decisions for you. Every business is unique and different. I hope you will decide right now to apply yourself as if you were totally and fully responsible for everything you do in business. If you apply the correct principles, put in a great amount of effort, stay focused over time, and always serve your audience with high quality advice and products, you will have a chance to make it in online marketing.

    The very best to you,

    Steve
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    Steve Browne, online business strategies, tips, guidance, and resources
    SteveBrowneDirect

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    • Profile picture of the author anayb
      Originally Posted by Steve B View Post


      You are not Apple or Microsoft or a huge company ready and able to spend millions on developing new and cutting edge technology and products that don't exist today.

      Steve
      You don't need much funds but an unique idea and lots of guts to come up with a cutting edge technological solution that might have a potentially strong market demand. Long time ago two Stanford PhDs realised the world may need a fast search engine (I must mention Microsoft failed to see that freight train coming!!). They developed the first version of the legendary PageRank algorithm in Susan Wojcicki's garage with assembled PCs, and later raised millions to give it a commercial form.

      You simply don't always need money to build amazing things, but lots of great exposures, talent and rock-solid education. Its not for mediocre, but there's no reason to believe that only lots of start-up funds can only pave your way towards success.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    True enough ... but my point is simply that for a new entrepreneur, it's much more sensible to find existing demand in the marketplace and sell solutions to that demand rather than trying to create demand that doesn't exist. Creating new products and marketplaces from scratch is typically the playground for large R&D and marketing mega budgets.

    Steve
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    Steve Browne, online business strategies, tips, guidance, and resources
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Originally Posted by Keith Mack View Post

    Looking to start a business. But finances are limited. Any good ideas?
    Ebay 100%. Fiver 80%. Your own website selling... porn. 100%. Lol just kidding (kinda).

    Are you good at anything? You would create ebooks and sell those online, and build an entire business around it. No matter what you choose... a long training in internet marketing is required.
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  • Profile picture of the author cearion
    Banned
    I've met a lot of people who have became successful in life having very little or none at all while on starting. Majority of them said that it will all start with what you love to do. You will have to find this first.
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  • Profile picture of the author michdubs
    There are lot of threads with that kind of information here that is newbie friendly, you may read from different entrepreneurs who have been there, done that
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  • Profile picture of the author TrickyDick
    Originally Posted by Keith Mack View Post

    Looking to start a business. But finances are limited. Any good ideas?
    Start here....

    Get Eric Louviere's classic book for free...

    DON'T BUY ANYTHING ELSE OR HANG OUT ON WARRIOR FORUM! :-)

    Read it 6- 8 times...

    Follow what he suggests...

    $0 required...
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  • Profile picture of the author DURABLEOILCOM
    I recommend you find a stable good paying job so that you can have the funds to finance your Internet Marketing business.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel1000
    Not having funds is an excuse we use to excuse poor resutls and not taking action.

    Remove it from your vocabulary.

    The easiest way to get started is social media management for small businesses.

    Here's how you do it.

    Read an ultimate guide on any social media platform you're interested in. They're all over the internet. Many of them are good.

    Once you're comfortable with the processes, start pitching small business owners. Tell them why you think that platform would be useful to them, how you can help, and include a video walkthrough for their specific use case.

    All value.

    A good percentage will reply.

    A few will need a follow up.

    It's a thousand dollars a month in the bank once you close your first client.

    The entire process can be done in two weeks.

    Have fun.
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  • Profile picture of the author Israfilhaque1230
    A decent illustration would be Jack Canfield's "Chicken Soup For The Soul" book. Do you think those folks were simply in it to profit?
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    • Profile picture of the author TrickyDick
      Originally Posted by Israfilhaque1230 View Post

      A decent illustration would be Jack Canfield's "Chicken Soup For The Soul" book. Do you think those folks were simply in it to profit?
      Yes, it was primarily for money since Jack Canfield, by his own admission, was earning very little money...

      Here's a fun fact... He didn't come up with the "Chicken Soup For The Soul" name...

      It was actually suggested by another person in Bob Proctor's Mastermind group...

      It is one of the best business models ever... Someone else comes up with the name... Someone else writes the content... You cash all the checks. :-)
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      • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
        Banned
        Originally Posted by TrickyDick View Post

        Yes, it was primarily for money since Jack Canfield, by his own admission, was earning very little money.-)
        My point was that is wasn't just about making money.
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        "Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman
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  • Profile picture of the author brutecky
    You need one of three things to start a business.

    Money
    Time
    Skill

    If you do not have one of those three things you cant start a business. You said you do not have money, so you must have a marketable skill or a whole lot of time (for blog posting or other content marketing)
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  • I started my business for free by using Wix.com for my websites, Canva and Pixabay for my images, and a free online writing group for editing. This has gotten the ball rolling.
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  • Profile picture of the author Greg Schlies
    Yes of course, I can suggest you a better place to be an entrepreneur with small investment. That is is forex trading, forex as being a virtual market and a global currency market is offering platform to millions of traders each day to start their business here. You can work with mini accounts, probably with just $100, can work any time, there is no time frame, can work from anywhere and your investment will be a laptop or tablets with internet connection and good amount of expertise and knowledge with small amount of money. Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Neal01
    Have you decided what you want to do first?

    There are so many ways to make money online but you need to know what your passion is first.

    Without passion you will struggle to dedicate yourself which will ultimately lead to failure.
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    If want to make a full time living using just your mobile phone, watch this video for details Watch the video here

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  • Profile picture of the author Jamel Hassell
    What skillsets do you have ?

    Have thought of solutions to bring to the market place ?

    Are you aware that your mind is the greatest resource which supersedes finance ?
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  • Profile picture of the author mohdmacki
    Affiliate Marketing would be a great start to build up your knowledge how the sales funnels works, how you can use email marketing etc as these activities what a person would learn accounts for 80% of whatever business u would want to build in future.
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