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How Do I Launch My Business Idea When I’m Broke?

Question: I am pretty low on funds, what do I need to do financially to prepare myself to launch a new business idea?

Answer: So you’re a starving college student, low on funds with an idea for a new physical product. You have no money in the bank, but you’re still willing to buy that daily Rockstar.

Step 1: Stop buying Rockstars. Basically, don’t buy soda for a month.

Step 2: Ask yourself if anyone legitimately cares about your product. Then run a test. Build a Facebook fan page. Get some strong cover art. Don’t be sloppy. Build up your social content. Start running ads to a target demographic that you think is there. Start at $5 a day. Run it for a week.

Couple these two steps together. Saving your pennies and putting in the work will give you the money to get started.

Now based on your research, you can figure out if people like what you have. Ask yourself if a ‘like’ is enough of an indicator to build a business on. If you don’t think it is, get your audience to take an action. For example, you could run a poll or start email signups. Define what you think success is.

Once you’ve done that, either get a second job, talk to your parents, or get an overdraft. This is really what’s going to work best if you’re a student. You have to prove that demand as we as find that financial component to make your product sell.

Find a partner. If you’re the poor student, who’s the rich student? Look for that guy that doesn’t have a job, but is still wearing Yeezys. We all know someone like that. But before you ask anyone for a cent and make that financial commitment, you need to find out if anyone cares.

If you don’t even have $5 dollars to let go of for an ad campaign, instead you could talk to 50 people. It’s as easy as starting a Facebook messenger group and talking to your friends. Let them know that you’ve got this idea and ask them what they think. Remind them that you’re not trying to sell them anything. Let them know that you just need that feedback because it matters to you. Everyone has at least 50 friends on Facebook. It’s doable. You simply need to build a conversation around what you’re trying to do.

Money doesn’t solve everything. Innovation solves everything. The money will come if you innovate.