Today we are going to discuss, “what is a good low-cost business to start.”

Over 10 years ago I started a business from home, very low cost that grew into an INC 5000 company.

The first thing I want to share with you is, “what’s the biggest problem when starting a business.” Second we will discuss why it’s not just cost that you should be looking at when starting a business and lastly, I’ll give you my personal choice for a good low-cost business for you to start and how to do it.

What is the biggest issue with starting a business?

I happen to agree with Michael Gerber, the author of The E-myth, The E-myth Revisited. He has written all kinds of different books. He says that the biggest problem is understanding the entrepreneur myth. The entrepreneur myth is the idea that someone who’s really good at the technical or tactical can run a business, but they are very different skills. The person that is the most skilled pie maker can not run a business, just because they know the making of the pie. Very different skills, very different things.

Most people that start a small business usually have some kind of skill level at plumbing or making pies or whatever…..whatever that technical thing is or even running advertising. A lot of people launch a social media advertising company because they really know ads but a lot of them don’t know how to run a business. Very different skill set, very different way of thinking.

Before you start that business, just understand you’re going to have to learn some things other than just the technical. In your desire to start this business, you have to understand that there’s a lot of roles you take on when you start a business. It’s not just the technical or the end result of the product that you create. It’s not (if you’re running a video editing business) you doing just the editing….you managing the employees, it’s you handling the marketing, it’s you handling what someone who picks up the phone at the office will be saying, what is the procedure if they have a complaint, how does that get escalated?

There’s a lot of stuff that you have to figure out when it comes to running a business. This is something that most people don’t think about until they are already in the weeds. Then they hire people to take care of the stuff that they don’t want to learn or don’t want to deal with and then they learn that you can’t trust everybody. Some people just don’t care about their job when it’s your business and that’s something- that’s a hard lesson to learn.

Someone that I really trusted, she was our financial controller, (I trusted her, I’d had her to my house, I had even given money to a charity that she loved) she stole $60,000 from me. I’m not mad at her, I didn’t hold this grudge. It’s something for you to think about… people are not just going to respect you. Without any kind of systems or any kind of watching over what it is that they’re actually doing. Throwing your ignorance into this mix is not the way to run a business.

What should you be looking at when starting a business?

Next it’s not just cost that you should be looking at, it’s also time. What is this going to look like time wise? A lot of people, they leave a job to start a business because they want freedom, they want time freedom. What they usually find is they are working more hours which they justify and say “well at least it’s my thing.”

Okay, fine. Fine, but it’s now your job, it’s not actually a business if you don’t have freedom. If it relies on you showing up in every single project with every single turning of the screw or flipping of the switch then what you’ve done is you’ve traded a job with reliable pay (maybe you didn’t like everything about it but it had set hours) to something that can consume every hour of your waking day and even some of your non-waking day, right? It can keep you up at night, you can be stressed out and so it’s not just cost which certainly should be a factor.

There are some businesses that do cost more. For example a Domino’s franchise…you can just follow the system. It tells you where to order the mozzarella from, when to throw out the ham. It tells you all the stuff that you need to know. If you’re running a Domino’s pizza business, that’s $250,000 and it’s a 10-year return on investment, that’s their numbers. In 10 years you should make that money back and start making a profit. Now, I don’t know about you but to me those numbers don’t sound that great but people do it every day.

There are people that buy franchises just like that every single day. McDonald’s franchise, over a million dollars, it’s a hundred thousand dollars to attend hamburger university in order for you to get educated on the franchise you just purchased for over a million dollars. Now, because that franchise has very simple systems to follow, it makes sense for almost everyone to do it if they follow the system and have access to a lot of capital.

If you don’t have a lot of capital, then you definitely need to pay attention to not just the money but also time. What does it look like? How are you going to build this? Are you doing it by yourself….meaning you’re the entrepreneur, the manager, the technical, the customer support, the troubleshooter, the legal person, the bookkeeper….you’re all of these things. What does that look like time wise? Pay attention to what kind of time is this actually going to take for you to create a successful business.

Before we get to my last point, I would love to give you some value, some personal value. Drop a comment, let me know what kind of business you have either considered starting or what business did you start? Maybe I can give you some marketing ideas, maybe I can give you some things that I’ve learned from the trenches. I’ve been a full-time entrepreneur for 16 years, built an INC 5000 company from home, generated tens of millions of dollars online so I’m happy to help you. Tell me what it is that you’re up to and I’ll see if I can give you some suggestions.

What’s a good low-cost business to start?

Lastly, I want to share with you my personal choice for a good low-cost business. If you’re searching for this kind of information, you’re not fully sold on what business to start just yet. Let’s keep that in mind, Okay? If you’re not sure what business to start, if it’s not just glaring at you as if this is the obvious one to start because it’s what I love and it’s what I’m good at or knowledgeable about etc…..I would consider doing a network marketing business.

This doesn’t mean that that’s your end business. It may not be, but what you will learn for a very low cost is what it takes to actually run a business. You’re going to learn about promotion, marketing, sales, follow-up, mindset and self-development. What you won’t learn about (and you don’t need to know in this kind of business) is copyrights, patents, trademarks, supply chain, currency conversion, human resources and how to deal with customer service at the highest level. You may have some customers that you have to deal with…but it’s going to teach you the same principles you need for any business.

If you go into a business not knowing how to market, how to sell, how to follow up, how to do promotions, how to present or how to develop yourself…if you don’t know those things, you’re going to struggle with any business you ever do. Typically for a few hundred dollars, you can start a network marketing business and learn those things and possibly even earn some money.

If you fill your pipeline, if you talk to a lot of people, there’s a very good chance by following the systems that you’ll make some extra money.

Now before I was ever a coach or a trainer, I was the number one income earner of a network marketing company that I started after losing it all in real estate. I was dead broke and in personal foreclosure. This was before I was ever a coach or a trainer, I was a top income earner of a company. I no longer build a network marketing company so I’m not here to pitch you any kind of company, but I will give you some advice on that. If it makes sense to you to…”instead of launching my own business and figuring everything out myself, maybe I should try and learn some things for a low cost through network marketing”…. then I have a very simple solution for you.

I’m not in one so I’m not pitching you one. I speak at a lot of them. Post on social media right now and say “hey, I’m looking for a good network marketing company to join any suggestions.” Trust me, you’re going to get some messages. You’re going to get some comments and you’re going to get some engagement from friends, from people that you know from people that you don’t know, you’re going to get lots of suggestions around this and you get to choose what feels good to you, what do you want to research, what do you want to learn more from and you get to choose your path.

I would suggest if you don’t know what company or what business you want to start or you’re not sure about all the different nuances that I’ve talked about here today…..”learn while you earn” or I should say “earn while you learn” by joining a network marketing business. Follow their system, learn promotion, marketing, sales, follow-up, mindset etc and it will serve you whether you stay in that network marketing business or if you end up launching your own business.

I have a free resource that I want to give you. If you do identify that “thing” that you want to sell whether it’s consulting or services or product or whatever, I have a five-day prospecting power-up resource that is totally free. Here is the link… Higdongroup.com/5daypowerup just click that link, register for it and no matter what you’re trying to sell, this will help you. It will help you Locate people to talk to, what to say to them, how to follow up with them. Whatever it is that you’re selling online, on social media, this will absolutely help you.