How to start a business on the Internet with little or no money (less than €100)
Now, is €100 all you need to build a multinational? Probably not. And some of these price indications are going to vary, depending on the type of business you're looking to start up in.
- But with €100 or less, you can get started.
- With €100 or less, you can turn your idea into reality and put it into practice.
- With €100 or less, you can start doing business.
Here's how start an online business with €100 or less.
READ MORE: 17 reasons to start a business today
1. Find a great idea for a business (0€)
The advantage of find an idea At one million euros, that's completely free.
In fact, the ideas themselves are cheap, all you need is a pen and a piece of paper to start working on your business idea.
Look what are the problems that you are facing right now in your life, whether it's something that annoys you slightly, or something that can potentially turn your entire day upside down. See if you can find a solution to this problem. If you are facing this problem, you can be sure that there are others who are going through the same thing.
In summary, If you can create a solution to a problem, this is a profitable business idea.
With nothing but pen and paper, you can begin to understand what your business is, how much money you can potentially earn, and what you need to do to make it a success.
OK, technically you need to buy pen and paper, but you might find them in your work supplies. Your secret is safe with me.
2. Validate your business idea (10€)
Once you have an idea, it's time to start spending some of that $100 and see if your idea is really worth it or not.
You're going to want to create a minimum viable product or MVP, and use that to validate your idea.
A common mistake that many people make when it comes to validating their business idea is thinking that they will have to invest hundreds or thousands of euros to Develop an MVP.
In reality, It's best to spend very little at this point.
Whatever idea you have of an MVP, it can actually be even more minimal, and can often be financed with the money you have in your pocket.
That doesn't mean you won't build more MVPs as you go, after all, An MVP is a process that you'll repeat over and over again as you grow.
But to start with, the 2 most profitable validation techniques, which are also the most effective, consist in creating a website or doing the “5-seconds Test”.
In the first case, give it a try by creating a simple landing page to present your product and its characteristics. You don't need a ton of detail and advanced visual effects; all you need to know is if people are willing to pay for this product.
Create a website or a landing page
With 10 euros per month, you can create a website simple (we'll get to that a bit later) and all you need to do is see how many people are interested in what you have to offer.
All you need to do is create your landing page with a button that people can click if they're interested. A simple (binary) validation.
But my preferred validation method for less than €10 is the 5 “second-test”
READ MORE: The Best Landing Page Creation Tools
The “5 second test”
A five-second test involves showing an image to a participant for only... five seconds, after which the participant answers questions based on memory and impression.
The image you're testing could be a website, a graphic design, an application design, a prototype, a logo, or a text - anything that needs to communicate a message.
Why five seconds? Studies have shown that visitors spend only a few seconds evaluating your website before deciding to stay or leave.
READ MORE: 5 low-cost business ideas that you can implement with less than 100 euros
3. Learn (0€)
On this blog we create comprehensive articles detailing everything you wanted to know about business, and much more. And the best part is that it's all free.
The best entrepreneurs are always the most curious, and spending time learning through blogging, podcasts or any free alternative of your choice, can open up a whole world of information to you.
4. Make the buzz with social networks (0€)
Regardless of the sector of activity in which you work, you will have to learn how to use social networks in your marketing strategy. Whether it's LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram, you'll need to master at least one of these platforms.
In general, you need to make sure that you're posting quality content and that you're doing so consistently.
How you define quality content depends on your audience and what they like to consume. We've found that our LinkedIn audience likes to get information about new sales or marketing strategies that are easy to implement: our Growth Hacks daily newspapers.
On the other hand, with our audience on Facebook, we have found that videos are particularly effective in attracting new followers and attracting the interest of those who already follow us. It's also a great platform to promote the latest blog post, as well as occasional motivational quotes.
The great thing is that creating your professional social networks is incredibly easy with a free tool like Canva. Even with their free version, you have access to thousands of templates and images.
The second part of the formula is regularity, because you can't build a solid social network without regularity. If you can post manually on your favorite social media platform, it can end up becoming a real chore.
We always recommend using a social media planning tool.
There are a multitude of great services out there that you can use once your brand is better established and you can afford access to features like built-in analytics, multi-channel management, and link trackers.
However, when you're just starting out, all you really need is a planning tool. We love MeetEdgar, Hootsuite and Buffer, but there are plenty of other tools that will do the trick.
5. Create a website for your business (30 to 60€)
This is the most expensive part of starting an online business, but you should be able to create a website yourself for $50 or less.
Whether you're simply setting up a website to create a Landing page Or that you create a blog, you will need a landing page that you can direct and convert your audience to.
Most web hosting services like Godaddy or Bluehost automatically offer bundles where you can buy a domain name and CMS tools like WordPress or Wix to design your site. You can also take a look at our comparative study: Wordpress vs Wix.
But it is also possible to opt for all-in-1 solutions such as:
Depending on the hosting service you choose, the initial cost can be around €12 per month.
The thing to remember is that at this point, you're not yet trying to create a fantastic, well-developed website. All you're trying to do is create an MVP site that you can start directing your customers and potential audience to.
The site doesn't have to be the most impressive. Remember that the aim is not to create the most amazing company in the world in a single night. The aim is to test the viability of your idea.
You can even go a step further and hire a web designer on sites like Fiverr or Upwork for starters. Building your website isn't an expensive chore, unless you decide to do it.
For those who are getting started in the e-commerce world or looking to start their own online business, be sure to check out e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and Squarespace that offer free trials.
Shopify and Squarespace each offer a free 14-day trial of their services, which is more than enough for you to set up a test version of your online store. Other sites like Big Cartel allow you to use their service for free if you have fewer than five products listed.
READ MORE: 4 online business ideas for young entrepreneurs
6. Exploiting leads with email marketing software (10 to 20€)
If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, your email list is one of the most important, if not the most important, assets you have when it comes to growing your online business.
Your email list will be your most direct form of contact with your audience. It has been proven to be the most effective marketing channel available to you and, for years, theemail marketing has consistently outperformed all other digital channels when it comes to acquiring sales, leads, and customers.
Not only are the people on your mailing list more likely to be customers, but you can use the power of email to help fuel a lead by regularly sending them quality content through a newsletter.
MailChimp is by far one of the most popular choices. It gives you professional marketing automations, as well as features like analytics and free data reports if you have fewer than 2,000 subscribers.
READ MORE: The best emailing and marketing automation tools
7. Create your email list by creating a lead magnet (30€)
While not strictly necessary, I highly recommend that you invest some money in creating a lead magnet to help you grow your email list more quickly.
A lead magnet is essentially a piece of content that you offer to potential customers for free, in order to capture their attention and convince them to give you their contact details. Most people aren't going to sign up for your newsletter for the sheer pleasure of doing so, so a lead magnet allows you to ask for something in exchange for something that your audience finds valuable.
It could be a video youtube, a technical sheet, a webinar or even an ebook. As long as it contains information that is useful to your audience, you can promote your lead magnet anywhere to get more subscribers to your list.
To keep things simple, though, I would recommend creating an ebook. You really can't go wrong with the trusty ebook because it's a fantastic way to provide your audience with quality content, introduce them to your brand, and establish yourself as an expert in your field.
While there are certainly expensive services you can use to create your ebook, you can do it yourself for free with tools like Google Docs, Powerpoint, and Canva. Armed with nothing but these tools, you can easily create a well-designed eBook.
But if you want your eBook to stand out from the crowd - and you really want to - take your $30 and hire someone to create an attractive ebook cover for you on a marketplace like Fiverr.
Design is extremely important when it comes to creating a Lead magnet that converts. So I recommend that you spend a little bit of money on an eye-catching design.
I also recommend that you have someone else proofread your text to make sure there are no grammatical or spelling mistakes. You can simply ask a friend to do it for you, or if you don't mind spending a bit more, you can find a professional writer who will do it for you.
Keep it simple and effective.
Summary.
And that's it, for 100 euros or less, you can start creating your business. But will you need to invest more time and money in your business as it grows? Definitely. But the most important thing is that you can choose where you want invest your money.
Do you have a friend who is ready to design an ebook for free? Great! Save that money and invest in a web developer or writer instead to ensure your business grows.
With €100 you can create an e-commerce business and start working. Turns out you don't need a million euros to get started in Entrepreneurship as you can see.
