How To Start A Tech Firm With No Money?
Building a business from scratch requires research, detailed competitive analysis, product testing, and the most critical part- the funds. Recent graduates or individuals who leave their regular jobs to begin the business have limited savings. It is not sufficient for business, and starts it on a good note. Moreover, the execution stage matters the most in a start-up.
It decides whether a start-up may succeed or fail. The primary reason for start-ups fail is- not having the funds when they want it the most. Some instances, like- leveraging a business opportunity, updating inventory and hiring urgently, require instant cash.
One cannot wait here for the money; instead, one needs it timely. It is the reason that businesses check up on external facilities like start-up business loans and finance the need. However, when you are just beginning the journey, you may struggle to qualify. It requires sufficient proof of operating history and revenue count. Thus, you may not get one.
There are other things that you can do to start a tech firm without money. The blog lists the best possibilities to kick-start your start-up firm with no capital.
7 Ways to kickstart your tech startup without financial backup
While empty pockets make starting the business a tough deal, it’s not impossible. Despite the startup challenges you may face, you must work hard towards achieving business momentum.
Are you dead-set on being a successful tech entrepreneur?
The below tips and tactics can help you begin your tech startup on a good note!
1) Identify your strengths
Before kick-starting your business, take a moment to analyse the strong points of your startup and vision. Consider your skills, knowledge, expertise and other tangible resources at your disposal. You must do this exercise by remaining unbiased.
To launch your business in partnership, inform him as well. Improvise and analyse critically before jumping to any conclusion. Additionally, do the following things:
- Analyse the resources you have.
- Check what you would need to make this idea work.
2) Choose a partner who can invest a bit
Money is the primary concern in any business. You would need it in the smallest possible initiative like- research and surveys. Thus, find someone who shares good financial backup and can be a good partner in the business. Yes, he may agree if he knows you personally and considers the potential of your product. However, he may demand equity for the funding or the money he may assist you with.
Apart from financials, check what other abilities he could invest in your firm. Does he excel at coding? Does he share sufficient knowledge of marketing channels and customer acquisition? If yes, then he could be of help in there as well. Analyse such persons to finance your needs and optimise excellence for your firm.
3) Use your connections and network
After having someone to assist you with the cash, promote your brand. Reach out to the people in your network and tell them about your brand. Check how a particular person in your connection may help you with brand awareness.
For example, if you have an influencer as your friend, contact him. Provide him a brief about your brand and check whether he could help you get the word out. According to a quote, “Business success is all about making and utilising connections.” Once you do that, you can see growing business following and insights.
4) Try to pre-sell your MVP
One of the most prominent ways to build your tech start-up is – Pre-sell your Minimum Viable Product. Don’t wait for the money to exhaust. Instead, create a customer-ready product. Pre-selling your MVP will help bring in those customers who want to buy the product as quickly as possible. Often customers need time to think, evaluate and discuss.
It is the most obvious reason they do not invest as they see a product. Instead, they wait and grab the one that meets the quality expectations and provides a satisfactory experience. However, MVP can help you here.
How do you approach your customers with an MVP strategy?
Here are some critical steps to pre-selling your MVP:
- Validate your business idea with surveys, interviews and testing
- Create a pre-order landing page for the product
- address a customer’s problem
- Provide a promise to solve a customer’s problem
- Create urgency regarding the product and the need it fulfils
5) Experiment and be adaptive to new strategies
According to a popular saying, “Success chases people who respond to an adaptive environment.” Though starting a business grants you the flexibility to do things your way, you must avoid mistakes. It is important from the growth and scaling perspective.
Decide and execute the strategy. Remain adaptive to the changes. Check how your strategy may change according to the changes in customer behaviour or the technical landscape. You can leverage this opportunity in the customer behaviour change to your benefit.
Analyse the present customer requirements and launch favourable strategies. An entrepreneur with an alternative mindset wants to grab any opportunity that comes their way. Furthermore, analyse the risks and negatives before launching any idea and have a backup plan.
6) Stay as small as you can for the time
Yes, it is also one of the most important parts of ensuring you utilise every bit. It would help you save more and use it for the most critical business purposes. Bloated budgets have fooled many founders into scaling quickly and hiring unsustainably. This pushes up the labour costs. It results in more expenditure than saving. Try to keep low costs until your business hits the right numbers.
Check the ways to limit the expenditure. You can do it by re-analysing the operations, reducing the additional or redundant processes and having a cost-effective inventory management strategy. You can counter and regulate redundant processes by leveraging automatic software.
7) Try reverse engineering concepts on customers
In tech, there is the propensity to build a product first and then sell it. Sometimes, it works like a reverse engineering process. You can meet clients first and check what problems they want to solve. What are they looking for solutions for?
It is one of the best strategies to get the money upfront from clients. Yes, it could be hard to get clients that way, but you must try. Sometimes, constant meetings and analysis of the client’s problem help the business and clients to know each other well. It fosters a relationship that the client may want to invest in for the long term. If it happens, it can be a good sign. To make it possible, you must do everything possible. Analyse your financials and the initiatives you must try to accomplish the goal. If you need more funds, leverage the money clocked in debts.
Yes, you can do so with a consolidation loan for a bad credit score. Early-age startups with limited operating history share low credit scores. Do not worry, by merging your debts into one payment, you can finance critical aspects to clock potential clients through product sales.
Bottom line
Achieving milestones in the technical industry is indeed a long route requiring persistence, consistency and patience. Yes, you can build and start your startup without money. All you need is good supportive partners, networks and, yes, the revenue-optimised strategy that prioritises customer acquisition and upfront sales.
