Evan Carmichael answers what service businesses need minimal startup capital. Most service businesses are cheap because they run on your time, not expensive equipment. Start with something you're passionate about where you can deliver real value, then bootstrap from there.
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Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of Ask Evan. Today I'm answering a question from one of our Facebook readers, love you guys, named Roderick. So Roderick wrote in saying, hi Evan, what are, what are businesses, the service businesses that do not require a lot of capital? Can you give me a list and and the ways? Thank you, Roderick. So thanks for the question, Roderick. If you're looking at a service-based business, almost every service-based business is a way to start off without a lot of capital because you're starting with your time and you're not investing a lot of money into having a location and equipment and vehicles and that kind of stuff. I would maybe flip the question on its head because I wanna make sure you approach it from the right way. You don't wanna approach a business just trying to make a lot of money. So a lot of entrepreneurs, they'll pick up a magazine and it'll say the top 100 new businesses to get into or the cheapest businesses to start or the biggest trends to jump on, you're likely not gonna have success going after those businesses. What you wanna do is chase something that you're really extremely passionate about, and that's gonna be something that you have a much greater chance of turning into a profitable and long-term successful company. Often when you're just going into a business because you're trying to make money, you rarely do. And if you look at the most successful entrepreneurs in the history, go back and look at any entrepreneur who you admire, if you look at why they started and you look at why they're still doing it now, you never see making money as a top priority for them. They are passionate about what they're doing. They're really excited about changing the way their industry works and adding a lot of value to the customers that they're serving, and that's their primary driver. And if you're adding a lot of value and you're helping a lot of people out, you're gonna make money as a byproduct of it. So the more you can pour yourself, your energy, your passion, your excitement into your business and into helping your customers, then you're more likely to be successful long-term. So, I love the idea of starting with the service-based business, even if your longer-term goal is to have a product. I always like starting with the service because it ties you to your customers more, you get better feedback from them, uh, you have lower overhead and you can improve your cash flow more quickly, and then expand to products if that's your longer-term goal. But in terms of what industry to pick, I'd pick something that you're really excited about, something you have a lot of passion for, and something where you feel you can add a lot of value to your customers. We have a worksheet on the site that we sell that helps you identify your passion and figure out how you wanna— what's the best way to grow your businesses. But apart from that, I'd look at ways, look at things that you've done in the past to get you excited. Look at things that you've done where you've helped people out and they've said, "Thank you so much, it's really helpful." A lot of times it's the things that you do naturally, things you're just gifted at and you're good at and you enjoy helping people with that you never thought could be turned into a business that sometimes make the best businesses. And so by looking at it that way, instead of looking for ways to start a business without spending a lot of money, or what are the most low-cost businesses to get started, you'll have a greater chance of success. Instead of approaching it from, you know, what is the cheapest business to start, I go for what am I really passionate about and what can I really help people with, and then how can I bootstrap it at the beginning to make it cheap to get started, and then I can expand from there. If you approach it that way, you'll have a much greater chance of success, you'll make more money, you'll add more value, you'll have a greater contribution, and you'll be happier. You know, if you do what you love, you're gonna wake up happier, a happier entrepreneur than if you don't do what you love. And running the business is hard enough as it is, you might as well be doing something that you're excited about to help get you through all the tough times that are ahead. So thanks for the question, Roderick. Thanks for the question on Facebook, all you Facebook guys, I appreciate it. Um, to those of you watching, if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up below, makes me wanna do more for you. And if you have a comment about this video or question about your own business or challenges, I'd love to try to help answer it for you if you wanna leave it in the comment section below. Thank you, and I'll see you on the next episode.
