Starting a business on a budget!

Hello, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach here with you today because I want to dive into how you can start a business on a budget. I'm just realizing that I made a really long list in the description of this live and then didn't copy it down anywhere. So I'm going to buy some time and if you're joining in. Hi, welcome. It's so great to have you here. I am just pulling up the list of things that I'm telling you to do really quick. But if you're joining, I would love to hear where you're joining from and any questions you have about starting your business. If you want to pop those in the chat while I do this. Sorry, guys. I'm normally a little more organized. Let's see here. I was. So what happened was, I'm just going to be honest, I had my hair different, but I'd been wearing a hat all day and it just looked awful. And then I got self conscious and the music was going and it was like about to start, and then I panicked and I decided to change my hair, which in that time I would normally be pulling my list up. So that's just some insight as to how we do things over here. Anyway, okay, so here's the myth that I want to bust tonight is that you have to spend a crap ton of money to start a business. It's just not true. We live in the digital age. You do not need to do a ton of stuff to and buy a ton of things to start a successful online business. Some exceptions to this, like if you're starting a restaurant or a hotel or a gym or a bookstore or a clothing store, those are all business types that require you to to either have real estate or inventory or both. Okay, so those things, yes, it's a little more expensive. But what I'm talking about is coaching businesses, consulting businesses, online marketing businesses, including social media management, copywriting businesses. Okay? Those kinds of businesses that are service based are very low budget or not low budget. They're very low cost to get up and running. And Successful. Successful. Okay, so I'm gonna have a little sip of water. I, I buy all these nice cups and then I end up just drinking out of jars. I don't know if anyone else does that. Leandra, welcome. Good evening. So, okay, so first and foremost, I just want to share with you, you do not have to have the most expensive, fancy, advanced technology. You just need a computer that works. Okay. And I just want to acknowledge some of you out there who have a computer, but it's a work computer and you're not allowed to use it, or maybe you are allowed to use it for personal reasons or personal stuff, but you don't really want to use it to like start your business because what if they find out? I totally respect that. If you don't have a computer that you can use to start the side hustle, what I recommend is that you go to back market.com. kind of like black market.com but back market, they have incredible quality refurbished computers. And honestly, if I'm, if I'm being completely honest with you guys, I'm cheap AF when it comes to technology. I just don't care. I'm not, I'm not doing any graphic design on my computer except through Canva. I'm on zoom calls. I need a computer that's going to be able to withstand the like hundreds of towers tabs that I'm going to have open, which I don't know if you can hear my computer, it sounds like it's about to take off right now. So this one may be reaching its limit. But if you need to get a computer to get this up and running, I highly recommend that. And it can be a starter computer. It doesn't have to be your computer forever. But if you just need something that will get you up and running, get your first few clients backmarket dot com. I swear by them, they're incredible. And they do have some guarantees and warranties. Okay, number two, I want to talk about what a lot of people freak out about when they're first starting their business is you need to have a website. This is not true. This is not true. And I speak as someone who had many a bullshit website when I got started, websites that no one ever saw, websites that weren't helpful when people were trying to determine if they want to work with me. And yeah, I mean, you really, you don't need a website. Here's the thing about websites. No one's going to discover it on their own. Okay? The only time someone is going to go to your website, usually when you're getting started, is after they've talked to you. They just want more information, right? They want to go online and see that you are who you say you are. And so here's where social media is a great filler inner of the gapper of this. I don't know why I said that way you get to show up on social media. And I would pick one social media platform. Don't overwhelm yourself. But show up on social media, make it super obvious how you're useful to them, and if they want any more information, then you can put together a PDF, like one pager about you and about your work. Welcome to do that. But do not worry about having a website until you're up and running. All right? Websites are used primarily for, like, verification that you are who you say you are. So as long as you have some kind of presence online, that's pretty obvious that you are who you say you are, that's going to fill that in. I. I joke that, like, you know, you can put up a website that says something completely different, and some people who, you know, find it will believe it. Like, if I were to put together a website, I could say that I'm a neurosurgeon. I'm the leading neurosurgeon of all of the east coast, and I could, like, take pictures and do gifts of, like, people, you know, who have obviously had, like, brain surgery. And some people would believe that. And so when people really want to find verification of you, you can kind of call that out. Like, a website can be made up. But if you're showing up consistently, if you're on social media, if you're creating content consistently, it's pretty safe to say you are who you say you are. Also, it's a great opportunity in your sales call to ask them what kind of information they're looking for anyway. It's great content, ideas. Okay? So that's. Number two, you do not need a website. Pick a free social media platform and do that. Deal? Okay, deal. Okay. Number three, you need a booking link. Okay? So you don't need any complex system. You need Acuity or calendly. I personally love acuity because especially if you're taking retainer clients, you can set up subscriptions. And this is something that I train in my BYOB program. How to set this up. But acuity will cost you between 15 and $25 a month, depending on which system you set up with. It'll make your life so much easier. Once you can just send a link to someone and let them pick a time instead of you going back and forth and offering different times to meet. No more of that, my friend. Okay? It also sends calendar reminders for people who've booked calls so that they're more likely to show up. And you can do intake forms. There's so much you can do with that platform. Okay, so that's number three, you need a booking link. Number four, you need an email address. You have A business now it can't be your email. Sexy, sexy baby. One, two, threeahoo dot com. No, no, no, no. It is allowed to be joe the copywritermail.com. that's great. Please do that. Get a Gmail account. You don't have to pay any money for it. If you wanted to get a custom URL, then you could go to GoDaddy or one of those places. And I think you could probably get something for 250 a year, maybe less. But do not worry about this. Like, you can get a filler email for the interim for free and it's no big deal. Okay? Number five, you're gonna need a Zoom account. Okay? You're gonna need a Zoom account to do meetings with clients. You'll need it if you're doing any sales calls with international prospects, if you're hosting any pop up trainings or webinars. It's a great way to get new clients. You're going to want a Zoom account so that you can, you know, do that stuff. That's $15 a month. Six, you're gonna need a phone, which, I mean, I'm not even gonna put the price on here because you need to have a phone you like. If you don't have a phone, I don't even know how you're watching this right now, but you have a phone. Like, get a phone if you don't have one. All right? I'm worried about you if you don't have a phone number. Seven, get your LLC set up. My lawyer friends would probably disagree with me here. And this is the, this is why I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. But what I'm saying is if you're freaked out about getting an LLC or you don't know how and it's too expensive for you right now, focus on getting some clients in and then set it up. Okay? You are ultimately going to want to have an LLC set up and contracts by a lawyer, not by a business coach who is handing you contracts that she thinks is a good idea or he thinks is a good idea. Unless they're a lawyer, they are not qualified to give you contracts. And they're actually opening themselves up to a crap ton of liability if they're giving you contracts, because those contracts are probably not going to work for you. And when they don't work for you, they're the one that gave them to you. So you want to get your LLC and your lawyer drawn up contracts as soon as possible. Okay? But your first few clients as your Business coach. Like, I want you to make the money. I want you to make the money and just pay it off as you go, okay? So that's okay. Let's just keep that secret between us, all right? But again, this is not legal advice. This is business strategy advice. Like, I want you to be able to cover your costs. All right? So that's number seven. Number eight, a credit card processor. Now the interwebs is a magical, magical place. This used to be super freaking expensive for businesses and you'd have to get like a machine put in and you have to be able to like input stuff and you have to plug it into the wall. No longer, my friends. Okay? You're going to set up a square account or a stripe account, okay? You are not going to pay anything upfront because they take their payment when they process payments for you. Okay? So say someone buys something for $100, they're going to take $2.90 as payment, okay? They charge 2.9%. It's very standard. Okay? This is also. If you're like, oh, but I don't want to pay that, this is your sign that you need to raise your rates. Because if you're whining and whinging about a credit card processing fee, you're not charging enough. All right, that's number eight. And then number nine, hire me to be your business coach. No, no, no. So I'm not cheap. Okay? If you, if you need any resources, come to my brave biz lab call that I do every single Friday at 11am Eastern. That is a free way to access me and my brain. If you need to learn how to sell, you're going to want to sign up for my holistic selling digital course that teaches you how to run a sales call in a way that doesn't feel slimy or manipulative. It's all relationship based and it's founded in the principles of consent. Okay? Super important to me as a woman, as someone who has survived some stuff in my life, I don't like those pushy, manipulative tactics. Okay? So holistic selling is a super affordable way for you to learn how to sell those high ticket programs. And when you're ready, when you're ready or willing to invest in business coaching, then obviously come to me. You can DM me for more information or a link to book. And with that, I just want to remind you you do not have to spend a crap ton of money to get your business up and running. Okay? All you need is Internet, social media, a phone and a way for people to get on your calendar, essentially. That is it. Start getting clients as soon as possible. All right? As soon as possible. All right? Because for the first few months of your business, as you're bringing in money, you're going to want to take that money and either put in savings or you're just going to reinvest it in the business. Okay? So if you get a client for $4,000, you're going to reinvest that in a lawyer to drop real contracts, say you make another $4,000. You're gonna sock that away to maybe, I don't know what, what's on the list that you could spend more money on, Honestly, like get the lawyer and the contracts and all that stuff set up. Your next big spend is going to be setting up your website. But I don't actually want you doing that for a while because I want you to have a very solid, unquestionable niche. All right? Your niche comes later as you've done this and as you can describe who you want to work with. All right? That's when you're going to invest in your website. Other than that, I mean, it's pretty simple. It's simple. And I'm saying that. And I want to make the distinction. I'm saying it's simple, not easy. Okay? Just because something shows up as super simple does not mean that it's easy. Just like if something shows up as easy, it doesn't always mean that it's simple. Okay, great example here is if you have ever meditated, you know that it's simple. It's like the most simple thing in the world, right? You just sit there. You sit there and you stay quiet and you don't do anything. Maybe like repeat a mantra to yourself, but really you don't do anything. Super hard, though, to do it for any length of time, it's pretty hard. So cut yourself some slack if things feel. Feel like this is. This is difficult, this is hard, this is too much. Okay? It can be simple and it can be hard at the same time. Okay. Anyway, LeAndrew. Thank you for joining. Anyone else who joined. I hope this is useful. I will be going live every single day for the rest of this month. I hope this has been super useful for you. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. I will talk to you soon. Have a great night.