7 Tips to Start a Successful Project With Small Capital
With a loan of only $900, the Tom and James Monaghan brothers began their start-up domino pizza project in 1960, marking the beginning of a successful small-capital project that went beyond the united states of America, spreading its branches to the countries of the world east and west, and in 2018 celebrated Domino's Pizza restaurant chain opens 15,000 in Texas.
Domino's Pizza and many other success stories of projects started with small capital, express that this is difficult but it is possible, as many entrepreneurs are motivated by enthusiasm for the idea of a project to start implementing the idea on the ground even if not all the requirements of the project have yet to be met.
However, the risk of capital outreach after a period of time does not only affect the success of the project but threatens the existence of the project itself, for example, a time gap between when the revenue is collected and when the outstanding invoices are paid, or the sudden appearance of unplanned expenses, or exposure to the money of a monument, or the delay of customers in payment, are factors that may plunge your business into a sinking if you do not have enough cash cover from your money or loans to keep your business on its feet.
According to Bernie Klinder, a business consultant and U.S. investor, running a successful small-capital project is better if three conditions are met:
- Revenue is collected immediately.
- Expenses are low.
- Employment and commodity inventory do not require high expenses.
Top tips to start a successful small-capital project
If you're looking to start a successful small-capital business, here are the tips that experts recommend to stand out in the competition and start succeeding:
1. Spend your money just to grow your business
Keep your expenses at a minimum by making sure you don't spend even as little money, unless it will grow your business, such as bringing you more customers, or helping you serve them, but don't spend on it.
2. Always look for the cheapest alternative
It's not optional, lack of capital will inevitably make you go this way, and looking for cheaper alternatives to your project's assets is smart and inevitable, for example:
- Use free or monthly programs: Instead of purchasing an accounting program, project management, e-mail, file storage, or CRM, use the most expensive alternatives available after a little online search, programs like G Suite, MailChimp, Trello, and Dynamics 365 and many more offer software solutions for companies, many of which are offered free of charge or with a monthly subscription that is simple at first and increases as your business grows.
- Buy used equipment: The number of projects that are closed or liquidated is large, so it is not necessary to furnish your office with new furniture or use newer computers, or new production machines, you can replace all of the above with equipment that has already been used to meet the purpose and reduce your expenses, and exist on the Internet Some flea-selling sites can also buy your equipment in multiple batches depending on the income improvement rather than the one-time purchase, which is an appropriate solution that keeps you from falling into the debt trap that is a burden on any small-capital business.
3. During the first year, be prepared for austerity
At the beginning of starting a small-capital project, you should not think of your project as a profit machine that will make you earn a large salary as the founder of the project, but on the contrary, during the early years of your project you may find that you are the lowest-paid among your employees, so be prepared to do so and keep another source of income sideways, Keep your personal expenses at a minimum.
4. Hire online
Online recruitment provides the cost of renting a place for employees to perform their work and the consequent additional expenses such as rent, electricity, etc., and gives you the full opportunity to choose the right employee accurately after searching within a broad base of freelancers who work freely online.
Online recruitment options are diverse, you can accomplish small tasks using mini-service sites, and you can complete projects for larger tasks by hiring professional freelancers through a self-employment platform, and if you need to hire permanently online, this option is available Also through remote recruitment sites, you place your ad for the desired job and then start receiving job applications from full-time employees online.
Previous platforms cover many areas of work, for example, programming, marketing, writing, design, consulting and other functions that can be done online.
5. Postpone the establishment of a project headquarters as long as possible
The availability of a small or even medium capital project is not inevitable at all, as many companies do business during the early years without the company's headquarters, and nevertheless make huge profits and still postpone this step for as long as possible, as it costs a headquarters for the project a lot of money, You don't need to spend it, and this advice is appropriate if you don't have to meet customers at your desk or your project's sales or manufacturing activities don't require space to practice.
6. Have some accounting culture
Accounting is one of the most important fundamentals of any business, so it will be very useful for you to have a knowledge of basic accounting principles, so that you can track your revenue and expense, and improve your ability to identify the most profitable business methods, in short, will make you able to control your business in a way that Better, which will help you manage a successful project with small capital.
7. Take care of the nice customer
I know how much you are trying to attract as many customers as possible, in order to spin your project and grow rapidly, but unfortunately not all customers will represent a real benefit to your project, but on the contrary they may be an obstacle to doing your business smoothly and orderly, such as the quality of the customer who is late in making payments, or What's hard to deal with is a cumbersome quality that you'll find yourself wasting too much time and energy with, so it might be right to get rid of this type of customer, and focus on committed and easy-to-handle customers.
Are there other tips that might help an entrepreneur who intends to start a successful small-capital business? If you know additional tips, share them in the comments.
© 2019 Jaber Khater