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If you had $400 to start an online business, what would you do?

Posted: 11 years ago 39 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Just curious. What would you do if you only had $400 to invest in a business?

#$400 #business #online #start

11 years ago

You don't start an online business with $400, end of.

Unless you've got something highly innovative that sets you above others, then far better to keep your money in your pocket . . work in a day job and save up . . then go at it when you've come up with a novel idea that has a certain amount of appeal to customers - but more importantly, you have enough funds to promote it to it's fullest.

Go into IM with tinted glasses and a few dollars and you'll go the way of millions before you.

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11 years ago

Originally Posted by DMACB

Actually, you could. It might take longer to build up than a business with more money to invest, but I could very easily start an online business with $400.

Here's what I would do:

1. Start writing Kindle books. They're free to put on the Kindle market and you can build up a pretty good passive income with them if you choose the right topics.

2. Purchase hosting and a domain name. Pay for an autoresponder. Start building a list. This is something I was late to the game with and have only recently started doing. Had I have known then what I know now, I'd have started building a list years ago.

If I was in a gambling mood, I would create a bunch of T-Shirt designs and attempt to find a winning design. If I hit a winner quick, I could double or even triple my start-up money in a couple weeks time. I don't recommend a beginner try this method because you could easily lose the whole $400 and have nothing to show for it.

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AidenTingley

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11 years ago

If I could start off from the begining again with only $400 there would be so much I would do different.

I wouldn't send 3 whole days coding a new app finding out I cant publish it #Doh!

I wouldn't spend money on the Ebooks about a topic I already know about.

I would either do 2 things.

1, Get a coach earlier then what I did

2, Buy already billing websites on flippa

But you know what, after everything I think I did just fine, I made mistakes. Well not mistakes,

Just found way that did not work.

Regards - Aiden
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timpears

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11 years ago

Wow, that is pretty positive thinking DMACB. I am sure small fortunes have been made with less. A few articles, self written or from someplace like iwriter.com, and a few selective backlinks from high authority sites could very well start the flow of ad revenues into the OPs pocket. I would say there is even enough money in that kity to do some press releases and put it on CNN's site, ireport.cnn. If the OP has something to sell, that could get them started.

Don't smash someone's dream before they even get started. There are many stories of self made multimillionaires that got started with that or even less.
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  11 years ago
  
  I am sure there are many others like me who started from zero. To people like us $400 is a lot. If i get $400 now, i would setup a niche blogs to promote good quality products and would spend some more like $100 to get quality email swaps from vendors.
  I would save $100 to buy some good quality training materials and another $100 for some paid SEO work for my new blog. Although i can not make a lot from this new site, but investing $300 on it would definitely give my site a quality boost.
  
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11 years ago

I actually started with much less than $400. How? Learn what sort of online services local businesses could use help with (web design, SEO, social media management, reputation management, etc.), learn the skill, and pound the pavement making sales and delivering the goods.

Not ideally what I wanted to do, but was a way to get started on a low budget.

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11 years ago

Originally Posted by Jarrod

I agree

People can start making money with $0 in their pocket.

It helps to have say $400 free to spend on equipment etc...

Learn, read and understand before you buy anything!!!

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11 years ago

Originally Posted by AidenTingley

I agree

People can start making money with $0 in their pocket.

It helps to have say $400 free to spend on equipment etc...

Learn, read and understand before you buy anything!!!

Very interesting, but sometime we just don't have that kind of IQ. Someone needs to mentor us.

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Alexa Smith

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Banned 11 years ago

Originally Posted by DMACB

You don't start an online business with $400, end of.

I'm really glad nobody told me that when I started, just in case I might actually have believed them.

I spent about $60, starting mine.

And there wasn't any point at which having a few hundred (or thousand) more would have made my income any faster, bigger or more secure. The financial entry-barriers to a successful online business really are as low as that. As long as you acquire some skills and substitute work for spending money (and in the long run, you're much better off doing that, anyway, because you learn so much more).

"End of".

Originally Posted by BigNate

What would you do if you only had $400 to invest in a business?

Probably keep about $340 of it in the bank, and do the same thing that I did when I started, in 2008/9: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...te-please.html

.
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Jarrod

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11 years ago

Let me be very clear about this though.

Even though I and others got started with practically nothing, it would have definitely been a lot easier and faster to start producing decent results if I had more funds to invest up front.

If you have funds to invest, then be willing to invest it. (Wisely, of course.)

But if you have no funds, don't let that stop you!
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agmccall

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11 years ago

I would go to the 100 other posts on this forum that asks the same exact question with different wording. Try the search function

al
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  11 years ago
  
  I started my first online business with $30,000. Worst and best mistake I ever made.
  
  Worst mistake, because I didn't know how to build a business yet - and as such, I bought a ton of products and services that I didn't know how to use properly.
  
  Best mistake, because it gave me the experience and bought me the time I needed to learn how to build an online business the right way.
  
  If I had $400 to start a new online business with today, I'd keep it in the bank until I knew exactly what business I was going to build and had a good idea how to do it (you don't have to spend $400 to figure this out).
  
  Planning out that process should give me a good idea of what money I'll have to spend, and when.
  
  If it seems like I'll need to spend more than $400 before I'm making real money, then it's time to reevaluate the plan...
  
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11 years ago

Originally Posted by BigNate

Just curious. What would you do if you only had $400 to invest in a business?

Get coaching. Some coaches (including myself) offer cheap entry-level coaching services around that price. Investing in yourself will change your life and your business. Everything else is temporary. Best of luck!

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11 years ago

Originally Posted by Phil Steptoe

THIS ^^^

I invested in some coaching a number of years ago, and it made a HUGE difference for me.

Having someone to help you breakthrough all of the noise and provide some accountability is worth its weight in gold.

Find someone that you get along with and tee up a consultation to see if there is a fit.

Thanks,

Josh

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massiveray

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11 years ago

Most of the above is absolute nonsense...

$400 is enough seed money for a lot of avenues into an online business.

I started all of my businesses, the 3 that I currently run, just using my mobile phone, no seed cash at all.

For example, just this past week I spent £90 on facebook ads to target people who wanted to sell their houses, I got 10 people to request a free house appraisal, then sold the leads to a local estate agent to go and do the appraisal, he pays £50 for each lead to a maximum of 10 per month.

You can pay for enough SEO services to compete on a local level in the SEO consulting industry for 5 months with $400. if you had the right guidance after buying these services you will easily make 4x ROI in month 1.

It all depends on where your interests lie in this industry, what areas do you find most interesting, I'm almost certain that no matter what it is, someone round here will have made decent money starting with less.
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  Banned 11 years ago
  
  BigNate, you have been asking the wrong questions.
  
  First, you need to figure out how you can help someone. What value can you offer that would make people want to give you money.
  
  That doesn't cost you anything.
  
  No methods, no strategies will help until you know what you can offer and to whom.
  
  That doesn't cost you anything to figure out.
  
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miklanderson2

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11 years ago

I'm glad I didn't start off with a lot of money to blow. I surely would have blown it on all sorts of services and programs I didn't need and that would have ended up being counterproductive in the long run. I wasted enough money as it was...I'd hate to think how much I would have blown If I would have had thousands to spend.
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michakins

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11 years ago

Sure. It is possible. I know some individuals who started with less than that and have managed to build profitable and authority sites.

Having a big capital does not guarantee success. You need to acquire the right knowledge.

I strongly advice that you write about what you already know about If you are interested in building a site because that will save you the time of acquiring new competencies.

You will not have to hire writers. Rather, you will be writing for yourself. This gives you a benefit. You grow as your business grows.

Below are the few things you will need when starting out:

A reliable webhost – $120 for a shared hosting
Domain name -- $30 for 2 years
Premium SEO friendly themes – 100
Logo – $100
Wordpress security (securi scanner) for $9 per month

Start with these and you’ll acquire other tools as your continue growing your site’s readership.
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Joe Lumbergh

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11 years ago

I would spend the 400$ on the following:
- domain
- host
- aweber (listbuilding, emails)
- Optimizepress (wordpress theme)
- hybrid connect (wordpress plugin)

now youre good to go and ready to earn money
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ColT83

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11 years ago

I would get a job and save more money while learning about business online, paying tax, setting a company up and all the stuff the usual newbie will skip.

All depends what you want to do I guess.
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- perryny
  
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  11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by ColT83
  
  I would get a job and save more money while learning about business online, paying tax, setting a company up and all the stuff the usual newbie will skip.
  
  How long should it take for a newbie to learn ALL this stuff?
  
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khtm

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11 years ago

That's a tough one, it really depends on what your skills are and what niches you're knowledgeable about. There's nothing worse than working on a project you're not passionate about.
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  Originally Posted by khtm
  
  There's nothing worse than working on a project you're not passionate about.
  
  There are sooooo many things worse than that.
  
  Fortunately, passion can be manufactured. Often as a result on working hard and seeing your business grow to a point where it can provide for you.
  
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brutecky

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11 years ago

I would waste my time asking pointless questions and trying to find some nonexistent short cut instead of actually learning this business.
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BenjaminB

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11 years ago

I would just use the $400 to inject larger life into something I had going that was either low cost or free. For example if you have a great niche blog that you are building a list with then use the $400 to up the value of what you are giving your list subscribers which will help grow your reputation and increase conversions on your recommendations.
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ChrisWJohnson

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Banned 11 years ago

I would learn learn and create my own website and drive traffic from search engines and reddit. Then monetize my website with ads and affiliate offers!
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celente

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11 years ago

i did have this amount of money and turned it into a $xx,xxx figure a month business.

How did I do it?

Simple....

I stoped whining and blaming others... and I worked hard and Building a list.

It really is true, about the money being in the list, well not with your list, but the relationship with them.
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badboy_Nick

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11 years ago

Originally Posted by BigNate

Just curious. What would you do if you only had $400 to invest in a business?

Probably bet in on Black at the Roulette table

In all seriousness, I would probably promote some kind of lower risk offer you can promote directly with PPC. I used to promote a few low end offers donkeys ago to get my feet wet. Anything similar is probably your best bet as a starter product as you want to learn the ropes first of how IM works.

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high_plains_drifter

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11 years ago
I think you mean if you had $400 to start a website right? Im assuming you would create the content yourself (buy any books you need to get knowledgeable)

I'd buy -
- Premium wordpress theme.
- Customize it with help of a developer.
- Autoresponder service to start building your list from day one.
- A/B testing service.
- Get some nice graphics designed (logo, facebook banner, twitter background etc)
- Something to help me automate my social media accounts
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Ortega

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11 years ago

$400 will get me additional 10-15 sites for my PBN, enough to support my main site.
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webdeveloperindia

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11 years ago

LOL! In 2007 I had started with less-then $10 !!! You can do too much in $400, but you need to learn how
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  Perhaps I will buy 40 domains and flip for a profit...
  
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HouseOfHalo

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11 years ago

Get an authority website built and then get a guaranteed page 1 ranking (my 2 cents!)
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11 years ago

Your in Canada, I would consider Craigslist Arbitrage.
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NobleSavage

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11 years ago

How much time do you have? It's basically a trade off: time vs. money. If you have a lot of cash you can probably get moving a lot faster, but your mistakes will be costly. You can start with basically nothing, but your time is not free. When you start if you keep track of your hours you will be making less than minimum wage. On the upside you are getting an education by investing those hours. I'd say 90% never make it past the minimum wage mark. You are competing with people living in India, Russia, and places in the world where you can live on a dollar a day. Not to mention competition with retired people living on a pension, people on disability, homemakers, and kids in their parent's basement.
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JessUBotNinja

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11 years ago

Don't go in blind. Do some research. Find a niche area you are interested, have knowledge in, and can add value. Set a plan of where you want to go and a basic out line of how you want to get there. Decide on an avenue - blog, opt-in newsletter, affiliate links, offering services... there are endless options out there, pick one and put your all into it, and don't give up just because you do not see immediate results or returns.

Best of luck!
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11 years ago

I agree save your money, you can buy a ton of great reports here for research purpose on your business. There lots of affordable reports and some great information on business and traffic.
Best
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11 years ago

lol good question
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11 years ago

- Autoresponder

- Domain

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- Dump the rest into WSO's and master a free traffic source (free as in no money)
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