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You Can Start a Business With as Little as $0: A Complete 2025 Guide
Learn about what businesses you can start with limited to no startup capital.
Table of Contents
Starting a business might seem like an expensive venture, but it doesn’t have to be. Startups today can create a minimum viable product (MVP) for little to no money, and then leverage it to generate revenue or secure capital to grow the business further. This guide will explain how to start a business with little to no money, highlight ideas for low-cost ventures and share tips for finding funding and saving money.
Step 1: Define your business idea using your existing skills
Start with what you know
When choosing your business idea, leverage your existing skills and experience. Service-based businesses are usually the quickest to get off the ground and require no upfront inventory investment. Consider these skill-based approaches:
- Professional expertise: Consulting, coaching or teaching in your field
- Creative talents: Graphic design or content creation
- Technical abilities: Web development, software coding or digital marketing
Step 2: Validate your idea without spending money
Before investing time and resources into your business, validate market demand through low-cost testing methods. MVPs help determine whether there’s genuine demand for your solution before investing in a full-scale product.
Effective validation techniques
Begin with customer research methods, such as potential customer interviews to understand pain points. Create surveys using Google Forms to gather feedback and identify gaps in your thinking. You could even build simple landing pages to test interest before developing products.
If you think there’s enough market demand, you can move onto pre-sales and testing strategies. Create paper prototypes or digital mockups for user feedback. Set up pre-order pages to validate demand; if you get a lot of pre-orders, it’s a good sign you’ll be able to drive real sales if you launch your product.
Next, you’ll need to create a market research plan to clearly define your low-cost startup’s objectives. Start by identifying your target audience — who is your business trying to reach? Consider their demographics, behavior and preferences. You may even have some real-world information if you’ve conducted surveys and accepted pre-orders.
You can also research competitors in your space to learn more about their offerings and how they position themselves. Researching your rivals can help you identify gaps in the market and determine ways to stand out from the competition.
Step 3: Choose a low-capital business model
Choose a low-cost business idea that doesn’t require a lot of overhead. For example, starting a service-based business or selling digital products doesn’t require a significant investment to get off the ground. Look for these opportunities that make it easy to minimize startup costs because they don’t require expenses like payroll, inventory, equipment or real-estate.
Service-based businesses
Any freelance business comes with low overhead. Whether you’re a writer, graphic designer, web developer or software coder, your skills can help you launch a streamlined, low-cost venture. Over time, you can build up your clientele and hire others to do some of the work to scale your operation.
If you have knowledge and skills others can benefit from, consider launching a consultancy to guide, advise and mentor others. Consultancies often start small and grow to become reputable, mid-sized firms.
Dropshipping and print-on-demand
Dropshipping allows you to sell physical products without holding inventory, as a third party handles storage and shipping on your behalf. Print-on-demand services apply your branding and designs to private-label products like tote bags or t-shirts, selling them per order.
Handcrafted goods
If you have an artsy or crafty side, use your unique skills to start a business. Your hobby may become lucrative as you turn your beautiful items into products others will treasure. Third-party websites like Etsy, eBay and Amazon make it easy to sell your creations.
Local service businesses
Consider hands-on businesses that can meet the needs of your local community, such as:
- Cleaning service: If you have a stockpile of cleaning supplies and a knack for tidiness and organization, you can start a janitorial or cleaning business for homes and offices. Quality work will earn you referrals, and you can quickly turn this low-cost startup into a growing service with additional workers and a broader range of offerings.
- Pet care service: Pets are ubiquitous and beloved. If you love animals and have the right temperament, you can canvass the neighborhood for dog walking and pet-sitting opportunities. Once you earn trust and repeat business, you’ll likely be flooded with referrals.
- Gardening service: Some of your neighbors may not need a full landscaping service but could use a bit of help with their gardening. If you have a green thumb, you can help cultivate lush gardens throughout your town.
Step 4: Launch using free tools and platforms
Your business may not require much capital to get up and running, but this doesn’t mean launching it will be easy. That’s why creating a thorough business plan is essential. Your business plan will serve as a road map to walk you through each stage of the startup launch process.
Handle legal requirements prior to launch
When you’re ready to launch, you’ll typically need to register your business with the state you plan to operate in. The cost usually ranges from $50 to $300 depending on your business structure (sole proprietorship, LLC, etc.). You may also need local business licenses or permits, especially for service-based businesses operating in your community.
Don’t let these modest expenses deter you, as they’re essential for operating legally and building credibility with customers. Start by checking your state’s Secretary of State website for registration requirements, and contact your local city or county offices about necessary permits. Many areas offer online resources that walk you through the process step-by-step, and the total cost is usually under $500 for most small service businesses.
Use free business tools
Once you’ve handled the legal basics, take advantage of the free tiers of these helpful business tools you can use to get your company off the ground.
Design and content creation:
- Canva: Professional graphic design templates and tools
- ai: Free logo design tools
Project management and communication:
- Trello: Visual project organization and task management
- Slack: Team messaging and collaboration
- Zoom: Video conferencing with free tier options
Marketing and customer management:
- HubSpot CRM: Free customer relationship management
- Mailchimp: Email marketing campaigns (free tier available)
E-commerce platforms:
- Square Online: Free online store with payment processing
- Etsy: Marketplace for handmade and creative products
Step 5: Grow your business using early profits
Once you’ve done your research and laid the groundwork, it’s time to launch your business. Marketing is crucial for launching and growing your business, and there are plenty of free ways to do it. As your business begins to earn money, you can invest more in its long-term growth with paid options like pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
Free marketing strategies
To keep costs down at first, market your business for free with strategies like networking on LinkedIn and creating a social media presence. Email marketing campaigns are another excellent, low-cost marketing strategy. Start building an email list immediately and send interested parties valuable information and offers.
Numerous free resources can help you get expert advice on traditional and digital marketing strategies, including the following:
- Social Media Explorer (SME) and its expert-published authors provide insightful content on digital marketing.
- Social Media Examiner is a free newsletter packed with marketing information.
- CareerFoundry offers a free digital marketing course.
Minimize costs by taking a DIY approach
Consider building your website, handling your social media marketing, doing your own accounting, and creating an SEO strategy.
Allison Harrison, founder and principal attorney at ALH Law Group, started a firm at 28 with only $3,500 in the bank and learned that self-education is vital to thrifty entrepreneurship.
“When I started my business, I had more time than money,” Harrison recalled. “I learned how to build a website, rank on Google, [and] handle clients and billing. There is a vast amount of free information on the internet to teach yourself how to run and grow a business.”
DIYing doesn’t stop after you launch a business. “Once I had a stream of income coming in, I invested in business books and then coaching to help continue to grow my firm,” Harrison added.
How to find additional funding
Although starting your business may require little to no money, if it’s successful you’ll need capital to expand. Reinvesting your profits can get you started, but you can also take advantage of the following resources to help fund your business.
- Business grants: Business grants are essentially free money given to help fund businesses. However, they often come with requirements and stipulations. Business grants are competitive and can be difficult to win, so only apply for grants you clearly qualify for.
- Business loans: Although business loans may be easier to obtain than grants, they often come with hefty interest rates, fees and repayment terms. Research what’s available to find the best business loans and financing options for your business.
- Friends and family: Harrison advises looking close to home for funding options. “One of the best ways I see my clients fund is by personal loans from family and friends who believe in the business.”
- Crowdfunding: If you don’t feel comfortable asking a specific person to help finance your business, consider raising money through crowdfunding. There are four types of crowdfunding: donation, debt, rewards and equity.
- Saving money: As your business earns more, set aside as much money as possible. Eventually, you could save enough to expand your successful business when the time is right.
FAQs
Jamie Johnson contributed to this article.
