hi I’m Evan Carmichael welcome to tell
edition of ask Evan today we’re going to
be continuing our challenge series where
we answer questions from our readers to
help them grow their business so today’s
question comes in from Augustine who’s
one of the Telus talks business Facebook
fans and Augustine wrote in saying I
want to know how one can run a business
without having to get alone so thanks to
the question Augustine great question
one I know a lot of entrepreneurs are
going through and thinking about how do
I start this business out having to get
money and I used to be in the venture
capital world where I helped raise
capital fractures but I’m actually a big
believer in bootstrapping and trying to
get it done without having to go and
raise money so in this video I’m going
to share three of my top tips to help
you and I look forward to seeing you at
the end of the video number one start
with a surface I almost always
recommended entrepreneurs start a
service-based business you can have
bigger ambitions to create products but
the best way to start is usually through
a service one of the main reasons is the
cost you don’t need as much money to
start or maintain a service-based
business often the only thing you need
is your time you don’t need an office
you don’t need an inventory you don’t
need storage you need less equipment if
any and any money you make goes right
into your pocket the first step in
building a successful business is
getting beyond the survival phase and
you have to make enough money to pay
your bills and survive a service-based
business can get the cash flow coming in
more quickly and can allow you to create
a solid base from which you can launch
products if that’s your end goal here is
some advice from Tony Robbins the
defining factor is never resources it’s
resourceful pneus
number to build around the customer
another great way to build your business
without going into debt is to talk to
your potential customers before you
start interview them ask them what their
pain points are and see if you can find
a way to help them ask them if you could
solve their problem for them what they
hire you if you can start your business
with a customer from day one you’re
ahead of the game and have money coming
in the door from the beginning in my
first real business we build software
and spent countless days building a tool
that we thought would be valuable but it
turns out that our clients didn’t really
care about it luckily we had enough
other great things in our software that
our clients still bought from us but we
learned our lesson always talk to your
customers to build around them before
you launch here’s some advice from Mark
Cuban of course I was underestimated I
was young and this was a new industry I
just used it to my advantage I had more
energy I didn’t have any preconceived
notions and how things should be I just
tried to learn technology better than
anyone else and find the best ways to
help my customers number three don’t
spend until you earn anybody can spend
money it’s easy forgive me million
dollars i’m sure you can find a million
different ways to spend it the hard part
about running a business is making money
i personally hate spending money until
i’m making money i’ll invest my time but
i won’t put dollars in until I figured
out a model that works here’s a quick
example I always wanted to get into
making YouTube videos to answer people’s
questions so I could help a wider
audience but didn’t have a way to
monetize it so I didn’t want to go out
and spend the money on the camera tripod
lighting microphone editor and so on so
I bootstrapped it I used the camera had
at home bouncing on a bookshelf and
recorded the first videos I made were
terrible the content was pretty good and
people still watched him today on
YouTube and give great feedback but the
production quality was brutal I could
have gone out and bought the equipment I
didn’t want to spend the money until I
found a way to make money so I kept at
it and eventually discovered a model
that worked then his money came in i was
able to slowly invest into better
equipment and the quality got better the
other benefit here is that i’m only
spending money on something that I know
books and they want to continue doing I
could have bought all the equipment
found out after a few videos that I
don’t want to do this and we have
thousands of dollars sitting in my
closet never been used my boot strapping
you find what works and what you want to
continue doing then you spend money to
expand once you found the model that
works here’s some advice from lillian
vernon work hard that’s the bottom line
don’t spend more money than you’ve got
don’t spend money before you’ve got it
thank you for joining me for another
edition of ask Evan if you like the
video you want to see more please give
it a thumbs up below it always makes me
want to do more of these videos for you
and also love to hear what you have to
think you want to leave a comment under
the video if you have something to say
about this video or some recommendations
for Augustine or if you have a question
for your own business that we can
potentially feature in an upcoming video
feel free to leave in the comments below
I always read those and I try to respond
as soon as I can so thank you and we’ll
see you in the next episode
you
edition of ask Evan today we’re going to
be continuing our challenge series where
we answer questions from our readers to
help them grow their business so today’s
question comes in from Augustine who’s
one of the Telus talks business Facebook
fans and Augustine wrote in saying I
want to know how one can run a business
without having to get alone so thanks to
the question Augustine great question
one I know a lot of entrepreneurs are
going through and thinking about how do
I start this business out having to get
money and I used to be in the venture
capital world where I helped raise
capital fractures but I’m actually a big
believer in bootstrapping and trying to
get it done without having to go and
raise money so in this video I’m going
to share three of my top tips to help
you and I look forward to seeing you at
the end of the video number one start
with a surface I almost always
recommended entrepreneurs start a
service-based business you can have
bigger ambitions to create products but
the best way to start is usually through
a service one of the main reasons is the
cost you don’t need as much money to
start or maintain a service-based
business often the only thing you need
is your time you don’t need an office
you don’t need an inventory you don’t
need storage you need less equipment if
any and any money you make goes right
into your pocket the first step in
building a successful business is
getting beyond the survival phase and
you have to make enough money to pay
your bills and survive a service-based
business can get the cash flow coming in
more quickly and can allow you to create
a solid base from which you can launch
products if that’s your end goal here is
some advice from Tony Robbins the
defining factor is never resources it’s
resourceful pneus
number to build around the customer
another great way to build your business
without going into debt is to talk to
your potential customers before you
start interview them ask them what their
pain points are and see if you can find
a way to help them ask them if you could
solve their problem for them what they
hire you if you can start your business
with a customer from day one you’re
ahead of the game and have money coming
in the door from the beginning in my
first real business we build software
and spent countless days building a tool
that we thought would be valuable but it
turns out that our clients didn’t really
care about it luckily we had enough
other great things in our software that
our clients still bought from us but we
learned our lesson always talk to your
customers to build around them before
you launch here’s some advice from Mark
Cuban of course I was underestimated I
was young and this was a new industry I
just used it to my advantage I had more
energy I didn’t have any preconceived
notions and how things should be I just
tried to learn technology better than
anyone else and find the best ways to
help my customers number three don’t
spend until you earn anybody can spend
money it’s easy forgive me million
dollars i’m sure you can find a million
different ways to spend it the hard part
about running a business is making money
i personally hate spending money until
i’m making money i’ll invest my time but
i won’t put dollars in until I figured
out a model that works here’s a quick
example I always wanted to get into
making YouTube videos to answer people’s
questions so I could help a wider
audience but didn’t have a way to
monetize it so I didn’t want to go out
and spend the money on the camera tripod
lighting microphone editor and so on so
I bootstrapped it I used the camera had
at home bouncing on a bookshelf and
recorded the first videos I made were
terrible the content was pretty good and
people still watched him today on
YouTube and give great feedback but the
production quality was brutal I could
have gone out and bought the equipment I
didn’t want to spend the money until I
found a way to make money so I kept at
it and eventually discovered a model
that worked then his money came in i was
able to slowly invest into better
equipment and the quality got better the
other benefit here is that i’m only
spending money on something that I know
books and they want to continue doing I
could have bought all the equipment
found out after a few videos that I
don’t want to do this and we have
thousands of dollars sitting in my
closet never been used my boot strapping
you find what works and what you want to
continue doing then you spend money to
expand once you found the model that
works here’s some advice from lillian
vernon work hard that’s the bottom line
don’t spend more money than you’ve got
don’t spend money before you’ve got it
thank you for joining me for another
edition of ask Evan if you like the
video you want to see more please give
it a thumbs up below it always makes me
want to do more of these videos for you
and also love to hear what you have to
think you want to leave a comment under
the video if you have something to say
about this video or some recommendations
for Augustine or if you have a question
for your own business that we can
potentially feature in an upcoming video
feel free to leave in the comments below
I always read those and I try to respond
as soon as I can so thank you and we’ll
see you in the next episode
you
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