Opportunity Awaits podcast Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Aaron Henriques: Here are five skills that you need to start a business with no money. And I'm not talking about needing a flashy website, not about marketing, huge social media, followings, or complex funnels. So stick with me. I'm gonna go through these five essential skills that you need to be able to start a business with no money today.
[00:00:48] So first you need the ability to speak to people now to make a sound to anyone ever they need to know, like, and trust you. They are just free, basic principles that you've probably heard again and again, but they are essential to you being able to sell. So if you are scared to speak to people on the phone or in person, then you need to get out of your comfort zone right now.
[00:01:13] Set yourself a goal, speak to some strangers, go to work in a call center for a while, go charity fundraising centers. I started off in one of them many years ago, go to one of them, start getting outta your comfort zone, asking strangers people you don't know for money in exchange for your services and your time or whatever it is.
[00:01:32] You've gotta offer them. Practice this. And if you sound like you're not confident asking for the. then you're probably not going to get it. So that's number one. Number two is being a multitask. Yes, multitasking. Apparently us guys can't do it, but if you have no money to pay for help and you can't find willing volunteers who are actually reliable, then you are gonna be wearing a lot of hats.
[00:02:00] That's just the basic fact of your life going forward until you've got some money in the business. So you're gonna need to be careful with your time. No more Netflix, no more, you know? Doing all this rubbish that you probably do at the moment, you won't have time for that to prioritize your tasks and make sure you get them done.
[00:02:20] Just get 'em done. So think about what value does the task actually bring, is it essential to moving the business forward a step or is it just some crappy little procrastination task that you're doing? So don't be that person that will do all of the non-important things. The easy things, the things that aren't selling, the things that aren't speaking to your customers, the things that aren't doing the essential bit and you're procrastinating, and suddenly, suddenly that shed that you've not been in for five years suddenly needs a clear out on that exact day when actually you should be making your first sales course.
[00:03:02] It happens to us all. You're not alone. If you catch yourself doing it, you just need to force your way out of it. Cuz if you're on your own and you've got no money, no one's gonna do that for you. So get out there, start talking to people on LinkedIn on the phone, wherever it is, you're gonna do it and just never forget your customer, you know?
[00:03:24] I forgot or when I was saying about multitasking, I forgot. Or something came up because I decided to watch Netflix or I decided to take my dog for a walk or clean the shed. It's a sure way to isolate them and make them feel like they're not important enough for you to be bothered, to show up.
[00:03:44] So be a good multitasker. Prioritize your task. Always show up for your customer and your, and your service providers. Whoever's providing services for you always show up. So that's number two. Number three is being a decision maker. You need to be able to be decisive. You need to be able to make decisions quickly.
[00:04:05] But change them slowly. That's something that's not original to me. I actually can't remember where I heard it. It will come to me. Maybe if I remember before the end of this, I will say it, but make decisions quickly change them slowly. It was one of the best pieces of advice that I've read. That's because I have been one of the people in the past who will make decisions very quickly, but I would also change them very, very quickly.
[00:04:30] And what happens is you don't end up getting anywhere with anything. You just run around in circles and it doesn't help you. You just waste your time. So if you can't make a decision, a lot of people are like that. A lot of people cannot make decisions for their life, you know? Oh, what would you like to eat today?
[00:04:52] What, I don't know. What would you like, typical, right? Have you been in that situation before? , if you can't make a decision, people will not trust or follow you. And if they don't trust you remember what I said before? They need to know like, and trust you. If they don't trust you, they won't follow you and you have no business.
[00:05:12] So if you can make a decision fast and keep changing them too fast, like I mentioned, you'll get nowhere. So we all know that person. I know many, including myself when I look in the mirror when I've done it. Who one minute is a fitness coach. The next minute, they're a dog groomer. The next minute they're baking cakes.
[00:05:32] The next minute, they're back to fitness coaching again a month later. And it's really confusing for their audience. It's really confusing for everyone and themselves. They don't know what they're doing and yeah, maybe that's you right now. Isn't you. Is that something you could relate to right now that you're doing?
[00:05:47] So what that means you need to do is actually make a decision on what you are actually gonna go with. If you've got multiple options on the table, that you're really good at pick one, go with it and stick with it for a good while. Don't just keep changing every week or every month or whatever. Stick at what you're doing, make those changes slowly and see it through for long. to give it a chance to succeed and trust me when I've done that. That's when things have really worked. What number was that? That was number something three. So number four, adaptable problem solver. Maybe that's really two things, but I decided I would try and cheat my way out of it and just, I wanted to get adaptable in there, but you gotta be a problem solver. So we're treating it as one thing because I treat it as one thing actually. And your day, one idea probably won't be what you end up doing for the long term.
[00:06:49] That's a fact it shouldn't stop you from getting started. You need to get started. And you adapt. You adapt as you go along by solving the problems that you face. And what this should also mean is you don't need the perfect product or service or website or email copy or whatever it is you are doing.
[00:07:13] You don't need it all perfect to get started. Nothing's ever perfect. Nothing's ever perfect. You look at the biggest companies in the world. What do they do? They go out there and they just throw a product out and then they adapt it as they go on. Someone gave me a good example. I need to write down who these people are, right.
[00:07:30] So I can actually give them credit for their examples they give. But for example, the iPhone, what we are on iPhone, like 13 something now, and they're constantly updating iOS. That was grant Cardone, just remembered constantly updating iOS and. they're always making it better over time. So why do you day one need to come up with the perfect product, the perfect service.
[00:07:54] The answer is you don't. So you need to be an adaptable problem solver. And have you ever heard of that phrase adapt or die? Most people spend so long or they're so like focused drilled in on, Nope. I'm only going in this direction and that direction only completely unwilling to change.
[00:08:12] Remember I said about changing things slowly. It doesn't mean being unwilling to change. If you don't adapt, you will die. You've seen businesses do it blockbuster. Oh my God. Iconic, iconic, massive company that nobody thought would ever go under until the lights and Netflix came along and they didn't see that opportunity at blockbuster had the money they could have got in there immediately.
[00:08:41] With the online streaming surveys, they did it way too late. And who are they now? Some of you listening to this won't even know who blockbuster are. isn't that scary? So. Adapt or die. Yeah, be an adaptable problem solver. So one of the things you need to do is be careful to not keep changing your mind.
[00:09:06] As I've said, some of you may know that I was a police officer. And one of the things that we used to do, we used to use this model where we know what our central sort of aim is. Our focus. What our goal is in the center. And we use this model. It's like a five step process that you're continuously using when making decisions.
[00:09:24] And this is what helps us to go for a structured approach of making decisions, being adaptable and being a problem solver. And that is to the first step is gathering information and intelligence. So you are constantly learning staff. Receiving information about how your customers are sort of perceiving you, how your suppliers are working with you, things that are working, things that are not, then you need to assess the Threatt and risk and develop a working strategy.
[00:09:50] That step two for, for your, what the problem is. So you've gathered the information at your information received. You're now assessing that threat. You're developing, a strategy and, and a working strategy that you can implement to sort of solve. in the police. Number three was considering powers and policy.
[00:10:10] We're not thinking about powers and policy here so much, perhaps a bit of law we need to consider. Certain things you're doing may not be legal to do, but you need to consider things that you, that are relevant to your business that may relate to sort of powers and policies. So there might be health and safety stuff.
[00:10:27] You need to look at whatever. The next one is identify options and contingencies. and that's again for you, you identify what are your options to solve those problems? You can use a SWOT analysis for that. Anyone who doesn't know what SWOT analysis is, leave a comment. And I will, in fact, I'll just leave a link to someone where you can get it where you can download that for free.
[00:10:49] And then you can take action and review. What happened when I say review, what happened? Give it some time, before you start changing things again. So that's a model that we use in the police, and that's something that you can use to. Something similar that you can adapt to be able to run your business.
[00:11:07] And the last number five will be being good with money. Being good with money. This is so important. Literally you need to keep a laser focus on your money. Now this is called five skills. You need to start a business with no money. But hopefully once you've started your business with no money, then you will have money coming in.
[00:11:30] Cause that's the point, right? Otherwise, why are you doing it? Most people are terrible with money, whether you think you are or not, most people are terrible. I am as well. And I'm learning. I'm constantly learning, reading new stuff about money and investing and. There's so much stuff. I know now that I didn't know, even a year ago, let alone, when I was like in my early twenties or anything like that.
[00:11:55] Crazy. I wish I knew that stuff back then, but I don't, I know it now and I could share it with you. So if we get it, we want to spend it. How many people are like that? How many people, no matter what they earn at the end of the month. They're having to like scrimp and save a little bit or hold back on certain luxuries because they've already blown all their cash throughout the month.
[00:12:16] A lot of people don't save anything at all and that's how most people live. It's just a fact whether you're in the UK, the United States or anywhere in the world, really, that's how most people will live their lives. And that's why most people literally wouldn't be able to find probably a thousand, $2,000 or £2000, whatever it is, if there was an emergency and they really needed it.
[00:12:40] Most people won't have several months if they lost their job and everything happened, like went wrong. Most people wouldn't have several months of cash to be able to survive. so it's easy to think that money will solve all problems, but it's a slippery thing. It will get away from you really, really quickly and easily.
[00:12:56] You start spending it on this. Oh, that looks like a good idea. This looks like a good idea. So does that let's spend cause we've got it. And then suddenly one day you wake up and like, oh shit, where's my money gone. So especially if you're brand new to business, Having access to a lot of money, especially loans can be one of the biggest curses that you can ever come across.
[00:13:18] I've been there. I remember one business loan I took, oh my God. I blew through £20,000, £20,000. We'll start $25,000, $28,000 USD. Literally in a couple of months, how. did I do that? Like what? I don't know what it went on. Honestly, I have no clue, but everything seemed like, oh, well I've got the money there.
[00:13:42] I might as well give it a try. Ugh. I still gotta pay that back. Well, I've paid it back, but you know what I mean? Once you've spent it you're then like, oh, I've actually gotta pay that back. So. your bylaws of crap that you do not need. You might want it, but you most certainly probably won't need it. If you treat it, if you treat your business, like you don't have any money, you will find creative ways to do things.
[00:14:07] There are ways to do things for free. That you can be able to progress your business without having to just blow money on it or thinking that throwing money. It is the answer, cause it's not now some of the things that I've seen people do and myself is, make expensive office space, for example, with starting a business.
[00:14:29] So we must need an office right until COVID came along and then suddenly realized even massive global companies can operate absolutely fine without an office. And you definitely can cause you don't have any start anyway. What's it gonna do store your filing cabinet and that you'll never use. Clone with your logo one, even though you're a hundred percent online, so who's gonna see it anyway, who the fuck cares? Who cares? You don't need cl with your logo. One, you convince yourself that the expensive computer built for pro videod editors. just so that you can use PowerPoint is a worthwhile expense.
[00:15:05] You might spend three grand on the computer instead of like £500 or $500 or whatever. When that would've done just fine or just use the one you've already got. How about that? It probably works, right. You probably looking at this right now on your computer. Expensive advertising space again, done it.
[00:15:22] In a directory, certain directory. I won't name cause I'll probably Sue me, but they should have gone out our business a long, long time ago. I dunno why this did exist. You'll get no clients from them. They don't exist. They're good for door stocks. That's it? But you'll cheap yourself out of some of the most important things out there.
[00:15:44] So you'll blow all your money on this. You'll blow money on expensive marketing. You'll be like, oh, this company wants $10,000 a month to deal on marketing. I'll blow my money on that branding. Oh my God. I went to branding agency. Yes, let's go. And. Thousands of pounds on branding. When you have zero customer zero income, it's just stupid.
[00:16:05] Right? I've done these things. You don't need to do them. If you make those same mistakes, you're even more dumb than I am. I'm telling you. It's done. So don't do it. Now you're gonna cheap yourself out of some of the most important things. That I. regret big time. Is not educating yourself, not taking the time to educate yourself.
[00:16:28] Now, at least you are there. You are there right now, because if you're still listening to this, okay, you are educating yourself right now on this topic. Maybe you need to change your mindset a bit because you've come to a video about how to start a business with no money. Maybe you want to find a way to create some money.
[00:16:49] Okay, it's up to you. You can start a business with no money. My business partner has done that very well as well. Cuz I wasn't gonna give her any money. I said, well you need to go and make some calls, pick up the phone, use LinkedIn, make some calls, make some money. We're not spending anything, but I say anything.
[00:17:05] We spent £200. So you cheap at yourself of educating yourself or if you did have a bit of money paying for someone who can actually guide you a. That's another thing. Get someone who can support you along your journey at the level that you are at. Right? That's a common thing. So people will blow all their money on this stuff, but then they won't pay to educate themselves.
[00:17:28] So you probably won't need anywhere near what you think money wise to get started. You actually don't need anything. Even if you've got £50, a couple of hundred quid that will get you started. If you don't have anything at all, like, I dunno how, but if you don't then. you probably do. To be honest with you, you probably do have access to more money than you even think.
[00:17:53] Like you you might be there saying, oh, I don't have any money to start a business, but I do buy five Starbucks per day, every single day spending like £300 a month on Starbucks. Well, just don't have Starbucks for a couple of months. Keep that for your budget to get started. so you probably don't need anywhere near what you think at all.
[00:18:19] So here's the five skills that I think you need to start a business with no money. So the next logical step is to start a business with no money. Right? So watch this video I created exactly on that topic. Get access to that video right now, click on the video and remember opportunity awaits. I saw you've just gotta go out there and get it until next time.
[00:18:41] I'm Aaron Henriques take care.
