First, let me just say that funding can be a challenge, but it’s not a reason not to start. You might have to build up to your goal with other side hustles, but nothing is truly impossible. If you want something bad enough, nothing can stand in your way. Now, with that being said allow me to explain how saying “I can’t start a business because I have a tight budget”, enables you to procrastinate on your goals. Too often are your goals put on the back burner. Nobody will put you first except for you, you owe it to yourself to at least chase your dreams.

How does this enable procrastination?

Whether you’re low on funds or not is not the topic of discussion, we will get to that in the next section. What matters right now is your mindset and dedication towards making the changes necessarily to run a business. Saying things like “my budget is too small to start”, locks you in mentally, emotionally, and intellectually before you ever even start a business. It is counter intuitive to start anything new with a negative mindset. Otherwise, what’s the point of trying if you’re going to purposefully make yourself miserable? Aside from this, there are hundreds of reasons as to now & why this leads to procrastination, starting with the 4 reasons listed below.

1. You become complacent

If you make excuses for why you can’t do things or improve your life, you’re really just accepting defeat. If you limit yourself to your current circumstances, you are simultaneously embodying complacency. When you become complacent, it becomes next to impossible to change your narrative because you’ve accepted as something that can’t be changed with what you already have and that, is entirely wrong. Our mindset is everything and it is the one tool we have that we can change at any time to fit life’s demands. Complacency, however, makes it hard to do this and inhibits our growth. In the end, complacency is not something anyone should associate themselves with or make claim to.

2. You live life small minded, afraid to take risk

If you won’t invest what you have, how do you ever plan to get ahead? Nobody is going to give you anything for free in this lifetime. & if they do, it likely will not be a million dollars or whatever magical number suffices in your day dreams. The point is, you need to stop day dreaming about “what if” and just start doing the damn thing. If you start today, 12 months from now you will thank yourself.

Because I started 18 months ago, I work for myself full time. I sleep as late as I want to. I cook dinner and spend time with my family when I want to. I don’t live pay check to paycheck & I am very blessed to be to this point. The things I listed are very realistic and attainable by anyone in my opinion. If I started with $200 while being a waitress and full time college student, you can start while being a mom, single parent, dad, disabled, broke, or depressed. You can do anything you set your mind to because Positivity breeds positivity.

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3. You will never have “enough” to start

You have to understand that if you don’t start with what you have, you’ll never start. If you’re only looking at what you don’t have, you’re minimizing the things you do have or at least what you have access to. The last thing you ever want to do is down play where you are in life, because at one point you prayed to be exactly where you are right now. Remembering this, keeps me grounded & centered even during those high stress moments.

Also, starting with what you have today doesn’t mean it’s all that you will end up with. These are humble beginnings after all, let them be just that. Give yourself credit for what you have and not because someone else has less, but because it is yours. I started with $200, most of which went towards my first laptop from a pawn shop and the rest is history. The $200 I spent then, has given me a new car, my first two houses, vacations and more. But most importantly, it has given me control of my time. And when you have complete control of your time, it flies by.

4. You think you have more time than what you really do

When the time is flying by, it’s a two fold situation because either you have control of your time or you don’t. There is no in between here, you’re all in or you aren’t. Tomorrow isn’t promised, let alone next year. So, why continue to procrastinate, make excuses and lie to yourself? You can change today.

You can change RIGHT NOW.

Making the decision to change is only the first step, however, it is imperative. The second, and arguably the most important step is making the commitment to see these changes through and change your habits. If you want to break the cycle, you have to break the habits that allow you to continuously indulge in these behaviors.

Side note: Take our 1 minute resume quiz and get a $15 discount instantly!

Using Passive income to overcome limited funding

Now that I’ve given you a run down on why this mindset is enabling, let me tell you how I overcame limited funding in my business.

I know what you’re thinking, “Ty how can I build passive income if I’m broke??”. The truth is, there are a handful of business models that require small investments up front, especially if you consider the skills you currently have.

Here’s 9 ways to build passive income right now with a computer, camera, the internet and social media:

1. Online courses
People Will pay for knowledge, plain and simple. And if you have the knowledge you can maximize your profit by turning this into a digestible course & selling it. You can sell your course for $5 - $10,000 depending on the demand. To learn more, visit Udemy and Teachable. There are also great resources on YouTube that show you how to create and promote your courses to the right audience.

2. Ebooks
This is pretty straightforward. You can do self publishing, go through kindle, or reach out to publishers. Consider all of your options before making a decision and try reaching out to other authors for their experiences and what they wish they’d done differently.

Resources:
Ad Here Creative
The Write Life
HubSpot
Creative live

3. Templates
Consider taking a month to make a few temples:
- resumes
- cover letters
- contracts
- graphics
- E-mails
- ebook formatting templates

Then, set up shop on Etsy, fiber, Facebook, or build a website. Depending on the chosen method, you can automate this!

4. Drop-shipping
Drop shipping is not easy, let me just start with that. I see it time and time again where people downplay how hard it is. Like any business, you need a strategy, marketing experience, and the ability to build a brand. Without these things, drop shipping will be a recipe for a disaster. It will be miserable and you will get frustrated. If you have a little more to invest, might I consider buying the products and paying someone to ship them. If you aren’t sure where to start, checkout my Master Vendor List.

5. Sell coding excerpts
Not everyone can code. Even those who can, cannot code in every language. Start by making a list of the 10 hardest function you know how to do that are specific, yet broad. Then start marketing them to coding groups on Facebook, Quora, Twitter, Instagram etc...

Resources:
Raymore
Who is hosting this
Codester
Blue cloud solutions

6. Journals
You can design and sell journals for anything. For example, I designed a 30-day Productivity Journal for Entrepreneurs . In 2020 I have plans for publishing and printing 5 more journals for mental health and entrepreneurship. It took me 2 months to make my journal, but now that it’s done all I have to do is market and promote it every chance I get (hint, hint. Lol.). Anyway, once you design and publish your journal on Blurb or LuLu, you can begin producing passive income!

7. Resource lists
It’s really as simple as it sounds, the lists just need valuable enough information to sell. It can be information that is easy to Google that their people don’t have time to find or that’s easy to google but kind of hard to find.

Examples:

• Vendor lists: Retail Wholesalers / Hair & bundles
• Wholesale lists: Master Vendor List
• Coupon website lists
• Money savings opportunities
• Paid influencer opportunities
• Important business contacts
• Best Wordpress. / Shopify plugins
• Targeted career lists

Tip: keep lists below $80, $15 - $40 is ideal.

Side note: Take our 1 minute resume quiz and get a $15 discount instantly!

8. Blogging
Making money from blogging is hard, but you miss all of the shots you don’t take. Consider blogging once a week with affiliate links. As you build your audience and they start to trust you more you’ll see sales coming in. It will not be easy, but nothing ever is.

9. Digital files
If you have important digital files that are valuable, consider turning them into PDFs & selling them on a website. You Can do this for $5-$5000 depending on the document & how extensive the information is.

Examples:

- how to guides
- step by step tutorials
- instructions for technology
- instruction manuals to older cars
- art tutorials
- tips for a niche

All I’m sayin is, when there’s a will, you will find a way. Whether simple or not, you will find a way. Hopefully, this article helps you at least set the foundation for everything to come.