3 NEW Ways to Start a Business for $0

So recently I was hiking up Manitou Incline which is this crazy steep climb and on the way down, I met a couple. Turns out that the husband was an accountant but he quit his job to start selling cookies — which is pretty cool.

So I started asking him a lot of questions (the same ones you’re probably wondering):

• What’s his website?
• How much is he making?
• What kind of Facebook Ads is he putting out there?

And he was like whoa — slow down.

My whole business is run through a Facebook page.

And I was actually really shocked by that! But excited at the same time. And it inspired me to think of other ways that people could start a business without putting any money upfront (or at least, not much)

So I’m going to show you 3 new business ideas just like his that you can start for $0 dollars so you can copy them for yourself.

Let’s dive in.

Business Ideas You Can Start With $0

Zero Dollar Business Idea #1: Create a Rental Business Online

The first business idea you can start with no money is a rental business.

Airbnb is a rental business. RVshare is a rental business. Outdoorsy is a rental business. Turo is a rental business. There are a ton of different rental businesses out there — and there can always be more.

The most important thing about doing this is to look for a place where there’s already customers raising their hands to buy things — Amazon, Etsy, Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist.

Why should you create a rental business?

Recently I was on Facebook Marketplace looking for a Yeti product. I searched “Yeti” and I was looking around all these different products and one thing stood out to me…

I saw one listing that said “Rent my bag.”

I was like rent my bag? What are you talking about?

Turns out you could rent this guy’s Yeti cooler backpack for $25 and I thought it was really interesting. So I messaged the guy and yeah, he started a business in under five minutes seeing if he can get customers. And if he’s able to make money doing this, he didn’t even have to create a website.

So why is this is such a great idea?

You don’t have to spend any dollars upfront!!

Zero is my favorite price.

So of course I tried it out for myself to see if I could get some customers.

I love biking so I thought, maybe there’s a bike rental opportunity out there. I posted my bike on Facebook Marketplace to see if I could actually get any hits.

Here’s what I put for the description:

This is my De Rosa King bike — it’s near mint condition, an ultra light road bike, and if you’re looking for the Ferraris of bikes, you’ve found it.

I was really really curious to see if it was actually going to get any bites.

So that’s all that I did for my bike rental business — you could do the same with camping gear or musical instruments or pet supplies or sports equipment or furniture… Whatever!

Update — did I get any customers?

Around 9pm that day, I checked to see if anyone messaged me — and 3 people actually did!

One guy said he’s got cash in hand, another girl asked if the bike’s still available.

Pretty damn amazing.

So just go and check out marketplaces and put yourself up there and you never know what could come of it.

Zero Dollar Business Idea #2: Create a Facebook Bakery Page

So the next zero dollar business idea is the Facebook bakery page.

This is inspired by the same gentleman who I talked about before. When he mentioned that he made all of his money through a Facebook page, I wanted to see if we could create that for ourselves.

Why should you create a Facebook page for your business?

• It takes 5 minutes to set up
• We can get customers first and find out really quickly if people want to buy or not
• We can end up making thousands of dollars a month from creating something like this

And if things don’t work out, I didn’t have to spend a lot of money and time to figure that out.

So why is this is such a great idea?

Starting a bakery is an idea and dream for a lot of different people — especially maybe you out there. But it doesn’t just apply to baked goods!

If you have any type of product idea, you can create a Facebook page and see if you can get customers.

So I’m going to try to start a similar business in under five minutes.

Let’s see if we can do it!

The business I’m going to start is called Horsepower. It’s something that my brother who’s a doctor invented. Whenever he goes long distance mountain biking or road biking, he takes this powder that he’s made and he adds water — and that’s all he uses for his entire ride! It’s super endurance stuff.

So I want to try to see if I can create a Facebook page around this Horsepower stuff.

• Step 1: Create a Facebook page
• Pick a category: Health & wellness
• Add a description: Long distance powder. It doesn’t taste great but it works. I think it’s kind of interesting to say something like that
• I also added a profile picture. I just used a Google image of a horse to keep it super simple
• Then just post it!

So now all I’m going to do is send it to a few people who I know cycle. I’ll post in groups that I am active in (not in groups that I’m not active in) just to kind of see what kind of responses I get.

All that took literally less than five minutes and we have a business up and running!

And instead of doing the whole Facebook Commerce thing, I’m just going to take Paypal, Venmo, or cash if anyone’s actually interested. And again, if no one’s actually interested I didn’t spend money or much time setting this all up.

Another thing that I could do is texting people I think might be interested or email people or Slack message people. Anywhere that you have real-time communication for people who are qualified leads. You can also search for Facebook friends who like biking and start messaging those people directly.

Update — did I get any customers?

Alright… this is still pretty wild. I already told you guys earlier that people were trying to rent my bike because I posted on Facebook marketplace and then for this Horsepower business, one guy commented saying he wants to try it out and he has a friend who wants to get it too.

If people want it, you’ve got a business there!

Zero Dollar Business Idea #3: Create an Activity/Events Business

The third zero dollar business that I’m going to show you how to start is how to create an activity business or an events business.

The one example that really got me excited about this is the Adventure Challenge website.

So what they’ve created is a scratch-off date night activities book that gives couples ideas, and since the couples version got so popular they’ve made more books for friends and families.

Why should you create an activities/events business?

What’s amazing about this business idea is that you don’t need to go to Alibaba and look for manufacturers and procrastinate. You don’t need to go to Shopify and create a website. You also don’t need to spend one dollar on marketing.

So why is this is such a great idea?

Because it’s easy to make!

You can create an almost exact business just like this and see if it works before you spend a lot of time and money on it.

Here’s how I did it…

First I grabbed a notecard, wrote down 5 different activities that I thought couples would like to do together.

Some of the ideas I came up with were:

• Blindfolded fruit tasting
• Making drawings of each other
• Make out for five minutes
• 10 minute back rubs
• Chopped-inspired food challenge

I really liked the Chopped challenge idea — that would be really fun.

Chopped if you haven’t seen the show, you give the other person a box of ingredients and they have to create a whole meal based on whatever ingredients you give them. They can use other things like sauces and spices, but the main ingredients in the box have to be the main focus of the meal. So it can actually be a challenge!

And then what I did was just text one or two friends of mine to see if they wanted to buy my couple’s activity book.

Update — did I get any customers?

I did!

My buddy Anton actually responded to me saying he loved the Chopped challenge and the blindfolded fruit tasting. Give him 10 – 15 more ideas and he’d be happy to pay more than $5 dollars for it.

So I’ll actually finish this out and I’ll send him over 10 – 15 more and guess what? Maybe I’ve got new business here.

Get out there and start your own business

These zero dollar business ideas are proof that you don’t need any money to start a business. I tried them out for myself and got customers for all 3 businesses on the first day!

These are my takeaways about how to start a business with no money:

• You don’t have to spend money on marketing, on a website, or developers. Don’t let that be an excuse
• Go to the places where there are already customers like Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, your own friends, YouTube, Reddit, etc.
• Limit yourself to the “weekend challenge” which is can you get 3 customers and make $100 dollars in the weekend?

What I’ve noticed is if I don’t limit myself, I’ll start spending more money than I need to, I’ll start coming up with more excuses, I’ll mess around making websites and end up just wasting a lot of time. So the beauty is to limit yourself to a weekend and copy these types of business ideas and see what kind of results you get.

And that’s how you start a business with no money.

So which one of these businesses are you going to start? Let me know in the comments. Or if you’ve seen any other businesses that have really inspired you I’d love to hear about them as well.

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