How much money do you need to start your first business? You may not agree with me but I will guarantee your success if you follow my advice.By Gary Shotton #000082

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Money to Start

By Gary Shotton

            I’ve literally talked to hundreds of people that have approached me with a desire to own a business  I’ve been in forty-some countries sharing how to start a business   I love helping people start and own business   I’m excited to be with you on that topic   Now, most times I run into this issue.   I want to just level the playing field    Many people are waiting for someone to invest, give them money, borrow money have a big chunk of money and then they’ll get started in their business.  I’m telling you that is backwards in my opinion. I’m a firm believer that on your very first business you are better off, and I recommend you started with little or no money. No borrowed money.

Now you have a little bit of cash, you can scrape up yourself without it affecting your family budget. Certainly, that’s fine, I’m not talking about zero, nothing. Too many people are waiting.  I saw a report asking for $100,000 to get started. Those people I know don’t have any experience. There’s no way I would invest that, not because of the people. It’s because they have no experience. There’s something about starting with little or nothing on that very first business that just gets you into the groove. Learn lessons you’ll never ever learn another way.

I’m sitting here in my machine shop now. I borrowed money for this machine shop. I borrowed in fact a lot of money for this machine shop. I had already learned some lessons in a different business. Let me tell you about it. I moved from one state to another here. I moved to Oklahoma and I was going to a bible school and I was expecting a nice paying job, but that job didn’t come through. I had a little money for school, I had a little money for my household, but I didn’t have money to start a business. I had a horse trailer sitting out in front of my house and I put an ad in the paper that said let me help you move.   I have a 5×16 trailer. It didn’t say a horse trailer, it just said trailer and people started calling me and I learned. I started with no money.

In fact, it was seven years before I had my first loan. I wish still today that I had never gotten that loan because I could have done it without ever having a loan.  Because I was learning lessons, but I wanted to grow to fast. I was going step by step by step because everything was on a cash basis. I watched my dad. This was before my time because I wasn’t born yet, but they tell me the story where dad went into the Navy.   In the Navy he saved his money rather than spend it. He came out and put his name in for a tractor, this is in the 40s. That time he couldn’t buy a tractor because everything was going galore but after he got out he was able to buy his first tractor lake la kwanza. He had saved his own money to get a tractor. He found a landowner that normally would have only paid the farmer in this case 2/3 of the cash crop, my dad took a half because he didn’t have the other money to get started that was normally there. Virtually he started with no money and I got to see him do that.

You can talk to business after business after business that are quite large today and if you really look back and say how much money did you have to get started it It was little or nothing, because they learned those lessons. I would encourage you to read biographies, that’s the one thing I like to read, is biographies. Longer burger basket company, how did he get started? How did other companies get started? I have a whole stack of biographies I’ve read there. You’ll find that in this process that there’s. You’re going to fail. You’re going to make mistakes. It’s like going snow skiing or water skiing or ice skating, you’re going to fall. You’re going to fall if you do any of those sports. If you’re in business, you’re going to make mistakes.

The idea is making those mistakes when they’re small. You can learn from those small mistakes and then populate them into what if it was a bigger mistake? I’ve seen huge mistakes made that were not mistakes that should have been made but it’s usually because financial mistakes made because they try to start too big  You learn to handle money when it’s small  See, that’s one of the keys  If I own a business right now.  I own this business. They’re expecting to be pain, in fact today was payday   I’m sorry yesterday was when we processed the checks, doesn’t matter, but was a $63,000 pay day for the combined of everybody in this company. That happens normally $50,000-$60,000 every week

Well I have learned to handle my money  It’s not like I was born that way, I made mistakes but I now know how to watch my budget, understand my finances, and know that I am on the right track before it’s too late  It started with little or no money  There’s a lot of things that you can learn if you will just start small and grow step by step, It’s so vital to me, it’s so important to me. I’m in a spot now where I’m helping a few people that have a need for a small startup. I’m talking $5,000-$10,000.  I’m not talking $50,000-$100,000 and I’m only talking to them when I know they have learned some lessons with no money.

If someone doesn’t have enough gumption to get up and make something, make some type of a test run, some type of test model.  If you’re a used car salesman, you don’t have to have a big lot to start with.  Start out with just buying a car and selling it through craigslist or something. I have a friend that he just started selling barbecue and his first barbecue he made it in his house. He started selling it while he was at his job.  People liked his barbecue, then he has his barbecue pit, he’s ready to barbecue facility, he’s got a truck that he makes now, he just got a new barbecue pit. He’s knocking down thousands of dollars every month, but he started small. Everybody can think back how to get started with little or no money. Little or no money and that is my strong advice. Thank you for listening to this, I hope it’s a help to you. I hope that after starting with that little or no money, that you can grow into something that will be substantial that you learn step by step by step.