The Internet age has made the process of turning your startup dream into a reality a fairly easy process. Nowadays, you don't require tons of money with you in order to kickstart your own venture. All you require is passion and a full proof plan and you might end up becoming the next Bansal or Agrawal of the Indian startup industry. In order to help those passionate few who are still contemplating about starting on their dream venture thinking about the financial problems that they might face, we at IndianWeb2 present to you 8 things you can keep in mind to start your journey towards your dream within a limited budget.
1) Incorporate a company, but try keeping it simple -
A limited liability corporation (LLC) can be started in various parts of the world for less than $100. This can be done directly through the Internet and that too without any legal assistance. Following this you will be able to keep your financial and legal liabilities away from your personal assets, and it won’t cost you the big initial cost and ongoing time and fees of a C-corporation.
Tools & Resources - How to Register a Company/Startup in India, Ministry of Corporate Affairs - Company Registration
2) Start building your plan online and don't wait for funding -
You're the entrepreneur and it's your own business. So, take control and don't just wait for everything to happen on its own. Start making your own plans, goals and start achieving them one by one. You don't necessarily need an investor to be successful. Don't wait for good things to happen to you, make them happen happen yourself.
Tools & Resources - LivePlan, BPlans
3) Cut back on expenses as much as possible -
Since you're a startup, you can afford to splurge. There's no need to have a huge office to start a business or hire an accountant to track expenses and assets. There are several easy-to-use accounting packages available which run nicely on your existing small desktop or laptop.
Tools & Resources - QuickBooks
4) DIY -
You don't need to spend truckloads of money or someone else help to change your dream into a prototype. You can do that yourself nowadays. Start searching for free help at a local university/institute or look for one of those new maker spaces, such as IKP Knowledge Park, where one can easily rent time and equipment to do the job themselves. Take the matters in your own hand.
Tools & Resources - NutsandBoltz, Mackerspaces in India
5) Register your Intellectual property online -
Being a startup, the only important things or the valuable things that you have of your own are your intellectual property, the technology, software, hardware or anything else that you have developed yourself. Seeing the cut throat competition in the startup industry, we would recommend you to register and safeguard your these intellectual property right away and maintain your uniqueness from others. Don't worry. You won't have to shed lots of money in doing this especially if you're in the U.S. In the United States, trademarks, copyrights and even patents can be registered online for a few thousands rupees.
Tools & Resources - Govt. of India -e-Patent Filing, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
6) Use the assistance of virtual assistants -
In the initial few months, avoid employing an army of people as that could add a lot of money pressure on the startup. Go for low-cost freelancers available online or remote contract services. They provide excellent results and you even have the flexibility to decrease or increase the resources as per your needs.
Tools & Resources - Freelancer.in, UpWork
7) Explore low-cost software subscription and cloud computing -
Don't spend money on having an elaborate IT department. Use Google cloud services and Amazon web services to have all the application storage and computing power you need to have without shedding out big bucks on an IT staff and big up-front costs for computer servers and applications.
Tools & Resources - 10 Best Free CDN Services
8) Make Social Media your best friend -
Nowadays with all the free tools available online, you don't need to spend a single new penny in building your own website. Use tools like shopfiy etc. to give your business an online presence. Further, exploit free social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google Plus etc. to make people aware about your business's existence.
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