Aspiring entrepreneur Carolynn Duncan, has begun an experimental project where she will use only $100 to start a business in 30 days with the goal of making at least a $100 profit to start a new business the next month. In her post describing her plans on “The Hundred Dollar Business” Blog, Carolynn states that she plans to test ten core concepts that she has learned about entrepreneurship from her entrepreneurship class at BYU and from the Utah business community.
Carolynn’s business for December is a kiosk at a local mall in Provo, UT, where she is selling bundt cakes, Sign Babies, and Princess Sweet items. Since she has limited herself to only $100 in start-up capital Carolynn has had to be resourceful, such as using a consignment model so she doesn’t have to pay up front or get an investor.
So the question posed in the title of this post remains. Can a Business be Started with Only $100? I believe the answer is Yes. Carolynn has already started the business and I personally think it will be a success.
One thing I remember learning from Greg Warnock, when I was in his Junto Entrepreneurhship Program, was that a lot of money isn’t necessary to start a business. It can help, but it isn’t necessary. When you are on a tight budget you are forced to be creative and leverage the resources you have. Greg taught us that if you have a business idea that you want to pursue you should first try to test the assumptions of why you think your idea will be profitable by going out and selling. Only after you know that your idea will be profitable because you have actually seen a demand for your product first hand should you begin to invest a significant amount of money in the business. It is even possible to make a sale before you have made your product and therefor use your customers to fund your business.
Another interesting aspect of Carlynn’s experiment will be the effect that her Hundred Dollar Business Blog will have on her business. It will be interesting to see how things turn out.
19 comments ↓
I really want to know if she makes any money off of this. I did something similar a couple of summers ago, and it was miserable trying to sell my merchandise. Buying and producing is the easy part, but maybe that’s just me.
I think $100 is too much, Ive been bootlacing companies this year and launched 3. The lessons learnt from first company we apply to next launch and getting better and faster each time, online trading can be launched for less than $100 start up if you have the relevent skills. I’m now working the system to look to launch at least 6 next year, you can visit the sites http://www.gardeners-world.net. http://www.tackdirect.co.uk and http://www.boohoobaby.co.uk
Steven
The question remains, what’s easier to start. An internet-based biz, or an old-fashioned biz such as the kiosk?
I think the cheapest way for any biz is viral marketing. It’s a lot easier to do that with an internet biz, but can be done with other more traditional businesses.
-Silx
http://techstuff.goboardz.com
Of course you can start a business with $100, if you don’t value your time. However, it cannot be considered profitable if she works for one month and makes another $100.
Best of Luck to Carolynn Duncan.
However, it should be said that It doesnt matter whether the amount is $100 or even $10, all it matters is the Process you take and the skill syou have as an entrepreneur. I started earning from my High School days with as much as nothing. I used to sell stuffs on Ebay without stocking it myself. And It covered all my tution fees and even had a chance to bring up a bigger business that i own now.
http://www.nonstopmasti.be
in the US it’s easy to begin any biz idea cuz resources are available. DELL, for example, would never succeed if he was in any place in Asia.
ok ok, u’ll tell me ‘this means more challenge that will force u 2b more creative and use your resources efficiently”
…hmmm, man that make sense! but…. it’s too damn hard!
Don’t forget the principle of opportunity cost. Starting a business does not only involve explicit costs. If the opportunity costs, or the money that would have been earned with the time she spends at this business, the economic costs will be understated.
Its likely that her $100 estimation does not take this into account. The real cost would be larger.
Economic profit is only made when she covers both implicit as well as explicit costs.
Good luck. And I’ll be interested to see how it goes.
Over here the answer is no. If you work for yourself you have to pay around 200$ monthly (min.) to the govt for taxes and that shit, even if you don’t get a single dime in income.
everyone’s comments are dribble.. let me tell you what this lady should do…
- take that $100
- buy a squeegee (plus extension)
- buy liquid soap (even dish soap will work)
- buy a bucket (make sure squeegee fits in it)
- buy a few rolls of paper towels
- walk to a downtown area
- find gas station fill bucket with water plus soap
- go to businesses in the downtown area and tell them your story offer to clean their front windows for $30.
After your 7th customer you have met your goal in one day.
*shrugs* //g
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When you add licensing, insurance food prep inspections and booth rental (what if she gives food poisoning to her clientelle?) into the equation there is no way to start it with $100, so she has to recoup all of those costs before a hundred dollars profit can be considered. I agree that this type of thing should be done online.
Ah, but Bob, the skills she develops may well be priceless in allowing her to repeat and improve the process.
Chris,
Thanks so much for writing about our experiment! Things are going wonderfully and we have had a lot of response, and having a good time, besides!
Also, thanks everyone for your suggestions. There have been a lot of good ideas that we are integrating into our concept, which makes things run more smoothly, for sure.
When it came to the choice between whether it would be an online or offline venture, though I have been working for an internet startup recently, I wanted a traditional business that would require operations, customer interfacing, and all of the things that can be lost by doing a project online.
Also, I wanted to test those practical concepts of negotiating, networking, etc., and as my tech skills are not as strong as operations, it seemed like a better choice to go offline. We are, however, using the blog and other things as part of the concept, which has been really fun to track our progress and get feedback as well.
(Though, I think an internet business would have been a lot easier and definitely earned revene more quickly).
Thanks, and keep reading at http://www.hundreddollarbusiness.wordpress.com!
[...] The next phase is to look for growth through local word of mouth, media attention, YouTube buzz, and so forth, as well as to integrate a shopping cart of sorts on our blog, for some of the products we have in our kiosk, and affiliate programs where possible with our local vendors. If you’re a guru on these sorts of things and want to give some free advice, I am all ears! We launched our blog last Friday, and have had 2,280 visitors with 3,409 page views, with a steady stream of readers every day. The bulk of that traffic has come after local Chris Sandberg wrote a post about our project and it was listed on Digg. On Tuesday, we were listed as #2 on WordPress’s “Blogs of the Day/Growing Blogs”. What is most exciting about that is to experience first-hand the effects of viral marketing through the application of technology. It has been a real gift. It was wonderful for us because the support and participation by bloggers has been extremely helpful and encouraging. It’s what I look forward to all day, hearing people’s ideas and response to what we’re doing. And we have had some great opportunities come from those comments, such as having Copper Rain film an interview with us which we will post on our site in the next day or two. [...]
YES - ABSOLUTELY! You can start your own business for free. I did. I learned about CafePress.com just a few weeks ago. It enables you to make designs and to sell your designs on T-shirts, hats, mugs, stickers and other items. The best part about it, is they make the products…you don’t do anything other than to make the designs. It is free to set up a shop…then you just sit back and watch your products sell…you receive commissions on each sale! I am doing so well that I created a webpage just to help display and track all of the “shops” that I have opened. Feel free to check it out. Cafepress Links
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I did, I started a business with $100 for the starter kit followed the training dvd and started making 50% in a few days. I work 2 days a week and the rest is leisure and family time. If I did it ANYONE CAN! All it takes is hard work and perserverance.
check out my site and see how
http://www.earn50percentprofit.com
It is very much possible!
If you have the persistence, will, and an optimistic outlook, I don’t believe it can’t be done. We have heard of several people who started their business practically from scratch. It’ll all need a lot of creativity and resourcefulness at most.
Best of luck Carolynn!
$100 to start a business? You can start a business without any money out of your own pocket. I did. Well the first year was a learning curve. I went around my school campus through the dorm rooms to sell my sweatshirt design because the student store did not have anything good to buy. I showed my design on paper and took orders. Lots of orders. The second year now much smarter after 6 or 7 years of college I took orders again, but this time I asked for 50% down which covered all my upfront expenses. Want more ideas or help feel free to contact me.
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