Did You Know These Big Companies Started With Little Money?

There’s widespread belief that a massive capital is a precursor to success.  It may be a common denominator for businesses to enjoy success down the line, but it is no way a prerequisite. Businesses can venture out with little capital and still become a household name in the industry. Capital won’t matter unless your creativity is always churning. If you cannot take a dollar and make it into 10, how do you expect to take a thousand and turn it into ten thousand?

Startups can move forward without a big capital. Let’s look at some of the big companies out there that started with little or no money. Many have now earned millions of dollars in revenue, but only after they realized success comes mostly from hard work and creativity, and not an investor opening his wallet.

Before you ask for money, figure what you want to do. Start with a product that is capital efficient. You don’t have to compete with the biggest names in the world. All you need to do is to develop a product that will fill the gaps.

When you are starting out you don’t have to go innovative in a big way. Not every company needs to reinvent the wheel, what is more effective is creating something of real value. For instance, let’s look at Shopify. The founders of Shopify were seeking a shopping cart solution when they first began their e-commerce snowboarder’s website. They were not able to find anything, so they scrapped their initial idea and built a bespoke solution. Eventually, it became the perfect solution not just for them but for millions of people around the world. They operated the businesses independently and generated revenue for the first 6 years.

Many business owners bring elements of their dream into the practical side of the venture, and this doesn’t always sit right. You will find business owners craft a dream organization chart and create a strategy for what they hope the business becomes. Avoid this at all costs. Instead, use the resources you have today and advance what will become of tomorrow.

The company ShutterStock was founded by Jon Oringer, an amateur photographer and software developer. He had amazing photography skills and used 30,000 photos from his own library to start a photo service. It is worth nearly $2 billion now and he has become a self-made billionaire.

Finally, your customer is the best capital you will ever have. Learn what your customer wants and make your product or service that resonates with them. CarGurus is an application which helps customers look for good car deals on used cars. The revenue this site brings is close to $50 million. In the initial phase of the company, it hired a phenomenal sales team. This sales team is still busy making calls, not sitting at the desktop writing codes.