Advice for Pursuing Entrepreneurship After Overcoming Financial Setbacks

After experiencing one or more financial setbacks, your dreams of pursuing entrepreneurship may seem completely unattainable — but this isn’t necessarily the case. Plenty of entrepreneurs have started businesses with poor credit, gaps in employment, or little money in the bank, and some business ideas can be pursued at practically no cost to you.

Instead of putting your business plans on hold for the foreseeable future, follow the advice below from the team at Financial Advisors. It could take a few years to truly become profitable in your business, but each step you take along the way will get you one step closer to achieving your entrepreneurial goals.

Start Small

While you may not be in a financial position to quit your day job and pursue full-time entrepreneurship, there are several smaller steps you can take today to bring you one step closer to fulfilling your dreams of launching a business.

For starters, you could go back to school and earn your MBA degree — as this would teach you essential business skills in leadership, management, strategy, and self-assessment. Online programs make it possible to work toward your degree while keeping your day job, all without spending a fortune on tuition. Plus, scholarships, grants, and other financial aid opportunities are available to qualifying students.

Another option for pursuing entrepreneurship is to start your business as a side hustle. Rather than quitting your day job to become a full-time business owner overnight, you might start out as a part-time freelancer or independent contractor.

After experiencing a financial setback, it’s also important to choose business ideas with little or no startup fees. The average business spends between $30,000 and $40,000 during the first year of operation, but plenty of business ideas cost little or nothing. Some other ways to save money when starting a business include working from home, using free marketing strategies, and purchasing secondhand equipment when possible.

Make a Plan

Whether your finances are still in recovery after divorce, or you’ve recently lost your job, planning is one of the most important steps you can take when pursuing entrepreneurship.

Be sure to write a business plan, discuss these plans with a financial advisor, and look for ways to prepare your personal finances for entrepreneurship. Decide how you’ll reduce your living expenses, eliminate existing debts, and build your savings so you’ll be in a good financial position once you’re ready to launch your business.

Utilize Free Tools and Resources

As we’ve discussed, starting a business doesn’t have to cost a fortune. And when you use free online tools and resources, you can save even more money on building a website, tracking your small business finances, creating graphics and designs, and easily signing or editing PDFs.

To fill or sign PDF documents without having to print, sign, and scan them to your computer, for instance, free online tools can be used. All it takes is uploading the files you’d like to edit, making your changes, and downloading the document to your computer The files can then be shared electronically with your recipients.

Other free tools can be used to build a website for your new business. A few of these free website builders include Wix, GoDaddy, Weebly, and Jimdo. What’s more, many free online design tools and templates can be used to create eye-catching graphics for your website, marketing materials, and social media pages.

Entrepreneurship is Possible on Any Budget

Whichever types of financial setbacks you’ve experienced over the years, it’s still very possible to achieve your entrepreneurial goals. You’ll need to start small and come up with a great business plan, but you’ll get there with a lot of hard work, persistence, and entrepreneurial passion.