{"id":1068,"date":"2020-10-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-08-21T11:02:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T09:02:41","slug":"how-to-start-a-business-on-a-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/how-to-start-a-business-on-a-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Start a Business on a Budget\u2026 Must Haves"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div>\n<p>Having your own business&nbsp;can be&nbsp;hard but&nbsp;can&nbsp;also&nbsp;be&nbsp;very cool. When you start a business, it is not an easy endeavour, but you can work the hours you want and do the things you love. Contrary to popular belief not all types of businesses need&nbsp;investments of&nbsp;hundreds of thousands of Rands before they hit the ground running. Some, particularly home-based sole proprietorships, can be started within&nbsp;a modest budget. If a large upfront cash flow problem was the only thing standing between you and your own startup&#8230;&nbsp;hesitate no more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-rank-math-toc-block\" id=\"rank-math-toc\"><h4>TABLE OF CONTENTS<\/h4><nav><ul><li><a href=\"#here-are-some-tips-to-start-a-business\">Here are some tips to start a business:<\/a><ul><li><a href=\"#1-find-a-great-idea\">1. Find a great idea<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#2-work-from-home-wfh\">2. Work from home (WFH)<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#3-keep-it-simple-start-small\">3. Keep it simple, start small<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#4-get-online\">4. Get online<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#5-market-your-business\">5. Market your business<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#6-network\">6. Network<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#7-apply-a-positive-mindset\">7. Apply a positive mindset<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"here-are-some-tips-to-start-a-business\">Here are some tips to start a business:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"1-find-a-great-idea\">1. Find a great idea<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;piece de&nbsp;resistance&nbsp;of any successful business is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/turning-obstacles-into-opportunities-10-work-from-home-ideas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a great idea<\/a>. Consider your skills, the tools you have in your possession, ideal target market, location,&nbsp;competition&nbsp;and timing before you decide what business you\u2019ll start. There is no point in taking your baking skills to the next level if your&nbsp;neighbouring&nbsp;areas are flooded with home bakers. Do your research first.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-work-from-home-wfh\">2. Work from home (WFH)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>It is essential to start a business on a budget at your home.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/how-to-make-working-from-home-work-for-you-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Working from home<\/a>&nbsp;can save you having to pay additional rent,&nbsp;electricity&nbsp;and water bills.&nbsp;Utilise&nbsp;the garage if you must. But before putting up the neon sign make sure the type of business you want to run is permitted in your estate, complex etc. If you need access to people&nbsp;in order to&nbsp;sell products, apply for a spot at a local market as this will help give your business a weekly or monthly sales boost.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-keep-it-simple-start-small\">3. Keep it simple, start small<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes to sticking to a budget, less is always more. Re-use old office furniture and equipment. If you&nbsp;don\u2019t&nbsp;have anything, reach out to family and friends for help toward&nbsp;this. Should your business idea require you to purchase upfront stock, start with fewer best-selling lines only. If you need expensive tools to do your work, research if you can get good quality secondhand, or find out if there&nbsp;are&nbsp;renting options available. Do everything you&nbsp;are capable of doing&nbsp;yourself to save costs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"4-get-online\">4. Get online<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>If your business&nbsp;isn\u2019t&nbsp;online, it will be missing out on opportunities. Get a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/domain-registration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">domain name<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/email-hosting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">email hosting<\/a>&nbsp;at the very beginning so you can start to reach out to potential customers while looking&nbsp;professional. Alternatively,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/websitebuilder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">build your own website<\/a>&nbsp;for as little&nbsp;as R148 per month (domain name and hosting included). If you are&nbsp;selling&nbsp;products,&nbsp;consider selling them online too.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"5-market-your-business\">5. Market your business<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>If only a handful of people know about you, you&nbsp;won\u2019t&nbsp;get enough new leads, calls,&nbsp;or sales. Use free online&nbsp;marketing platforms like <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Social_media\" alt=\"Link to Wikipedia - Social Media\" title=\"Wikipedia - Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social media<\/a> and business listings to get the word out.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"6-network\">6. Network<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Any business big or small needs to network. Networking allows a business owner to meet new people, gather new insights and open new doors. Attend networking events relevant to your industry.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"7-apply-a-positive-mindset\">7. Apply a positive mindset<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Although there are many benefits to running your own business, it&nbsp;won\u2019t&nbsp;be easy. There will be times of doubt and times you might want to give up. Just keep your end of the bargain;&nbsp;burn that&nbsp;midnight oil (i.e. give it your best) and stay as positive as possible,&nbsp;because if you have a great idea and you are doing the right things,&nbsp;it will eventually pay off.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having your own business&nbsp;can be&nbsp;hard but&nbsp;can&nbsp;also&nbsp;be&nbsp;very cool. When you start a business, it is not an easy endeavour, but you can work the hours you want and do the things you love. Contrary to popular belief not all types of businesses need&nbsp;investments of&nbsp;hundreds of thousands of Rands before they hit the ground running. Some, particularly home-based sole proprietorships, can be started within&nbsp;a modest budget. If a large upfront cash flow problem was the only thing standing between you and your own startup&#8230;&nbsp;hesitate no more.&nbsp; Here are some tips to start a business:1. Find a great idea2. Work from home (WFH)3. Keep it simple, start small4. Get online5. Market your bu <a alt='How to Start a Business on a Budget\u2026 Must Haves' title='How to Start a Business on a Budget\u2026 Must Haves' href='https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/how-to-start-a-business-on-a-budget\/' class='moreElipsis'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1230,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1009],"tags":[1225,1227,1224,1223,1222,1230,1226,1228,1229],"class_list":["post-1068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-domain-tips","tag-figure-out-how-to-work-from-home","tag-get-online-with-a-simple-website","tag-get-started-with-creative-ideas","tag-get-your-business-startup-budget-organised","tag-how-to-start-a-business-on-a-budget","tag-keep-a-positive-mindset","tag-keep-it-small-amp-simple","tag-market-your-business-on-social-media","tag-network-as-much-as-possible-locally"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1068"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3579,"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions\/3579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.domains.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}