What are some steps to creating your on business? Where can i get funding to the point that the start up cost is little to noting.

Khalil,

Based on your very short and not-specific question I'm going to guess that you are pretty much flying blind here - that you have a dream of doing "Something" yourself and being the boss, but no idea how to go about it. Here are a few thoughts and I hope they are helpful to you and others who want good advice and not sugar-coated feel-good advice:

1. 
   

   Most people at any age are not good fits for starting their own business - but most people still dream of doing so. They want the end results: "being the boss, making money, etc." without the hard work usually necessary to achieve them. Think carefully about who you are - do you want to find out if you have what it takes? How will you measure your own success or failure?

   
   


2. 
   

   Ask yourself this: do you know anyone hopefully relatively close in age to you that has started their own business at any level of success? If the answer is NO, ask yourself, which friends / relatives / parents of friends would I ask that might be able to introduce me to those people? The BEST way to learn what it means to start your own business at an early age is to work for someone directly who is doing it.

   
   


3. 
   

   If you really want to "go it alone" and try starting your own business without anyone's help when you are young and have no experience, try writing up in detail 3 ideas of what you might do, what it might cost, and then the steps you'd need to go about doing it. The ideas should be something you feel like you know how to do personally: start a grocery deliver or dog-walking business in your neighborhood, etc. Then ask for advice on these ideas - obviously they'd be much more detailed than this question. And you'll find, the more detailed your question, the better answers you'll receive.

   
   


4. 
   

   Lastly, there's nothing wrong with failing if you make a sincere effort and learn from it. And there's nothing wrong with NOT starting your own business.

   
   

Good luck.

First, write up a business plan. This is essentially an explanation of what problem you're solving, why it's important, and what it will take in all the resources you'll need. This will be what you will show people who might provide funding for you. In general, there is little likelihood of you creating a business with minimal funding, so getting an investment from others is likely the way to go. And it will also serve as a first test for you to decide if it makes sense at all, as well as a way of understanding whether you actually want to put in all the hard work. Over 86 percent of startups never turn a profit, so it better be something you'll enjoy.

Hi Khalil,

I have started, run and sold several businesses in my career and have found that there are no free rides. If you are thinking about starting a business with only an idea and are looking for seed capital, you will need to create a complete business plan to attract investors to your concept - this is not free as they will want to own a piece of what they are helping to pay for so that they may be paid for the risk that they took sometime in the future. Otherwise, you would need to invest your own money in an idea where you would have all the risk and reward.

Whether you are self-employed or work for a company, you will always work for someone that pays you for the service that you provide (or will not pay you as a result of poor service).

With that in mind, I would suggest working toward a business administration degree so that you will have a formal foundation to understand what is involved in managing a business for others or for yourself sometime in the future.

Best of luck!