How to Start a Tech Company without Funding?

You may have heard about tech giants like Lynda, Shopify, Braintree Payments, Mailchimp, etc. starting off with zero investment. It’s sure cool, but they were not built in the blink of an eye. All these online businesses turned profitable after a lot of struggle. From nurturing the idea to implementing the business tactics, every step of starting your own tech business demands consistency, enthusiasm, and zeal. 

Starting a tech company is insanely complicated, and translating an idea into a tech startup is even more challenging. The probability of success or failure is equal unless the intensity of your efforts drives the probability graph to either direction. From the point of idea initiation, the way you execute the battle determines the real future of the business. Giving life to an efficacious tech startup is surely demanding. The needed struggle multiples when you have limited financial resources. That’s what leads some people to ponder over how to start a successful business with no money. Although it is challenging, it is not impossible. Well, nothing is impossible. 

Starting a technology company needs a proper roadmap and a plan to put ideas into reality. Let’s dig it deeper to understand the basics of starting a business. 

1. A Clear Vision 

Vision is about the dream image which you want to reach for your product. This dream is surely not easy to pursue. Having a fantastic startup idea is not just enough to climb up the ladder of success. The negligence towards planning often results in failures. When you envision a catchy business idea, there are chances of attracting investors and funding agencies, which may build your way to start a business with no money. 

If you want to know how to start a successful business with no money, crafting the vision is the answer. 

Building a tech startup demands a product map that is pointing in the right destined direction. Apply a simple framework and analyze how the product is streamlined with the end-user goals. Subjectively the pain points of the end-user will be aligned with the core features of the product. 

The three significant steps that we need to go through here are:

• Validate the primary business ideas
• Get honest feedback from your customers
• Attain the Product-market fit

Answer the major questions, which will guide your directions and set your pace for the next step:

• Why will a customer need the product or service?
• What problem will the product or service solve for the customer?
• Does the product or service stand in the category of being vital for the customers?

 When you answer these questions, attracting funds from investors is much easier. 

2. Funding sources 

Self-funding means using your assets or money to fund your businesses. There are plenty of reasons why self-funding is good. Many startups do not qualify for business loans. Self-funding also provides complete control of the company and the liberation to do what you want. It can even toughen your application, making you finally able to apply for business loans. 

There are many different ways to self-fund your startup, some of which are:

• Personal savings
• Life insurance
• Home equity loan
• Investments and securities
• Individual retirement account (IRA)
• Credit cards

3. Test a prototype- your mini product

For a new business, pilot testing with the prototype lies at the heart of success. Before you launch the final product, make sure that you have tested the prototype in relevant demographics. 

Once you have envisioned your product, the next step is to work upon the Minimum Viable Product or MVP. Launching the MVP into the right segment target audience is the key. It will serve as the initiation point for reaching your first few customers.

If your product does not reach the right audience, all you are doing is just wasting resources and eventually slaying your company. During this initial encounter with the customers, keep yourself highly focused on the feedback. It will help you n polish and enhance your product in a competitive way. Try to focus on the following major steps:

• Analyze the target audience for your product or service
• Get active in your desired communities of the target segment
• Find visible marketing partners
• Identify the effective social platform to attract the target customers
• Find the most visible influencers on Social Media to market the prototype of your product

4. The target audience is the king

The best place to start a tech company is eventually determined by your target audience. In the case of tech businesses, it is essential to build a competitive app.

• Apply agile methodology to break it up into multiple phases
• Deeply analyze the target audience data and pivot
• Try to make your position inside the market.
• Make online presence visible and prominent
• Collaborate with the tech brands
• Make a strategy according to competitor’s move

5. Professional Development – Your long term investment

If you are planning your own tech business, you will be on your toes. You will have a lot to do. You will be doing vision formation for the business, which is quite a burdensome task. Along with that, you will be validating and revalidating the ideas, directing your tech team, growing your audience, and consulting in addition to all of that.

Despite all this busy routine, you cannot forget about your professional development. This development is specifically important for self-funding tech entrepreneurs because they may be missing out on the mentoring, networking, and experience characteristically supplied by a VC firm. There are dozens of ways in which you can invest in your professional development and access the vital expertise to succeed. Let’s take a look at some of them below:

• Plan a substantial career path
• Try to overcome your comfort zone
• Look for new technology solutions
• Participate in a startup accelerator
• Keep updated with knowledge
• Look for professional certifications
• Look for professional development gurus
• Participate in skill enhancement programs
• Talk to successful tech entrepreneurs 

General Tips for a Successful Startup

Below are some general tips for you to consider for a successful startup.

Do not put all your eggs in one basket.

For all startup business owners, meeting the ends is one of the hardest challenges. The answer to this problem lies in diversification. It means you will try to expand your earnings in multiple ways. It is done either by acquiring another source of earning or by expanding your product line to minimize risk. 

Diversification makes sure that funds are coming and the baseline of the business does not face any shortage of cash flows. 

Build the people, and they will build your business.

The world is trending towards a technology shift. As a result, the business world is facing a shortage of technology experts. This unequal distribution of supply and demand makes tech experts expensive. For a startup, it is therefore recommended to get a tech team in-house. Build your team up. They can resist the ups and downs of a business startup. In this way, you will establish an asset of an in-house technology expert who will eventually pay you in the longer run. Out-sourcing the technology talent will be quite expensive for a new startup.  

Stay In, and Ahead of, the Market

You can never win without being competitive. Competition demands a proactive approach towards making your presence visible in the market. You can start a company without money when your market analysis is up to the mark. Stay ahead in the technology industry demands a piece of knowledge about the newest trends of the industry. 

Leverage the Power of Content Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Content marketing is about subconsciously hitting your target audience. You may not say it to be a direct selling tool, but it is a way of stimulating the target audience’s interests. Some of the major strategies you can use for content marketing in tech startups are:

• Search the hottest topics in the tech Industry 
• Target reputable sites to Submit Guest Posts 
• Make creative Visual Content
• Submit Content Regularly
• Involve market Influencers in tech Content Creation
• Promote the Content on major Social Media platforms
• Write in-depth About the Niche topics
• Monitor the Best Time to Post relevant Content
• Maximize Social Media 

In today’s world of technology, the whole world has become a global village. No business now can deny a visible and prominent presence over social media. When you maximize your social media presence, you enhance your portfolio and make yourself available for the audience as and when needed. 

• Analyze Your Audience
• Provide Value
• Enlarge the Conversation topics
• Look Beyond Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. …
• Know the Dimensions of your social media channel
• Maximize the SEO Impact
• Try to objectify the Success criterions

Talking about blogging and social media in general, content lies at the heart of the whole scenario. After all, content is what you put before your audience so that they start to develop feelings and thoughts about your tech company and its brands’ image. The final decision on whether to do business with you is made after this first encounter. Along with brand recognition, more potential customers increased followers. Having a vigorous social media presence also improves your brand positioning as social media is the king in the modern world.  

Final Thoughts

Starting a technology company is easy when you have a clear vision. You may not even need money to start a tech company. However, you should be able to professionally analyze your environment and isolate your target audience. Plus, your business should be self-sustainable. It’s not easy, though. If building a tech startup or any other business had been that easy, the majority of the startups would not have fallen. The survival rate for startups in 2020 was only 10%. These newbies fail because the ability to be self-sustained and use effective marketing is lesser in these businesses.  Once you have all these points in mind, success will be your ultimate fate.