You Can Start a Business with No Money

You can start a business with no money.  That sounds crazy, but it is true.  I did it, and so could you if you are good at art, photography or computer graphics. My hobbies have led me into a home working business that costs me nothing at all.

Check out a site called Red Bubble. Do a name search for me, Rosetta Jallow, and you can see my profile there to give you an idea of what I do. Browse the site and look at the work other ‘Bubblers’ do and post there. The Australian owned site is both a personal networking site and a business one. Cards, postcards, matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints and posters are made from your photographs, or photographs of your art work. You can make calendars to. You can buy your own work or as I do, you can approach local businesses, friends, family, churches, and other organizations about buying from you. Buzz up, twitter, link to Facebook, and do what it takes to get the message out there that you are in the cards and prints business. Buying your own cards and using them is a good way of advertising your work, and the cost of the high quality printed cards is cheaper than many less personal ones you’d buy in the shops.

On Red Bubble they also do a range of t-shirts and have recently started producing hoodies. I have a varied range of designs on t-shirts there, and some people using the site market their own products through party plan selling and by setting up a website to showcase their work. Free website design helps! Try Weebly, though there are others, since it is very easy to use to create a website. It is mostly ‘click and drag’ components and you can have a BLOG page too. One ‘Bubbler’ who recently joined Red Bubble as a way to get her artist bears seen is Wendy of Wee Darlin Bears. Wendy makes adorable little collectors bears in mohair and photographs them for sale as cards on Red Bubble, but she also set up a free Weebly website http://weedarlinbears.weebly.com and she links these in with her Facebook account. One Facebook user has a ‘Get Art Promoted’ account where Red Bubble users can also submit their work to be promoted through her group on Red Bubble. It’s all free too, which is great.

Digital cameras are great. You can go photograph as much as you like and download them to Red Bubble and spend nothing on processing, as you don’t have to have prints made if you are only using the photos as cards and so on, on Red Bubble. Make your own photostock if you are into graphic design and photo manipulation. Keep photos stored on your PC. You don’t have to go out and buy Photoshop either. Try a free download of GIMP, which does all the basic things you’d want it to if you are a beginner. My t-shirt designs are all made on GIMP and they work out fine.

I also have a Weebly website http://rosettaartist.weebly.com and I put my Red Bubble t-shirt designs on that, also on my Myspace, where people can see every new thing I do. It is all free advertising.

Some ideas:

Photograph local scenery and try interesting your local tourist shops in your work.

Photograph your pets and make a pets calendar to market. Try asking your local pet shop to stock some of them and your cards for a start.

If you do fantasy graphic art and have it on Red Bubble, write to magazines like ImagineFX and send them a disc of some of your best work. You might just end up being a Featured Artist in a magazine, and that can only lead to sales.

If you are an artist and you do exhibit your work, then let viewers know that they can buy prints of the original art and art cards from Red Bubble.

A business with no cash outlay! Great eh?