Hatcher-Pearson - Start your business on a ramen noodle budget: 12 lessons on becoming a young entrepreneur when you are broke

Your ideas are worthless! Yep, thats right, I said it! Your ideas mean absolutely nothing without a strategic action plan and execution! Think of how many ideas you come up with during the day or in a week. Many of them never even reach paper because we think that we cannot move forward until we raise money. Too often, we are more obsessed with the idea of dreaming big and accomplishing the unimaginable than actually doing t he work.

In order to build traction with your big idea, it needs to be practical. Being practical can make it easier to start a business on a Ramen Noodle budget. Im a big advocate of starting small but constantly thinking big. You can start a business now, with all of the resources you currently have and less than 1% of what you think you need to accomplish your grandiose vision. The key is to start where you are with what you have by building a trial product, just to get yourself in the game. This will put you way ahead of most, because you have actually startedwhile others are waiting for the finish line to appear magically at the starti ng line.

For example, lets say you have a dream of starting your own university that will allow free access to higher education for people in third-world countries. You envision it will change the dynamics of education worldwide, with thousands of students, campuses all over the world, and expensive technology. However, instead of waiting for that perfect day and going into a panic attack wondering how you will fund it, you start by teaching a Udemy.com class this weekend. The technology that is available to us today makes it easier than ever to start a business on a Ramen Noodle budget. You can set up a class today. Tap into your social networks, and find people who will pay to learn from your expertise. All you need is a computer, internet access, and the will to be patient and execute. You will be in business, and it can grow fro m there.

When we first started Feverish, we purchased ice cream wholesale from a local manufacturer and added our own quirky spin to a mobile ice cream party service. We grew the company organically and constantly improved as we went along. For the first year, all we did was buy ice cream and show up to parties serving ice cream and playing real music with a lounge area. That was all we needed to become profitable and to start the minimal viable product of our overall goal. Starting small makes you focus on solving real problems for people. Starting scrappy and getting super creative with limited resources gives you a stronger foundation from which to grow. It eliminates the friction of big infrastructure and gets right to the point. It will allow your company to easily pivot and enable you to keep your ear to the ground for customer f eedback.

So, no, your idea doesnt need funding to start. You also dont need an MBA, a particular big client, a certain persons endorsement, a lucky break, or any other common excuse used not to start. Just get off your butt and Carpe Noodle! Thats right Seize the Noodle, and unlock the creativity to start your busines s today!

I wrote this book to show you how to break things down so you can start! I will give you step-by-step instructions that will help you make good preliminary decisions, build a lean business that has a chance to succeed, and grow your business for success. All on a Ramen Noodle budget! Im not going to give you more work than is absolutely necessary. Im going to make it so easy youre going to wish you did this years ago! But before we get started, I want to make one thing clear: this book is about how to start, so you wont find accounting spreadsheets and business plan templates here. We are focusing on tackling the fear that prevents most people from starting a business and truly following their dre am...

So if youre ready to build your own dream on a Ramen Noodle budget, keep on reading!

Working 8 hours a day in a job that you hate can undoubtedly hurt the quality of your life and cause a range of emotional, mental, and physical problemsnot to mention its effect on your personal relationships as well.

Have you ever sat at work wondering, What if I just let go? What if I could start my own business and be my own boss?hoping that you could live a more fulfilling and rewarding life? Then welcome to the club! Most people are absolutely desperate to go through with it and turn their lives around; however, very few of them actually know HOW TO DO IT . Theyre not prepared, and theyre too frightened to take the leap into unknown territory, worried that everything will come crashing down around them because they dont have what it takes (the money or the skills) to start a b usiness.

With my guidance and your effort, you, too, can build an awesome business! And you dont need hundreds and thousands of dollars to do it either! All you need is to think it through, set up a simple plan that you can follow, and listen to someone (me!) who will tell you what you really nee d to do.

Every Start a Business textbook will take you through a very dry course on how to write a business plan, research for weeks or months, hire experts to do this or that, and how to research the legal issues youll have to deal with. A few chapters in, you realize that you need at least $100,000 to follow through with every step mentioned. Do you really want to read 300 pages of instructions that make your dreams seem further and harder to reach? Personally, Id rather have a crash course that takes me through the basics, and skip all the fluff and BS that I dont really need. I want to read something that leaves me feeling confident and more knowledgeable about the steps I need to take to start my business. Reading 300 pages of dry content isnt going to help anyone but the optician when you need a new pair of eye glasses!