Discover how easy it is to start a home business
Updated September 5, 2024
What a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs don’t know about starting a service-based business is it doesn’t have to be expensive to start.
It’s easy and affordable to start a home business!
Honestly, tho, did you know this about home-based businesses?
Starting a service business from home isn’t that expensive to run. In fact, for most, it’s so affordable to launch and operate a business from home because there isn’t a commercial lease to pay rent for.
What many people do not realize about starting a home business is the actual costs to start are affordable to try a business idea and keep operating it.
Yes, you can run a business for 200 dollars or less
The cost of operating a business can range between $100 to $200 a month. The cost ranges because the spending variances in the type of business you choose to run can be different. For example, the cost to run a content website is cheaper than an e-commerce website (e.g., Squarespace Business $32/month versus Squarespace Commerce $36/month + transaction fees).
The differences between a service or product business
There are differences between the type of business an aspiring entrepreneur can operate. Service-type businesses are typically the easiest and simplest to start because the entrepreneur (or small business owner) can start to sell the service immediately with a small start-up budget.
Service Business
A service business is the exchange of money for time to perform a skilled service, labour, or expertise for a client (or customer) who requires it. Services are usually sold by the hour or with flat fees calculated in advance in the form of an agreed-upon estimate or quote.
Product Business
A product business is when an idea in the form of a tangible item like a software product or creation (jewelry or invention) is sold to a customer or client. A customer may only purchase one-time (e.g., with a one-time fee) or become a regular customer.
Starting up lean
The start-up lean concept is easy to understand. It means only paying for the essential services required to operate the business when you start it up, making it a lean start-up strategy. It is commonly known as the startup lean method.
Startup lean method
The startup lean method is when a new company or a new business owner purchases services that are essential to get the business up and running. The method is to literally buy only what is needed to begin generating revenue.
At the same time, they use the profit to continue to develop more services or products in an agile way to further increase revenue.
Between $100 to $200 each month (or less) is all you need to start a business
The money a business requires to start a home-based business is between 100 and 200 dollars each month to cover the operating expense of a basic website to advertise the services professionally and pay for accounting software like Quickbooks or Freshbooks to send estimates and invoices.
It’s easy to start a home business with less than $200 every month
At The Biz Class, we believe anyone passionate about starting a business can.
We don’t think of limitations like there are special or unique talents required to run a business. We think that anyone who currently does a service-type job at a professional level can learn how to sell that same service in their very own business, either as a freelancer, part-time, or part-time entrepreneur.
With a $200 or less budget for a startup’s basic operating costs and a passion for pursuing business opportunities to earn income as a sole proprietor or entrepreneur, anyone can start a business by doing these four things.
Start a business just by doing these four things
Anyone can start a business by doing these four things with a monthly $200 budget (or less) to start
Freelance under your full legal name (no registration required) in Canada
Get a basic website
Purchase accounting software (or just use an Excel sheet)
Get an accountant
Freelance
In Canada, you can start a freelance business (or conduct business as a sole proprietor) without registering anything official with a provincial, municipal or federal government.
The cost to register a freelance home business is zero dollars. The catch is sole proprietors can only operate under their full legal name.
However, if business owners would like a unique business name, they can register an alias for the sole proprietorship for a fee. However, a unique alias business name requires an official registration with Industry Canada. Business name searches are free with a pre-search with Nuans Canada business name inquiry service. To finalize the registration there is a fee to officially register the alias to your sole proprietorship.
A Basic Website
Start your website with the startup lean method and build a basic website. By basic, we mean lean. Only design and develop the most essential website features to generate revenue the fastest. Later, the business can start investing in more advanced features to add to the website.
The most impressive websites are clean, easy to use, functional, and easy to read on any device (e.,g., desktop, laptop and smartphone).
Squarespace offers beautiful templated website designs that are easy to customize with your content (e.g., PDFs, copy, images, logo). The templates also automatically respond to visitors' devices, which makes it even easier for non-technical people to build and add content to their websites independently and without the cost of a web designer.
Squarespace’s website platform is great for startups because it offers monthly payment options, making it easy for startups to afford operational costs
Squarespace also gives away the first year of your domain registration with a professional email with Google Workspace email for free. So in a way, when you use Squarespace, there’s no reason not to try a business idea because of the freebies.
Other cost-effective website services to consider are Wordpress.org and Adobe Portfolio. Both offer basic websites for affordable monthly costs.
Accounting software
The most essential thing a new business owner to do is to send invoices, collect payments, and generally keep organized accounting books. Accounting software helps business owners organize all business revenue and business expenses, and generate reports. Quickbooks will even handle the collection of credit card payments and file them as payment.
Accounting software like Quickbooks, Wave and Freshbooks charge monthly service fees to help entrepreneurs store all of their financial business data. Quickbooks makes it easy to connect your QBO account with your accountant’s email address so they have access to the books too.
Alternatively, if you are looking for more cost-effective options, it’s possible to use a spreadsheet with Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel for tracking expenses and preparing estimates and invoices. This can help reduce software costs for the first year of business and reduce your monthly operating expense costs.
When tax season comes, simply send the spreadsheet to your accountant. The accountant will accurately file and report your personal income and business expenses, claiming any applicable deductions. Business owners are not required to send business receipts to their accountant or the government for review.
Although business owners are required to store all receipts and invoices for claimed business expenses.
Get an Accountant
It’s so important to hire an accountant to help file personal taxes and business income. Accountant jobs are to ensure business owners accurately report income to claim and benefit from deductions.
And don’t forget, accounting fees are a legitimate expense to operate a business!
Yes! It is that easy to start a home business
Now that we know how easy it is to start a business from a home office, you might be wondering about how to run the business more permanently part-time or full-time business owner for longer than a short freelance project or contract gig.
Join The Biz Class
Establishing a business is easy, but learning the ins and outs of running and operating a business is the true challenge.
The Biz Class coaching serves to bridge the gap from starting a business to operating with financial success. The coaching program is built on the foundations of practical step-by-step to help business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs reach their financial potential on their terms.
The Biz Class coaching program includes independent course sessions paired with weekly coaching sessions.
The goal of The Biz Class is to help anyone achieve their entrepreneurial dreams and get big value out of business coaching helping them to start operating a successful service or e-commerce business from home.
