How To Start Working From Home With 0 Investment: The Minimalist Route!

How to start working from home?

What online jobs are legitimate?

How do I start working from home?

How can I make money online instantly?

What jobs pay $25 an hour and above?

How do I make an extra $1000 a month?

I get it! There are so many questions about how to start working from home with 0 to no investment at all.

I have been writing on this blog encouraging you to take up work from home or freelancing (because of the endless benefits it offers, like flexibility) but yesterday, someone asked me THE question –

“how much does it actually cost to startup your freelance business?”

Wow. I am surprised that I never thought of covering startup costs to freelancing or work from home business!

The quick answer to this – you can spend as little or as much as your budget allows! You can even start with ZERO costs (we will cover that in a minute)

Cool, right?

This post may contain affiliate links to products I trust. This means if you make a purchase using the links I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!

Note: Micala has a free course for moms who want to start a freelance business from home. Grab the training (comes with a detailed workbook) and learn the 5 essentials to make money from home for stay at home moms.

Don’t believe? Trust me, it is possible to start your freelance business or work from home business spending practically ZERO dollars.

Similarly, it is also possible to spend like a mad man on setting up your freelance business.

In this post, we will look at how to start work from home and what you need to start working from home

HOW TO START WORKING FROM HOME – STRATEGIC OVERVIEW

Step 1: Figure out the WHY behind working from home

It is important to know your WHY when you want to make money online or work from home – it keeps you motivated during the struggle and the low times.

Ask yourself – What is the driving reasons for you to be looking to work from home? This might have to do with the future, financial goals, preferences, family etc. It is your reason and it holds the power to motivate you throughout the journey.

Once you know the reason, you will be able to understand your options in a better fashion.

50 best work from home jobs that pay well in 2019

20 jobs for pregnant women (+ how to get them)

How to become a virtual assistant and earn $50/hour with no experience

Step 2: Figure Out Your Approach to working from home

how to make money with a blog for beginners

It is time to brainstorm and understand what appeals to you the most!

There are types of work from home options – It could be a straightforward work at home job with one employer or a telecommute job OR you can start your own freelance business of some sort. It could part-time or a full-time job, depending on how many hours you can dedicate to your side hustle.

So, understand what suits your requirement –

Work from home job with one employer
Work from home job (Freelance)
Telecommute

37 legit remote job websites to find your dream job

Step 3: Decide How Much to Put Toward setting up your work from home business

If you have the budget to spend a bit of money and get things running, I would recommend you to do so.

By that, I mean, you can invest in a website, training, etc or you might need the basic infrastructure – new equipment, software, internet connection etc. These expenses do not need to be high, but they do exist. We will talk about how to do this in detail in the later part of the post

If you have a budget crunch, don’t worry. We can give you some creative ideas to make extra money online. Before that, decide on how much cash do you need. Once you know, you can start with these options to make/save money online to invest in work from home business. If you are a stay at home mom, check out this post on best jobs for moms in 2019.

You can also check out these frugal living tips by Michelle. You will surely find at least 5 tips that you can implement right away and save money to invest in the work from home course of your liking!

Note – Skillshare is my go-to place to learn a new skill without having to splurge hundreds of dollar. It is an online learning community where you can explore thousands of classes in design, photography, business, and more. You can get started with a free trial using my link and get access to hundreds of courses.

Step 4: Don’t Give Up

While it is not necessary that you find it difficult, there are many, for whom, it takes time for things to really get rolling. To get an idea, check out these interviews with people who quit 9-5 to build a profitable freelance business. They talk about the challenges and how much are they making along with the total time frame.

Work from home Job Interview #1 Meet Montse – Translator & blogger

Work from home job interview 2: Meet Drew Drew Duboff – Virtual Assistant

Voice over jobs from home interview #3 – Meet Julie – A voice artist

Work from home job interview #4 – Meet Jessica (Blogger and Businesswoman)

Freelance writing for beginners interview #5: Meet Lisa Tanner

Pinterest Virtual Assistant Interview #6 – Meet Yi Ming Lai

Mom blogs that make money, Interview #7 Meet Saranya

Start a freelance writing business, interview #8 – Meet Kevin

How to become a Pinterest virtual assistant, interview #9 – Meet Teagan

Once you launch it, do not give up. Give yourself at least a year (or a generous timeframe to get off the ground) and do not quit before that.

WHAT YOU NEED TO START WORK FROM HOME OR FREELANCE – the minimalist route

Decide on what service you will offer – As we discussed above, you need to settle on the service you will offer as a freelancer. Depending on your current (or past) jobs, skills, responsibility, and experience, you can take up something that translates into service in the online business land. For example, if you are a teacher, you have writing, planning and conversation experience. Similarly, as a salesperson, you have experience working on the customer journey, sales funnel etc.

In the online business world, it can translate into

Freelance Writing
Project management
Social media
Leads management etc

Marketing your services – You will have to market your services heavily. So, decide on how you will do that.

The minimalist way of doing this is to have a Facebook page and a portfolio (that you can make on Canva for free!). Both of these options does not cost you a penny!

You can easily scale your business to $2k a month without having a professional website, branding and other similar things.

Communicating with clients professionally – You can use two free tools for this purpose.

Skype
Zoom (this is considered more professional and have a free version for you to use in the beginning)

For scheduling appointments and calls, you can look up Calendly. It has a free version and works really well. You can also use Google calendar and share it with your client.

Others –

For invoicing, you can go the simple way. Use Paypal. If your country allows Waveapps, you can use that too. It is free of cost.

You will have to invest in a laptop or a computer and an internet connection (assuming you do not have one already!).

A services website
Courses and/or coaching programs (if you are running on a budget check out how to get free money and how to earn with surveys.)
Subscription to online job portal

Relevant Reads

How to become a Virtual Assistant for FREE – Courses and Resources you MUST HAVE

20+ blogging tools for beginners and freelance writers

1 hack to learn a new skill for FREE

6 FREE tools for freelance writers

My recommendation for you

Go with the minimalist route initially. Reach up to $2-3k a month and revisit your strategy
Invest in at least 1 course or a coaching program. It will tell you exactly what to do to scale your business and you will not be making a lot of mistakes (which you might end up making and increasing the time frame)
Invest in a website. Do not go overboard and DIY it. It is simpler than you think!

The only reason I recommend courses and investment – it saves you time and in any business, time is money. You can be earning $2k a month right away if you follow the steps that have been tried and tested. If you try to figure out everything on your own, it will take time.