3 Ways to Dip Your Toes Into Business Even With Zero Experience

Starting a business has always been one of the most effective means of generating wealth. It’s also a path that inherently has a lot of freedom. You can start a business from your backyard or go to school for it. The choice is yours.

As the data shows, since COVID-19, small businesses have contributed in a massive way- around 71% to private job gains. Similarly, startups have been responsible for 26% of total new jobs.

Running a business and contributing to the economy sounds amazing, but you have to remember that entrepreneurship comes with many risks.

This hard fact makes a lot of people hesitant about starting their own business. Not all of us have generational wealth to bail us out if something goes wrong.

So, if you don’t want to destroy your life savings trying to become an entrepreneur, read on. 

The Three-Step Process 

Essentially, dipping your toes into business is something you very much need to experience firsthand.

Moreover, you need to get a feel for each aspect of the business world. In this article, we’ll look at three aspects and show you how you can learn about them.

The first aspect is insight. You need an insider perspective on what the inner workings of a business actually feel like.

What tasks are happening day in and day out besides sales? Which of them have the potential to cause huge issues if not managed properly? What sort of impact does staffing have? 

The second aspect is sales and customer interaction. Even if you decide to hire experienced salesmen for your business, you still need to have first-hand knowledge of the sales experience.

It’s going to help you be a better leader and set more realistic expectations for your team. The third and final aspect is the ability to consolidate all these aspects into a fully functional operation. 

Here are three ways that you can implement each aspect.

#1. Find an Internship At a Business You Admire

Dipping your toes into the business world has to start somewhere, and often, it’s an appreciation of a certain successful business.

It could be an international company, but it could also be the local mom-and-pop store that’s been running for the last twenty years.

Now, hear us out. People generally think of internships as something for young graduates, but the concept has no age limit. 

Essentially, you are looking for an opportunity to work closely with a successful business to learn how the inner world works.

That’s the most important part. The only problem is that these days, getting such an opportunity can require some effort. One strategy is to ensure you have your own website in your niche. 

Say you’re hoping to start a beauty and wellness store in the future. Well, you don’t have to wait till the last minute to start a website for it.

You don’t even have to sell anything on it yet. You can simply use it to host informational content about the products you intend to sell. 

If you’re unsure how to go about it, Hocoos suggests using one of the many AI-assisted website builders that make building and customization easy.

You just answer a few questions and your website is up and running in just a few minutes. It’s definitely worth looking into because having an online presence in your niche is an easy way of showing you’re serious. 

Honestly, you’d be surprised at how many companies will give you a chance when they see you’re passionate about the niche and want to learn.

#2. Gain the Raw Experience With Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace is by far the best way to quickly know what it’s like to make a sale. You’ll quickly be dealing with aspects such as pricing, low-ball offers, and the inevitable disappointments.

(You’ll get many customers who say they’re going to buy and then cancel at the last moment.) It definitely prepares you for how brutal the sales experience can be. 

Now, the best part about Facebook Marketplace is that you can choose to do things either offline or online or a combination of both.

Surprisingly, you can actually make a good amount of money doing this as well. Reselling used products is a massive industry today. 

FinanceBuzz points out statistics that show how clothing resale grew fifteen times faster than conventional retail clothing in 2023. Similarly, the secondhand apparel market is set to be worth over $73 billion by 2028!

You probably have a bunch of things that you’ve been wanting to get rid of, so just list them online. People buy all sorts of things on Facebook Marketplace, and it’s an easy learning experience + extra money for you.

#3. Combine It All With a One-Person Business Model

If you’ve managed to spend some time in internships and experienced dealing with customers via online and offline sales, then it’s time to move on.

Now, you get to consolidate all the business experience you’ve gathered, and a simple way to do this is with a one-person business. 

You would be surprised at how successful this business model can be. You can still hire a freelancer if you want to experience the managerial side of things, but we recommend doing that a little later. There are a lot of resources today that make running a one-person business easy. 

More importantly, several niches exist that work well with this model. On-demand T-shirt printing, app development, and copywriting– these are just a few options where the one-person model shines. 

Even though you may just be using it as a simple way to experience running a business, you might also want to stick with it. 

As Business.com notes, there have been several one-person businesses that have now grown into multi-million and multi-billion dollar companies.

These include Under Armour, started by Kevin Plank in 1996, and even Urban Dictionary, by Aaron Peckham in 1999. 

(Of course, many of them realize that staying in a one-person business comes with many limitations and hence, expand and choose that path.)

All things considered, most people don’t have the opportunity to experiment in the world of business. Mistakes are expensive, and you often have to learn as you go. However, as you’ve seen today, there are ways to get more first-hand experience and insights. 

Try them out, and you’ll quickly learn if you have what it takes to jump into the business world with more confidence.