I have a good idea for a business, but don't have the funds to start, what should I do?

In a book, "Slicing Pie", Mike Moyers shows you different methods of securing talent prior to paying them a salary or securing investment capital.

You can also use an ICO model similar to IPO except it is using a digital token to secure funding with a promise to buy back tokens. There are several models there.

You can also try a crowdfunding site like Kickstarter or Gofundme.

If you are truly passionate about it, find a way to make it happen and NEVER give up.

___Free Options___

1) Make apps without needing to learning to code. Look into "MIT App Inventor" (http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/)

It's an easy way to start making apps with simple drag-and-drop coding, but it's complex enough to let you make quite advanced prototypes yourself.

You can find youtube tutorials that will show you how to make your first app within 5 minutes. I've used MIT App Inventor to make prototype apps for many of my ideas, saving me tens of thousands of dollars if I paid a dev to do it instead.

2) Learn to do "real" coding yourself.

The main investment will be your time. There are plenty of free resources for learning coding on the web. I'd suggest looking into "React Native", it's a relatively new way to code apps, which allows you to make one app that will run on both Android and iOS.

3) Find a software engineer cofounder.

Go to Meetups, conferences, local hackerspaces / makerspaces. Hang out on relevant online forums (e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/ make sure to read their rules for posting before posting though). It won't be easy to find a tech cofounder, your idea will need to be amazing, and you yourself will need to be very passionate and capable in order to convince someone to partner up with you for sweat equity.

___Affordable Paid Option___

Use developers with less established reputations / portfolios (lower cost, higher risk). Find them on Upwork, Fiverr, etc.

You'll have to be very wary of freelance coders on these sites, but here are some basic hiring rules to make it more likely to work:

A) In your hiring script, make sure to ask for all applicants to give their account name for github/bitbucket and Trello. Don't consider any of the responses that don't provide these. It means they didn't read your job posting fully, and it means that they're already not able to keep up with requirements.

B) Don't hire agencies, only hire individuals.

C) To get hired, ask them to do a simple task via Trello and submit the code via github/bitbucket. This task should only take them maybe 1 hour. Check the quality of what the applicants and if they deliver it in a timely manner. Keep the 1 or 2 people that do a good job. If you don't do this vetting these "low cost" developers may end up costing a lot in the longer run.

If you'd like more tailored advice with respect to your specific app idea let me know,

best,

Lee

Hi Mr. Lee,

I am not an expert on Apps, or App development, but I can offer a few tips. It sounds like you really do believe you have a potentially lucrative idea for an App. If you live in the US, the first thing I would do is file a temporary patent. You can do so here https://www.uspto.gov/ for about $100. The temporary patent protects your idea for one full year from the date the patent request is approved. This time is essential for many entrepreneurs who are just getting started with an idea, but may not yet have a working prototype, or otherwise need time to further develop their idea. To get a full patent, you will need to develop a "proof of concept", essentially a prototype of your idea (in your case, your App). Having a temporary patent will serve to not only protect your idea from being taken by another developer, but it may also help make your idea more attractive to investors, and potential business partners.

I have gone through the patent process several times. Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Regards,

Dr. James Bell

Hello Henry Lee!
I really like the Lee Von's feedback, when it comes to launching a startup business you have to have to realize a simple yet difficult fact about your idea:
Is it truly a business or a standalone product or tool?

Sometimes, entrepreneurs get their process all scrambled and end up overwhelmed with the apparent process because of it instead of realizing that what they have is just a product.
When you have a product, you may find it difficult to get people to join and work in the hopes that something will pan out - but when you have a strong viable business and marketing plan in place for how you will turn an idea into a series of solutions for consumers through the product/features you are thinking of - well then thats a business.
If you have a product 9 times out of 10, it will be best to wait and save and spend your own money to hire someone to help you achieve it because you will need to own the product to leverage it with an existing company who can add the product or tool or feature to their existing offering possibly buying you out or helping with further development. (that's actually how Microsoft got started, through licensing 1 product)

When you don't have any money you need to leverage the work and time yourself. You can try learning how to code yourself, look for partners through Angel.co, Startup Weekends (there might be one coming up near you), Reaching out to individuals through twitter, quora, linkedin, etc.

There are also a lot of small hybrid agencies now who are becoming more flexible with their payment structure - take a look at www.BetaBulls.com for example, they are known for their large capabilities (almost 100 engineers on board), and their flexibility with startups taking minimum payments, creating MVPs and offering their lean methodologies while working on monthly payments. Other agencies like ours, www.Unthink.me - offers single dedicated programmers if there is an availability versus hiring a team.

You should also consider tools, like Balsamiq.com who allow you to create simple mockups of your idea so that you can enter contests or present to angel investors - again - you're putting a lot of that work time upfront but it's your idea after all and if you aren't willing to put that up yourself - then you can't expect others to do so either.

Whether you learn yourself or hire someone, consider using https://ionicframework.com for your development.

Easy enough to learn, whether you're and Engineer or have some other skills.

Also, if you hire developers to use this platform, even if they code your Apps, likely you can make code changes if your developers disappear... when they do... which is frequent...

https://ionicframework.com/pricing covers their pricing.

Dirt cheap.

You should focus upon your core competency,the best team of co-founders should be a combinations of a hacker, a hustler and a hipster. As you are not the hacker (coder) then you should choose between the rest.

The next step would be develop an idea and get it validated through an expert (I can help you). After validating the idea, prepare a presentation and then share it with potential co-founders.

When you have a team in place, then immediately start executing the idea and build traction (I can help you).

After getting traction for your startup, you can easily raise funds and fuel growth.

I can validate the idea, I can help you in finding the team, I can help you building traction and I can also help you in raising funds.

Thanks
Shishir