In the 1990’s, founding a company meant more than just spending money on some product development or opening a shop front. It meant investing in infrastructure, computers, agencies who could do web design and graphic design, advertising companies, copywriting houses…the list is almost endless.
It’s no wonder that the cost of getting into business used to be over $10,000 before you even started selling a product.
The cost of starting a business today isn’t what it used to be. In the past 20 years, we’ve seen massive changes in technology that have transformed the entire process, lowering the barriers of entry and making it far more affordable for entrepreneurs to turn their idea into a real product or company. The differences are striking, and a huge part of that is how the gig economy has changed the way we pay for creative work.
Before the gig economy, what would $10,000 in startup money have bought?
Let’s imagine you were starting your business with a minimum of $10,000.
The basic cost of getting a logo designed for your new company would have been over $1,000.
Without the option of going online and finding a talented designer, you were limited to hiring a graphic design firm or a print shop with a design speciality. That single cost could have eaten away up to 10% of your funding.
A website design would have been even more expensive. In fact, a website alone could have taken the rest of your initial cash immediately, particularly when you take into account the cost of a server to host it!
You might end up with a logo and a snazzy home page, but you’d be hard pressed to fit in any other expenses — so much for marketing, advertising, promoting or growing.
What’s changed now?
Today, you can start by scratching the cost of a pricey server. Thanks to cloud hosting, there’s little need for it. So what do you spend your $10,000 on? There’s a lot.
Freelancing platforms have actually allowed businesses to break out of the pattern of hiring expensive agencies to do their set up work, instead allowing them to access professionals who are able to charge less while still delivering top notch work thanks to their lack of overheads.
On Speedlancer.com, here’s what half of that could buy you to start your business with
For many businesses, those activities would cover their startup costs, their marketing and in fact their first 3 months of promotion and operations. This means that becoming an entrepreneur and building a business is a simpler and more accessible process than ever before!