How to Build a Business Without an Advertising Budget

Get Opportunity Obsessed

Don't think that because your grandpa built a business a certain way, you have to build it a certain way. You have to be looking at right now. If you're trying to grow a business from scratch and you don't have a big budget to go with, this one is for you.

The first thing is that you have to be opportunity obsessed. People talk about obsession like it's a bad thing. Enjoy life, life is short, take advantage of it, whatever. But I can tell you something. Being broke throughout life doesn't feel like a short life. It feels like a very long one.

I was looking at my kids and we didn't have a lot of money, and I had to figure out how do I provide for them. My savings account had about $100 in it every time I checked. But I was hungry for opportunity. I was actually looking for it. Always looking. Positivity. Creativeness. When you combine those elements, you find opportunities everywhere.

The $40 Brand: How Cozy House Started

So what was my opportunity? I had a fellow coworker selling bed sheets on the streets every weekend as a side hustle, because he wasn't making enough on his 9 to 5. At the same time, I saw people buying on Amazon all the time, and I said, that's interesting. Then I got introduced to Amazon Prime and Fulfilled by Amazon, and I started feeling like this is the opportunity right here. All I had to do was create an account, set myself up as a seller, and Amazon has pretty much unlimited traffic.

I brought this coworker home and said, let me see your bed sheets. I opened them up and looked for a brand name, and I could not find one attached to the sheets themselves. They were branded Clara Clark, but only with a big label on top. Remove the label and there's no brand at all. I took that as a great opportunity to build our own private label brand.

I got my coworker to give me $40. We hired a designer, which you all have access to, and paid him $40 to build us a logo. That was the Cozy House logo. And here's the part people miss: he didn't have to pay for the inventory. Someone gave it to him on consignment. I took inventory that did not cost me a penny, shipped it to Amazon, optimized the listings, created images and graphics, everything. A few months in it was printing money, $100,000 a month, and then we kept scaling until we were ordering containers from China. That coworker is still with me today. He's one of my partners.

Content Is the Biggest Free Opportunity in History

Now let's get practical. Content on social media platforms is the biggest opportunity you have. Go to social media and post consistently, every day, on Facebook and Instagram and YouTube and TikTok and Pinterest and Snapchat and podcasts and so on. This is an opportunity our ancestors did not have. We can press buttons and get attention.

The name of the game is attention. So much so that my company is named Attention Grabbing Media. These social media platforms are the path for you to get it. Overcommunicate obsessively, because you are opportunity obsessed, and you'll eventually build a business on the back of your content.

Because if your content is good, it will take off. If your content is not good, it will still take off. It's just going to take longer. That's the way it is.

Mine Your Historical Contacts and Your Email List

Here's another thing most of us take for granted: your historical contacts. You've probably had the same cell phone number for years. I've had the same phone number for 20 years. People who contacted me 17 years ago can still contact me today. Same with your email. If you have a Gmail account, there are people who emailed you seven years ago and they're still in your contacts. Bringing those people back to life is a way to launch a brand without spending resources.

As you build your brand, the email list becomes even bigger. There are brands out there that sustain themselves entirely on their email list. In my company NaturalSlim, I could live off of ours. I have a list of millions of people who have come into my world over the years to get value from our brand, and they keep buying from us all the time. But I'm not satisfied, so I keep growing that list, because growing the business is an obsession I have. Just having an email list is a major part of an organization's success, even without a current advertising budget.

Old School Still Works: Door Knocking, Collaborations, Word of Mouth

When all else fails and you have a great product and a great service, go talk to human beings the old school way. Show up. Talk to your neighbors about it. Walk into a business and introduce your abilities, your services, your products, what you can do for them. People still like to talk to others. People are still social. You can get attention in business just by being old school.

Collaborations are another vital one. Social media is full of brands that would be happy to exchange collaborations with you. All you have to do is go look for them, send a message, and find out if they're interested. They promote you, you promote them. Similar following, similar size, and you exchange it without paying a penny on advertising.

And word of mouth has historically been the most important marketing avenue for businesses worldwide. There's nothing like it. Deliver superior, exceptional service and word of mouth follows.

That's how I did it. I found a massive opportunity inside my own network, my coworker, and I introduced my abilities as a marketer. I said, let me do this. I'll put it on the internet. I'll make it successful. I put in the sweat equity, you give me the inventory, and we'll build a great business together. You don't need a budget. You need to be looking at right now.