Building an Empire with $40 using Micro-Ventures

Welcome to the Ultimate Guide of building an Empire

The biggest problem with a startup/venture is the liability; the fear of failing and the fear of losing your valuable assets in the process. What if you could start a company with minimum capital and minimum setting-up-fee and run it until you can generate enough revenue to expand it? The problem with that solution: Not every business is scalable and flexible.

Let me introduce you to the new bad boy in town that every girl keeps talking about: Micro-Ventures (What I like to call it). Micro-Ventures or MVs (Just for the sake of this article) are ventures that are booted up with minimum liability, minimum setting-up-fee and minimum maintenance. MVs don’t need massive capital, don’t depend on massive sacrifices on the founder’s part and runs smoothly without the need of constant maintenance.

Imagine this.

You set up the company with $40. You code your platform. You have it up and running on the cloud and you acquire users/customers over time and expand your venture. That’s the dream. It’s very possible.

Micro ventures are minions. Even if they fail, you’ll lose $40 and a dollar or two

Here’s the checklist:

1. Draw up your business as a flow chart → FREE
2. Come up with a name and buy the domain → $15
3. Purchase a Cloud Service with Bill-Per-Usage → $25
4. Code your Platform → FREE
5. Get yourself a Co-founder. Things will be faster → Stakeholder (Give him/her a Share of your company. It’s worth it)
6. Stay Overnight and Drown in Coffee → FREE (Mom makes the Coffee. It’s free)
7. Deploy your website/web-app to the Cloud → FREE (Now that you own a Cloud)
8. Use Social Media for Exposure → FREE

Micro Ventures need to follow 3 Golden rules in order to be successful. Keep Reading.

If your goal is to build an Empire. Think as if you have 4 copies of yourself in one body. Act as a swarm

Things to avoid at first:

1. Incorporating the Company

You don’t need to incorporate your company as soon as you start it. It’s a common myth and really, you can do that once you have your business model ready.

2. Hiring people for a Salary

A very common mistake made by founders is to hire people before you have a business model and a service that is up and running. This will make you burn out fast. If you really need to hire people, make up your mind and give them a small Share of your company (1–4%) in return for their services or else do it yourself. If you decide to do that, make sure you have a fair and valid contract with them.

The Game Plan

Here’s how the game works. You quickly boot up your company and get your services up and running. Make sure that you make way for revenue to come flawing and let the business take its course. Avoid massive costs.

Multiple Micro-Ventures = Micro Empire

Google became a massive tech empire with multiple services. They introduced Google Translator, Google Maps, GMail, Google APIs, etc and people started using each of them. They built a different user base for each service and gradually started monetizing from each platform. Genius, if you ask me. However, Google didn’t follow the Micro Venture method. Google was already a giant when they touched ground with their mini services. That doesn’t mean that you can’t boot up your own Empire with a much more flexible budget plan.

Have 4 Micro Ventures up and running

If your idea complies with the 3 Golden Rules of Micro Ventures, it has 80% possibility of Success. The 20% depends on your Hustle

Each venture brings you back revenue. Have 4 of them up and running. Remember, Micro Ventures need to follow 3 Golden rules in order to be successful.

1) Set-up-fee should be under $40

2) You should be able to code this/build this in 4 Working days, 3 Sleepless nights

3) Low Maintenance

If your idea complies with the 3 Golden Rules of Micro Ventures, it has a 80% possibility of Success. The 20% depends on your Hustle. Here’s my take on hustling. Read it, it’ll help you as well.

Micro Ventures are a Backup Revenue Generator. They are part of your Empire. They don’t have to be your ‘main’ venture.

Here’s my Recipe

1. Have 4 Micro Ventures running
2. Make one of them your ‘main/parent’ venture or build another parent venture or use an existing venture as a parent
3. Concentrate on connecting your Micro Ventures to your Parent Venture. Make it a Central hub and make sure that if even one venture becomes a hit and takes off, the rest of them are dragged along with it.
4. Stop worrying. Micro ventures are minions. Even if they fail, you’ll lose $40 and a dollar or two.

If your dream is to build a massive empire, make sure that you start small. If you start hiring people and move in to gorgeous offices before you even generate a dime, you are going to fail. That’s the bitter truth for you. Start small, build multiple pathways to success and see them grow over time.

Attack the Land of Success with a horde of little ventures. A handful of rocks make more sound than a single rock. Attack your dreams as a Swarm.

Stay hungry. Think Smart.

Dinuka Jayasuriya
CEO, Founder of Eyewer.com
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