Low investment business ideas: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent.

In 2025 Americans filed five point seven million applications to start new businesses like yours. If two in every thousand of those ever sit across a table from an investor, then something close to five point six nine million of them are going to begin the way this book describes, which is with whatever the founder already has. That is your company sitting inside that number, not somebody else's.

From chapter 1: The data that destroys the "need money" myth

Researchers looking at subsidy-seeking noticed that firms with low productivity have lower opportunity costs in chasing grants. Read that twice. The worse your business is going, the more attractive an application looks, because you've got less to give up by spending the week on it. Grant-chasing is not distributed randomly across founders. It collects, disproportionately, around the ones with the least happening to them.

From chapter 9: Money you did not know existed

That is how the book looks at “low investment business ideas”: one idea at a time, with a step you can take right away. Of course, this is only one idea from the book. So, if this passage speaks to you, the full chapter goes further, and it ends with an exercise you can do the same evening.

In short, the book has 11 chapters, and each one ends with a practical exercise. Therefore, you can read it in order, or you can go straight to the part about “low investment business ideas”.

1. The data that destroys the "need money" myth
2. What actually kills undercapitalised businesses
3. The bird in hand: you already have what you need
4. Customers are better investors than vcs
5. The first dollar
6. The float: how to get paid before you pay
7. Why you will price too low
8. The service to product pivot
9. Money you did not know existed
10. The growth loop
11. How many days you have left

Finally, you can get Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent in the stores below. Because every title of this book shares the same text, you can simply pick the one you like best. Also, the book is available in 19 languages.

In addition, each title below highlights a different idea from the same book. So, pick the one that speaks to you.

• What Actually Kills Undercapitalised Businesses: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• The Bird in Hand: You Already Have What You Need: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• Customers Are Better Investors Than VCs: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• The First Dollar: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• I Want to Start a Business but I Don't Have Money
• The Float: How to Get Paid Before You Pay: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• Why You Will Price Too Low: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• The Service to Product Pivot: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• Money You Did Not Know Existed: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent
• The Growth Loop: Get Paid Before You Spend a Cent

See all 19 titles. Go to the book page.