How I Started a Business with $50 and Why It Was One of My Best Financial Decisions

Starting a business can be difficult, especially if you’re new and short on cash. However Aaliyah Kissick has proven that it doesn’t take much to start and start a business to advance your finances, even if you end up going down a different path later in life. As a teenager with just $50, Kissick started a fashion retail business, AK Boutique.

In less than three years, he grew it from a small local operation to a location at White Oaks Mall in Springfield, Illinois, eventually raising more than $300,000 in inventory. Yet instead of questioning whether $50 was enough, he jumped in.

“I was 17 years old when I woke up and decided to become a store owner. I have always loved fashion and dreamed of creating a store, but I decided to do it right away,” Kissick explained. “That summer day between my junior and senior years, I set up shop in my mom’s garage with a few clothes, an old money box and a sign on the side of the road for people to come in. the instinct was to save money, especially because I only had $50 to my name, but also because I grew up in a country where people are incredibly knowledgeable and very confident.”

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Although he didn’t have much of a business plan, he thought of things.

He said: “Actually, I didn’t know what I was doing, so I didn’t know if $50 would work or not.”

His approach reminds him of the famous words of LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who wrote on what was then Twitter, “I believe starting a company is like jumping off a cliff and join the plane when it goes down – your willingness to jump is your most important asset as an entrepreneur.”

Let’s take a closer look at his business journey.

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Changing the Course

While Kissick was able to grow his business quickly, he had some bad luck with the COVID-19 outbreak that started shortly after his retail store opened. On top of that, he had a full plate as a college student and many other interests he wanted to pursue. However, he was able to keep his business afloat while evolving online.

“Even though I’m running at 25% of what I was before, I still maintain a strong inventory of over 2,000 items. What I love about running a business is that I can scale up and down as I like or travel anywhere in the world while I’m working,” Kissick said.

Although his business has changed, he has been able to use his experience to help in his current endeavors. Kissick is now an aspiring CFP candidate, advocates for financial literacy, and plans to earn her MBA.

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“My personal finance movement is a natural progression of what I first learned as a small business owner. After a few months of working in my garage, I was already “Start talking to a brick and mortar store. Because no one in my family has ever run a business, I haven’t learned how to manage it,” he explained.

Although he didn’t have much experience when he started his business with only $50, that helped him accelerate his education. And by applying what he has learned, rather than just reading, he feels like he has a limit.

“I started learning about small business and personal finance using free online resources. I fell in love with it and started reading all the books I could,” Kissick said. “Entrepreneurship is a boon for any startup. As I prepare to apply for MBA programs, I compare myself to people my age who don’t have real-world business experience,” he said.

Taking the Leap

Kissick’s story shows that you don’t need a large pool of money or a lot of life experience to start a business. In some ways, starting small can be beneficial.

“The beauty of bootstrapping with limited capital is that you have less to lose,” he said.

And with so many free and low-cost resources available today to help you learn how to start and grow your business, it’s obviously easier than ever to get started. However, you have to be willing to make the leap, rather than just consuming the information.

“We live in the Information Age, and information is constantly thrown at us. I think what separates me from other people who want to start a store their whole life is that I just did it instead of thinking about how I was going to do it,” Kissick said. You can spend your free time scrolling through social media, secretly wishing you could do something amazing, or you can spend your free time doing something amazing.

Also, by starting small, there are fewer problems if the business doesn’t work.

“The act of starting a business is also a learning experience in itself. It’s exciting and rewarding. Even if your small business doesn’t succeed in the long run, you have a fun hobby it will introduce you to new people, lead you to new opportunities, and lead your life in a way you can’t even dream of. You also have new skills to use in your mind the next step in the business,” Kissick said.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How I Started a Business with $50 and Why It Was One of My Best Financial Decisions.