You can see yourself now, a successful entrepreneur with a booming business - but right now, you're broke. How do you bridge the gulf between where you are now, and where you want to be?

Of course, the stock answer is to start your business online, because all you need is a website - but the reality doesn't match the hype. You can build a great website for your product or service - but unless you do your marketing, no one will even know it exists. The truth is, real marketing costs money, even on the internet - and anyway, not all businesses are suited to a totally online presence.

The key is to work out what is TRULY ESSENTIAL to run your business, and focus on that. For instance, perhaps you're starting out as an accountant or consultant. You assume you'll need an office - after all, you need a professional image, and somewhere to meet clients. But do you?

What you really need is for people to BELIEVE you have an office. You can achieve that by signing up to a Virtual Office provider such as Servcorp (there will be many more in your local Yellow Pages). They can provide you with a dedicated phone number, answered with your company name. You can set scripts so the answering service can do simple tasks as well as just passing messages on. If you need a meeting room or an office, you book theirs on an hourly rate - and they are probably much more upmarket than anything you could afford if you set up your own place. All this at a fraction of the cost of your own office, and without having to sign your life away. You can also make a virtue out of the fact that the client doesn't have to visit you, you will go to them - which means you won't have to utilise the virtual office space very often.

The other image-booster is a professional-looking website. It doesn't cost much if you use a provider like Godaddy - but do make sure you're capable of producing a truly polished site! If in doubt, it's worth putting some of your precious funds into a professional design.

Finally, always remember to dress the part.

Add all this together and you can look like a well-established, professional agency (or whatever) without the bricks and mortar.

Perhaps you can't get by with a virtual space - for instance, you may be a beautician or a naturopath. Try approaching complementary businesses like hairdressers, massage therapists, doctors etc to see if they have a spare room in their premises you could rent out. Not only will that be cheaper than your own shop, you'll get extra traffic from the customers of the other business.

If you do have your own space, don't get carried away setting it up. Wait until your business is successful before you splash out on the leather chair or the solid oak desk. Be creative with furniture from your house or from auction houses. You don't want your office or salon to look cheap, but it's surprising how smart a place can look if it's spotlessly clean and bright.

Ideally, try to maintain some kind of "backup" income when you start your new business. Most new businesses make little or no money in their first year, so if you start with a low budget, you're at risk of running out of cash to live on. Many new business owners end up having to go back to work from time to time, to keep afloat - and that "stop-start" approach to business can do more harm than good.

Learn more about this author, Marisa Wright.
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