# Business models – Ohne Startkapital

> Services first, prepayment, digital products: models that fund themselves.

- [How to Start a Business With No Money (Honestly)](https://ohne-startkapital.de/en/business-models/start-business-with-no-money/): To start a business with no money, sell a service you can already deliver with tools you own, and ask for payment or a deposit before you spend anything. Writing, design, tutoring, cleaning, assembly and consulting fit this pattern. Inventory, rented premises and paid advertising are the parts that need capital, so leave them out at first.
- [Bootstrapping a Business: Growing Without Investors](https://ohne-startkapital.de/en/business-models/bootstrapping-a-business/): Bootstrapping a business means building it without outside equity: you fund it from savings, side income and, above all, revenue from early customers. You keep full ownership and control but usually grow more slowly. It suits services, niche software with paying customers and prepaid models, and rarely works for hardware or research-heavy products.
- [Asking Clients for a Deposit: How Much and How](https://ohne-startkapital.de/en/business-models/ask-clients-for-deposit/): Ask for a deposit in your quote, before any work starts, and tie it to a reason such as materials or booked time. Size it to cover your costs until the first milestone, and link the rest to visible progress. Invoice the deposit separately, account for VAT when the money arrives, and deduct it on the final invoice.
- [How to Sell Digital Products: Tax, Refunds, Platforms](https://ohne-startkapital.de/en/business-models/sell-digital-products/): To sell digital products, pick something you create once and deliver automatically, such as templates, courses or software, and sell it through a merchant of record or your own shop. The hard part is tax and consumer law: EU consumers pay VAT where they live, US states set their own sales tax rules, and refund rights lapse only with explicit consent.
- [Dropshipping Startup Costs: The Budget Nobody Shows](https://ohne-startkapital.de/en/business-models/dropshipping-startup-costs/): Dropshipping saves you buying stock, but it still has startup costs: a store plan, a domain, sample orders, legal pages and, above all, advertising, because a new store gets almost no traffic without it. The ad budget for testing several products is usually the biggest line. Import duties, refunds and product safety duties also land on you as the seller.

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