Starting with Nothing

The internet is a small place. Out of the blue from across the Atlantic, I received an email from a gentleman named Peter Harris who makes films on the cheap. Turns out he used to own the domain 9thyard.com and was looking around for it. When he saw that the subject matter of my blog is starting a company on a shoestring budget, he chimed in with a show of support.

He also provided me with a teaser film he made for a total of £25. Check it out:

Equinox

No, it's not going to give Peter Jackson a run for his money. And some will say that such an effort requires a lot of "charity" from all of folks involved. True on both accounts. But to quibble with the true cost of such an effort is to miss the point.

Nobody smart will till you that you can sustain a business on pennies and dreams. I've said before that all great businesses will at some point take advantage of external financing. I still believe that. The message here is that you can produce something "good enough" one time for practically nothing. In fact, in order to get started, you will probably have to.

That "good enough" start just may turn out to be what it takes to begin a much bigger project that transforms into greatness over time.

If you have an example of a project that began from nothing and can show me how it all began, please let me know and I'll write it up.