The highest risk you take in business is when you actually start the business. There’s always risk but the point at which you invest all your money, time and energy is also the time when you have the most risk.

An alternative way to approach starting a new business is to get some kind of proof of concept.

By that I mean you can use other people and businesses assets. Here’s an example I saw used very effectively recently. A friend of mine wanted to start an SEO business. Not the best business to be in, but he did have a unique proposition.

I suggested to him that he contact a bunch of existing SEO businesses and make an arrangement with them that he would get them business and split the profit.

He got to use their name, website, content, and contacts that had previously made an inquiry but not converted to a sale.

You see. Starting a business is easy. The hard part is actually getting business and sustaining the business. By utilising other people’s existing businesses, it lets you see if you could make it on your own before you take the risk.

I had a friend who wanted to buy a hotel. Instead, I convinced him to work with hotels first to see how hard it would be to get business. That turned into a multi-million dollar business where he arbitrages vacant rooms by making agreements with hotels to buy their unsold rooms at once price and selling them to the end-user at another price.

How could you utilise other businesses assets to test an idea or improve your profits?