Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is used to dealing with vast sums of money. Very vast sums of money

Indeed, one of the reasons for his company Berkshire Hathaway has amassed a multi-billion pound cash pile over recent years is that Buffett believes it is complex to find good enough deals that are gigantic enough to move the needle for the company.

But it wasn’t always like this. In fact, Warren Buffett started his career in the stock market when he was still a student, using the pocket money he earned during the paper round.

So could someone with a few hundred pounds to invest today take a Wise of Omaha-inspired approach when it comes to investing in the stock market?

Sticking to a few basic rules

I think they could.

Although Berkshire owns many companies, it also has shares in companies such as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) i Coca-Colain the form of shares. A petite investor can buy shares on the stock exchange quite easily.

With his decade of market experience, Warren Buffett knows all too well how significant it is for an investor to maintain diversification across different holdings to reduce risk.

£500 is enough for someone to diversify across several different stocks.

However, with a fairly modest amount, the minimal commissions and fees for stock trading can soon add up. Warren Buffett keeps a close eye on costs.

I think it would be wise for a petite private investor to do the same when it comes to choosing a share trading platform such as a Stocks and Shares ISA or a share trading account.

Chasing individual stocks

Warren Buffett has previously said that he believes that many private investors with a petite amount of money to invest should consider purchasing a stock index tracking fund, such as S&P500 Or FTSE100.

Personally, however, I prefer to do what Buffett himself does and buy individual shares in, in my opinion, great companies.

The reason can be illustrated by examining Buffett’s investments in Apple over the past decade. As a result, Berkshire earned tens of billions of dollars.

Some of this amount came from dividends, but most of the gains are due to the rise in Apple’s stock price.

Buffett likes forceful brands that give the company pricing power. Apple certainly has it. He likes business models that are basic to understand. Again, Apple offers this.

Proprietary technology, an ecosystem of services and a vast installed user base provide a competitive advantage. In fact, at the right price, I would happily buy Apple stock for my portfolio, as I have done in the past.

Currently, however, the share price is too high for my taste, so I do not plan to invest in Apple for now.

The high share price discourages me because even vast companies can run into problems. Rising execution levels in the telephony sector pose risks to both the tech giant’s revenues and profitability. I also see a risk that a tender economy could hurt demand for high-priced smartphones.

However, I still apply the Warren Buffett approach by scouring the stock market for great companies that I believe are more attractively valued than Apple!