I am sick of being out of work and im thinking of starting my own business. I figured I would put some feelers out to see if anyone owns a business so I can judge what successful kinds of things are successful and what is not…
I was the General Manager of a very large company for 4+ years and I am a people person. I know I can manage anything I just dont know what to get into.
Any help, guidance, or advise is appreciated. Im open to hear anbout anything. If you dont want to post your info / experiences on the forum please PM me.
Been in business for myself for two years now. I own a technology repair and consulting business.
My best advice to you is that if you are doing it because of the money, you will fail. You need to set it up around something that you genuinely enjoy doing and won’t mind working 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week, and bringing home less than min. wage in the beginning.
My first year was seriously insane. I worked an avg of 80 hours a week and brought home less than I would make working 40 hours a week for min wage. Things have improved a lot since then. But as the business grows its roots, technology is extremely lucrative.
My second best advice to you, is NEVER EVER partner up. I started out as a partnership and didn’t listen to anyone who said anything negative about having a partnership. Trust me, I should have listened. I am now a sole proprietor and will never make that mistake again.
thanks for the advise. i wish I was more technology / computer savvy I would do something like that. I appreciate the advise on the partnership as well. I definitley want to start something on my own.
+1 to what 99FRC said. While I do not own my own business, I know that I could not be doing what I do (Software Engineer) w/o loving it.
My advice is to look at your hobbies, and see if there is anything there that could be marketable. If you like knitting, start a sweater company. If you like interacting with people, start a networking (as in people networking with each other) company or a job placement company. Work with what you know and like doing.
I wonder what type of insurance you need to start a job placement company… That seems like a cool idea… Im a people person bigtime and I would enjoy doing that.
My aunt and uncle run a placement company for high end medical jobs. Very specialized. Kind of a nitch field I guess. Although I dont know too much about it, I know they make bank. But its a who you know bussiness, which she has been at it for a long time; HR related. and my uncle was in the medical field for a while too. the two put it together and this is what they got.
I am not sure what you would have to insure. If your talking a head hunter type company, its mostly up to your client being honest with his skills and resume, not being a total tard and you helping them with interview skills, and finding roles they could fill correctly. Its seems like a very good idea, and with all the information on the internet and such, very little overhead expense. once you know others like you doing this, “work” together you send one their way they send you some your way kind of thing.
You could make or a lose money in business doing literally anything, so might as well find something you’re familiar with and enjoy doing and expand on that.
Businesses will also take some finances to start, it takes money to make money.
If you’re not a salesman you will either become one or fail.
Then it gets tricky, you can pick something you love doing and start advancing in it, but there simply could be no money in whatever it is you love doing or you will be barely making average wage. Insurance companies, construction, landscaping, services, make a lot of money once build up. Being a middle man (retailing, owning a store, gas station etc), is quite involved, fluctuating and tedious.
Keep in mind there are lots of negative things about being your own boss.
If you lack motivation, you’re dead in the water.
You’re on your own for life insurance/health insurance and the rates are not cheap.
You’re on your own for retirement, 401K and savings, no company matching going on here.
You are liable for everything you do and where in a normal job you clock out and you’re done, you never leave the office when you own your own business.
My mother had her own business doing a kind of on the road Color Me Mine thing, painting/making ceramics. When she traveled to do it, it was very successful.
However, after some time it seemed to hit a wall and she either needed to accept what she was making (which was decent, well above minimum wage and such) or try to open an actual place. She took the jump and opened the place.
At first it was slow, she lost most of her mobile customer base. By year two she had gained a child/parent base, a group of weekend warriors so to say. This was not enough to keep the place afloat, so she changed her path and expanded it to a childcare center, centered around the arts in general.
It took 3 years to get back to what she was making as a mobile business, and in those 3 years, she lost what she really wanted to do, since she had to change the direction of the business to stay afloat.
By year 3 sadly though, there was too much debt accumulated from 4 slower years, so she decided to close the business. Fortunately, she had been using some of her time with the business to take online college classes, and by the time the business closed, she had a degree in marketing (and something else that I never remember). She now works for the state, making above average money, but not as much as she could have been had she held out for the business for a bit longer. She chose not to mainly because she lost the core reason she started the business, arts. Just an aside if some of you remember the business name: Cornerstone Creative Arts Studio.
If you do decide to open your own business I wish you the best of luck with everything. Like some others have said, stick to something you love to do and can deal with doing 14 hours a day 7 days a week. It is a lot of hard work. My personal advice: If you attempt to expand, don’t do it until you can REALLY afford to. Plan on the beginning being slow.
Going to disagree with you here. Based on my experience I would have failed if I had planned on it being slow in the beginning. You have to be prepared for extreme expansion as well as slow growth.
For me, I hit the ground running when I landed a major corporate client within the first 2 weeks of business. The entire first year was a mess, not because it was slow, but because it was almost too fast.
Basically we did what we had to, to make it work. Since then it has been a game of making everything efficient and things have got a LOT better.
But you never know what is going to happen, to be truly prepared, you need to cover all possibilities.
I started my own Risk Management consulting company at the beginning of this year. I think if you can find something specific to market, you could be successful. For me it’s not about having business, it’s about how busy I want to be. I have some companies who pay me a retainer; others that pay me for a 1 time specific project.
If you’re a good manager, look at what processes you feel you can manage the best and investigate if there’s a market out there for it.
My name is Hussein Kalashnikov. I’am interested in being an investor in your company. All i need is your Date of birth, address, SS#, Girlfriends number/address/underwear size, and we can get started.
On a serious note, My dad has had his company for just about 11 years now. at first it was slow and like adam said, working 80+ hours for not much pay is the norm starting out, while tough and nerve racking its WELL worth it, if down right.
I’ve never owned my own business. So take what I say with a grain of salt. But I believe that you cant just decide you want to start a business without some idea of what you want to do/are good at. Do you know what kind of business you are looking to start? Or are you just looking for something other than not working? My point being…unless you have a job/ service that you are very good at/ have a passion for, it is a waste of time to start a business. As everyone stated it is a ton of work to make it work. So you need to make sure you have the drive and interest to make it worth your time. I have seen a lot of people try. Most have failed. But the ones that did survive are the people who think of work as a hobby more than a job. Good luck with whatever you chose to do! :thumbup
Been running Gearhead for about 4 years now.
Number one thing is make sure you plan on making slave labor wages for the number of hours you will be putting in.
Number 2, make sure what you are doing is a labor of love and something you won’t mind dealing with 25 hours a day, 8 days a week. Your life is on hold until you succeed or fail.
Number 3, make sure you can market your product/service properly and DO NOT go into a business without a fairly specific plan of action.
If you can find a niche market you’ve got a pretty good chance at succeeding, but don’t ever make a decision to do anything based on how much money you could make because there’s a lot behind the first step into a new venture.
Based on what has happened over the last 4 years I can say I definitely fucked myself on a few of those items, but at least I can speak from experience and know what not to do if I ever go it another round!
thanks everyone. I met with a friend tonight and I think he is putting me on to some things. He listned to what I had to say and some of my ideas. He is going to sleep on it for a few days and get back to me so im excited to see what he says.
Im hoping to get into something quick because being out of work is very dissapointing… Im used to working 12+ hours a day…