I have decided I want to start my own business. Now what?

Elwar said:
My wife's clothing store did ok based solely upon her ability to sell and her passion. She had a couch and coffee and cookies in her shop to make people feel welcome and give it that boutique atmosphere. She was providing a service. Sure it was retail, but the money she made was based solely upon her abilities.

We had a temp girl work there and sit behind the desk. She never made a sale (or she did and we suspect she was stealing from us). I filled in a few days and I hardly ever sold squat and everyone was always asking to see my wife.
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She sounds like a relationship seller. Some people are just naturals. I must have read 20-30 books about selling and I understand quite a lot about it, yet I'm still not better than a natural. When you have a natural seller that understands the psychological mechanisms (I know an ENTJ like that), they'll always find something they can sell in any reasonably free market. Even in the worst of circumstances, they'll come out best. If that was your wife's boutique you talked about closing, I hope you guys try something else. Lots of successful people strike out several times before they hit some homers. I have a giant list of strike outs. I also have a list of abandonments or things on hold because things that were working took me in a different direction. More profit = more devoted effort. (considering immediate needs and short/long term guesses.)


CaptLouAlbano said:
I pretty much did the same, though not at 50% more. There's a lot that can be gained by being a good employer, and doing things like sending Christmas & Birthday gifts goes a long way to building that relationship. I always viewed my employees similar to how I would view a customer - they were providing me with a service and I was compensating them for that service. In many ways, I needed them more than they needed me, since jobs were plenty in those days. So by paying them a buck an hour more than the rest of the places did (keep in mind minimum wage was 1 to 4 bucks an hour during most of my years in business), tossing them a small gift on special occasions and having an end of the season party with open bar and lots of food kept my people happy which made life a whole lot easier when it came time to staff my businesses the following year.
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This particular person with the pay philosophy was in the construction sector, or maybe you'd call it renovation. His employees would have probably preferred a crack or meth party. lol. (which he did not provide, of course.) The business also hinged on his ability to sell his company's capabilities to large clients. (which he was real good at, apparently.)

I like your philosophy regarding treating employees as customers. It makes sense, especially in certain environments. They're "paying you" their labor, loyalty, time, etc.
 
It's ironic that this thread popped up. Some predictable discussion (not that it's bad or anything) here regarding the question. Anyhoo. Was just listening to a very, very good discussion on this very topic last night on Coast to Coast AM.

Entrepreneurial Techniques

First hour guest, entrepreneur Ron Cutler shared business techniques and advice to help those interested in changing their lives. He suggested that in creating one's own business, a person should look for needs that aren't being met, have a unique selling proposition-- something that makes your idea stand out, and be able to learn from failures. Cutler also talked his own successful career path, syndicating radio comedy content.

Was a good one because it's the idea that makes a successful business venture work. Needs to be unique. I found it very good discussion regarding how to compete practically.

As always, these discussions over at Coast far exceed the description. Was a hoot.

Still a pain to post on these boards, I see. Copy, paste, post...and again.
 
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I have owned several business's. One day a broker (person I sold wholesale to) came in and said, "Do you know how to make a small fortune in the xxxx business? Start with a big one!"
 
Reason said:
I have decided I want to start my own business. Now what?
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Now figure out some business ideas ! ! !

1. Buy a product online, then resell it on craigslist at a higher price! Your first sale! Yeah! Now you are in the trading business!
2. Upload videos of paint drying on a wall to Youtube and collect advertisement revenue on your viral video!
3. Organize monthly Nerf gun dueling tournaments in the local park, then use your dueling club to sell protection services against Goblins and Zombies to families in the neighborhood!
 
An idea from the Liberty Chat Room

Reason,


[CaseyJones] every college town should have a delivery service
[MelissaWV] Yeah
[Brandywine] I wish we had grocery delivery up here for my old roomie
[MelissaWV] hmm Coldstone delivers
[Brandywine] she has to just ask people until someone will tkae her to the store
[CaseyJones] I am studying bring me some jack in the box
[CaseyJones] !!
[CaseyJones] ok 5$ charge
[CaseyJones] thats fine!!!
[Brandywine]
[CaseyJones] there are delivery services like that already but ya there should be more
[MelissaWV] Yeah the local one here is excellent
[MelissaWV] And the restaurants love it
[LibertyCitrus] Businesses always need competition
[LibertyCitrus] drives the price down for consumers haha
[MelissaWV] Mid/Upscale restaurants can now cater to people directly through the delivery services
[MelissaWV] without having to hire drivers of their own
[CaseyJones] and shut ins get a fancy meal now and then
[MelissaWV] eh or you can order better pizza
[MelissaWV] the mom & pop pizza places don't have their own drivers
 
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LibertyCitrus said:
Reason,


[CaseyJones] every college town should have a delivery service
[MelissaWV] Yeah
[Brandywine] I wish we had grocery delivery up here for my old roomie
[MelissaWV] hmm Coldstone delivers
[Brandywine] she has to just ask people until someone will tkae her to the store
[CaseyJones] I am studying bring me some jack in the box
[CaseyJones] !!
[CaseyJones] ok 5$ charge
[CaseyJones] thats fine!!!
[Brandywine]
[CaseyJones] there are delivery services like that already but ya there should be more
[MelissaWV] Yeah the local one here is excellent
[MelissaWV] And the restaurants love it
[LibertyCitrus] Businesses always need competition
[LibertyCitrus] drives the price down for consumers haha
[MelissaWV] Mid/Upscale restaurants can now cater to people directly through the delivery services
[MelissaWV] without having to hire drivers of their own
[CaseyJones] and shut ins get a fancy meal now and then
[MelissaWV] eh or you can order better pizza
[MelissaWV] the mom & pop pizza places don't have their own drivers
Click to expand...

I used to think the same thing till I picked up the wrong letter...

 
LibertyCitrus said:
Reason,


[CaseyJones] every college town should have a delivery service
Click to expand...

Not a bad idea at all. I guess the question I would have is what would your profit per delivery be. I figure you would have to sell the idea to local restaurants, hire delivery people and either cover their costs (gas, etc) or make them 1099 and have them pay their own costs. Doesn't seem like a huge amount of start up costs involved in something like this, but my gut tells me that you would probably only net a buck or two from each delivery, so you would have to do a few thousand per week to make it a viable business.
 
LibertyCitrus said:
Delivery drivers could double as taxi services. Make some mobile apps, have ratings for the drivers. Get fees for bringing customers to businesses.
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I'm not so sure about restaurants paying fees for places to deliver customers to them. That is something I would not pay for as a restaurant owner. Nonetheless, you seem like you are onto an idea here. The next step for you is to write out a business plan and see if it will be (at least on paper) profitable. How much cash do you have to invest into something like this?
 
pauljmccain said:
Well congrats on your story, but I still don't buy a dime of that nonsense. There's no way an effective or reputable marketing firm charged only a "small fee" plus commission. Marketing firms don't take a commission. Sales, maybe, but they still won't do anything without appropriate marketing support. Then again, lawnmowing isn't exactly a technical business. Meh.
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Yer being a jerk. It happens all the time.

Rev9
 
Another thought I wanted to bring to this is that of self introspection. I mentioned this earlier but, one of the things someone needs to do is to consider their life goals. I have cautioned about being an owner/operator because in some businesses you can wind up working for less money per hour than you did before you started the business. But that does not mean that all owner/operator situations are bad - it just wasn't the route that I wanted to take. But one, does need to sit back and determine what they want to spend their time doing, and how much flexibility, free time, vacation time, family time, etc they want out of life before they get into whatever business venture they choose.

Additionally, take a look around your community and determine who the wealthiest individuals are, and what they do. I think in most areas you will find that it is those that own large or multiple businesses that are the wealthiest ones. For example in the area I lived most of my life it was the folks that owned multiple motels, chains of restaurants, large rental properties, etc that were the wealthy ones. So if your life goal is to acquire wealth in that means, replicate what the successful people have done.
 
I haven't read thru all the post so forgive me if someone else has suggested this:

I would like to suggest that you look into affiliate marketing. Where you sell other people's products. I found a couple of products that I believe in and opened up a blog for each one. I write articles about them and use SEO techniques to drive traffic to them. The more I put into marketing my links the more I make. It is low start up and I still have time to do other things.
There is a wealth of info on the web about it.
 
I started a business last December building desktops for businesses. I've learned a few things and have changed drastically my business model. A few things you should take to heart is the importance of legal counsel. If you want long term stability out of a home business, you either have to put in a shit ton of hours marketing and networking*** to land individual clients which is where a referral based business model will help significantly in spreading name recognition through word of mouth of happy customers, or depending on the type of work you'll be doing, you can always land contract work. At first I targeted my marketing towards gamers and film students. However my niche was too small to be sustainable long term, so I made a friend through networking that is interested in contracting me to handle their 27 workstation network at his place of business. This change allows me to work a full-time schedule and still have steady contracting work on the side building and maintaining desktops from my home on my down time. This is where legal counsel comes in handy. When writing up business contracts, or affidavits for clients, you need to eliminate any and all possibilities of exploits and/or holes in the transaction. Their are paid professionals who do this for living. Luckily, I have a business administration major with a pretty healthy portfolio that I trust with all my legal terminology and documents as well as my branding, as he's also a graphic designer by trade. If you're first starting off you have to ask a few questions, is it out of the home? Will you need a storefront? Will you have employees and if so how few can you get by with? Depending on the state, even out of home businesses need an occupational permit to operate as well as additional permits for up to so many employees. Do you have capital? Will said capital put a strain on personal finances? If so, can you keep personal finances and business finances strictly separate? I've also learned that following up with new clients is ESSENTIAL to maintaining a relationship and ensuring future business. Fliers are NEVER a bad idea, business cards are a must, and if you can front the money, get yard signs and litter the town with them. Also target your demos and figure out where marketing will yield the best outcome ie: in my case busy intersections, game stores, downtown commerce chamber, all school campuses etc.
 
gerryb1 said:
Why was I negative repped for this Steven Douglas?
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My sincerest apologies, Gerry. Based on the links, your post looked like something that was generated from a spambot, and my knee-jerk reaction was to -rep.

The system says I "must spread some reputation around before giving it to gerryb1 again", but as soon as I am able, I'll +rep you more than once to make up for it (any of my friends here, please do on my behalf).

Again, I'm sorry for my misunderstanding.
 
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