Originally posted by: Zugzwang152
doing what?
Originally posted by: Hyperblaze
Originally posted by: Zugzwang152
doing what?
contracting myself to do web development or unix admin....
Originally posted by: DurocShark
Originally posted by: Hyperblaze
Originally posted by: Zugzwang152
doing what?
contracting myself to do web development or unix admin....
I did web back in the late 90's. Competition got fierce so I got out.
Originally posted by: Hyperblaze
Originally posted by: Zugzwang152
doing what?
contracting myself to do web development or unix admin....
Originally posted by: confused1234
you should start a business getting FVCKING SNAKES OFF OF MOTHERFVCKING PLANES!!!!!!!!!
Originally posted by: 440sixpack
Originally posted by: Hyperblaze
Originally posted by: Zugzwang152
doing what?
contracting myself to do web development or unix admin....
I've started my own business (2 years and running), but not in anything related to those two areas. Nor do I have much experience with either. Some I'm afraid I won't be much help here, at least for specifics about those two subjects. General business questions, you may have a chance I'll have potentially helpful info.
Originally posted by: Hyperblaze
any experience you'd be willing to share?
I can only speak from my own experience.
What do you need (to start your own business)?
Iron nerves and flexibility - when you are responsible for all incoming funds, instead of some corporation cutting you a check every two weeks, it can get a bit... interesting at times. The buck stops with you as the owner, in both good ways and bad.
The ability to make decisions - Waffling and trying to take the time to analyze every decision from every angle is just not feasible. Someone in the organization must have the ability and authority to make a "gut" call from time to time.
The skills to wear many hats - many different tasks will fall to you as a business owner. In my case, there were two of us as co-founders/co-owners so there was some ability to split up tasks, but Finiancial, IT, Engineering, Facilities Management, Shipping, Corproate Complaince and more still fell to me.
A good sales guy is crucial. Someone has to convince your clients to give you money for what you do, and a good sales guy is worth his/her weight in gold. More than anything else, the key to our success was the fact my partner has great sales ability, and some great relationships already in place that became our first clients.
A drive to succeed - forming a startup is almost never a 9 to 5 job. be prepared to devote a large chunk of your time to making the company work, at least if it is to be your sole/major source of income. That said, if you do succeed in your venture, it is a truly great feeling.
As to the specific questions, I can't speak much to how willing a bank will be to give you money. The first place they'll start is with your personal credit rating. Be sure to incorporate in some form prior to starting the whole process, to protect your personal assets if things don't work out. Having your own startup capital is generally better (in my opinion) than taking on immediate debt that you have to start making payments on. Tough for someone just starting out, but the usual advice is to hit up friends and family first. It doesn't necessarily take tons of money if you are smart about costs and able to be a little creative. My company we started with less than $10,000 initially, and less than $20,000 overall invested. Our revenue at the end of year one was well over $100,000 and here in year two we will triple or quadruple that. A lot depends on what you are willing to put up with and for how long. My partner and I drew no salary for the first 6 months.
Taking on a physical location (office) adds a lot of costs/responsibilities, with a major factor being where you are. An office in Smallville USA will tend to be significantly cheaper than say midtown Manhattan. For what you are planning, all you really need is a place with a decent internet connection, so you have good flexibility there.
The worst that can happen is the business fails, with all it's assets being liquidated (assuming you are properly incorporated), or personal bankruptcy if you are not properly protected.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, you could (and many people have) written boks on this. That said, it will always be a learning experience, no book will ever be able to truly tell anyone how to start/run their own, unique business. But personally, I think it is all worth it. The feeling of success is like no other if you do make it, and even if you don't it can be a great learning experience you can take on to whatever you do next. Just be ready for the risks, and don't gamble with what you can't afford to lose.
Originally posted by: Hyperblaze
Originally posted by: Zugzwang152
doing what?
contracting myself to do web development or unix admin....
Originally posted by: confused1234
you should start a business getting FVCKING SNAKES OFF OF MOTHERFVCKING PLANES!!!!!!!!!
Originally posted by: 440sixpack
Originally posted by: Hyperblaze
any experience you'd be willing to share?
Well, I guess everyone's experiences are unique, but let me steal what I wrote in this thread (slightly edited):
I can only speak from my own experience.
What do you need (to start your own business)?
Iron nerves and flexibility - when you are responsible for all incoming funds, instead of some corporation cutting you a check every two weeks, it can get a bit... interesting at times. The buck stops with you as the owner, in both good ways and bad.
The ability to make decisions - Waffling and trying to take the time to analyze every decision from every angle is just not feasible. Someone in the organization must have the ability and authority to make a "gut" call from time to time.
The skills to wear many hats - many different tasks will fall to you as a business owner. In my case, there were two of us as co-founders/co-owners so there was some ability to split up tasks, but Finiancial, IT, Engineering, Facilities Management, Shipping, Corproate Complaince and more still fell to me.
A good sales guy is crucial. Someone has to convince your clients to give you money for what you do, and a good sales guy is worth his/her weight in gold. More than anything else, the key to our success was the fact my partner has great sales ability, and some great relationships already in place that became our first clients.
A drive to succeed - forming a startup is almost never a 9 to 5 job. be prepared to devote a large chunk of your time to making the company work, at least if it is to be your sole/major source of income. That said, if you do succeed in your venture, it is a truly great feeling.
As to the specific questions, I can't speak much to how willing a bank will be to give you money. The first place they'll start is with your personal credit rating. Be sure to incorporate in some form prior to starting the whole process, to protect your personal assets if things don't work out. Having your own startup capital is generally better (in my opinion) than taking on immediate debt that you have to start making payments on. Tough for someone just starting out, but the usual advice is to hit up friends and family first. It doesn't necessarily take tons of money if you are smart about costs and able to be a little creative. My company we started with less than $10,000 initially, and less than $20,000 overall invested. Our revenue at the end of year one was well over $100,000 and here in year two we will triple or quadruple that. A lot depends on what you are willing to put up with and for how long. My partner and I drew no salary for the first 6 months.
Taking on a physical location (office) adds a lot of costs/responsibilities, with a major factor being where you are. An office in Smallville USA will tend to be significantly cheaper than say midtown Manhattan. For what you are planning, all you really need is a place with a decent internet connection, so you have good flexibility there.
The worst that can happen is the business fails, with all it's assets being liquidated (assuming you are properly incorporated), or personal bankruptcy if you are not properly protected.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, you could (and many people have) written boks on this. That said, it will always be a learning experience, no book will ever be able to truly tell anyone how to start/run their own, unique business. But personally, I think it is all worth it. The feeling of success is like no other if you do make it, and even if you don't it can be a great learning experience you can take on to whatever you do next. Just be ready for the risks, and don't gamble with what you can't afford to lose.
To add to that, there are a few specifics I can add.
First, one thing that's always trumpeted but bears repeating - back up your data! Just this past week, a mere 3 days before we had planned an upgrade from peer-to-peer networking to client server, our current server's hard drive crapped out - if we hadn't had backups we would have been absolutely screwed. Another time we almost lost the hard drive on my business partner's laptop, full of un-backed-up, irreplacable data.
A good accountant is important. Financial stuff can get complex pretty quick, and getting in trouble with the IRS is something to be avoided.
Creativity is key - we are essentially creating a new business line that has not really existed before in our industry, so if asked to list our direct competitors there truely are none. But we're getting our client's to pay us for things in a way they've never done, so sometimes you can create your own demand for your services (see the good sales guy advice).
Be careful about getting roped into long term real estate deals - if you're straining just to pay the monthly bills, it's hard to make any real business growth. One of the biggest problems we run into is the amount of time we spend working in the business outweighing the time we spend working on the business (I think this is a quote from somewhere). Basically the more time you spend packing items for shipping, updating your financial data, writing code, whatever (the day-to-day drudge work); the less time you actually have to build your business - develop new clients, expand your services, work on strategy, etc.
Kind of rambling so I don't know how helpful all this is.
Any specific questions I'd be happy to take a stab at.
Originally posted by: yobarman
I've doing it right now and I love every minute of it. If there's people telling you not to do it because the competition is fierce, don't listen. If you really want to do what you love, make it happen.
How confident are you in your skills that you can sell your services to others? If you're good, your skills can sell themselves. There are so many things you need to know, but if you have any questions you can msg me.
check out this article i wrote on networking It's essential if you're a small start up in service!