I'm new to this site, however, I have been floating around it and reading this section of the forum for the past 2 month. I came across this site when Wantone posted the infamous 350Z vs. Street parking thread a while ago. Anyhow, I have not been doing too well in school and was pondering the idea of opening a business. Although this seems farfetched I have to come to realize that this forum has many members who are informed and intelligent in the business field. Particularly the one thread about businesses, cell phones stores, and how much moola was made from it. Care to help a guy out?


Check out www.20vturbo.com
You might recall one of our members (Camuman) having a little highway action with Xpander.

 

Just a friendly advice from someone who's done it (starting small biz) a few times: don't do it unless you are prepared to lose your pants and your friends over it. Also, anything less than total commitment to what you want to do is not enough. Lastly, I suggest school - your wealth and everything around you can be taken away due to misfortune or other factors, but nobody can ever take away your education.

But if you really want to do it, know everything there is to know about the biz before you jump in - and if moola is what you're after then you may one day wake up and realize you've been chasing it all your life and it's still not here.

I hope you don't mind me being upfront and opinionated.

 

You hit the nail on the head Rich. I know about hitting nails on the head too, since I am a remodelor, doing kitchens and baths. If you are young it's a good time to start a business because you can live through a few failures. It's when you start a business at a later time in life when the cost of failure is too high (oops there goes the retirement money). You need to do something that you like doing and not just something that seems like you will get rich easily from.

I will not work for friends, it just doesn't work out, they always think you can do what you do as work as a favor, and favors don't pay my bills.

 

Thanks for the advice, I prefer people to be blunt when it comes to replies. I am interested into how you entrepreneurs came up with the initial funds to start your business, I am far too young to get a loan, and not fortunate enough to have my parents give me money to start a business.

 

If you don't have enough funds to cover 6 months worth of personal expenses PLUS business expenses, I suggest that you don't do it. Nail down a job somewhere and work your butt off and save that money to start. Give yourself that goal: finish school AND save up enough for a small biz for 6 months and see if you got the determination and drive to see it through.

The first time I started a small biz the investment was small - about $2k total for equipment, software, etc. which was all my 2 summer part time jobs savings in high school.

The second time I started a small biz the investment was 5 times that (all my life savings up to that point) on an Internet startup with "friends" - none of which I talk to anymore.

The third time I started a small biz the investment was even greater because I had to purchase inventory, but the good thing was turnover for the inventory had sufficient velocity for me to keep the cash flow going. I got another opportunity and gave up that biz, which is basically defunct and the guy who took it over nowhere to be found

Would I ever do it again? With enough capital, yes, and making sure I have the passion for it to work 20 hours a day. Ask anyone who was my customer when I ran the biz, I answered emails from 7am to 2am, sometimes past that. It's a hard life, but the rewards are surely there if you work for it.

 

Do you recommend anything in the current market? I was considering a cell phone store near my old high school, as the demand for cell phone is high especially in h.school, where it is a necessity to own one to look cool. I can scrounge up 2G's after my personal expenses, but then again the lease on small building units around here run for 1100+ a month.

 

My business is simple, my knowledge is my capital, my tools are my expenses. I operate from my house. I have a simple website, (I need to get some photos into it) but national or international exposure isn't my balliwick.

www.eyeplayrenovations.com

 

Check out this thread regarding phone stores.

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...threadid=119280

 

You should ignore everything I say below and pay attention to other people instead =)
Let me know how it goes, I'm too scared to start one myself.

you can always consider business partners for additional capital. I wish some of my friends would start a business where I could contribute capital for their hard work =P Loans of some sort will almost certainly account for a chunk. You may be eligible for a small business grant or loan from community, state, or government.

there's a large amount of research you should do as your initial probe into the business. Once you have enough information gathered analyze it, look at strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats. Consider consulting an expert in setting up small businesses who can probably guide you to what structure of company you should use and what formalities you should file (you could always come back here once you get enough information researched but atleast some people here would probably make use of your information for themselves )

 

do some research on sole proprietership (sp?). Fairly easy to start up and you can incorporate later when you have some business knowledge under your wing.