Reply to: Entrepreneurship. Is it a fad? Why are all my friends doing it?

[Jog On]

I am all for people giving things a go and wish that I had taken more chances when I was younger to try to develop a business. However, the many thousands who fall by the wayside opening shops, restaurants, franchises etc etc tell you how difficult it can be. The media obviously focuses on the relatively small number who are very successful. Inventing some wonder gadget is also a serious longshot. These things are not impossible but I think the best route in is when you have worked a significant time in a particular business area and can fill a gap in the chain that companies can't or won't get involved in, e.g. distribution. You will likely have the contacts required, already know the demand is there and know all the aspects involved. As we all know on here, except for the tiny minority, selling your time for money is not the path to riches, you need to be earning while asleep. I missed the property train (apart from own home) and I don't see another easy route. Having said that, even generating a few quid from a good website idea would still be very satisfying so you can start small.

I agree with all of that. A reason a lot of small businesses fail is because the owners come up with their idea and just jump in without any actual training on planning and building a business. A good place to start is to ask yourself “how can I do what I do for more customers/clients more of the time?” And the answer isn’t to clone yourself or work 24/7 trying to service more clients but to develop systems that deliver what you can deliver in a way that other people can follow the systems and they can eventually run without you.

The web has made starting your own enterprise so much cheaper and easier and most importantly low risk. You don’t need to quit the 9-5 and put your house on the line for some start up loan or even ask ‘Dragons’ for venture capital in exchange for 50% of your business. There are a lot of people doing it though, some well but for the most part struggling to make any money at all.

I’ve been doing the online thing for a year and a half now and am still very much a novice making very little profit but takes patience and persistence and a lot of learning curve. I will keep going though until it ‘clicks’ – it is a great feeling making money in your sleep, I’ll never forget my first sale. Now all I have to do is keep focusing on what I have done to make those sales and concentrate on what works – for me.

I’ve settled on e-products as my business model, the market research – product development then actual marketing of the product. I love e-products, they only cost to make once then there’s no physical inventory/shipping, and they appeal to people’s impatience and need for instant gratification which makes them sell like hotcakes - passively and round the clock.

Up until now I have been promoting othe people's products an an affiliate which is an OK business model but not as lucrative as making your own products. Affiliate marketing is best when you have a customer list of people who have already bought from you and you can then develop a good back-end of complimentary affiliate offers.

You can even - and this is what the successful people do - set up a series of automated emails that go out a pre defined intervals so when someone buys your product or signs up to your mailing list they get the series of mailings automatically. It means coming up with a long term strategy of writing a series of email messages with the right mix of good value information and pitches of offers, this is outside a lot of people's comfort zone but that's really where the money is long term.

The people who are really making lots of money online are the ones with large responsive lists of customers/leads. That's when you can get paid 5-6 - sometimes 7 (yes it has happened) figures just for writing and sending an email.

[DimPrawn]

selling your time for money is not the path to riches, you need to be earning while asleep

You've not worked on this project have you?

[lukemg]

I am all for people giving things a go and wish that I had taken more chances when I was younger to try to develop a business. However, the many thousands who fall by the wayside opening shops, restaurants, franchises etc etc tell you how difficult it can be. The media obviously focuses on the relatively small number who are very successful. Inventing some wonder gadget is also a serious longshot. These things are not impossible but I think the best route in is when you have worked a significant time in a particular business area and can fill a gap in the chain that companies can't or won't get involved in, e.g. distribution. You will likely have the contacts required, already know the demand is there and know all the aspects involved. As we all know on here, except for the tiny minority, selling your time for money is not the path to riches, you need to be earning while asleep. I missed the property train (apart from own home) and I don't see another easy route. Having said that, even generating a few quid from a good website idea would still be very satisfying so you can start small.

[Clippy]

Since the programmes "Dragons Den" and "The Apprentice" have come out, I've got one friend who has started up a business reclaiming bank charges, another as a headhunter, a third as a used car trader, and a fourth as a web-based data backup service. Have you noticed any or many of your friends and significant others going down this route recently? What sort of things have they started, and has it been a success for them?

Cheers,

KentPhilip

Perhaps these guys have the answer:

http://tinyurl.com/2r5bp3

[KentPhilip]

Are all your friends in their early 30s by any chance? If so, it'll pass.

& just because something's already been done, that doesn't mean you can't make a killing out of it as long as you can sell well. I bet Terence Conran's glad he didn't say "I know! I'll open a series of shops where people sit down, choose some foot, eat it and pay...oh no I can't, it's already been done."

choose some foot?

I've never tried eating foot before. Would taste a bit cheesy I would have thought.

But yes two out of the four are in their early 30's. Gawld elp em.

[thunderlizard]

entrepreneurship

Are all your friends in their early 30s by any chance? If so, it'll pass.

& just because something's already been done, that doesn't mean you can't make a killing out of it as long as you can sell well. I bet Terence Conran's glad he didn't say "I know! I'll open a series of shops where people sit down, choose some foot, eat it and pay...oh no I can't, it's already been done."

[Bagpuss]

Banertine it is then

[KentPhilip]

I know it's spelt wrong, FFS it's an odd surname, not a word in everyday usage. I just wanted to say Banertine again in case he is so anal it makes him cry

Not that Wikipedia should ever be trusted, who wrote Reach by S-club 7 again?

lol no it made ME cry

Banertine
Banertine
Banertine

boo hoo

[Bagpuss]

I know it's spelt wrong, FFS it's an odd surname, not a word in everyday usage. I just wanted to say Banertine again in case he is so anal it makes him cry

Not that Wikipedia should ever be trusted, who wrote Reach by S-club 7 again?

[Jog On]

My "business" is not ready for the dragons den just yet, largely for the reasons you have stated.
What I have done is take the concept of a system I used in my old job and apply it to the web. It is highly speculative, but the startup costs are low so I recon it is worth a punt. I do believe the product is useful myself, which helps.

As for the comments about getting a job. Hmmm maybe you're right - it might be better to get a 3 month contract just to keep my skills up to date.

Thanks

Can you not do it around a 9-5 contract? What kind of market research have you done?

I think lots of people are getting into it because the web makes it much less riskier to start a business than it was in the bricks and mortar days. Also more and more people are coming to the realisation that trading time for money day in day out is not really all it's cracked up to be. Just look through this forum for the "What's it all about - is this really supposed to be it? " threads.

Go for it - I'm doing it as well, I'm getting a software product made for me over the web by some outsourcers in the Ukraine and am getting it ready to beta then market. I've done the research and I know it should sell quite well.

PM me if you want to chat about researching and marketing your thing. It doesn't matter if it's already being done elsewhere, if you can come up with a unique angle and make it better than the competition then market it better and reach more eyeballs than the competition you can beat the competition.

In fact - if similar products already exist in your market then that's an indicator that there's money being spent

[KentPhilip]

No Banertine Odd

It is Bannatyne

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Bannatyne

I've heard they're renaming the local transport in Newcastle after their favourite son.

They're calling it the "Bannatyne and Weir Metro".

[KentPhilip]

Why dont you put it to the test on here? "CUKDen"

I would like to, but if I so much as put the URL of my site on here then any prospective clients will see my inane ramblings on this site when they google my company name. Not a good impression I fear.

I'll see whether I can PM you with a paragraph on it though, and a link.

Cheers

[Bagpuss]

Bannatyne even.

No Banertine Odd

[oracleslave]

Notice on the real Dragons' Den, Banertine gets very upset if he gets contradicted by any of the other Dragons, so much so that he will drop the proposal even if he likes it. He's a seriously petty individual. I bet he's done a few people over in his time.

Bannatyne even.

[Bagpuss]

Notice on the real Dragons' Den, Banertine gets very upset if he gets contradicted by any of the other Dragons, so much so that he will drop the proposal even if he likes it. He's a seriously petty individual. I bet he's done a few people over in his time.