Starting a business from nothing (borrow, loan, sued, licenses)
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Many successful business owners claim to have "started from nothing". I'm inclined to believe them, but I don't know how this is actually done. What steps took you from wanting to start a business to actually having started a business?
Please feel free to include details that would not apply to most people. I find these stories interesting in general.
I identified the opportunity when my girlfriend was working from home (telecommuting). I was out of work and she wasn't making much, so we needed to come up with another source of income. This was just before the crash, when jobs were few and far between, especially here in Nevada.
I saw what she was doing every day, and started wondering why we couldn't do that ourselves. It took some time to convince her to give it a try - she'd never been involved in a startup or had anything to do with running a business, so she was apprehensive.
Once I convinced her, I started researching vendor info and getting the licensing and whatnot in place. Within a couple of months, we'd acquired the business licenses, furniture and technology we needed to get off the ground. The total cost to launch was under $1,000, and most of that money was obtained by my driving to California to do some side work for a friend.
We were somewhat lucky in that the business we started was something we could do from home and didn't cost a lot to get going. We've since expanded into an office and invested a lot more in technology and whatnot, but when we started, we literally started with nothing and grew it very carefully.
How do you start a business from scratch? You have the idea, you do the research. You run the figures. You learn how that type of business is run, so that you will know how to run your own business.
You buy or rent whatever equipment or space that you need. You hire whatever workers you need. You pay for your advertising.
Most likely, you support the business for a year or two while it gets established. Most likely, that money will come from your own pocket since it is very nearly impossible to borrow money for a business that is not already showing a history of profit.
It usually begins with a loan and some hard times, like living in your parents basement and running operations from home. Perhaps they break even in a couple of years and start to profit in year 3 -4. A services business (consulting, legal representation etc) that requires the operator to be licensed, with no brick-and-mortar establishment and a just a computer/phone would be an ideal from-scratch businesses to start. Anything that requires inventory, office space and patent costs will typically require significant start up costs.
I think crowdfunding is and will continue to play a bigger role in people funding businesses in the future. The JOBS act will change things hopefully .
Here's one example. You open taxi cab business. To open it, you have to have vehicles and drivers. Every driver basically leases cab from you. To do so, they have to place a security deposit of $XXXX.
You take those money, skim your %% and deposit them as down payment for the vehicle for the driver. Then you pay the vehicle off, as driver brings in cash.
You just started your business FROM NOTHING.
That's btw how Microsoft started. They took people's abandoned ideas and devices, put them together, and sold for big $$. The only thing Bill did was to think of a scheme like this. But that's how the big money are normally made anyway.
Many successful business owners claim to have "started from nothing". I'm inclined to believe them, but I don't know how this is actually done. What steps took you from wanting to start a business to actually having started a business?
Please feel free to include details that would not apply to most people. I find these stories interesting in general.
I started a business with a friend of mine with $368. We started casually selling on ebay. Then upgraded to using Paypal buttons on a blogger site. Then we had some success and did a godaddy template site. Then we hired an indian web comapny and did a real website and SEO efforts. In 2 years it's grown from making like $50 a week to making $15,000 to $20,000 a month consistantly. It can be done. I'll be honest I kinda fell into my business but thats how so many things happen. I realized a need through my day job that wasn't being fullfilleed and started a business to fulfill it. IT's not always easy though, we've had tons of problems finding suppliers, with payment processors, currently being sued by the governemnt. too much regulation thats the hardest part about starting a business.
Just wondering since you mention the 15,000 to 20,000 per month figure I'm just wondering is that gross or net, if you don't mind sharing. Also sorry to hear that the government is causing trouble for you , was it a tax related issue?
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