Starting a Business

Any of you guys run or ever owned a business? Got experiences to share? Knowledge to impart? Advise to dispense?

That's a pretty open ended question. Are you starting from ground zero? What kind of business?

Yes, don't do it unless you are willing to partake in a long period of anguish until it all pays off. It is a lot of work and very time consuming. Everyone wants to be paid off but nobody wants to pay you on time.

Make sure that you have enough start up cash to sustain yourself and operations for a long period of time. If you do not have as much start up cash as you projected as necessary in your business plan and lenders will not give you as much as you need because they are risk adverse; don't start operations. Chances are you will need as much cash or credit as you projected and possibly more.

Partners can be a good thing to alleveate financial burden, but be forwarned, some guys do not have the same vision or ethics as you do. Be prepared to fight many battles if you guys are not on the same page.

I would tell you more, but I am in a rush. I wish you luck.

Never owned, but there's a couple things:

Start learning about tax deductions.

Start getting the basics of accounting down.

IRS has a little checklist: Checklist for Starting a Business (http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98810,00.html)

Oh, and being a little unethical isn't a bad thing if survival is the issue. :FIREdevil:

Yes, don't do it unless you are willing to partake in a long period of anguish until it all pays off. It is a lot of work and very time consuming. Everyone wants to be paid off but nobody wants to pay you on time.

Make sure that you have enough start up cash to sustain yourself and operations for a long period of time. If you do not have as much start up cash as you projected as necessary in your business plan and lenders will not give you as much as you need because they are risk adverse; don't start operations. Chances are you will need as much cash or credit as you projected and possibly more.

Partners can be a good thing to alleveate financial burden, but be forwarned, some guys do not have the same vision or ethics as you do. Be prepared to fight many battles if you guys are not on the same page.
I would tell you more, but I am in a rush. I wish you luck.

all great advise and the bolded part is the best advice you could ever have. i recently left the company i started because my bussiness partners (my best friend and his dad) were completely worthless and unreliable. if you do get partners i would advise against them being anyone you are close to, it can drive you apart very quickly, and in my opinion it's not worth it.

That's a pretty open ended question. Are you starting from ground zero? What kind of business?

I intended it to be an open ended question so people can share whatever they think is appropriate.

I'm in the process of starting a software company with my time and money and if things go well I'm hoping to bring on some venture capitalists.

Yes, don't do it unless you are willing to partake in a long period of anguish until it all pays off. It is a lot of work and very time consuming. Everyone wants to be paid off but nobody wants to pay you on time.

Make sure that you have enough start up cash to sustain yourself and operations for a long period of time. If you do not have as much start up cash as you projected as necessary in your business plan and lenders will not give you as much as you need because they are risk adverse; don't start operations. Chances are you will need as much cash or credit as you projected and possibly more.

Partners can be a good thing to alleveate financial burden, but be forwarned, some guys do not have the same vision or ethics as you do. Be prepared to fight many battles if you guys are not on the same page.

I would tell you more, but I am in a rush. I wish you luck.


Great advise.

I free-lanced as a web designer and also did some social media before I started an official business partner with someone else. I've been doing it since June and I have come to the realization I don't like it. Ha.

Since we are a web company, we had very low expenses and very low barrier to entry, so we did not have too much hardship starting to pick up clients and getting some kind of cash flow, but i'll tell you, it is very FEAST OR FAMINE. I would go through cycles of all sorts of lengths where I'd be earning more than i'd ever earned before (I'm 23 so the bar is pretty low) and then going forever without ever seeing another dime.

Also, be prepared to wear all the hats in the business. I know everyone reads that and goes of course, but it's easy to start your own business doing something you love to do but really only spend 20% of your time doing it -- the rest of it is sales, networking, accounting/admin, and other stuff. If I counted up my time of what i actually do, I don't spend a lot of time doing what I like. I think that is probably the biggest problem.

And I second the whole warning about Partnership. It is very difficult to be on the same page and cover the right skill sets to make it work long-term. After only working with my partner for 3 or 4 months, we had to have a huge meeting and we weren't sure if we were going to make it through each other's different way of doing things. Things finally worked out, but I don't really like what I'm doing, so I'm getting into the wellness field!

Business relationships are made to be broken. Can't think of one that ever really lasted.

Friends usually don't make good business partners.

Know your competition, and know your market.