Are You Absolutely Sure You Want to Start a Business?

Nice analogy with the baby , Steve. I think if people are being honest when it comes down to it they do NOT want a business of their own they want something equivalent of winning the Lotto or hitting the grand prize at the Slot machine . Thats what they want. . But thing is even with the Lotto you have to work to keep your money


- Robert Andrew

This is a great Reality Alert for anyone just starting out.

It does not mean you should never start. It does not mean there are not tremendous rewards in owning your own business. It just means that you should be realistic about the time, effort and learning curve involved to eventually be a success.

Steve is one of the members that ALWAYS tells you the factual side of any topic. You should pay attention to EVERY thread and post he makes!

Right! Entered for right reasons, and done with effort over the long haul, both can work when you do.

Entrepreneurship is not for everybody. I don't believe entrepreneurship can be learned. It is kind of a culture.

I've been running my own businesses for over 26 years. I can not imagine ever taking a job.

But, everything on your list of "dreams" is totally possible to achieve without the "huge incomes" you mentioned.

You don't need "huge incomes" to be free. Numbers can be deceiving. I know some people with "huge incomes" and they are the poorest people I've ever seen. On the other hand, I know people with modest incomes who live like kings.

It's an inside job.

Great thought, it's true everyone wants to be a business owner, but no one wants to put the required effort. They just look at the benefits but not the effort or the hard work really required to setup and keep the business in running position.

I see it as a nice mix of the 2 Steve. And cool baby analogy

Dream huge dreams. Dream ridiculous dreams. Just moved into inspired action - which sometimes feels like hard work - to make the big dreams come true.

I think of someone like John Chow. He busted his tail of course but built his business up to where he makes $20 or $50 K a day through his blog and he does not have to be on a schedule, or attend meetings, or hit deadlines. Largely, at least.

He travels the world and leverages like mad, outsourcing and earning some nice coin. That only happens if you dream big dreams that most folks view as not being possible.

Then you have the crowd that stops dreaming big dreams and busts their tail for years. They may see nice success but they lock themselves in to a life of Reality - "R" capitalized - all because they did not develop a vision to create a freeing, fun, inspired life that is the envy of all but experienced by few.

I work. Any blogger who's followed me for a minute knows this. But I also dreamed silly dreams so my work helped me create a life of freedom.

Writing these words from Thailand now. I could fly to Fiji tomorrow. This is no big deal to me because I did not design a life based on being bound or tied down. I dreamed really big *and* worked my tail off too, so I was able to start and grow a business that helped me live many of the dreams listed above which seem like pipe dreams to many.

I am grateful for all the interviews I do and podcasts and such but even feel a little annoyed when I have to be up at 8 AM or have some interview scheduled at any time of the day. It is so alien to me. So I resist it a bit. Only because that is how I designed my life, based on my predominant dreams and also the work I put in to make these dreams my life experience.

Note; Dream and do. Just keep dreaming more than you keep doing to mold that ridiculous life And of course, keep doing too.

Thanks for the share.

Ryan

Dreams as Ryan points out is what makes Life tolerable ( if not very , extremely enriching in some cases )


- Robert Andrew

I must nit-pick this list, for it is so true and I am so sick of people saying to me: "But....but...but... I thought..."

When people start looking to make money online and they come to me and ask where to start first, because I make money online and therefor I MUST be a "guru" just falling all over myself to "mentor" them (see my Warrior's Forum inbox).... the first thing I tell them is this:

Do you have a business license?

Did you get a permit for running a business in your home?

Have you applied with the IRS for an EIN?

Does your town have laws against operating online businesses out of your home (thus requiring you to rent office space elsewhere)?

Have you contacted the SBA and requested their pamphlets and guides to starting a business?

Have you registered your business name?

These are all things you have to do BEFORE you get started.

These are the first steps to starting a business. Yes, even an online one.

And then they go...

"But....but...but... I thought..."

What? You thought you didn't have to obey the law or pay your taxes?

"But....but...but... I don't live in the USA..."

Well, tough luck, because if you have an online business selling to Americans, you ARE required to collect taxes from them and report them to the IRS, no matter where you live. Just like we in America who sell to Europe have to pay those VAT fees.

In fact, non-Americans needing to pay IRS taxes, is the #1 reason, Kindle authors give up on ebooks with Kindl, after they make their first $600 in USA sales and Amazon closes their account because they refuse to forward tax information to Amazon.

I sell most of my Kindle books to readers in Japan and Germany. Only 5% of my sales are in America, even though I'm a Scottish person living in America. Every February I get a mountain of paperwork from Amazon. Because my books are sold in over a dozen different countries and I have to fill out all the various tax forms for each and every one of them.

Welcome to the world of global online business, where you not only have the IRS, but every other country has taxes that have to be paid too. Who knew?

And more importantly: how many "make money online gurus" are out there telling newbies this very important information? None. Not one.

Why? Because they are too busy screaming "Buy my get rich quick scam guide, give me all your money, money, money!" to get money out of newbs, with no real interest in helping them get a business started. How many "gurus" and "mentors" are there out there who ACTUALLY teach starting a business? A

I see time and time again, newbies bemoaning having spent $20,000 to $30,000 in years of mentor "coaching" and never getting anything useful out of it.

You want REAL knowledge on how to start and online business? Do what I did: go to your local community college and sign up for a business degree. I took 3 semesters of business and entrepreneur classes. Didn't go for the full degree because I wasn't interested in the degree, I just wanted to take those classes and you had to be in the degree program to take them. But I learned way more in that year and a half of business classes at a local college, then any online guru ever spouted out in their "get rich online" guides. And I learned it from REAL business owners, running REAL businesses, and got to take class tours of businesses to see how REAL online money makers make their online money.

Dreaming of making money online is vastly different from the reality of making money from an actual online business. I wish more people realized that.

My inbox, wishes more people realized that too. Along with wishing people didn't spam with "OMG! You make money online! I want to do that! Tell me how!" If I spent all my time answering newbies looking for answers, I'd never have time to make money online.

But, I'll answer ALL the newbies in my inbox right now, and say this:

I never once emailed someone to ask them to tell me how they made money online. No. I was too busy in libraries researching how to start a small business. I was too busy going to college taking business starting classes. I was too busy teaching myself how to start a business and applying what I learned and putting it to action, to have time to waste running around online chasing after online money makers asking them how they did what they did.

There are quite a few people online and offline who over the years have pointed to me and said "She's a success" They have had wide and varied reasons for what they termed "success" to mean as well.

Because I am fully transparent with who I am, where I am, what I do, how I do it, and even post my actual income figures online in yearly reports... it has resulted in certain people or certain circles to, realize where I live and for some reason decide it's okay to drive up hear, prance up into my yard and visit me uninvited.

ahhhhh....

They get here and ask stuff like:

"But....but...but... I thought that whole story about the bomb blowing up your house and you living under a tarp for 9 years was a marketing gimmick..."

Nope. I really am not white and the Ku Klux Klan really did blow up my house, because they didn't like the fact that Stephen King filmed The Thinner movie on my farm, and the Old Orchard Beach town hall really is run by the KKK and refusing to give my non-white Gypsy arse building permits to rebuild because I'm not white enough.

"But....but...but... I thought you make all this money online... how can you not have a house to live in a sleep under a tarp for 11 years... I thought you were a success..."

Yes, that is my income, yes, I really am homeless, now going on 11 years as of April 2017, the bomb blew up my house October 18, 2006. Here, while you're here, let me introduce you to Golgotha. She's the big white cross the KKK left behind after blowing up my house. Hey, let me point to the 4-door-white pick up truck across the street. Notice his loaded gun pointed out the window and aiming up here, you better duck and run, he's one of the KKK ring leaders and it doesn't matter how white YOU are if he sees you standing in my yard talking to little none-white me. Welcome to Maine. We really is mountain folk.

"But....but...but... I thought... you make so much money online... why don't you move... buy a mansion in Florida or France or something..."

What? And leave the swamps of Old Orchard Beach? I've lived here since 1975. Having all the money in the world isn't gonna make me leave, it's just gonna make me build high barbed wire fences then I already got.

"But....but...but... I thought... you make so much money online... you could have beach houses, mansions, race horses, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, ... isn't that why you make money online?"

No.

I didn't set out to make money online. Making money online is something that happened naturally over the course of time. It wasn't my goal. It never was. I'm happy here in woods. Don't need to go anywhere else, don't need the mansions or cars...

"But....but...but... you don't have a house!!!!!!!"

And I don't seem to care.

"But....but...but... you live under a tarp!!!!!!"

Yes. I do. And we get 21 feet of snow in the winter. Snow starts in October and melts in May. We get a lot of snow and I have no walls around me to keep out the cold and no roof over my head to keep me dry, and now that the Ku Klux Klan has cut the heads off my cats, I don't have anything to keep me warm any more either.

"But....but...but... money and cars and houses...."

I don't care about those things. I never did. You got to remember I built the tent YEARS before the bomb blew up my house. I only had to house so I had a place to cook in a kitchen and a bathroom to wash and poop in. I've been sleeping outdoors at night for decades. All the bomb did was make it harder for me to cook meals and bath. Nothing more.

"But....but...but... you're making all this money online..."

Again, money was not my goal. Money does not motivate me. Neither does buying things.

"But....but...but... what do you do with your money?"

I glued 2.5million marbles to my car. Then I bought a motorhome and painted in pink with 300+ cans of Rustolium "Very Berry Pink". Made a Lord Sesshomaru CosPlay, then made a Quaraun the Insane CosPlay... and crazy cat woman... I spend $500 a month just in cat food alone.

I buy tons of non parisable food and pack my car full of bags of food, then drive around Biddeford and Portland (yes in the car covered in marbles) and look for homeless people in Maine's ever growing cardboard box villages, and hand out bags of food to people.

The rest goes to The Salvation Army.

I never had a fantasy of big houses or huge incomes. I don't need them. I probably keep less then 10% of my income.

I happen to like being a crazy cat woman hermit in the woods of Maine, ain't got no desire to change my lifestyle. Making money online, just gives me more I can do to help other people in my local community with, that's all.

I think a large part of why I succeeded while so many others have failed is BECAUSE money doesn't motivate me at all. I'm not trying to push items in people's faces, I'm not rushing around trying to get everyone to click on links. I'm just being me, talking with fellow mankind, sharing ideas and information, no strings attached.

Well, I certainly have that one covered. Can't get any more non-structured then dressing like Liberace, dripping in sequines and rhinestones, while living under a tarp and driving around town in a car with 2.5 million marbles glued to it.

The thing is, I've always lived a non-structured life. Money had nothing to do with it. This is who I am. I'm am ElvenKin... yes, that does mean I'm an OtherKin who stopped "being" a human decades ago.

And in case you are wondering, because people always ask, soon as they realize, I'm not joking, when I say I gave up being a Human and have lived my life as an Elf since 1987....

I have:

Autism (Savant not Aspergers)
Schizo Effective Personality Disorder (which is different from Schizotypal Disorder and Schizophrenia, though all 3 are very similar)
Agoraphobia (recovering from)
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
OCD

In short, yes, I am insane and I have the papers to prove it!

Crazy is as crazy does and apparently I am the epitamy of what it means to truly be utterly and completely insane off the wall bonkers out of my mind crazy.

People like to call me "crazy" to try to hurt my feelings, however, they fail to realize, that I learned to embrace my own insanity decades ago. Why fight it? I'm crazy. I know I'm crazy. I might as well embrace the insanity that is me, because I have to live with myself after all...

oh boy... there's that...

Do you know why I am an author who writes about Elves? Because I have Elves living in my head and if I don't write about them I won't be able to get anything else I need to do, like sleeping or eating, done, because they won't let me do anything until I write about them. Schizophrenia is not what the movies make it out to be, the reality is, it's very difficult to get anything done when you have an entire universe living in your head.

Why do I tell you this?

Because... if I wasn't a crazy ElvenKin, writing about Elves obsessively, in between gluing marbles to my cars... I wouldn't be making money online.

Think about that.

If I wasn't crazy, I could live a normal life, have a normal job, go shopping in stores with normal people. I would have normal commitments like normal people do and all those boring business meetings would at least be a vacation fro the armies of things that live in my head.

My point is, we people who live a non-structured lifestyle where we seemingly "avoid commitments, deadlines, and boring meetings" in actuality, have very server and very crippling mental illnesses that we struggle with every day. We don't have the freedom to live "normal" structured lives the way you "normal" people do.

If you personality is such that you are suited to living a non-structured lifestyle where you avoid commitments, deadlines, and boring meetings... then you'd already be doing it, because living like that has nothing to do with how much money you do or do not have ... how you live your life is determined by chemicals in your brain and how your brain tells you to respond to the world around you.

In short, if you dream of a non-structured lifestyle where you can avoid commitments, deadlines, and boring meetings... know that you dream of a life where, you also can not function in normal society and will be forced to live alone, because society, really doesn't like "crazy people" and it takes "being crazy" to having the non-structured lifestyle where they avoid commitments, deadlines, and boring meetings.

In my experience most people are not well suited to "being the boss" because most people seeking to be the "boss" are also bullies who seek to push people around. Business decisions are not well made by them, because the goal was never running a business. The real goal was to have "little minions" they could give orders too.

Most people I've meet who sought to "be the boss" only really sought to be a slave master, which is a different thing entirely.


Again, doable, but only in certain careers. Quite a few careers demand you be on location. It's hard to repair a leaking sink, if you are in Texas and the sink is in Maine.

Me with my own online career, yes, I'm able to do it anywhere that has internet access. So that means 2/3s of Maine I can not work from as only 1/3 of Maine has internet access. Most of Papua New Guinea and a large majority of Africa and China don't have internet access either. I list those places because they are places I would consider living in. I love PNG.

My job is writing, so I can go anywhere and work any place. I write novels, short stories, stage plays, comic book scripts, and of course my non-fiction articles which get posted online. I do write about every place I visit, writing while I'm there so that I have it fresh in my mind while I write.

But not every business is as easily portable as mine and so not every one who gets into online income is going to be able to work from every where.

Ah... there come those butts again...

"But....but...but... I thought you make all this money online... now you can work whenever, wherever, you hardly have to do a thing!"

If only that were true.

I work longer hours in my online business then I ever did in my "regular" retail jobs. (I've worked for Macy's, Avon, WalMart, RGIS, and HallMark, over the years)

What is my work schedule like?

I get up at 5am (yes 5am) and I start typing. Usually writing the Quaraun series (novels) doing this for 4 hours.

Hour break to eat and pee, then off to filming YouTube videos. I rotate every other day. One day I do a 6 hour recording session of vlogs, novel readings, and writing prompt videos, making 14 20 minute videos in a single sitting. The next day it a 6 our recording session of game play let's plays of Witcher and Don't Starve, recording 6 one hour videos per sitting. The rest of the week that 6 hour time period is spent editing - either editing novels or editing videos.

Another hour break to eat and pee and then, it off to writing articles for my website. I write and publish 1 to 3 new pages (1 article per page) every day.

Then it's off to bed around 11PM

Repeat the next day.

I am spending 40 to 60 hours working each week. Some weeks reaching 80 hours (though I don't recommend doing that as it tires you out if you do it too frequently)

But then those buts return with...

"But....but...but... I thought you make all this money online... now you don't HAVE to work so many hours, you can work only 4 hours a week if you wanted too!"

Well... I could, but then the money would dry up and stop coming in.

When my dad was in the hospital this past month and I had to stop filming YouTube videos for 3 weeks because I had to devote time to hospital visits and home care and stuff for my elderly dad... I made a grand total of $1.26 that month from YouTube.

Income STOPPED completely. Why? Because in my line of business, you are dependent on traffic. In YouTube if you do not publish a new video daily, traffic stops short. Sure a few people visit your old videos, but the majority of your traffic happened the first 24 hours of publication.

And that means I HAVE to film a new video EVERY SINGLE DAY in order to keep the income flowing in.

The same is true for my website. I was 5 months paralyzed and several more months relearning to walk. I wrote no new articles that entire time. My web site income nearly flat lined with AdSense bring on an average of .04c a day during that time period.

Sure, traffic continued coming to my old pages, but, like YouTube, the bulk of my traffic goes straight to the new pages the first 24 hours after publication.

Which means that in order to keep the income flowing in, I have no choice but to write a publish a new article/page to my website EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Then there is Kindle. Publishing novels, like publishing videos and articles, again requires repeat publishing. Not as often, but still, if you are publishing fewer then 4 novels a year, you'll see sales drop significantly. Every new novel you publish will see an increase of sales across all your novels, and the longer time passes between publications, the lower sales get.

Same thing goes for Zazzle, where you have to continually be creating new works of art, always buying more paints and more canvases and painting new paintings. A weekly upload schedule is best there.

My income comes from writing novels, writing non-fiction article, painting, drawing, vlogging, reading books on camera, and playing video games. And because of this, I have to be working many long and hard hours every single day. No days off.

Also, when you look at the amount of hours I work vs the income I bring in, I was actually making more money per hour at WalMart. Which would then have people asking: "Well why not go back to WalMart if you worked less hours and made more money?" Because there I was bored out of my mind. Here, I'm doing something I love doing, things I used to do in my spare time between work, things I didn't used to get paid for. Now I'm doing things I love to do, all day long and am getting paid to do it.

I used to hate the idea of working 30 hours a week, because it took time away from writing and drawing. Now I jump out of bed and joyfully work 40 to 60 hours a week, because now I can spend all day long writing and drawing, and even though I'm working longer hours it doesn't seem like work because I love what I do.

I dress like an Elf, drive a car covered in marbles, and sleep i the woods under a tarp. People point and laugh and call me crazy and I point back and laugh with them. Yeah. I'm not too much interested in prestige or status.

Nope. No retirement in this line of work. Publish daily or fall by the way side.

True.

So very true.

It is why few succeed and millions fall by the way side.

The only way to succeed is to stop dreaming, get off your lazy arse, and start working. Work a long time. Many year. Many hours or many years, before ever seeing a return at all too.

You need the commitment to stand up to everything life throws at you while you are working your way to the top as well. Life is gonna toss shit on your head and if you can't take it, you'll never succeed.

You really do have to love what you do with a raging passion, that and be bat shit crazy out of hell in order to not care what other people think of your raging passion... in order to have the commitment it takes to succeed in the online money making business.

I wish more people knew this wasn't a get-rich-quick overnight-success thing that let them toss their feet up and do nothing.

Online careers are not for the lazy, the greedy, or the needy. They are for the passionate ones who are suited to a life that turns passion into career.

You want overnight money for doing nothing but sitting on your ass for an hour a week... go to a casino.

If you want a rewarding career... run with your passions and work at improving them.

I love this thread! Made me smile and nod.

What is the right reason to go into business, in your eyes?

Very true Steve, many people have the misconception of what to expect from doing their own business, and this really gives another point of view on the matter.

First; if there is Warrior who wants to learn how to start a business, he/she would be wise to find all of SteveB's posts, he has left a complete course and is useful and practical, from the trenches of real business.

However...or But,

He and his choir, whom I agree with totally, are,

unfortunately

preaching and singing from the wrong pulpit. This is the great Church of the Warrior Forum.

Where, TODAY, right now, this moment...

one of the thousands of people, whom an extra 200 bux a month could be a life changing difference, haven't come here, nor do they stay here, because they want to start a business. And, I believe a very small % are those people described as the dreamers above.

Many dream of a little less struggle. A bit more comfort, a tad more food. Their dreams are more mundane, practical and often more urgent.

And what are they greeted with at the WF...the

DREAM MERCHANTS, ones who do appeal to a make money for doing little crowd, and you can see it right now in the WSO section, and daily when you refresh the banners.

The largest market place on the Internet, actually promotes this idea of quick and easy money. There are all kinds of do it for you offers here, from a 5k, let me do all the work, you make money GUARANTEED, down to the simple dime sale of let me build your ____________ (profitable whatever).

And as for just wanting to make money, nothing wrong with that, in fact it should be what most people should do, because...

they aren't suited or cut out to be business people.

So, I agree with your premise. And with all the other people who are singing the same hymn...

I just think it is the wrong crowd, and your wisdom falls on deaf ears.
But, be hopeful, there might actually be a convert in the crowd.

Warriors (vast majority) as business people? Never going to happen.

GordonJ

There is the disconnect. People who have lucrative businesses for years KNOW the goal is earning an income, freedom, independence. INCOME is first for most of us. It's a necessity for supporting yourself and a family.

What??? Have no idea what that means.

Increasingly, this forum is full of people who seem to think the "JOB" of everyone else online is to provide freebies for them....and it will never be 'enough'.

Where business opportunity turns into a cheap bazaar?

SURE!

I think so.

Well, I guess.

Maybe.

I don't know.

No.

Never mind.

Ok, maybe I will.

No, forget it, Gilmore Girls is on Netflix.

I'll do it later.

Darlin, you have a much higher opinion of yourself than many others here do.

If I employ 50 people - that totally ruins my lifestyle of working when I want, where I want.

Do you employ 50 people? Do you pay them out of the goodness of your heart or do you employ people who make YOUR business more profitable?

When I do hire people to do work for me - it doesn't make ME more important. It makes my business more efficient and increases profit in the end.

I do agree with the 'sorry' part, though.

That's part of the problem. He often doesn't understand the answers people post and his 'go to' is "I'm better - you are wrong".

As a matter of fact, I do. Although I didn't manage 'stuffs' (not a word, by the way) - I managed people and projects. Not sure why you have a need to feel superior - but not my concern. Whatever fluffs your feathers.

Great post. Well said. I've started several different companies and have been fortunate to have been successful with each one. But.... with each of them, if I would have known up front the amount of work it was going to take to get them successful, and if I had known up front how much I *didn't know* about the industries I was going into, then I never would have started the business in the first place.
I'm older and wiser now and I have a firmer grip on reality, but even still, I always think that starting something new is going to be easier than it actually is. I don't regret any of it, but it doesn't mean that I would do it all over again the same way. haha

This its something very true ,unfortunately forus many of us dream to have a real succes business but we fail to treat it like one .You must work everyday for it like a job day also suplimentar hours to succed

I absolutely agree with you Steve. For me, business is like a fruit bearing tree wherein it needs to nurture well in order for it to grow. You plant it in the best soil, watered it everyday and put it in a right place where it has enough sunlight for it to be properly nourished and will have enough nutrients as it grows. As the time comes, it will already be independent and will adapt naturally to the environment as well as to the weather itself. Then, here comes the pests and insects that will gonna attack the plants. We can compare it to the problems that you'll gonna encounter in your business venture. When it comes to issues like this, you need to have loads of solutions in order to overcome the problem that somehow arises.

Time comes, the fruits of your labor will somehow show up and you will realize, its harvest time already. As the saying goes, you reap what you sow.

Passion, perseverance coupled with hard work are the key ingredients to have a successful business venture.

Okay this is what I want from starting my own business:

• Hard Work/ A challenge
• Diffrent challenges
• Money(Enough to Live on)
• Make people happy(be that my employees or my customers)
• Fame(Would be nice sort of 10-15 years down the line)

I enjoy hard work. I like the challenge of having to come up with creative solutions to different problems. I don't want my days to be mundane, but chaotic. Money would just be a bonus. I'm right now in Uni(Studing Buisness and Marketing), and I want to work in the industry for a few years before I actually go my own way.

So is this the right mindset to have? I personally think so and I hope I keep it over the next few years.

Good stuff, be a REAL entrepreneur is not for everyone

We live in a life surrounded by fear created by ourselves. Fear of losing, fear of making mistakes and all that. Starting a business is to overcoming that fear. If the reason is strong no fear can stop you to do what you want.

Nobody wants to die being a corporate slave or working for others day and night. Most of them can't get out of that grind because of their fear. Owning a business is not a rocket science, but it's not making a 2 minutes noodles either. You have to set aside your fear, start some where and keep pushing it towards success until its done.

The message is clear and concise. Thanks