Going Out for Business

4 replies
Have you lost your job? Do you need more income? Do you want to work for yourself instead of someone else?

Well, YOU CAN!

Here's the thing... There are many businesses you could start, but, for our example here, let's say you want to start your own restaurant. Perhaps you have some skills as a chef and would like to monetize that skill instead of just pleasing your family for Sunday dinner.

First off, you'll need a location. Note that this is true for most businesses, so don't think the fact that our example is a restaurant means that this doesn't apply to you. No matter what business you want to start, you'll need a place.

You could buy a building. But, that may cost $100,000 or more, depending on where you live. You could rent for maybe $500 or $1,000 a month and on up, again depending on where you live.

Then, you'll need equipment and furniture. For a small restaurant, this could cost another $50,000 or maybe as high as $100,000 or more. Depends on your needs.

Maybe you could lease that. That might mean another $500 or $1000 a month in payments.

So, you're looking at something like $150,000 or more, or $1000-$2000 a month or more, just to get started.

That's a lot of money. And, the fact that you need money might put that all out of reach.

But, you want to get to that point, and you want to get started right away. You can't wait until you have the money saved up because you may not have a way to save any money up, because your income may be stretched or non-existent.

What to do?

Well, you might decide to start small. Seems like a good idea, right?

You could start with a hot dog cart. You can get it and some supplies for $5,000 or so. Compared to $150,000, $5,000 is a bargain. You might have that socked away in a savings account or some stocks you could sell. Maybe you can scrimp and save to get $5,000 to get a hot dog cart.

It certainly seems more likely than saving up $150,000, right?

Start small. Start with something you can afford.

Finally, you get the money and you buy your hot dog cart!

Congratulations! You're in business.

This hot dog cart is going to be the start of your restaurant empire. Right now, it's a hot dog cart. In the not so distant future, it will be a chain of hot dog fast food joints. You'll be the McDonald's of the hot dog world.

Except, wait... You didn't sell any hot dogs today.

What? You thought you could just roll your hot dog cart over to a street corner and crowds of people would show up ready to buy your hot dogs?

Didn't you think about all the other hot dog cart vendors already out there, working the street corners?

Did you think about how you'd compete? How you'd get people to come to you instead of go to them?

Did you even think about the best street to set up on?

Or, did you pick a street far away from the other hot dog vendors?

Did you think maybe there was a reason they weren't in the spot you picked?

Were you so vain to think that somehow you were the only person in the world to know about this one spot where throngs of people would magically show up to buy your hot dogs?

It's pretty ridiculous, right?

Who would set up a hot dog cart without much of a plan for actually selling hot dogs?

That's just insane, right?

Except that it happens every day.

Except it's not a hot dog cart that someone sets up, it's a website.

Just because the cost to entry is low doesn't mean that you can easily start a business.

In fact, with that low cost to entry, the more competition you will likely have.

The higher the cost of getting into a business, the less competition you will likely have and the greater your chance of success.

While it's true that you will find lots of people who apparently struck it rich on the Internet, you will also find similar numbers of people who won the lottery.

That doesn't mean that buying a lottery ticket is a smart way to build a business.

How many rich hot dog cart vendors do you see compared to the number of rich restauranteurs? More people can afford to buy a hot dog cart and sell hot dogs than can afford to set up a full restaurant. Where there are more people, there is more competition.

Think about it. You look around this forum, and you will find lots of people that are struggling to make money online. They built a website, because the cost of entry was low, but then they can't make money, because the competition is high. Yet, when people talk about giving up IM or whatnot, people jump in and encourage them to keep going.

But, does that advice really help people, or just prolong their suffering?

If they could make more money flipping burgers at a fast food joint, do you think maybe their time is better spent flipping burgers than trying to flip websites? Why encourage them to keep pounding away at the keyboard night after night, stressing themselves out over how they will pay the bills, when they might be able to go flip burgers and actually get a paycheck each week?

I think the problem is that people think that, because it's cheap and easy to set up a website, they set one up without a lot of forethought. They don't think about how they will drive traffic to it or generate sales or any of that. They adopt the "if I build it, they will come" philosophy. How often do you see people here asking about traffic generation and monetization strategies BEFORE they've built a website? And compare that to the people asking those questions AFTER they've built a website.

People talk about high failure rates in IM. But, people are encouraged to get into IM, with little regard for whether they have the aptitude or drive to do it, because it's cheap and easy to get into.

Cheaper than buying a hot dog cart.

And that's not a good reason. The thing to do is to start with a good idea, then research the potential that idea may have. Throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks may be a decent strategy when you have money to throw around as well, but, if you don't have a lot of money to lose, you should do more research. Is your idea good? Is there profit potential? Is there something already like it? If so, why is yours better? If not, is there a reason why not? Maybe people just won't go for it. Who is your ideal customer? How will you reach that customer? Can you sell the product at a price that gets you a decent profit? And so on.

These are things that should be researched beforehand, not afterwards.

Just because something is cheap and easy to do doesn't mean that it's going to be cheap and easy to turn a profit with it.
#business
  • Profile picture of the author Trevor
    Great points about starting a business!

    Online businesses are not easier to start than offline. It's just a different business model.

    Similarly, affiliate marketing is not easier than product creation. Again, just a different business model.
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    • Profile picture of the author wordwizard
      Originally Posted by Trevor View Post

      Great points about starting a business!

      Online businesses are not easier to start than offline. It's just a different business model.

      Similarly, affiliate marketing is not easier than product creation. Again, just a different business model.
      And it's also not necessarily a matter of "either/or" - making money online often works best when you combine models, i.e., sell some services to generate cash quickly, and do affiliate marketing to build some passive income, and finally getting in to product creation etc.

      Unless you're really well-funded, I suppose...
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      FREE Report: 5 Ways To Grow Your Affiliate Income

      Let Me Help You Sell: Sales Letters, Email Series, Pre-Sell Reports... PM me & we'll talk!
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  • Profile picture of the author freebuys
    Actually,I wanted to help poor people always.As a students life its not possible for me because i have no enough money.So,i'm now inspires to income those money from online after reading your threads.
    So,i will try to follow your all of those advice and helpful info.
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    • Profile picture of the author MP80
      TL; DR

      J/K! :p
      Signature
      Before you do ANYTHING else in your day - do at least ONE thing that brings money into your business.
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