putting your business first over family...9/10. It's sad, but i suppose it's the drive we have. The other part, for me personally, is getting the support from a partner who has 0 input into the business and would rather me get a 9-5 job, like her. I think we're a unique species. lol
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thebizmentor
- Original Poster
- #6
Whilst I have significant experience of assisting people with many of the common problems they face in being entrepreneurs I am interested for research purposes to get some hard data together on the subject. This is all about establishing what entrepreneurs view is their greatest problem. My evidence is anecdotal so far.
I plan to publish this information and then to develop more material to help people with most common issues.
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I have highlighted the two main words. For me they changed and still change. I work with other people as a partner, I work for other people as an SEO, and I work for myself on my own projects.
Currently I am working with 4 partner businesses
1. is a self improvement system business. I am working on this with a few ex & Current rugby internationals
2. Is a tourism based project this is nearing exit time as the time is right now to sell and there is great interest
3. Is an extention on my Consultancy work, but on a partnership basis where I provide the SEO technical and experieince side of things and this person provides the ecommerce actual experience side of things, plus we both provide the business side of things via him but on a joint analysis basis. Can't say much about this as the guy is currently in the public eye.
4. Is the internet marketing club which will provide education and tools plus networkign and earning opportunities etc.
The above are the 4 projects I am working on at the moment 2 of them are taking up time, 2 of them are now coasting, 1 as it is exit time and the other as we are bound by contract not to start.
The challenges in the above is picking the right project and partner to work with. In some cases theya re natural.
The Consultancy one was as a direct result of my having worked with the guy on SEO and we knew that we could work together so no brainer. the IMC (4) is my own idea and my partner there is an administrator, nothing else, that is it.
The tourism project came about as I worked with the guy on another project of his, we pooled ideas and abilities, and then brought in someone else to fill the techie doing thing, and that has worked well.
The self imrpovement thing is as a result of my involvement in sport and is something I feel strongly about.
Time is always a challenge, but I pocket my time on my projects, I never allow projects to eat into my time allocation, if the work isn't done within the pocket, it doesn't get done. Simple as that
WRT SEO work, the biggest challenge and difficulty is turning work away, I hate doing it, but it has to be done again it is time.
PAST challenges included having superb ideas, but no funding and no way to get funding. That hurts especially when you know the idea is good, and then someone else does it. In the Uk we should have an idea evaluation department of the government that are set up purely to evaluate and help good ideas come to fruition. This should be done on a voluntary basis and should be from successful people who KNOW what they are talking about.
Not being able to find the correct technical help. This was a difficulty for me then, but not now. Again a better signposting system would help here.
Cashflow hindering development and growth. For me I found this a massive issue to deal with as having money tied up in invoicing lead time and payment meant that we couldn't grow as fast as we wanted because of the additional increase in negative cashflow. we had to hold back growth to minimise risk.
CHRONIC ADVICE from so called experts. the Governemtn set up systems then employ 'experts' on something like £25-30k a year NO serious person is going to take a job like that (which is why I suggested the voluntary basis above) what you get are people who have failed, but have had a go.
Red Tape. Another hate of mine is red tape, and the sheer cost to business of running a business. This is getting worse and I have binned numerous projects because it meant dealing with the road blocks this and previous governments have put in place.
But if I was to sum it up in a few words I would say
cash flow
time management
knowledge transfer sourcing
There are of course other elements like money for the family, time for the family etc. but I have kept this to business.
Sorry for the long post
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An idiot is someone who has not done sufficient research as to the viability of there ideas.
Earl
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Well my uncle was a professional gambler who ended up with a chain of bookie shops in glasgow.
His advice was to study form ,don't be greedy and don't take risks.
He took his driving test at 65,married a doctor and died 2 months later.
Earl
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Well my uncle was a professional gambler who ended up with a chain of bookie shops in glasgow.
His advice was to study form ,don't be greedy and don't take risks.
He took his driving test at 65,married a doctor and died 2 months later.
Earl
Every time someone who gambles puts their money on the table they are taking a risk as there are no assued outcomes...no matter how well you have done your research. Sure, you can minimize your risk by minimizing what you are willing to gamble which is obviously what your uncle did. He still took risks though, just as all business owners take when they start a business...so your earlier was was unecessarily harsh.
I think the hardest thing about running your own business is feeling that that no one else will ever be as invested in it as you...because you own it. I don't find deluging that hard because I have feedback loops butvwhat I find really hard is taking time off. It's impossible for me to take a week off an go on holiday without checking in....but think most business owners feel like that.
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oldmanriver
- Original Poster
- #28
I personally think the two hardest things for anyone setting up their own business or running their own business is the fact that you are not guaranteed an income and you will have no time really other than work for a considerable period of time. This is particularly concerning for anyone who has a mortgage and / or a family to facilitiate.
If you have a business idea, then i urge anyone to try and make it happen while you have the least amount to lose rathe than later down the line where a business failure will negatively impact not only yourself, but your family around you and possibly your home.
If you have a business idea, then i urge anyone to try and make it happen while you have the least amount to lose rathe than later down the line where a business failure will negatively impact not only yourself, but your family around you and possibly your home.
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Well it may seem a tad harsh but as 50% of start ups fail in the first 4 years.
It may not be that far off the mark.?
Earl
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Agreed, but I don't think you can attribute that failure to the fact that someone bought a business that was too risky. Often it's lack of business acumen and unfortunately in this day and age, outside factors such as the economy crashing which is a risk that no business owner could have diversified.
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thebizmentor
- Original Poster
- #33
Well it may seem a tad harsh but as 50% of start ups fail in the first 4 years.
It may not be that far off the mark.?
Earl
That must mean that 50% succeed! How many of us have had a bet on the flip of a coin!?
Ironically most successful entrepreneurs when you dig down into the detail of what they do tend not to be risk takers. They tend to be great at analyzing and understanding risk. Decisions that seem risky on the surface turn out to be no brainers when you analyse their decision making process.
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How on earth you can claim any successful entrepreneur tends not to be a risk taker is absolutely beyond me. You also seem to be suggesting that understanding risk and analysing risk = no risk. :|
Yep I think they call it market research.
Earl
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How on earth you can claim any successful entrepreneur tends not to be a risk taker is absolutely beyond me. You also seem to be suggesting that understanding risk and analysing risk = no risk. :|
50% of the brands you see today won't be here in 20 years time either. Don't forget that in that 50% figure lie all the failed little ventures that large and small companies want to keep separate from their core business. I started and ended 2 companies last year with little failures that actually lead to 1 big success. This means that a 66% failure rate is in fact hiding the truth and this figure shouldn't put people off starting a business.
My biggest issue used to be trying to look a little bit bigger than I was. This exposed me to seeing just how poorly serviced the growth of tiny business is in the UK. Shared offices, answer services that charge you less than £10 per call, a funded way into employing and helping with the overheads to grow. All the money is put into the wrong places.
Now I am bigger, my biggest concern is, you guessed it, growth again. Just as you stop worrying about the mortgage payments and chasing debts with little companies, you suddenly can't service all the big brand names that love you all in one go!! Easy, cheap, fast access to adhoc funding would be great but doesn't seem to exist to me.
Our bank want over £3k and 4 weeks to set up an overdraft facility, every year. How's that helping?
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Yep I think they call it market research.
Earl
No market research could have forecast some of the shocking natural disasters that have affected business for so many people in places like Australia. To be fair, if market research was so easy to do, many many people ( the big guns included) would have folded up their business before 2008knowing what was heading our way. I think you are using the term "risk" in a very loose and vague way and in the process, inadvertently insulting a lot if people. You seem to think market research is a crystal ball
to be honest, someone THAT focused on the results on market research is probably going to have a higher chance of business failure than someone who keeps their wits about them in terms what's really going on in the outside world. You are labouring under a very misguided apprehension if you think the sole source of risk comes from the internal workings of a company. Sure, those a important but they are no means the be all and end of of risk evaluation.
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No market research could have forecast some of the shocking natural disasters that have affected business for so many people in places like Australia. To be fair, if market research was so easy to do, many many people ( the big guns included) would have folded up their business before 2008knowing what was heading our way. I think you are using the term "risk" in a very loose and vague way and in the process, inadvertently insulting a lot if people. You seem to think market research is a crystal ball
Well what God gets up to in Australia when he is bored is another debate.
But I suspect the larger the company the more they invest in market research.
Hence companies like Tesco et al seldom get it wrong.
Not meaning to insult anyone,but it does seem to me that very many startups have had what they think is a good idea and think that running on there passion is enough.?:|
Earl
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thebizmentor
- Original Poster
- #40
How on earth you can claim any successful entrepreneur tends not to be a risk taker is absolutely beyond me. You also seem to be suggesting that understanding risk and analysing risk = no risk. :|
I said most not any. I should have said big risk taker and not risk taker. There is risk in everything we do. Being a wage slave for 45 years is a big risk to some. It depends on your perspective.
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