Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Thanks Aaron.

I agree with you completely.  I am getting an MBA - slowly but surely and so what I can bring is the business side while I think that having a good seasoned baker will be crucial.  This is kind of like a vertical move....at least in terms of the business side of things. 

 

 

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One of the most inspiring radio shows I`ve ever heard was a Limbaugh show about 5 years ago. He`d said something, and a caller from Texas complained that with the money Limbaugh makes, he was "out of touch" with the common person.

Limbaugh stopped the show and said he wanted only calls from people who`d lost everything---their job, money, financial safety, etc.---at an older age and who`d started their own business. That`s the Limbaugh story, and he wanted to point out it isn`t unique.

The next 3 hours was filled with people in their late 40s upward, all of whom had lost their jobs, been fired, been laid off, or were caught in outsourcing. They tried to keep going, looking for a new job, and kept spiralling down until they lost just about everything. No more savings, no more nothing.

At that point, most of them, back to the wall, had nothing left to lose. Most of them had always wondered about an idea they had, oftentimes having very little to do with what they`d done as a life-time career. So they talked with their family, said they were going to give it a shot.

In all cases, they`d struggled very heavily for the first year, partway into the second year. Then things started to get moving. They`d sold what they could, borrowed money, scraped the bottom of the savings barrel, and sometimes worked as a "hamburger flipper," meaning a dumbass job just to get a few bucks.

Now they were calling in, and in every single instance, talking about how the event had changed their lives. They were successful, earning enough to pay the new bills, and had every expectation of increasing their income in the coming years. Best of all, not one of them had a "boss" anymore.

Note how seldom people who start a business do so with what they`re already doing in their corporate employment. In most cases it`s to do something they`d always loved but couldn`t (or chose not to) do for an employee.

Tom and Shane:

I made the leap a few years ago.  I was laid off from a company that I loved (just hated the VC people and the CEO!!), and decided this was the opportunity I had been waiting for.  I had been planning to open a boutique at some point, so now was the time.  I had worked in retail for a great portion of my life, but had a lot of experience in other areas as well.  Its a good thing I had the other skills, because I`ve needed every bit of that knowledge.  What I didn`t have was direct experience in women`s clothing sales.  My retail experience was in other areas, but again, I needed all of that knowledge as well.  I really feel that every job I`ve ever had has added a piece to the puzzle of my small business.  But, if I hadn`t had some retail experience I would have been in big trouble.  Women`s clothing has the 2nd highest failure rate (after restaurants) so I was up against some stiff odds(50% failure rate after 12 months, and 50% of the remaining fail after 24 mo.).  Mistakes cost money, and even though they`re inevitable, in the begining you HAVE to minimize their financial impact.  The amount of money it takes to run this small business is amazing.  Its mostly from debt service at the moment, but unfortunately banks won`t wait until you`re making money to get paid back.

Its great that you`re getting more education.  But if I were in your position, I would get some real experience in the restaurant or baking industry.  Even if it means taking another job at night and on the weekends.  You will be working that many hours when its your own place, so why not start to get used to it? There are so many things that you don`t even know you don`t know, and those are things that you can only understand by working in the field.  Hiring an experienced baker is a good idea, but how will you know if he/she is actually helping you make money if you don`t know anything about how the process works?  At the very least, do lots of investigational interviewing with people in the industry.  Business owners love to talk about their experiences, so you shouldn`t have any problem finding people to talk to (outside of your immediate community, of course). 

I`ve owned my boutique for almost 4 years now and I learn how little I know every single day.  But I would never do anything else.  Going back to the corporate grind is no longer a possibility.  Once you are your own boss, you can never go back.  So hang on to the dream, and keep moving forward.  Just make sure you are as prepared as you can possibly be.

Good Luck!

Lily

If you favor the belief that there`s an organization behind life, then a seeming pattern emerges. How odd, yet how continually do people say the same thing--that regardless of how strange their work experience was at the time, they found they needed it later.

I hold that the Universe works along the lines of balanced energy, and that we do indeed have an organizing "force" taking place in our lives, each and every one of us. As such, it`s really a matter of knowing when to follow what sort of guidance.

To me, that guidance seems directly related to the concept of "intuition." It`s not a feeling, in the sensory way as feeling soft fur. Rather, it`s when we get a strong sense that an idea is a good idea...something more than just a whim.

If we listen to that intuition, doing some small amount of effort to track it down and give it a shot, life seems to move toward success in the most astonishing ways. :-)

Visit www.escapefromcubiclenation.com for a fabulous community of people who are in the same boat with you and dreaming of a better way of life as business owners.  Pam Slim writes a fabulous blog, and you`ll find great inspiration there.

Read Michael Gerber`s book "The E-Myth Revisited"  and ask yourself if you`ve got what it takes to run the back of the house as well as the front of the house.  Not everyone with a fabulous set of skills has the full range of capabilities to successfully run a business, and this book will help you figure that out for yourself.

Everyone has his or her own tipping point beyond which staying in the cubicle is no longer an option.   You`ll know it when it happens to you.  Proceed with passion and purpose for profit, and enjoy the journey.