Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

pun intended :-)

Hi everybody
I`m currently employed in a very big software company and my wife is a preschool teacher, but we`re are planning to move to a quieter place and hopefully start our own business

My question is.. where do we start?
How do we make the dream into a reality?
How do we get the money?
Everybody is saying "make a business plan" but we have no idea how...

I would greatly appreciate any advice

Jmes



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My question is.. where do we start?
Try the "Open for Business" link under the "Step-by-Step Advice" tab above.

How do we make the dream into a reality?
Hard work, and a plan. Consistency. Always moving, in other words, don`t stop. Have a goal and work towards it.

How do we get the money?
Depends on the size and nature of the biz you`re looking to start. You can start a lot of biz on a shoestring budget, but some need capital. It depends on the situation. There`s banks, credit cards, venture capitalist, etc. Once you`ve decided what you want to do, then you`ll have a better idea about where to go for the money, and how much you`ll need.

Everybody is saying "make a business plan" but we have no idea how...
Doing the "Open for Business" 10 steps, will help you in this. There`s lots of links there that`ll lead you in the right direction. In reality, having an idea is the first step of all biz plans. A biz plan it self is just simply a road map to making that biz come to reality, along with goals/plans as to how far you want to take your business.

What does it take to become successful?
Determination!The will to work hard at it. The desire to succeed. Making that first step! Don`t get knocked down, or out, easy. And always have the mentality that you CAN do it! Be smart. Surround your self with wise, good people. Always be open to change.

Oh yeah, hang around place like SuN ;)

Welcome to the site...I`m new here too.

Excellent reply Gerald!

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Chris Miller, a simple taco maker:
The Tiger Taco home in the U.S.A.
Tiger Tacos in Australia
Tiger Tacos in the United Kingdom

If you think about it, you`ve already started! By not only joining a forum and site like Startup Nation, but also actually writing out what you`re thinking, that`s the start.

It`s a long way between thinking something in the privacy of your own head, and speaking it out loud. And yet, that`s the first step to real-izing anything at all.

One thing to keep in mind as part of your startup is this place where you hope to move. If you want a physical, brick-and-mortar business then you`ll need an infrastructure, and customer-base that`ll support the venture. If it`ll be mostly online, then you could move to many different types of locations.

Business isn`t all that hard, y`know? You have something. Someone wants to buy it. That`s all it comes down to, when you strip away the details. So your other first step is to figure out what it is you want to have, that other people may want to buy.

Thank you all
It seems like the more we think about this subject the more busy we get.. and not even with it
Longer hours at my current jobs and my wife`s work in the local community seem to take their toll on us..

I really appreciate your comments. You guys really are very helpful

Could you share some insights or personal stories? how did you get into the startup business? what did you do right? what did you do wrong? what and how were the good times.. and the bad?

I`d really love to hear about it

And again, thank you all so very much!

Jmes



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In our case it was economic disasters that pushed us off our butts. In one year we went from "sittin` pretty" to losing everything. And it wasn`t some specific set of actions that took place. Instead, it was a classic case of disaster by complexity.

There`s an old saying that a school of barracudas isn`t all that troublesome, taken individually. It`s when the whole school comes after you that you get killed. So too, each individual problem we encountered could have been resolved. But when they all came at once, over a continuing period, we were demolished.

Suddenly faced with no money, no prospective income, no career, and potential homelessness, we discovered a great deal of motivation. Our first attempt was to sell things on eBay that we picked up around the area. That was nickel-and-dime, so we tried to invent a product.

That product was excellent, but the work involved to build each item wasn`t cost-effective at the price we could charge and what customers would pay. So we went back to the drawing board.

We needed a product we could make, that was very inexpensive to do in terms of available resources. Those resources had to be available through retail outlets, and we needed them in tiny increments since we had no cash. The product had to be repeatable, a commodity, unique or highly unusual, and something people would buy in quantities..

We wanted something we could sell for $5, but that people would buy in quantities. Our hoped-for typical sale was around $40. And so we came up with the idea of making navy signal flags, putting them into personalized messages.

It took us months to develop the sewing methods involved in precision geometric patterns, then more time to learn what it was we were selling. Not flags, but "secret messages." We needed to learn retail, marketing, simple HTML Web design, photography, graphics editing, and business tracking. And still we had no money.

Our startup capital was about $400. We`ve been the icons of bootstrapping, and have barely scraped through time and time again with the most basic, minimalistic lifestyle you can imagine. And yet, it`s working. Going in to our third year, we`re starting to pick up volume, introduce new product-lines, and become visible in all the search engines. It takes time to get the word out over the Web, but when it does get out there, the links feed on themselves, like viral marketing. We had to learn that, too.

The single best piece of advice I can think of these days is DO IT! Get started right now! Don`t putz around, because with the inbound administration and the economy the way it is, and likely as it`ll be, the window of opportunity to start a business is shrinking. Soon, everyone and their dog will be desperate to start a business as companies shut down, corporations leave the country, regulations increase, and so forth.

Don`t waste time. Get started, get going, and get past the mistakes all entrepreneurs make at the start. Now`s when you can afford some of those mistakes. In a year, all bets are off.

I gotta say- Thanks for sharing Craig
Your story gives me alot more insight about how businesses are started and run..

Even though. despite all of your enthusiasm I`m still feeling cold feet
You say it took you quite a while to be able to stand on your feet... but what if you didn`t?
I know nothing is fail-safe and I can`t really be sure I`ll be able to make it, but it still is scary...

I have another question for you, if you don`t mind;
Except your day to day activities and the general run of the company and products.. are you thinking about advancing in any direction?  if yes then how? and what made you decide what is the right time?




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1 more thing, Craig, you mentioned in your reply about getting your product on the web
A question about that too.. are you using a consultant or a company to help you with your online visibility or have you learned it all by yourself?
Are you using any paid services out there or are sticking with the free ones, like linkedin and lookuppage?

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We do everything on our own because we can`t afford to hire someone. If we had money, we`d likely go in that direction. However; just yesterday, Kathy and I were talking about the many things we`ve invented *because* we had no money.

So there are benefits and detriments to being broke, just as the same with having money. For example, we needed templates for the geometric designs. Using metal, it would have cost us about $2500. We absolutely didn`t have the money.

The result was that over time, we explored, asked questions, talked with people, and brainstormed. We found we could cut the templates from plexiglass, which "suddenly" also showed us see-through templates. Our total cost now was $40, AND we got an entirely new functionality to boot.

If we hadn`t been able to stand on our own feet, we would`ve gone broke, been homeless, and died of something or other. :-) But we`re gonna die of something or other anyway. In the meanwhile, being desperate offers a very good motivational energy.

We use whatever freebie we can find, including Squidoo, Linked-In, BuyitSellit, Startup Nation, and so forth. We also use whatever skills we`ve acquired either now or throughout our lives. Like grist for the mill, everything has some usefulness, and because we`re broke we waste almost nothing at all.

Right now we`re still in the hand-to-mouth process. We do have several expansion ideas in place, and if or when we get the money we`ll see about implementing them. One workaround is to invent another product that better lends itself to quick expansion. We`re going in to the market-testing stage on just such a product.

My point is that nothing in life is guaranteed. Even skills aren`t "forever." The only thing you really have is your ability to adapt. From there, it`s up to you, your values, your courage, your determination, and what you want out of life.

Get in your car to go to work and you may be hit by a meteor on the way. You can either look at life as filled with possible catastrophes, or you can look at things from a miraculous perspective. For every "maybe this will go wrong," you also can find a "maybe it`ll work."

Ultimately, it comes down to whether or not you want to run a business, and how much you want to at least try to manage your own destiny. :-)

Thanks for sharing your story there Craig. That`s the first time I`ve seen it. Definitely inspiring for all us "broke" people!

James, we all get scared man. Fear can be useful though. Hopefully you will use it to fully investigate and plan your idea/biz out. Just be careful not to freeze due to information overload. Take things step by step. I too, get in the habit of seeing too many things at one time, and so I`m trying to make my self do one little thing at a time and then allow things to fall in to place.