Starting a business

[Cleandezert]

Curious who has ever started their own business and how did you go about doing it? I guess I should know a little about this as I started CD, but really it just kinda happened...

I am now in the position where I am starting to think about starting a business that actually makes money.. Guess my biggest concern really is gaining clients and striking out on my own.. Any advice anyone has starting their own business?

 

[UR_Mawm69]

dont bang the customers m**********s. i know from personal experience.
i think.
maybe. but maybe not. what color? whuuu??

 

[UR_Mawm69]

all seriousness........ i cant help, but what kind of busyness are you thinking of trying to start that makes you moola???

 

[Cleandezert]

my real job is building measurements for people who buy and sell buildings or lease space. For the last 8 years, I have been on the board of people who help develop how all buildings are measured across North America... and I have been doing this for 25 years. In this industry, there are very few people who have my knowledge base, and the more I think about it the more I want to jump ship and try my hand at doing something on my own. The thing that has stopped me for a long time is the fear of doing it and not being able to find business. But i think i can build that while I continue my job, as long as i do it in a fashion that doesnt compete with my current company.

 

[Brett_408]

What kind of work/business would it be? I run a family company doing commercial door repair so service industry the absolute hardest thing you will deal with when running a small business is finding and retaining good employees. When we finally get one that sticks we pay and treat them well. You have to now a days because these people will jump ship and have a new job by the end of the day. There is a major labor shortage going on. As far as getting business for us its old school make calls, set up meetings, and good ole hit the streets and drop off flyers to businesses with lots of doors. Once you build a decent customer base word of mouth will start getting around and typically you'll get a lot of work from recommendations. Side note the best advise I ever got from another construction company owner who was very successful was "show up when you say you're going to and do what you said you were going to do".

 

[UR_Mawm69]

so u no the differnse bea tween a foot and a yardmeter?!?


my only serious advice is:
dont be a bitch and just start it. you wont get anywhere unless you start!

just make sure it doesnt compete with your current job, then you can keep that job. and maybe even get some pointers about stuff from the higher ups there.


idk. just my 69 sense

 

[UR_Mawm69]

What kind of work/business would it be? I run a family company doing commercial door repair so service industry the absolute hardest thing you will deal with when running a small business is finding and retaining good employees. When we finally get one that sticks we pay and treat them well. You have to now a days because these people will jump ship and have a new job by the end of the day. There is a major labor shortage going on. As far as getting business for us its old school make calls, set up meetings, and good ole hit the streets and drop off flyers to businesses with lots of doors. Once you build a decent customer base word of mouth will start getting around and typically you'll get a lot of work from recommendations. Side note the best advise I ever got from another construction company owner who was very successful was "show up when you say you're going to and do what you said you were going to do".

i agree with all of this.

i work for papa's steel construction company that they started like some 50 years ago. right now, we have so many people coming and going that its fucking ridiculous. pay and treat the good ones well, then you'll keep them forever.

again, pay and treat the good ones well. it might (it WILL, not might) take time finding the GOOD ones but it'll be worth it.
idk, im just a brain retarded kid who works for his daddy giving someone who's a century older than me advice, so dont take it to heart. or whatever the fuck the saying is. hah

 

[Cleandezert]

so u no the differnse bea tween a foot and a yardmeter?!?


my only serious advice is:
dont be a bitch and just start it. you wont get anywhere unless you start!

just make sure it doesnt compete with your current job, then you can keep that job. and maybe even get some pointers about stuff from the higher ups there.


idk. just my 69 sense

I have run pretty much every department in this company. I was in charge of growing our workforce from 10-50 employees, so none of that is a major concern... At this point, i interact with all incoming clients and am more or less the face behind this company. I get frustrated a lot with the management of production employees now that I don't have a say and do sales, our production staff just doesn't care... and it reflects poorly on me, and ownership just doesn't seem to care either... We have become so big and the Owner is looking to retire, that there is no real drive to be a great company anymore.

I know it all sounds like complaining, but I have ran my course here and have no more movement.

Stupid side note, our boss was supposed to be in court next week and scheduled to be an expert witness, but he decided he wanted to go to the Philippines instead, now i am stuck dealing with a pissed-off lawyer that his expert witness just decided to flake on him. I am not okay with this and not how i would run a business.

 

[desert_steve]

[Edited]
Stupid side note, our boss was supposed to be in court next week... but he decided he wanted to go to the Philippines instead... I am not okay with this and not how i would run a business.

Seriously!? I'd be pissed too.

I mean, what an amateur. Everyone knows the best lady-boys are in Thailand!

 

[mobil1syn]

We have become so big and the Owner is looking to retire, that there is no real drive to be a great company anymore

what are the chances you can buy the company?

 

[Cleandezert]

what are the chances you can buy the company?

I originally thought that might be an option, but now they are saying they want to create an esop and its not an option to buy it.... Company right now is sucking all the money out of it to show as much profit as possible while creating a horrible work environment so they can get the best evaluation on it.

 

[mobil1syn]

I originally thought that might be an option, but now they are saying they want to create an esop and its not an option to buy it.... Company right now is sucking all the money out of it to show as much profit as possible while creating a horrible work environment so they can get the best evaluation on it.

*i have never owned a business, worked for a few owners have shown me behind the curtain a few times, have been around some people who have a skillset that is unique putting them in a similar position as yourself and business is interesting to me because i treat it as a machine and puzzle to be solved, so take my opinions with that in mind*

a few questions
- are you bound by any non-compete?
- is your skillset of value to the industry without being detrimental to your current company?
- what makes you special in what you do?

 

[Giant Geoff]

When I started my first business, this brand I was skating for gave me the best advice! They told me to get all my ideas and thoughts that are in my head and put them on paper to start mapping out the direction and that it will become the reality.

It’s like going to a new place you have never been to and you do not know how to get there so you write out your starting point on the top left of a piece of paper and on the other end, your goal to start a snowboard brand on the bottom right. Then start writing in, how to get to this physical location.

This led me to putting a note pad on my bedside because once you get started, you will have so many more thoughts that keep you awake and putting them on paper let me get it out of my head and allow me to fall asleep. The notepad is also good for when you come up with an amazing idea in your sleep, you wake up and write it down before you forget the next morning.



Another thing I learned, was to tell everybody what you want to do and ask a ton of questions to everyone you can and also ask if they know anybody that could lead you to certain aspects to get you going and keep branching off of that as you move along on this process that you’re going to blind through and keep an open mind to adjust from exactly you think and want that may change in the slightly different direction.

 

[Cleandezert]

When I started my first business, this brand I was skating for gave me the best advice! They told me to get all my ideas and thoughts that are in my head and put them on paper to start mapping out the direction and that it will become the reality.

It’s like going to a new place you have never been to and you do not know how to get there so you write out your starting point on the top left of a piece of paper and on the other end, your goal to start a snowboard brand on the bottom right. Then start writing in, how to get to this physical location.

This led me to putting a note pad on my bedside because once you get started, you will have so many more thoughts that keep you awake and putting them on paper let me get it out of my head and allow me to fall asleep. The notepad is also good for when you come up with an amazing idea in your sleep, you wake up and write it down before you forget the next morning.



Another thing I learned, was to tell everybody what you want to do and ask a ton of questions to everyone you can and also ask if they know anybody that could lead you to certain aspects to get you going and keep branching off of that as you move along on this process that you’re going to blind through and keep an open mind to adjust from exactly you think and want that may change in the slightly different direction.

Ha i actually remember that brand from highschool. Had some stickers someone gave me at one point.

*i have never owned a business, worked for a few owners have shown me behind the curtain a few times, have been around some people who have a skillset that is unique putting them in a similar position as yourself and business is interesting to me because i treat it as a machine and puzzle to be solved, so take my opinions with that in mind*

a few questions
- are you bound by any non-compete?
- is your skillset of value to the industry without being detrimental to your current company?
- what makes you special in what you do?

1. i know our company had everyone sign a non-compete... but i also know our last vp quit and started his own business for much of the same reasons i want to.
2. my skillset is a value to the industry, and like any company, if I leave there is a void, but will be replaced in a day as someone will step in but will have to learn the experience part.
3. My knowledge makes me special. Only a dozen in the entire country have my knowledge base, as I have been doing this for 25 years, only a dozen people in the country are on a committee that helps develop our standards... so this gives me a leg up on anyone else in our sector.

I guess my only unknown at this point is how to build a client list... guess that is always the hard part of pounding the streets for it.

 

[Giant Geoff]

Word of mouth!
In business it is best to start off slow and grow into more as you learn how to manage.

 

[mobil1syn]

3. My knowledge makes me special. Only a dozen in the entire country have my knowledge base, as I have been doing this for 25 years, only a dozen people in the country are on a committee that helps develop our standards... so this gives me a leg up on anyone else in our sector.

How good is your relationship with management and how public is the desire to sell out?

 

[Cleandezert]

How good is your relationship with management and how public is the desire to sell out?

The relationship is good but strained as our owner brought on a consultant who is now trying to run the show to build value to sell. How do you mean public to sell out. the company wanting to sell or start esop or me? both are very private. lol

 

[mobil1syn]

The relationship is good but strained as our owner brought on a consultant who is now trying to run the show to build value to sell. How do you mean public to sell out. the company wanting to sell or start esop or me? both are very private. lol

any idea on terms of the esop? you might be leaving money on the table if you bail now.

based on the information given, id pitch the idea to be a 1099 employee at 120% of your current salary for 3 days a week for a year. this gives you some income and allows you to start getting your hustle going. could you work 4 days a week for enough people to make 200% your current income on a 1099? i bet you could

 

[Canks]

I'm on company #2 First was a compressed gasses company that we sold, were paid to stay on and made good money running that division of the new company. Second is a pool service/maintenance/repair company that I'm new in to (8mos or so).

Couple things off the cuff I can think of:
1. Write out your business plan, this can be a bit of a summarization.

2. Define why you are different or can differentiate yourself(company) from others. Why do customers want to spend money with you? Why and where do your competitors fall short?
a. Define how you will make money initially and what your long term direction/goal is
b. Do not at all be afraid to make money doing things that are not necessarily exactly what you thought you were going to be doing. We ended up having a few "side" deals within our industry that kept the lights on for us. Some were short term money makers, and some of these could have really developed in to something bigger if we had persued it after the sale of our company, and we didnt realize it was there until we stumbled in to it

3. Write out a company ethos of sorts. Basically summarize how you want your customers to view you and your employees.. This will help when times are tough and you need to remember when a customer is an asshole why you are doing what you are doing.

4. Also save some money before you quit and decide to go out on your own. Took us 6 or so months to turn a profit, we had money coming in and could see the light. But we weren't making enough in the beginning to be able to pay ourselves.
- worst case scenario you have a savings you can reinvest somewhere to help make you more money.

Most of these things do not have to be done, but its really nice to have already put some thought towards these and other subjects before a customer or similar asks you about it. Nothing like making things up on the fly.

Last thing is, welcome to working 120 hrs a week. Not a joke, 16-18 hrs a day 7 days a week (hopefully your wife is patient). Might be worth it

 

[-MIKE-]

Ha i actually remember that brand from highschool. Had some stickers someone gave me at one point.


1. i know our company had everyone sign a non-compete... but i also know our last vp quit and started his own business for much of the same reasons i want to.
2. my skillset is a value to the industry, and like any company, if I leave there is a void, but will be replaced in a day as someone will step in but will have to learn the experience part.
3. My knowledge makes me special. Only a dozen in the entire country have my knowledge base, as I have been doing this for 25 years, only a dozen people in the country are on a committee that helps develop our standards... so this gives me a leg up on anyone else in our sector.

I guess my only unknown at this point is how to build a client list... guess that is always the hard part of pounding the streets for it.

Non competes are not enforceable in the state of CA.