For Job Security: Should You Start Your Own Business? (4 Tips)

For Job Security: Should You Start Your Own Business? (4 Tips)
(posted with permission from: http://sane-ramblings.blogspot.com)

With so many people unemployed, underemployed or who may be fired and good jobs so scarce, it makes sense to consider starting or buying your own business. But because of the bad times, you may be scared. The following story about a couple that bought a business during the the Great Depression may be helpful to you. In 1930, Ruth Graves Wakefield and her husband risked their savings to buy the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Mass.

Ruth did the cooking and she served the Inn's guests. One day she was baking chocolate cookies and saw she was out of baking chocolate. In place of that baking chocolate, she grabbed a Nestle semisweet chocolate bar and broke it into pieces assuming the chocolate would melt into her recipe. It didn't. Instead, she had created the 1st chocolate chip cookie and it became a huge hit, making their business an enormous success. When you're in business, you never know when such a great thing could happen to you. A lucky break as happened for the Wakefields or a burst of your creativity and you too could become an enormous success. But is taking the risk of going into business really right for you? The following may help you decide:

1) Do you love your business idea enough to risk your time, your reputation and your nest egg in it ? The answer had better be yes because if you don't love it, you won't stick with it and potentially all that you will have invested will be lost. This is a question you must weigh from the heart. In 1974, before I started what later became a major computer leasing company, I sat in a botanic garden with pad and pen weighing this very question.

2) Is there a market for your product or service? How do you find out? Talk to potential customers and ask them under what circumstances they would do business with you and what price they would be willing to pay. In 1974, I knew many computer users and discussed my prospective computer leasing company with them. If you don't have those connections, run some advertising to attract those potential customers. In the late 1990's when I had another business idea, I ran an ad and after speaking with potential customers, knew it was not a good idea and saved my time and money by not pursuing it further.

3) What are the costs to start your business and when will it make money? You don't need a computer or a CPA to do this unless you must raise funding. Do as I did in 1974 at that botanical garden. On a sheet of paper write down all the expenses you will incur and over what time period. Then project when sales will kick in. Be very conservative. Expenses in real life are often far more than expected and sales usually take longer than planned.

4) Is there an easier, less risky approach? Yes. For example, if you want to repair computers or cars, find out what the opportunities are by speaking with those already in the field. Maybe they would even hire you part-time and if that goes well, employ you full-time eventually making you a partner. You can also buy an established franchise, such as a Subway or a Taco Bell, if you have the savings to make the down payment but before you do, speak with those who bought that franchise to learn if they are pleased with their investment and why.


More Should You Start Your Own Business tips at http://sane-ramblings.blogspot.com

demand is what drives the economy.

The supply-siders, Milton Friedman and the University of Chicago school, have it exactly backwards.

I like this one...

Is there an easier, less risky approach? Yes. For example, if you want to repair computers or cars, find out what the opportunities are by speaking with those already in the field. Maybe they would even hire you part-time and if that goes well, employ you full-time eventually making you a partner.

i am long term self employed because i'm unemployable but keep in mind, starting your own business means that you are uninsured or have "private" health insurance (which means if you really get sick they won't cover you) so nobody who loves their family can choose to be self employed

you need to be on a team in a job w. a powerful person/company who can speak for you if you are injured unless you are single and will never have a family to care for

even then, you will regret going the route of self employment when you are older, i regret it every day and i had no choice since i was a crime/harassment victim

the self employed are doubly hit, they make less money AND they get no benefits, it is the new slavery

My spouse has a job (RN at a hospital) which has health benefits, and I am self employed. Works well for us.

Makes for potential backups...and if a bigger better deal comes, you can resign.

I find it laughable when conservatives like to claim that this is the greatest country for entrepreneurs. What a joke. Health insurance on the private market is a sham, so unless you have a spouse that has health benefits, it's seriously worth asking yourself if it's worth the time, money, and energy. Even with a spouse that has benefits through his/her job, unless you're fairly certain that their job is reliable and stable enough, it's a big risk, well beyond the time and monetary investment initially put in...

Along with all those bankruptcy "reform" bills passed making risk taking even less appealing if things go bad, the state of health care, no unemployment benefits, the fact that you still pay a lot in social security taxes, and all sorts of other hassles, I think the country is actually discouraging creativity and entrepreneurship.

And that's IF you feel your product or service has a demand in this economy. Even then, don't start a business expecting to support yourself with it for some time...unless you already have clients/customers already lined up or have substantial savings.

Thank you!
:hi: