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Starting A Business Isn't Rocket Science

You Can Make Money Doing Anything

In a capitalist economy, you can make your riches doing pretty much anything.

Or to be more exact, you can make your riches owning and managing a company that does more or less anything.

Starting a company: the forgotten alternative to live as a cubicle slave

Non-entrepreneurs look at the market place and say 'but there's already a company doing that'. They fail to realize that their own 'product', their labor, is no less open to competition. In fact, the competition is often more serious.

On several occasions I recruited temps to work on projects I was overseeing. For just one position, there were over 70 applicants within 24 hours. This was for a position paying approximately $13 / hour. Almost all of the applicants could have done the job. Frankly, can you think of any other space where there are over 70 competitors ACTIVELY competing for business at a given price point?

Most schools and parents preach 'study, get qualifications, get a job, and hope for promotion'. They forget to mention the alternative path of starting your own business. A path that isn't necessarily more difficult.

Getting started as an entrepreneur is a lot cheaper and easier than you would imagine.

For example, do you have the next 5 minutes free, and $99 available on your credit card? Well, let me introduce to you Wild West Domains Inc http://www.wildwestdomains.com/ . For $99, they offer you a web hosting business in a box. They delivery the service, bill the customer and handle customer support. There's no inventory. All you would need do is market the service, and deposit their check. You could do it. In fact, anyone could do it.

Even if you don't fancy having your own web hosting company, there are valuable lessons here:

  • You can afford to start your own business
  • You could start a business quickly, and easily
  • Outsourcing and reselling can enable you to deliver a broad range of quality products/services from day one of trading
  • You don't have to give up your day job to start your own business. Some businesses take little time and are compatible with full-time work
  • Your business doesn't need to have to offer original products or services. It can happily exist by selling me-too services

I do not expect you to set up a business today. But I do expect you to fully comprehend that you COULD set up a business today. And I hope that understanding brings you closer to the day when you do set up your own business.

April 5, 2005 in Start-Ups | Permalink

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Comments

"In a capitalist economy, you can make your riches doing pretty much anything."

Agreed. People in America can get rich faster (legally) than virtually any other country in the world.

"Most schools and parents preach 'study, get qualifications, get a job, and hope for promotion'."

I find this to be true, and is also mentioned in the book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I've realized that in school they teach you how to be a good employee, how to follow orders and satisfy your boss. That's not enough. You have to also learn how to play the roles of an employer if you want to succeed.

Posted by: Growing Money | May 4, 2005 9:55:57 PM

I'm familiar with Rich Dad, Poor Dad book.

>I've realized that in school they teach you how to be a good employee...

I'm not even sure they do that. I found my own schooling to be almost irrelevant to the world of work.

I find I'm still trying to learn the things they should have taught me.

I suspect that most people get on in business despite their education, not because of it.

Posted by: Zarathustra's Son | May 4, 2005 10:06:03 PM

More posts please!

-Nev

Posted by: Neville Medhora | May 13, 2005 2:04:52 AM

Nice blog and good post! Keep up the good work. I'll try to mention your blog sometime.

JLP

AllThingsFinancial

Posted by: JLP | Jun 1, 2005 5:42:45 PM

I can remember mom and dad saying somewhat the same thing. You know, do your homework, get good grades, do what they tell you, stand up straight, keep quiet and the like.

I don't know how much of that has truly helped over all. Like most education minus maybe the whole learning to read, write and type, the rest seems fairly unimportant.

Sure, there are things which I suppose are nice to know to be a "well-rounded" individual. But for the most part, there is no better teacher than reality (and not reality television).

Posted by: David Stoddard | Sep 27, 2005 1:29:37 AM

Great post on a topic that is important to everyone. There are so many different types of businesses that can be started for a minimal investment. The internet is an especially fertile area for the starting of a business. You can purchase domain names for under $10 and even have your website set-up without having to build it yourself. All you need is an idea for a website and something to sell or offer. Even outside the internet there are so many opportunities to have a business. Do something you enjoy doing not just to make money. You don't have to be an employee your whole life.

Posted by: Andrew | May 10, 2006 11:30:49 PM

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