Starting a business: who's done it?

[Alphathree33]

I'm particularly interested in hearing about people who have switched from being employed by a tech company to starting their own business - whether in technology or not.

Questions include:

- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright?
- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it?
- How long did it take to start making a profit?
- What were the biggest challenges you faced?
- Are you happy with your decision?

 

[IceBergSLiM]

- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright? depends on the business. if you are opening a physical location aka a store you can't really moonlight that kind of business.

- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it? depends on the business. Service industry you might not need capital. Otherwise you need to look to friends and family for an angel. Its very difficult to get credit these days as you know.

- How long did it take to start making a profit? depends on the business. Most fail in the first year. But turning a profit is a simple matter of Revenue - Overhead.

- What were the biggest challenges you faced? depends on the business. Really thats all I can say. Its not at all easy in the beginning. Its one road block after another its a true test of sheer will and perseverance.


- Are you happy with your decision? depends on the business. I guess that would depend on if you are making a profit or not! Lets face it most people consider starting a company for 2 reasons 1) do something they love 2) become financially independent

 

[Kaido]

I started a publishing company recently. We are just at the beginning of it, so I can't speak as to the success of it yet. But here's a few lessons learned:

1. Don't quit your day job. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Don't burn any bridges. You are taking a risk on starting a new business, and even if you're really, really excited about it, it may not take off. If you have no contingency plan for failure, then there can be some serious consequences such as bankruptcy, getting sued, and so on. Likewise, don't quit your job just because your business is successful. A few months later you may be back, begging for a job. My advice is simply, don't be stupid about it. Plan for success, but assume failure - that way if you're successful, then great, but if you fail, it's not the end of the world.

2. If you're working with other people (i.e. it's not just you), make specific plans. Create a company notebook or wiki or something for everyone to reference, and have specific, step-by-step instructions for how to deal with finances, how to deal with technology (logins, etc.), how and who pays bills, etc. If it needs to happen, make a plan and an assignment for it so that you're not constantly behind on bills, your website, setting up your email system, etc.

3. You have to birddog things. Since it's your company, you have to keep pushing until you get what you want. You care about your company, but other people don't. If you want it to happen, you have to keep pursuing things until they DO happen, not just quit when someone tells you "no".

4. Have a business and marketing plan. Take some business and marketing classes, and a financial class or two (or just hire a CPA if you can afford to). Learn how business works and how marketing works. No one will know about your product if you don't do marketing.

5. Get really organized. REALLY organized. You need to be able to find anything at a moment's notice. I recommend adopting David Allen's "Getting Things Done" system. Ignore the bloggers who constantly blog about it instead of doing it - his stock system is good, just read the book or get the audiobook, setup the system, and start doing it. He has the best approach to organization I've ever come across.

 

[Genx87]

- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright?
Filed appropriate papers with the state. I moonlight. Still work a day job.

- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it?
Didnt need it, one man consulting firm.

- How long did it take to start making a profit?
immediately, no overhead.


- What were the biggest challenges you faced?
Finding people to work for.

- Are you happy with your decision?
Yes, but would like it if I motivated myself more to get more clients.

 

[ViviTheMage]

wow iceburg, worthless post...

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
wow iceburg, worthless post...

:lips:

 

[KevinCU]

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
wow iceburg, worthless post...

And yet with the vast amount of information in your own post, I feel that you are fully qualified to make that call.

On the topic however, my cousin is starting up a business and I'll let you know how it goes. He doesn't currently have a job (graduated high school in December), got capital from bonds that his grandparents bought for him.

I'll answer the last three questions when they come about.

 

[darkxshade]

- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright?
I offered them protection when working the corners, kept my dayjob

- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it?
Not needed

- How long did it take to start making a profit?
Immediately

- What were the biggest challenges you faced?
Balancing the hookers to blow ratio.

- Are you happy with your decision?
Not as happy as my clients.

 

[Superwormy]

- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright?
Still working my full-time job, getting up early in the morning/weekends to do the consulting job.

- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it?
Didn't need it, it's consulting. Once I did a few jobs, I bought a few dedicated servers. Now they pay for themselves.

- How long did it take to start making a profit?
Immediately.

- What were the biggest challenges you faced?
So much work, so little time. I'm tired, and I work constantly. Clients are often difficult to work with. But it really is a lot of fun, I enjoy the heck out of it.

- Are you happy with your decision?
Heck yes.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: darkxshade
- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright?
I offered them protection when working the corners, kept my dayjob

- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it?
Not needed.

Hookers have to give pimps money to get in their stable. So yes it is needed and it came from the first ho'

 

[acheron]

I dropped out of Harvard and wrote this BASIC compiler with my friend. Later we were able to acquire this program called QDOS from someone else and lucked into a great contract with IBM. It's worked out pretty well so far.

Signed, Bill G.

 

[paulney]

- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright?

My wife started freelancing, and after spending some time in the industry, we felt we could open up our own business. Filed appropriate papers, created a website, set up a business phone line at home, and started advertising.

I am helping out, so I am moonlighting, still working my day job.

- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it?
Not much was needed for initial start. Our overhead costs were pretty low as well.

- How long did it take to start making a profit?
First year was zero (but we opened up the company in October). After two years, we now make more than my salary at the day job.

- What were the biggest challenges you faced?
Having a home office and a small child. Now that she's grown up, and we have an office space to meet clients face to face if needed - it's much easier. Although 80% of our customers are corporate, the rest are individuals, and some times they want face time to decide whether to use our services or not. Some times when they found out we were working from home, they were put off by it, and decided to go with someone else.

Also, although we thought we knew the gotchas in the business, we didn't know all of them. We had to discover some of them by paying a price for our mistakes. Fortunately, we came out relatively unscathed. Being conservative in your estimations helps. Thinking that people will be nice to you if you are nice to them leads to nasty surprises eventually.



- Are you happy with your decision?
Absolutely. The business gives me a break from day job routine, and it's now a primary source of income.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: paulney
- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright?

My wife started freelancing, and after spending some time in the industry, we felt we could open up our own business. Filed appropriate papers, created a website, set up a business phone line at home, and started advertising.

I am helping out, so I am moonlighting, still working my day job.

- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it?
Not much was needed for initial start. Our overhead costs were pretty low as well.

- How long did it take to start making a profit?
First year was zero (but we opened up the company in October). After two years, we now make more than my salary at the day job.

- What were the biggest challenges you faced?
Having a home office and a small child. Now that she's grown up, and we have an office space to meet clients face to face if needed - it's much easier. Although 80% of our customers are corporate, the rest are individuals, and some times they want face time to decide whether to use our services or not. Some times when they found out we were working from home, they were put off by it, and decided to go with someone else.

Also, although we thought we knew the gotchas in the business, we didn't know all of them. We had to discover some of them by paying a price for our mistakes. Fortunately, we came out relatively unscathed. Being conservative in your estimations helps. Thinking that people will be nice to you if you are nice to them leads to nasty surprises eventually.



- Are you happy with your decision?
Absolutely. The business gives me a break from day job routine, and it's now a primary source of income.

Give the OP some perspective and tell him what the business is.

 

[paulney]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Give the OP some perspective and tell him what the business is.

It's a translation and interpreting agency.

 

[scorp00]

- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright?
moonlight, I wish I could quit
- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it?
day job
- How long did it take to start making a profit?
just started this year, don't have a product yet
- What were the biggest challenges you faced?
finding qualified people to work with who will work for a cut of future profits
- Are you happy with your decision?
yes

I'm trying to make iphone apps/games. I could easily do an app but I don't have any great ideas or motivation for an app. A game would take months so I would like help to get it out faster and to build something bigger and better than I could do alone. A lot of friends are interested, but none want a 2nd programming job or they don't have time. I'm stuck between doing it myself or trying to find someone I don't know to work with.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: scorp00
- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright?
moonlight, I wish I could quit
- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it?
day job
- How long did it take to start making a profit?
just started this year, don't have a product yet
- What were the biggest challenges you faced?
finding qualified people to work with who will work for a cut of future profits
- Are you happy with your decision?
yes

I'm trying to make iphone apps/games. I could easily do an app but I don't have any great ideas or motivation for an app. A game would take months so I would like help to get it out faster and to build something bigger and better than I could do alone. A lot of friends are interested, but none want a 2nd programming job or they don't have time. I'm stuck between doing it myself or trying to find someone I don't know to work with.

no offense thats not a business. You don't have a product. A business model not even a business plan. I mean......i'm just saying.

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: scorp00
- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright?
moonlight, I wish I could quit
- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it?
day job
- How long did it take to start making a profit?
just started this year, don't have a product yet
- What were the biggest challenges you faced?
finding qualified people to work with who will work for a cut of future profits
- Are you happy with your decision?
yes

I'm trying to make iphone apps/games. I could easily do an app but I don't have any great ideas or motivation for an app. A game would take months so I would like help to get it out faster and to build something bigger and better than I could do alone. A lot of friends are interested, but none want a 2nd programming job or they don't have time. I'm stuck between doing it myself or trying to find someone I don't know to work with.

no offense thats not a business. You don't have a product. A business model not even a business plan. I mean......i'm just ignorant.

fixed.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: jjsole

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: scorp00
- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright?
moonlight, I wish I could quit
- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it?
day job
- How long did it take to start making a profit?
just started this year, don't have a product yet
- What were the biggest challenges you faced?
finding qualified people to work with who will work for a cut of future profits
- Are you happy with your decision?
yes

I'm trying to make iphone apps/games. I could easily do an app but I don't have any great ideas or motivation for an app. A game would take months so I would like help to get it out faster and to build something bigger and better than I could do alone. A lot of friends are interested, but none want a 2nd programming job or they don't have time. I'm stuck between doing it myself or trying to find someone I don't know to work with.

no offense thats not a business. You don't have a product. A business model not even a business plan. I mean......i'm just ignorant.

fixed.

oh? how?

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: jjsole

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: scorp00
- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright?
moonlight, I wish I could quit
- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it?
day job
- How long did it take to start making a profit?
just started this year, don't have a product yet
- What were the biggest challenges you faced?
finding qualified people to work with who will work for a cut of future profits
- Are you happy with your decision?
yes

I'm trying to make iphone apps/games. I could easily do an app but I don't have any great ideas or motivation for an app. A game would take months so I would like help to get it out faster and to build something bigger and better than I could do alone. A lot of friends are interested, but none want a 2nd programming job or they don't have time. I'm stuck between doing it myself or trying to find someone I don't know to work with.

no offense thats not a business. You don't have a product. A business model not even a business plan. I mean......i'm just ignorant.

fixed.

oh? how?

His business plan is to make iphone apps, which he's trying to do. That is a business if he chooses to run it as one. Neither the model nor business plan have to be on letterhead to qualify as a business, lol.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: jjsole

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: jjsole

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: scorp00
- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright?
moonlight, I wish I could quit
- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it?
day job
- How long did it take to start making a profit?
just started this year, don't have a product yet
- What were the biggest challenges you faced?
finding qualified people to work with who will work for a cut of future profits
- Are you happy with your decision?
yes

I'm trying to make iphone apps/games. I could easily do an app but I don't have any great ideas or motivation for an app. A game would take months so I would like help to get it out faster and to build something bigger and better than I could do alone. A lot of friends are interested, but none want a 2nd programming job or they don't have time. I'm stuck between doing it myself or trying to find someone I don't know to work with.

no offense thats not a business. You don't have a product. A business model not even a business plan. I mean......i'm just ignorant.

fixed.

oh? how?

His business plan is to make iphone apps, which he's trying to do. That is a business if he chooses to run it as one. Neither the model nor business plan have to be on letterhead to qualify as a business, lol.

ok I'm in business too. manufacturing. I haven't actually made anything. In fact I haven't decided what I am making. I have no factory or machines or workers. But shit its a business I tell ya and I'm gonna get started as soon as someone tells me what to do lol.

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: jjsole

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: jjsole

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: scorp00
- How did you do it? Did you moonlight, or quit outright?
moonlight, I wish I could quit
- Where did you get capital, or did you not need it?
day job
- How long did it take to start making a profit?
just started this year, don't have a product yet
- What were the biggest challenges you faced?
finding qualified people to work with who will work for a cut of future profits
- Are you happy with your decision?
yes

I'm trying to make iphone apps/games. I could easily do an app but I don't have any great ideas or motivation for an app. A game would take months so I would like help to get it out faster and to build something bigger and better than I could do alone. A lot of friends are interested, but none want a 2nd programming job or they don't have time. I'm stuck between doing it myself or trying to find someone I don't know to work with.

no offense thats not a business. You don't have a product. A business model not even a business plan. I mean......i'm just ignorant.

fixed.

oh? how?

His business plan is to make iphone apps, which he's trying to do. That is a business if he chooses to run it as one. Neither the model nor business plan have to be on letterhead to qualify as a business, lol.

ok I'm in business too. manufacturing. I haven't actually made anything. In fact I haven't decided what I am making. I have no factory or machines or workers. But shit its a business I tell ya and I'm gonna get started as soon as someone tells me what to do lol.

Profits aren't necessary to be considered a business either. In fact, if he documents all of his expenses, perhaps opens up a checking account for sole use for this business, and perhaps gives the business a name (even if he doesn't register it with the state), he can fill out a schedule C on his next tax return and write off the expenses. He doesn't even have to turn a dime in sales or profits (altho the irs will get suspect if he never does.)

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: jjsole


Profits aren't necessary to be considered a business either. In fact, if he documents all of his expenses, perhaps opens up a checking account for sole use for this business, and perhaps gives the business a name (even if he doesn't register it with the state), he can fill out a schedule C on his next tax return and write off the expenses. He doesn't even have to turn a dime in sales or profits (altho the irs will get suspect if he never does.)

you can call dogshit a ribe eye steak but its still dogshit.

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: jjsole


Profits aren't necessary to be considered a business either. In fact, if he documents all of his expenses, perhaps opens up a checking account for sole use for this business, and perhaps gives the business a name (even if he doesn't register it with the state), he can fill out a schedule C on his next tax return and write off the expenses. He doesn't even have to turn a dime in sales or profits (altho the irs will get suspect if he never does.)

you can call dogshit a ribe eye steak but its still dogshit.

You can call dogshit anything you want, if you don't have any friends to talk to instead I guess. 😉

And if you don't think making software is a business, mine must not stand a chance in your eyes. I've had it for the past 10 years, my sole source of income, yet never did a business plan, never had made a business model, and for that matter, never produced anything. I never even had a single client. Go figure.

 

[vshah]

i'm also thinking about starting something this summer. i have a really good product in mind, and i have all the skills necessary to make a prototype on my own. i'll see where it goes from there

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: jjsole

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: jjsole


Profits aren't necessary to be considered a business either. In fact, if he documents all of his expenses, perhaps opens up a checking account for sole use for this business, and perhaps gives the business a name (even if he doesn't register it with the state), he can fill out a schedule C on his next tax return and write off the expenses. He doesn't even have to turn a dime in sales or profits (altho the irs will get suspect if he never does.)

you can call dogshit a ribe eye steak but its still dogshit.

You can call dogshit anything you want, if you don't have any friends to talk to instead I guess. 😉

And if you don't think making software is a business, mine must not stand a chance in your eyes. I've had it for the past 10 years, my sole source of income, yet never did a business plan, never had made a business model, and for that matter, never produced anything. I never even had a single client. Go figure.

really you generate income without selling .......this is amazing! Software company is a legit business. He isn't in business. He still in the 'wants to' stage.