Business owners.

[PINski1015]

Want to start one in about 5 years (once I'm out of school) and was wondering if there was one piece of advise or one little thing you've learned while running a business that you could give to someone who wants to start their own what would it be?

 

[Bunnykid68]

Follow all the governments rules to the letter.

 

[cburnworth]

Find someone in the same business & if possible talk to them. Save your money before hand. pay cash for everything, no leasing unless it is a must have item. don't buy it unless you need it. if you need to make large purchases for the business/clients make sure you can get a credit card with low rates & no penalties for early payoff. Then as soon as client cuts you the check mail in payment to card. find a good accountant ahead of time & discuss tax information.

 

[RoyalTenenbaum]

Work for someone else in your intended business, learn from their mistakes. Sign no non compete agreements. Pick a business such as consulting which requires little startup cost.

 

[Mad Macs]

Keep your overhead LOW. LEARN how to run a business before going into business. I went into computer consulting 7 years ago and thought it would be easy. I would say I spend 20-30 hours doing billable consulting each week and the same amount of time doing "business" stuff like paying bills, giving money to "The Man", returning phonecalls, learning new technology, etc.bill

 

[irishhunter]

Underpromise and overpreform

 

[Naptown]

Work for someone else in your intended business...

This alone, is some of the best advice. You should know after a short time if this is something you want to do (and manage the stress) for the rest of you life.

 

[noname1]

Remember that if you borrow money to build you business, the money you use to repay the loan is taxed. If you pay $60K per year on your bank note and that is the only "profit" you have from the business, you will still be responsible for paying around $20K in taxes with the "profit" that you don't really have. Gotta love phantom income!

Also, make sure you have enough capital to get by until you turn a profit. There will likely be some very dark days between opening and making a real profit.

 

[jgreiner]

Want to start one in about 5 years (once I'm out of school) and was wondering if there was one piece of advise or one little thing you've learned while running a business that you could give to someone who wants to start their own what would it be?

don't start one in IL, NY, CA, or any other state that runs HUGE budget deficits. Small businesses are who will end up paying the brunt of the tax bill.

 

[88GT]

Don't start one nobody wants to use.

All the advice in the world is worthless for a business that isn't going to have customers.

Remember that no matter how good the advice might seem, it's only as good as your reality. So "never pay with credit cards" sounds nice, but isn't always the best. (Although "only buy what you need" is sound regardless.) People have their own standards and priorities and they may not be yours. Don't ever substitute someone else's business advice for your own authority. Not that you don't solicit advice from from successful people. Just don't assume they always know better than you.

Listen to your gut, but don't make decisions irrationally. And avoid making decisions in the heat of the issue. Things are rarely the emergencies we think they are at the time, and most situations will benefit from some time to cool down or think things over.

Don't forget to make time for the things in life that really matter. Family shouldn't have to wait until your retirement to find out you like something.

Starting a business just for the sake of starting a business is a losing proposition. If you don't already have an idea, you might want to re-think your plans. Not saying this is the case.

 

[Kaiser]

Work for someone else in your intended business, learn from their mistakes. Sign no non compete agreements. Pick a business such as consulting which requires little startup cost.

great advise I would also add find a way to do it with out any employees

 

[Wesley Willis]

Keep it simple, avoid the "want" to grow bigger. I have my own business, and after almost 14 years, I am almost right back where I started (which is a good thing). Started by myself, got married and got cheap labor with the marriage (my wife), then hired another guy, then someone else..... Then I realized I hired myself out of my own job, and created myself a crappy office job which sucked. Scaled back over the past few years, now it's just me and my wife again. It was like a breathe of fresh air, I actually enjoy my business again.

 

[.40caltrucker]

Find someone in the same business & if possible talk to them. Save your money before hand. pay cash for everything, no leasing unless it is a must have item. don't buy it unless you need it. if you need to make large purchases for the business/clients make sure you can get a credit card with low rates & no penalties for early payoff. Then as soon as client cuts you the check mail in payment to card. find a good accountant ahead of time & discuss tax information.

Absolute number 1 priority pay cash for everything. If the business fails you wont be stuck with thousands of $$$ in loans to repay. You can get through rough spots a lot easier if you don't have payments on everything and you wont stress out nearly as bad trying to make those payments.

If you want to hear how horrible the outcomes are of borrowing money to start a business just listen to a few hours of Dave Dave Ramsey Homepage - daveramsey.com

 

[shooter1054]

+1 for no employees. If you need help, pay subcontract labor. When you pay employees, you are responsible for a lot of extra tax(social security, medicare) as well as insurance(workmans comp, unemployment, etc). When you pay subcontract, the worker is responsible for all of that.

 

[DaveL]

maximize your strengths and hire for your weaknesses

Minimize inventory, employees and rent

 

[Relentless]

Very important: don't confuse efforts with results.

 

[lowriderjim]

1. When you start a business you, at best, you are only buying yourself a job.

2. Just because there is money in the till it does not mean that it is your money to spend.

3. Always pay your taxes on time. You very seldom are able to catch up.

4. Watch receivables. You pay bills with cash not profit.

5. As others have said, make sure you understand the total expense.

6. Don't take a partner. Although both partners may want for the business to do well they may want to do it in different ways which can cause problems.

 

[NDhunter]

Don't think it will be easier.

Self-employment has a lot of benefits. It also can be tremendously difficult and draining.

Be prepared to work twice as hard for half the rewards for a while. A lot of first generation millionaires had it all on the line at some point. With high rewards comes high risk.