People are lazy...stop complaining and open your own business

I am a businessman of long experience. I've founded 6 and have world-wide clients from a very small business currently, and want to add to some of these comments.

Yes, it is harder to start a business today- primarily because of the extensive levels of regulation. If you regulate anything enough, absolutely nothing will happen, you will strangle it to death.
If you start a business under such conditions, your chance of success is very poor.

What that means is that when you consider entering a business, check out all the regulations that would apply before you do anything else. Federal, state, local. Check carefully, sometimes there are conflicts between authorities. I've had one situation that required approval from three agencies who all had power to block and who disagreed on principle, and that was a state of paralysis. Where you start your business is just as important as what you do or any other vital factor.

Yes, you can still start a business without money. Much harder than it used to be in part due to regulation, but also due to technology and due to the conditions of law and litigation in America. We have legal ads all over TV, telling people that if they burped after taking some pill or food that they may be victims and entitled to free money. People are afraid to do business with smaller operations, and often demand insurance and legal protections on a scale that few individual start-up can afford. The number of lawyers is a reflection of the state of honor in the nation, and teh conflicts that result from adversary thinking and dishonesty. Japan has 7 lawyers per 100,000 population. France has 33. Britain in much more litigation happy, in second place world-wide with 99. The USA- we're first, with 281. The legal risk of doing business in the USA today is a major consideration. Some kinds of business require substantial infrastructure and up-front expense, and these are often at the highest risk.

These are keys to starting an individual small business that help:

Avoid debt and fixed overhead expenses. Conditions change, good times and hard times. Fixed overhead and debt crushes over weak companies when hard times hit, while those with more flexible financial conditions survive.

Hire as few people as possible, but hire good ones and treat them well.
Do not allow poor ones to stay on your payroll, they are toxic and will quickly destroy the attitude vital to success.

Be honest with people- be responsible for what you say and do, and remember that they owe the same to you.

Understand that you do not want all the business in your field- you only want the good business, and that is one where the both the customer and the seller are happy and you have made money.
Learn to read character. People can say anything, but what they do defines who they are- let what they do become the message you hear. Walk away from those with marginal character or ethics. Let them go to your competitor and make him miserable.

Pick a service or product that is somewhat unique, either in it's purpose or fitness. IF you can provide something others can't, you can compete on the quality and uniqueness of your product, and that means you are not competing primarily on price. If you compete on price alone, remember that the seller who has the lowest price is also the one with the least chance of profit. Compete on Quality, and you will make money.

Remember that profit is not a dirty word- it is the purpose and lifeblood of business. If you want to give it away, start a charity! Do not apologize for making money.

Be reputable, and provide very good and consistent customer service. People will be loyal to that, even when you are more expensive than competition- you become the top choice, and that means you get and keep the best customers. My rule is that any error my business makes will be fixed, promptly and more than fairly, with a smile and an apology for any inconvenience.

There is a great deal to being in business, but it includes a mindset, and a drive to succeed. You can learn the how, but the drive is either there or it isn't. If you don't have a compelling drive to succeed, you would be well advised not to go into business for yourself- it just won't work.

 

There is $100,000 worth of advise in just this one post.

 

My sincere thanks for the compliment, and I hope it helps those contemplating going into business!

I did leave out something I have found to be of great importance, and I would like to add it.

Keeping things simple (KISS formula) is really helpful, and in part that means having a good long-term plan and goals. Consider running a business somewhat like driving a bus- You need a destination and a route (Goal and means to it), but you also need a particular driving skill, and that is to look well down the road so you are prepared for the various conditions that may complicate things. It's very easy for an overloaded businessman to find himself dealing with crisis that he was not prepared for- and while he is dealing with that one, he missed the next one and it doesn't get dealt with early enough either. Some executives say such a person spends all their time putting out brush fires, and that means the long term course or route is not getting attention.

You want to stay ahead of things, and that means watching the future of your business path, seeing issues before they are in your face, and being prepared to avoid or deal with them. If you do this well, what might be a crisis becomes a simple inconvenience. If you don't, small crisis throw you off-game, and that creates more crisis. It's simply a matter of the driver watching the road conditions a 1/4 mile ahead instead of 50 feet.

Long term objective. A plan to get there. Progress goals, checkpoints along the way that are easy to visualize and keep you on track.

Understand that success in business is actually the ability to make the right decisions with the right timing, consistently. If you can do that, you can succeed.

 

Yes, Regulation can be Bad but Prohibition is Always worse.

 

Should we ask the Judicature for better review of legislated public Acts, or ask them to "do it themselves" under the common law?

 

Excellent post, very informative.

One section reminded me of an employee with "a job was her natural born right" bad attitude. She was disruptive and and was not worth keeping. I'll never forget when I overheard her saying she was going to blow this job and get a job with a competitor. I smiled to myself ... well she quit and they hired her. I hear she was fired. Yes, it gets around.

Yes, be very careful who you hire. It's hard enough to run a business without having to deal with attitude problems. If they don't understand that when they accept a job they are agreeing to exchange their time and skill for a specific amount of money ... keep looking, do not hire them, they'll be nothing but trouble. If they understand that you're business must be profitable for you to keep them employed and take a real interest in your company and helping your company grow, not only hire them, pay them very well.

 

"wage slavery" doesn't help with attitude problems.

 

Just keep allowing more illegal immigrants to come here, that will help LOL

Or since you think you know so much start your own business.

 

it isn't my fault that our federal Congress cannot fix that federal problem at the federal borders with the federal powers already delegated. too much of a "hard work ethic"?

i am working on "clearing regulatory hurdles".

 

I am an anarchist, so yes I am as far right as you can get. The fact is that technology will soon make human labor unneeded and the motley beings who are the minimum wage workers of today will be the cannon fodder of tomorrow.

 

just right wing, Orwellian fantasy.

We have a Commerce Clause.

 

Excuses and always blaming it on everyone else.

When you blame others you not only give them too much power over your life... blaming someone else allows you to justify not looking into the mirror to see what you are doing wrong.

 

I agree, republicans keep blaming everyone else, really it's themselves

 

Only appeals to emotion instead of reason, dear Person on the right?

Solving simple poverty and the capital effects of Capitalism's, not Labor's, natural rate of unemployment is promoting the general welfare.