What Businesses Have You Created?
So many people today want the get-rich-quick scheme to achieve financial freedom and happiness. I can say that having money will not bring happiness. That comes from something else completely (hint: the answer lies in your Bible). If you talk to a lot of people they will tell you that they’d love to start a business, but most just stop at that point. They are either too scared to do it or just have no idea how to do it.
If you live in the USA starting a business is pretty straightforward. Just find a good idea, write up a business plan, think it through and go for it!
Anyways, I’ve started (or helped start) a few businesses over my 30+ year lifetime and here’s my breakdown on how things went.
- Sari-Sari store - I started a small store in the Philippines selling candy and stuff. I think I made money but the attention of an 8 year old doesn’t last too long when all his friends are out playing.
- 8th Grade Enterprises - Sold some novelty fireworks, stupid toys, and a knife in 8th grade. Bad idea but good money. I suggest you do not go this route.
- Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) - I participated in two mainly. One was with a company called Equinox. Wow. Talk about a mistake. I got out before everything really tanked and recouped most of my money. The next was with Amway before they re-branded themselves Quixtar. Overall it was a really good experience. Did I make any money? Nope. But I did make some good friends, I learned how to network, I learned some self-confidence and persistence, I learned that MLM wasn’t my bag. I enjoyed the overall process of Amway. In fact I still am using the microwave I bought through the program. MLM is something that is very viable and you can be very successful at it. I won’t be talking much about it here but I will say that you need to really do some research and evaluation if you ever decide to jump into this arena. It’s hard work and there are a good number of unscrupulous people and companies out there that just want to build their down line without investing in helping you succeed.
- F1 Network Solutions LLC - An IT service and consulting company that a friend and I started in 1999 or so. Only lasted for a year or so as I had just started working full-time at a new job and my business partner moved out of town. It was definitely an eye opener. I learned how to incorporate the business, forgot to file my taxes (which the IRS helped me out on when I realized my error), took on jobs that were way out of scope (networking DOS systems comes to mind!), and working around a full-time job. We dissolved the company about a year after launching. Were we profitable? Hmm, not really sure. We did a few jobs but never kept good records.
- eBay Auctions - With my parents being in the Philippines I’ve experimented and imported some items from over there to sell on eBay. Mainly Kamagong wood carvings and some small decorative art. I did have some limited success on the venture but not enough to warrant more investment at the time.
- Triple C Technologies, et. al. - Under this umbrella corp we had at one time a distribution company, a software development company, a security company, an e-commerce and retail store. Was in business for almost 5 years. Had a lot of fun. I wasn’t an owner but did have a lot of input on company direction. I learned a ton in this business like how not to do customer support. How to learn to say no to a job that is too much to handle. How to work with a variety of vendors (especially those across the ocean!). How to deal with a variety of employees and all the HR headaches that comes with having multiple employees. I helped take this company from $0 revenue in 2003 to almost $2 million in the 5 years it was opened. It doesn’t sound a lot but it was from our viewpoint (the industry we were in had horrible margins). I’ll probably be blogging more on my experiences here in the future.
- ChumpmonkeyGames.com - My current project. I started this online business in October 2006 to help spread some board game love to others and it has taken off way more than I had ever hoped! I’m not complaining either. I use Shopify for the e-commerce platform and Google Checkout for all my merchant processing. It’s a great solution for a small or just starting out e-commerce business. My 2007 sales were about 180% more than the 2006 so that’s a good start I guess. Based on numbers I’ve seen for 2008 this year is looking even better. More to come here!
- ?? - I have a few ideas that I’m working on business plans for but these businesses will require some decent investment capital to make it a reality. Hopefully in a few years I’ll see some of these come to fruition.
What have you started and how have you succeeded (or not)? Just cause you started a business and it didn’t take off don’t get discouraged. It happens. Just learn from the mistakes and keep on plugging away.
