work help: Business - Help.com

the choices are very limited. but among those, i’d say fastfood franchise.

reasons:
since it is a FRANCHISE already, there’s minimum problem in setting it up. and i’m assuming the brand is established already. it’s just a matter of putting up capital and over-all management. also food is more or less recession-proof (esp. compared with fashion/clothing).

oh ok. well, i’m thinking education. putting up a school, specifically a pre-school. this choice is based on factors unique to our country. like, seemingly nonstop population lolz.

looking back at your original post, a grocery wouldn’t be too bad either. as long as it’s located primarily in provinces. the big players here eat up the small businesses. and this is especially true for groceries.

i’d like to go into tech products/services too, but computer stuff is beyond my comprehension lolz!

how about you? what type of business are you interested in?

Coolbrav wrote:
Vivzofwale, I really like your school idea! Personally, I was thinking possibly a book store or maybe a video gaming store or maybe both fused, lol! The only problem is the initial costs of starting up a business, especially something like a school (which also has to have a good reputation if you’re in a developed country!)

that’s very true lolz. that’s why i said the school idea is so well-suited in our country. schools with great reputations are beyond expensive. so just putting up an ‘average’ school will really attract those who are economically challenged.

makelove wrote:
I would choose something that I am VERY ENTHUSIASTIC about.

IMHO: If you don’t want to do this work for 18 hours a day, then you will not succeed.

my opinion differs from yours. i think the business process is more holistic than that. it’s not the product or the service you are required to be passionate about (although it greatly helps), but the process of doing business. the daily work of dealing with customers and employees and suppliers. the degree of autonomy you have. the flexible time. the big decisions. the best example i might give is our family business. my mum started a machine manufacturing and fabricating business 20 years ago (still existing and successful up until now). she has no engineering background or whatsoever. up until now she’s not interested in gears and rollers and all those greasy technical things. but she LOVES the process of running a business. her personal control over her own time. the feeling that people depend on her etc. :)

Coolbrav wrote:
Yeah I know, I’m wasn’t planning to open up a book store or anything. I’m just looking to conjure up a dream that I can fully back (with a 100% commitment). So, I’m open to ideas!

There are several other potential businesses that I have thought like:
a toy store, a restaurant, etc, but I haven’t been able to get really excited about these! I’m looking for some really innovative idea, just haven’t found it or thought of it yet! ;D

just keep looking for that innovative idea! :) go out and meet people to get inspired. :) honestly, i don’t think we should start looking (just yet, i mean, for your first business) for that NEW GREAT thing, you know? the BREAKTHROUGH that all of us entrepreneur wannabes want to achieve. sometimes, it takes an old product/service that is already there but you improve a lot. just keep observing people’s daily lives, what their problems are. and try to come up with solutions for those problems.

best of luck and just keep trying! :)

makelove wrote:

vivzofwale wrote:

makelove wrote:
I would choose something that I am VERY ENTHUSIASTIC about.

IMHO: If you don’t want to do this work for 18 hours a day, then you will not succeed.

my opinion differs from yours. i think the business process is more holistic than that. it’s not the product or the service you are required to be passionate about (although it greatly helps), but the process of doing business. the daily work of dealing with customers and employees and suppliers. the degree of autonomy you have. the flexible time. the big decisions. the best example i might give is our family business. my mum started a machine manufacturing and fabricating business 20 years ago (still existing and successful up until now). she has no engineering background or whatsoever. up until now she’s not interested in gears and rollers and all those greasy technical things. but she LOVES the process of running a business. her personal control over her own time. the feeling that people depend on her etc. :)

good point — and/but I expect that she then doesn’t manage every aspect of the entire business by herself?

she doesn’t. the company employs over 50 people so she has to delegate naturally. :)

Coolbrav wrote:
Vivzofwale, I agree with you somewhat! I think one of the great attractions and motivations of going into business is being one’s own boss and having the autonomy that you’ve referred to!

But, in my opinion you have to combine with a passion to be really successful (sure you might be successful, enough to comfortably earn a decent living if you only want to run a business no matter what it is but to that extra bit successful I think the passion needs to be present as well)

i agree completely. the passion and the aspiration to succeed should be a strong driving force for any entrepreneur. :)

Coolbrav wrote:
50 people? Wow, that’s quite an achievement if she started the business up from scratch!!

it is. :) it took a really long time though lolz.

i guess that’s the point i was trying to make. starting up a business can have several intentions. hmmmm, actually intention is not the correct word but i can’t think of the appropriate one (sorry, english is only my second language). i mean, you can put up a business based on your existing RESOURCES.

resource: vast land may result to farming or a resort
location: near the airport -> small hotel
contacts: you have family at another country, you can put up a job placement agency abroad

or you can put up a business based on your PASSION as makelove is saying. if you like fashion then go into fashion design/retail.

another is putting up a business based on MARKET NEED (as my mum did). what’s not present at this time? is there a very specific niche that is not yet being served? which industry has a very minimum number of competitors?

sorry i think i got carried away lolz. :) but there you go. and you’re still in college? :) it’s great that you’re already thinking of business!

Coolbrav wrote:

vivzofwale wrote:
sorry i think i got carried away lolz. :) but there you go. and you’re still in college? :) it’s great that you’re already thinking of business!

No worries, I think you’ve helped quite a bit! I like hearing about other people’s experiences because in the end that all you really start off with, other people’s experiences, until you actually go through the process yourself!

As for the English being a second language … doesn’t seem like it (your English seems perfectly good to me!)

still takes a while for me to write (or speak) in english to produce such ‘perfect’ results lol.

wow, you moved around a lot. :)

Coolbrav wrote:

vivzofwale wrote:
still takes a while for me to write (or speak) in english to produce such ‘perfect’ results lol.

wow, you moved around a lot. :)

Well, all I can say is good job on the English! And yeah I have moved around a bit but the circumstances were as such, what can anyone do?

If I maybe so bold, can I ask, how long it took your Mom to expand her company to what it is today?

i see. i just can’t imagine moving even from one CITY to another lol. i’ve been in one place (house!) all my life.

well hmmmmm. it’s a never-ending process. started the business in 1986 which makes it 23 years old (same as my age!). i think expansion in terms of Property, Plants and Equipments… the last initiative was maybe 5 years ago. then it’s just a matter of capacity planning and readjustment. so safe to say, maybe it took her around 18 years to get to what it is today (with a lot of help too, of course). it’s really very much a survival story. there were bad times definitely, but my mum decided to not close down. and true enough, things get better. as of the current, we’re somewhat in a steady line (not expanding nor getting better). the recession as you may expect plays a huge part.

do you have a family business as well? :)

If I were to set up a business, I would sell a service rather than a product. Instead of selling computers, I would set up a service where I built computers to a specification stated by the customer. This is just an example, not an idea I would actually consider as there are already many of these around.

Another option would probably be to set up a recruitment agency specialising in engineering. Engineers are in high demand at the moment. I’m not sure how successful this business would be, though.

forgive me for being an ignoramus, but what exactly do you mean by making a business out of “building business relationships” makelove? i mean, not to go into specifics or ‘trade secrets’ as you said. maybe just a general gist if that’s ok..

makelove wrote:

And finding business partners is only a first step — and of course persons who understand entrepreneurship and the legal and cultural structures of different countries can provide a lot of help, too.

Does that help? — make more sense?

this made sense. i mean, i understood everything else you said. but i’m wondering HOW it could become a business. so finding business partners is your first step (like almost all other businesses). but what’s your product/service exactly? who are your customers?

i get that bit about what the internet is etc. i guess i asked because ‘building business relationships’ is such a general term i thought it could be interchangeable with a simple B2B transaction/relationship. :)

just tell me if you don’t like to answer because you deem it too specific ok? as you said you don’t want to give away ‘trade secrets’…

oh ok.

so it’s an advertising company using online media? (forgetting just for the moment the distinction bet. advertising and content)

if you can summarize the business you had in mind like this:

“Vivzofwale Inc. is a one-stop source for the development of the ABC system. Vivz provide software tools and skilled training for all your engineering needs. Vivz provide these tailor-fit solutions to utility companies of all sizes”

how can you summarize it? :)

i said ‘forgetting it for the moment’ just to make that sentence acceptable for the discussion. so i can easily say ‘it’s an advertising company using online media’ instead of ‘it’s an advertising company using online media but remember that the distinction between advertising and content is rapidly vanishing’. meaning, i only did it for the purposes of easy discussion. since i was asking you a simple question and i get a lot of concept explanations. it’s like i’m going back to school. :)

to emphasize that last sentence, you can’t seem to describe the supposed business in a simple and direct sense. what is the GOAL of the business. what is its SERVICE/PRODUCT. and who are its CUSTOMERS (as in the sample summary i made above). because, as i said, ‘building business relationships’ is very general. as far as i know, if any entrepreneur (aspiring or existing) can’t describe his business in a sentence or two.. well, he’s in big trouble.

but anyway, alright nevermind. you can explain language and how it works all you want. :)

so… correct me if i’m wrong. :)

the product will be mainly a WEBSITE.

the services to the customer (individuals not corporate) are possibly realtime/current information, possibly a community (like a forum or even more), email services, information sharing, a SEARCH ENGINE etc.

the result of that is generation of a lot of traffic.

then you get revenues from companies putting up advertisements.

and the selling point is (to the companies), you are more attuned to the “natural language” of your users which makes easier connection of these users to the clients (through appearing in a relevant manner in the search engine). furthermore, the system will be able to classify based on psychographics, which certain clients target, and from there be able to filter out strategic groups of users.

is that right?

hello again. i’ve been busy, sorry about that. :) anyway, i think what you’re still trying to explain is the conceptual side of it, and not the entrepreneurial. but anyways, it’s ok. :) i think my previous post (the one before your last) pretty much explains the business side, except for details like the one you posted.