Advice/suggestions For A Business

[Carson 0]

I have always been interested in business, and always wanted to start my own. That is why I took economics in school to get an idea of how things run. I am 17 and have still have a full year of high school to go, and I plan to take business courses in university. But I dont want to wait all those years until i can start my own business, i want to start right away. Since I am only 17, I think the best option for me at this stage is to have some kind of online business. I have just finished creating a website for a company, and got a paid a decent amount of money for it, and I liked doing it. I am also very experienced in macromedia flash, so my idea for a business would sort of be multimedia type services. For example, flash websites, flash ads and banners, logos, mascots and those kind of services. I haven't done much research, but I think the competition in the market i would be targeting is low, and I know that I can compete with equal/higher quality services. So that would be the main services of the business. I have looked into how to set up a website for this type of business, and how to get the services to the customers, and payment methods etc. I have been thinking about setting up a business like this for a while now, nearly for a year, but I have never got around to started. I have never tried to start up a business before, and im not too sure how to go about it. Im sure there are some experienced Xisto members out there who will be able to give me some advice on how to go about setting this up....

[OneMinute 0]

Heh, though i am not experienced nor i have had ever started a business before. I'd be the most willing to wish you a good luck sailing through your career as a businessman, as well as a boss. Hmm, maybe you can approach this community for some help for they seem to be abit tad friendly. (click here) Good luck out there!

Remember to always go for the long term gain, instead of short-term gains. (One day you'd understand this concept =D) Oh ya, you can always subscribe to successful entrepruneur blogs and put them up on your RSS Feed Readers. Reading them once a week helps you way alot, i assure you.

[Carson 0]

Thank you for your support, and especially for those links. They seem very helpful. I have started to read some e-books about online business, and how to start off. I have been making websites for a couple of years, and sometimes it seems like i know more about it than they do(Websites not the business parts). I have subscribed to a few business newsletters, and they usually interesting, and quite helpful for ideas. I have exams soon, so after im done with those I will attempt to actually get this idea off the ground. Thank you for your suggestions.

Edited November 10, 2007 by Carson (see edit history)

[sonesay 7]

Im not sure whats it like over there for you but where I'm from we have a alot of job advertisements for web development area. Theres always jobs on offer but some dont pay much, the ones that do always require more experience and skill so I never event try to get them. They either seem not worth doing or too complex for me to do. What i mean is they want you to work on their sites but they want to pay you less so theres always jobs for this area. If you had your own business doing it you can charge them what you like and wont seem cheated. The way student job services works over there is they list jobs with description and pay rate usally low rates. If you are experience you can ask for more pay.I think to get good business coming in you have to have good promotions or advertising. People want to see examples of your work before they will consider paying you to do it so having an online portolio show off your work. If you want to do well in the web development area you need a good strong portfolio. Being better then the next person will get you the jobs I believe. True there are alot of businesses already doing this type of service but considering how long it takes to design and build these websites I dont think theres enough supply for the demand. I think this is especially true in the area of skill and experience. Lets face it anyone can setup website with a few pages but when it comes to real professional sites theres only a handful who can deliver. If your real good no matter what you do theres always people willing to pay for your services. Keep doing websites / flash if you want to be good pro at it and enjoy building things. you still very young so time is on your side but take it from an old person if you work hard on it now you'll be more skilled and experienced when your older and earning more money.

[anwiii 17]

Im not sure whats it like over there for you but where I'm from we have a alot of job advertisements for web development area. Theres always jobs on offer but some dont pay much, the ones that do always require more experience and skill so I never event try to get them. They either seem not worth doing or too complex for me to do. What i mean is they want you to work on their sites but they want to pay you less so theres always jobs for this area. If you had your own business doing it you can charge them what you like and wont seem cheated.

a little advice to carson and you. be creative in the business arena. sometimes, if you can imagine it, life is like a game and all you're doing is playing a game. you determine what it will take to win that game, and then just go about trying to win the game until you do. be creative. i will give you an example of creativeness. sometimes, to win, you need to have help. hire other people to do a job for you that you may be too busy for or for a job that may be just over your head. you don't need to know anything about webite devolopment to make money in it. get the job, then hire someone to do it for you or help you with it, pay 50-50 or a percentage. sometimes you can find people to do things for you dirt cheap or sometimes free because it's something they enjoy doing and they would rather be doing for nothing than not doing it at all. another suggestion in this area if you wanted to set up a business is go to the schools that offer extensive bebsite design and devolopment classes and recruit from there. hire them as an intern for real life experience. they'll take it while waiting for a real job.

but have fun with it life is hard sometimes but consider it a game and your job is to win this game. make life fun when sometimes it seems impossibile. life isn't so bad or impossible when you are able to change your outlook on it.

if you can do that, you can make whatever your doing at the time fun too and in turn, that much more closer in winning that game of life and more specifically, in the business arena.

carson- website devolopment is not just about having the skills to build websites so continue your communication and people skills. customer service is always on the top of my list when i am seeking help from someone. they don't have to have all the answers at the time, but they do have to be friendly and outgoing and determined to help me. work on your sales and marketing and learn how to be creative in getting business and eventually having them hunt YOU down to create a business/consumer relationship. you took economics? good! interestic eh? it will help you. take business law now and go down to your local courthouse to ask how to set up your business legally so you will be eventually be doing it legaly as a taxpayer.

seems like you have most of the skills required already and you enjoy what you do. good luck to ya bud.....and remember.....be creative

[sonesay 7]

hmm the part about taking on a job you cannot do by yourself and hiring someone else to do is pretty sad. They do tend to ask you when you apply for jobs if you have the experience and skills to do it and also any proof of similar work. I dont think "No i dont have the skilsl but I plan to hire somone who does to do the job and paying them after you take a cut" is gonna go down nice. I mean what do you tell the person hiring you "Yes I can do it" (lie) just to get the job? I have no experience in buisness but I would imagine how this would happen often. The jobs being advertised is probably already been through an agency and that agency is the one hiring you and taking a cut of the original payment for the job. This is what i tend to notice about many jobs being advertisted atm but I guess its in the nature of the business world the agency is providing a service for many clients looking for workers and workers looking for jobs.I dont think I would do well running my own business personnaly but I do want to run my own business one day so it is something I definitely need to learn more about.Edit:Ok lets say you get the job, One of the big problems with the jobs being advertised here for students is they specify a deadline usally its not much to give an example: 2-4 hours per day for 1-2 weeks to complete a website. This may not be a problem if the website is simple but the hours they give you to complete a job is rediculous and the pay is usally not much. These are IT jobs and they are paying labour rates. I dont think getting the job and planning to hire someone else to do it would work in this situation because of the small timeframe given and the low payrate it would be hard to fine someone to do it and accept a low pay. If that person fails then your responsible for the blame.I guess this is the reason why I havent tried getting any of these jobs. I'm just working on getting more experience at home doing this one project it covers database and web development. I'm thinking another 6 months and id have the confidence to take on these jobs myself. I have already done papers on these topics but I need more experence I feel but thats just me. If you are confident you can take on and complete a job then do it.After you get the job you'll have to deal with the person who hired you, they will be expecting alot from you so be prepared to deal with their inquires and request. So having good people skills to deal with them is good. Sometimes theyd be annoying and you will want to tell them "Look $%^& I will get it done stop asking me" . When I get experience / skills and confidence I will charge them what i think is fair and tell them when its going to be finished by. /end rant

Edited November 10, 2007 by sonesay (see edit history)

[Above The Rest 0]

Hopefully I can say this (without anwiii accusing me of being a moron who has no idea what he's talking about):Pricing is very important when it comes to web services. If you charge too much, they'll look elsewhere. If you charge too little, you won't make enough money. You'll probably need to do trial-and-error to figure out the best price range. Looking at other successful company's pricing can help you. Just make sure your quality of work doesn't degrade, that's the one thing that you don't want to happen. If your quality goes down far enough, customer's will leave and tell other customers not go come.

[OneMinute 0]

Not really, you can always ask for someone who is an expert in this particular field to accept you under his apprenticeship. From there, learn from him/her. Then you'll know what to do in future Slowly, you'd adapt. But having a business is an exceptionally tough thing wherein you'll have to be extremely determined. Don't give up halfway, cause i see many doing so

[anwiii 17]

hmm the part about taking on a job you cannot do by yourself and hiring someone else to do is pretty sad. They do tend to ask you when you apply for jobs if you have the experience and skills to do it and also any proof of similar work. I dont think "No i dont have the skilsl but I plan to hire somone who does to do the job and paying them after you take a cut" is gonna go down nice. I mean what do you tell the person hiring you "Yes I can do it" (lie) just to get the job? I have no experience in buisness but I would imagine how this would happen often.

we are talking about business here and working for yourself. it's about demand and being able to supply it. it's like walking in to any retail store. the more people you have working for you, you can meet more of the demands of the comsumer. you don't see the owner running around trying to help everyone. in fact, some investors who purchase businesses don't even know how to run them. this is called smart businesses my friend and being creative and allowing yourself the freedom in knowing you can accomplish anything for your customer even if you have to sub contract or hire a third party.

above the rest. yea, nice concept....but why would i call you a moron for illustrating the common law of supply and demand? now if you would have just made that up just now like your so-called gevernment thread, you'de be hailed a genius by me.

[ViableMarket 0]

Hi Carson, I think your right on track to becoming a successfull entrepenuer(?).

 

Having the right attitude is very important, and your post shows you have the drive and determination to succeed.

 

At 17 you already have a great deal of experience, and it may take you a few more years to gain the business skills that you want to have. But don't sell yourself short, understanding the theory of running a business is of course the first step in actually putting things into practice. Remember this, most all theory has been put into practice already. That is actually a quote from someone I used to work with. Maybe I can explain, whenever your learning something new or trying to practice it, you need to understand that it can take a little time to realise that what you are doing has actually been defined by the theory you have studied ie. "You never forget how to ride a bike". It's just a matter of allowing yourself to link the skill you are using with the "theory notes" in your mind.

 

I also believe in what you are trying to do. You are at the right age to be considering your future path in such a profound way.

I would like to let you know what maybe a fairly obvious truth about anyones future, but many young poeple just don't like to think about it for many reasons. I'll try to make it more interesting for you.

Leverage is a concept that we are not taught in school. Basically it works like this, if you start a business venture and you do all the work yourself, there exists a relationship between the amount of work you can complete in a 24 hr period and the revenue that it generates. That relationship is a 1:1 ratio. As time goes by and your business begins to accumulate wealth, you can then employ more people to help produce more completed work in each 24 hr period, so the ratio of hours worked to revenue gained starts to increase. And that is leverage.

 

Many people never actually take the step of starting their own business and therefore are not able to change their 1:1 leverage ratio. If you look at how much money you need to have saved for the time you spend in retirement you will realise that a leverage ratio of 1:1 will make it very difficult to acheive.

 

So, the thing to do as an entrepenuer is to develop multiple streams of income. You could start with your web development plan, and then add a few others along the way.

 

I personally am planning to open my online consumer store on my new webpage when I get enough credits to launch it.

I also have an international network marketing business that will provide me with residual income for life (income for little effort). It took a long time before I found a product I was really impressed with....you might like to check it out http://www.xangoasia.myvoffice.com/phillipkelly/

I will be happy to help any and all how visit this link to develop a residual income in over 17 countries.

PLEASE NOTE: The Link provided here is not an advertisement, it is a link to my own business website and is intended as a useful and supportive example of the content of this topic and post.

 

I also derive an income from Investment Property Sales here in Australia.

So , I have a few streams of income at the moment.

 

My advice to you and any other readers intrigued by this post is to go ahead and develop multiple streams of income for yourself.

Edited January 18, 2008 by ViableMarket (see edit history)