how hard is it to start a business?

[josephus]

just wondering for all those that have tried, how hard is it to start a business and have it be moderately successful?

[Rhox]

It depends.

[matthew]

It depends on the location, the type of business, the government, how much capital you have and other factors.

What are you considering?

(My business: http://derbyandwehttam.com )

[josephus]

it's more of general question rather than specific to myself. i'm just starting to read a book on poverty in africa, and looking at unemployment numbers and am wondering how hard it is to create jobs, which i assume requires people to create new businesses.

[freebeer]

Creation of new businesses certainly is a catalyst to improving the economy, reducing unemployment, etc. However, for a business to succeed, even moderately, it needs a market. If all the people have no money, or means to pay the business...

It's my opinion that the greatest source of poverty in Africa is due to corrupt governments and government officials.

[matthew]

Ah, okay.

The thing that is needed in most of these areas is capital with which to start out. Micro loans can help, but really, more is better.

What prevents the money from flowing are things like political instability, corruption, lack of infrastructure, and lack of education in the potential workforce.

[Tundro Walker]

Case in point...

Ethiopia

We see tons of commercials about starving kids and families. Commercials we don't see are...

1) ones that show the war-mongers spreading fear and killing people in the country, to sub-divide it into territories for themselves

2) them high-jacking goodwill aid for their own use, so it never gets to the intended people

If the people were given a choice, I'm sure they'd want to work, have a better income, etc. But, it's all taken away from them by armed militarists. So, starting a business in a country like that wouldn't help anything...well, except help you get sacked and put money in the pockets of the militarist thugs.

Another case in point...

Nigeria

In Nigeria, there is a stable political system, but it is very well corrupt. If you start a business there, you'll find yourself harassed by local officers who want to skim off your profits to "protect" you, much like U.S. mafia. If you don't have political ties, you'll have a hard time.

Things aren't always so cut-n-dry, or moving towards the clean Star Trek future everyone hopes for.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, to answer you original question about how hard is it to start a business. In the United States, it's not hard at all. You simply tell folks you'll provide a service or sell them a product. They give you money for your service / product. At the end of the year, instead of having a W-2 form showing how much you made, you just write down how much you made and report it to the government. You were working for yourself, so you didn't have any taxes removed from your income. So, you use the little charts on the tax forms to see where your income falls, calculate how much you owe in taxes, and pay them that amount. It's that simple. You don't HAVE to have a business name or be "incorporated" or all that BS. In the United States, it's as easy as "putting out a shingle with your name on it...open for business!".

If you wanted to have a business name, you'd have to call up the local government offices and ask how to get a DBA...Doing Business As...name. Once you've registered a DBA, which usually costs $50-100 for a year or so, you can use it to open bank accounts and things. This lets you separate your business income from your personal income.

Now, how do I know this? Because my sister and I started a business years ago, which later went solely under her name. Some practical advice from the experience would be...friends and family sometimes don't make the best business partners.

[Micheal Thomas]

That's a nice and interesting post.
I feel like if you are starting a new setup to work from home I feel you need good guidance and proper advice from some experts. So its better you take all the tips, read some business guides etc.
There are many business setups like car broker, mechanic, wedding planner etc...choose the best one and work on it

[Noblacktie]

Starting a business is easy.

Keeping it running is the hard part.

[stopie]

If you provide the goods and services people will want, and if you remain competative with subsitutes, then you will, in theory, be profitable. As everyone has stated above, actually starting the business is easy: idea of good/service not met, or that you could do better for smaller cost --> plan out business --> get loan or use own $$ --> begin!

If your looking at Africa, this may be a good idea, as you could produce goods for cheap labor that would still be a tremendous cash flow for your employed, as US standards on what is alot of money is very different than the standards of many african countries. You would want to see how much you would have to pay for customs and shipping and all of that crap involved with getting your good/service to the market, and actual production costs and costs of capital would be realtivly small, wich is a plus.

However, if you run into said tyrant government, you may also have the cost of giving $$ to stay on their good side - having no knowledge on the true reality, this is purley from my imagination, but it could be true.

For me, I would find some service that I could run over the interwebs vast pipes and tubes, as servers can reside in your place of residence and are cheap compared to the cost of a warehouse. With the removal of such physical capital, the revenue is straight to you, and you could then donate to african charities. But thats me...I dont like to travel a whole lot.

[billgoldberg]

Make sure you can do your own accounting.

Create a business plan, take it with you when you apply for a loan from the bank.

Get the legal documents, and you're set up.

[WitchCraft]

How hard it is to start a business?

Well, if you have some money, then it is not hard to start one.
But successfully staying in business is VERY hard.

The problem is not only that you need a successful idea & implementation, there's a lot of fraud going on, non payment of bills, insolvent customers, legal actions from your competitors, suppliers that deliberately deliver other quality than what they showed you in their PR example...




At the end of the year, instead of having a W-2 form showing how much you made, you just write down how much you made and report it to the government. You were working for yourself, so you didn't have any taxes removed from your income. So, you use the little charts on the tax forms to see where your income falls, calculate how much you owe in taxes, and pay them that amount. It's that simple. You don't HAVE to have a business name or be "incorporated" or all that BS. In the United States, it's as easy as "putting out a shingle with your name on it...open for business!".


Be careful. Unless your supposed business is really high risk, I mean that you need limited liability, you most likely won't like to have anything official in the first days/years. First, you'll need to fill out papers, etc., conform to accounting standars etc. so you're better of just working in your pocket and declare yourself unemployed, with the added bonus of letting your private savings disappear in cash and transfer them bit by bit to a cayman islands offshore holding.

Also just selling products is not that simple.
First, because you're liable to provide warranty for your products/services...
You need to really take care regarding this particular aspect, especially if you don't use a limited liability corporation.



If you wanted to have a business name, you'd have to call up the local government offices and ask how to get a DBA...Doing Business As...name. Once you've registered a DBA, which usually costs $50-100 for a year or so, you can use it to open bank accounts and things. This lets you separate your business income from your personal income.
Don't register anything unless you need to.
If you sell technical products, you also need to take care of patent and intellectual property rights, or you'll quite soon end up having to pay for your own inventions (if they are successful)...


Also you need to take into account, that being self-employed you need to take care of pension, health-care etc. yourself... Where I come from, they don't pay you unemployment benefits. You need to privately insure yourself.




Things aren't always so cut-n-dry, or moving towards the clean Star Trek future everyone hopes for.

Yep, I call star trek an utopia. Babylon5, even though still quite overoptimistic in my opinion, is probably more realistic.

[Mittkontakt]

It dos not have to be very hard at all. Traditionally people think i.e that you should know a lot about accounting and that big risk taking and alot of money is needed. Today its much more about having a passion and finding concepts and tools you can use even if you are on a budget.

[Sporkman]

There has to be a political mechanism in place that enables:

- A stable currency,
- Fair & impartial enforcement of property rights and contracts,
- A functioning infrastructure

[Detonate]

I have started two small businesses. One went broke. The other does OK but is very limited in scope. No capital investment, no employees, no retail sales. Strictly service. Very easy to start one like that.

If you are really interested in starting a business in the US, contact the closest chapter of S.C.O.R.E (Service Corps of Retired Executives). This is a non-profit organization that provides expert advice and guidance in setting up a new business. They are especially helpful in dealing with the SBA. (Small Business Administration) and obtaining financing. Yes, there is money available to finance small business start-ups. If you have a viable business plan, you can do it. Go for it.

[eriktheblu]

A business is as easy or hard as you want it to be.

For me, I moved out of a house that I own, hired a property manager, and now I'm a landlord. The manager takes 10% of the rent, and takes care of the expenses from the rest. Every month I get a check and any receipts. I report the gains and expenses (including mortgage, insurance, and property taxes) on my annual tax return.

[samalex]

This thread was started over 3 years ago, so hopefully the OP found some success in his business :)

But to put in my two cents, I think the keys are:
- Don't assume success -- don't quit your day job
- Start small and grow as business demands it -- don't rent a 2000 sqft office if it's just you and one other employee
- Good business model
- Know your local laws and tax codes
- Make business alliances to trade services which helps keep costs down

Sam

[s0rc3r3r]

Starting a business is easy..
If you have a real good idea with realistic business projection and figures you will get
investors.Have a diplomatic attitude and keep a cool head.
Have the knowledge of.simple mathematical skill, common sense..(lots of it) and guts.

Have a vision, have short term goals and expansion plans.Work on it.Wake up everyday with enthusiasm.
Believe that things will work out even with all the negativity around!

Plan finances using common sense.[this is where commonsense is used mostly]

Trust me.running business is not hard if you really know what you are doing.

Ps: Implement LINUX on your IT infrastructure to reduce lots of cost and save lots of time.

[Cuddles McKitten]

Even under relatively favorable conditions (such as starting a company in a reasonably non-corrupt country with few(er) regulations) 95-85% of businesses go bust in their first year.

[macem29]

duplicate post

[lukeiamyourfather]

just wondering for all those that have tried, how hard is it to start a business and have it be moderately successful?

How much do you like sleep? #-o

[macem29]

just wondering for all those that have tried, how hard is it to start a business and have it be moderately successful?

timely question for me as I've just completed the startup phase, begin operations in a few days....

market analysis is everything...proving a place for yourself in it, process analysis to truly understand
costs, analysis of of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats...all these things get fleshed
out in a properly prepared business plan....a time consuming endeavor, took me 3 weeks to generate it,
tons of research...but even if you don't need to run somewhere with the plan to get money, anybody
thinking seriously of self employment should do it, prove to yourself that your concept is sustainable in the
marketplace in a profitable way and still give you sufficient personal income, many people going through
the business plan exercise discover that they cannot make money at it, discovering that up font is better
than risking everything and failing

[Lisimelis]

Small business in Greece are totally and utterly condemned from the start....Don't do it!! I would gladly do it in the Netherlands though!

[Sporkman]

Small business in Greece are totally and utterly condemned from the start....Don't do it!!

Why's that? There seems to be a lot of small businesses there...