How does one start a business and make it successful?

How does one start a business and make it successful?

Im just out of highschool and don't want to be a worker bee all my life. I also don't know what industry I should even look at for making my business.

Any advice?

>gif unrelated

Google "how to create a ponzi business "
Profit

Well, look around you and try you to find something thats missing or outdated, then resolve that problem. Focus on creating the best product, then focus on making the best money. Finally, if you want to be rich, prepare to be poor for a while.

same. Give contact information if you want.
I go to /3/ and am basically in the 3D graphics industry but just getting into it

I'm already poor so that's fine.
Also how do I get the resources for the business? Say i do find something and create a great product, what would I do from there?

YouTube xdxdfd

U don't wanna be a worker bee but u wanna start and run a business? Get rdy to work 15 hours a day lawl

Well that's not what i meant by worker bee, sorry if it confused you. I just don't have a better term off the top of my head.

I'd advise most people against starting their own business. I started an engineering firm with a couple college friends in 2010. We made a good go of it and the money was there but it destroyed our personal lives.

Having a nice car, a big house, and a nice portfolio mean nothing when you file for divorce. Being the boss means working those extra hours, putting off that vacation, reinvesting in your business. I dealt with clients when I should have been investing in my home life. I answered emails when I should have been fishing. I torpedoed my 20's chasing money I didn't need.

When we decided to shut it down and find 9-5s our lives got better. Owning a business means working 100+ hours a week so you don't have to work 40.

Your starting resources come from you. You have to fund, tinker, and build up your company, even if your company is just you in your bedroom with a stack of papers. After you get a decent "product" (which could be anything really) then you can create a business plan. That plan will detail what you are doing, how you are going to do it, what it costs to do what you want to do, how much money (if any!) you will sell your product for, and what your break even will be. So be shocked if it takes 3 for 4 years to turn a profit.

In fact, in the 21st century, you may never turn a profit and still be wildly successful.

Then take that plan to a bank or capitalist and try to get funding. There is a lot of legal shit to do with it as well, I could go on, but its Sup Forums dude.

Most community colleges have business classes, and hustling college money isnt too hard if you are poor, not white, or gay. You can just pretend to be poor or gay if you really want the extra money. However at a CC, you should be able to scrape by with a fuck ass job and some basic grants/federal loans. Dont fuck with the private loans unless you have too.

I'm perfectly fine with putting in that much work. I don't have much of a social life to speak of besides talking to a few buddies online.

I'll admit, my dream one day is to create a company that mines asteroids. However i know that at this moment, that is a fools errand. However I am not afraid to put in the work required to get there eventually.

Thanks for the advice, I never thought of it that way, and other people i've asked haven't phrased it in that manner.

Then find a subject matter expert in the field you'll be breaking into. Learn the hurdles and pitfalls of your industry. People like to talk, most like to teach. Get educated before you dive in.

When you have that idea in your head write up a business plan. Look at successes and failures in your field. Learn as much as you can before putting money down on your idea.

Learn how to market yourself. As a business owner you are ultimately selling yourself first and your product second. Find partners who are as crazy as you are. Avoid leveraging yourself too deeply at the start. Taking on a large amount of debt early on will leave you as an indentured servant to your creditors.

Get fucked dude, I'm not working for Mr. Goldberg so he can buy his new yacht.

Don't listen to this faggot op, start a business and make dank money. Invest in real estate and hire someone to manage, someone with experience to do it. You must surround yourself with people smarter than you, but remain on top. If I had a million dollars right now I would build a fucking empire.

How would I get into Real Estate?

I'll be honest, im in the middle of nowhere in Ohio. On top of this, I have no idea how real estate works.

Any tips?

>If

Try making it and we'll talk. And if you're investing in real estate right now you should be very careful. We're in the middle of a seller's market for residential properties. Commercial property is a bit better if you have the capital but the Dow doesn't reflect the continued constriction taking place on Main Street.

I own a couple duplexes right now. Finding renters is easy but property management companies gouge hard and often leave you with major repairs when their 'carefully vetted' renters walk out on their leases.

>middle or ohio

Yeah not gonna cut it

People are never gonna stop getting sick, cars will never stop needing fixed, and people will always need a home. You my friend can be part of the third on going monopoly of modern civilization. This is way down the line, don't bother with real estate unless you create a company and make a decent sum. I wouldn't worry about it right now, besides, if you have a successful company stick with that, it's just if I had the money it would be putting it in to real estate so I could sell my company to a fortune 500 and create a passive income through renting real estate.

See, Carl the cuck that told you not to start your business probably blew his cash like an idiot and didn't invest. Make a successful company, take a decent sum and invest in real estate, places to rent out, all that shit. Start renting a place or multiple places out, hire a landlord to oversee everything, let him take a cut of the rent people pay and you get the rest. That way you create a passive income where every month you just collect money while the experienced landlord handles the hard shit.

You need to be the guy on top, the guy controlling the guys who control the business, that's the fucking money maker dude.

Think about this for a second, seriously.

If you started a company with you just you, you could get it going, find somebody competent, have them work under you. Gain more people and eventually the person under you is put under control, and you become "CEO", while he is "President". He runs the business and only calls you when major decisions need to be made. You show up to meetings and whatever to make sure shit is all good, and then you do whatever. CEOs of companies don't do jack fucking shit, but they get paid so much because of what I just told you. They collect the money at the end of the day, keep what they want, pay what they want.

>I own a couple duplexes right now

See what I mean op? This guy's done it.

You should be sicking lawyers on people, friend. If you're gonna be a parasite go all the way, somebody walks out of a lease and shits fucked? You need to take those fuckers to court and use sleazy tactics to bleed them dry, or offer to settle it out of court. Come on man, you know this game, you know what you need to do. This kid wants to run a business and is interested in real estate, you and I both know that keeping shit clean is rarely ever an option.

Hmm interesting.

I have a few questions though if you don't mind,
What do you mean by it's not going to cut it?
I apologize if it's obvious, but i'm having trouble understanding what you meant by that.

Ohio isnt exactly prime real estate

How often do you hear about people wanting to move to Ohio?

go to school for business.
invent something
build a brand off of it.
get investors
go big.

Ah i see, thank you.

I suppose I should go back to looking at other things then, such as trying to create a product or something and make a business off of that. (I've been trying to think of ways to do that for a few months now and i'm having trouble because each of my ideas for a product seem to have been done before. Along with my lack of starting resources such as money, and capable people in my area)

That's the roughest outline i've ever seen.

It is also the outline that i'll be forced to go on if i can't think of anything, granted i'll be getting a business degree no matter what. That shit's useful.

>As if all successful business owners have shit lives

You realize not everyone that owns a business ends up divorced and it was probably just a shitty wife/relationship in the first place right?

>business degree

Yeah right, you think that shits gonna make it easy?

Getting a degree isn't going to make you successful, unless you consider success wagecucking for Mr. SHEKELSTEIN. You gotta come up with an idea for what you want to do, a product, a field, something. You can't just say I WANNA START A BUSINESS WITH MY DEGREE HUR! Trust me, going in and getting a degree doesn't mean shit if you don't know why you're going. Set a real fucking goal first before you get 40k in debt.

I didn't mean for it to appear that way.

What I meant was that while right now I only have basic understandings of business structure, how a business interacts with the community around it, it's relationships with employees and such.
I feel I would be much better prepared or at least be able to optimize my business if I already had one at that point, if i were to go to school and get a business degree. Of course i'm also considering getting an economics degree, but i must do more research on it before I commit to that.

Also, Business degrees seem to help with getting positions such as manager and such in many companies, so if worst comes to worst and my company fails, I can always be assured I can get a half decent job with decent pay in the worst case scenario.

>manager and such in many companies

This is why you will fail, because you consider failure. You will also fail because you have no idea what your actual goal is. You have to know if you want to be running a business, working for someone, consulting, a business and economics degree is so fucking vague it means nothing outside an office monkey unless you know what you want to do

Don't go to school until you find out what you're going to do, it's a stupid decision so many people make and they end up in debt with an arts degree because of it

of all people i learned this from a stripper:
she acted dumb as rocks at the club
hot ass body, cute as fuck
never had sex with the guys
gave guys hand jobs while dancing (regular strip dance)
in less than a year owned a house and a brand new car. was about to buy another house to start renting it.

make you money now and fast (legal if you can)
you don't want to be working more than 50+ hrs a week in your 40's and not enjoying it with your family/friends/etc. cause you'll be thinking about your health, bills, bills, bills, health, etc.

>make your money now and fast

That stripper got lucky, that's not a good example. If you really want to make fast money, find the job nobody wants to do, and do it.

I'll admit, your correct.

I do not know what business I want to get into, and I also am considering failure.

This is because my father started a business once, that failed. We didn't really have a plan after that and we were in debt.

I do not want to have to relive those times because I never had a fucking contingency in place because my business failed.

Perhaps you can give me some examples so it may give me a clearer picture of what I would be able to do with a business and economics degree? Or at least in your words, give an example that is less vague?

This. Move to Texas if you want to get into real estate. I'm from one of the fastest growing areas in the States (East Texas) and you can make a killing on rent, plus there's shit tons of good, profitable land for sale where you can build a few nice duplexes or run a trailer park, or rent the land to someone with a manufactured home (1/2 acre each).

First tell me what your fathers business was and why it failed

Look up cheap internet cams, or scams, pretty much the same thing.

This. This is why most startups fail. You try to market a single skill, and you're gonna fail. You need motivation, personality, an angle on the market, a product people want, and a solid understanding of marketing and service. I've owned a couple small businesses before and did fine, but I found very unique angles to attack this problem from.

He made amplifiers, it failed because he couldn't get orders out fast enough. Also a factor was that bills kept piling up and my parents used credit cards to pay them while we were waiting for the orders to finish. He worked alone.

Agreed. My biggest teeter in life is going to college too fast. Also, trying to finish the fucker in four years was STUPID and gives zero benefits.

Same now im 15k in debt and can't take time to finish my degree to get a good paying job

I have a suggestion for you, as a professional in the field. There are plenty of things you can do without going to college, and you can market yourself as an expert. PR, marketing, and many other fields need digital guys right now. I work at a PR firm that constantly complains about how I'm the only guy who can shoot and edit video, and that shit was so easy for me to learn years ago. I suggest, if you want to just learn a whole field, becoming a digital media specialist. Learn everything: web design, graphic design, Adobe Creative Suite, Excel, video/audio editing, copywriting... these are valuable and profitable skills that big companies need. Best part is you can freelance any of those in your off-time. You could also start an ecommerce store for a niche market with those skills.

Bit off more than he could chew, yeah? Probably went to his head when orders started rolling in.

>You need motivation, personality, an angle on the market, a product people want, and a solid understanding of marketing and service.

This guy is correct. First person in this thread that isn't me that actually gets it.

When I say "big companies need them" I'm saying to market yourself as a contractor first, then once you build enough money start a business around those skills and hire a team to do the work for you. Make sure you have a good company culture and those guys will never leave. I write articles about small businesses and startups; I interview a lot of business leaders in the Austin/San Antonio (TX) area.

lmao all these 9-5'ers trying to justify their shitty average lives

Fuck man, I wish I was 9-5. People who don't want to get anywhere work those pussy hours. I start at 5 a.m. and don't stop until 8 or 9 p.m. most nights, every night. Get on my level.

LMAO you failed making AMPLIFIERS

literally printing money

you're selling to the most retarded people on the planet - audiophiles

HOW did you fuck that up

Something to that extent ya, I hear different sides from my parents but I think that's the gist of it.

As for I think I get it, I'm going to have to do more research on getting angles on markets and understanding marketing/service but I think I understand what you're saying.

It was for radio towers and shit.

lol you're a busy idiot.. not an efficient business owner

drop or outsource time wasting tasks

start leading and stop slaving you shitter. get on my level. get other people and software to do the boring work

i know a guy who opened up a gyro shop.
dis guy worked every fucking day. tho eventually he trained his employees to be as good as him. cooking greek food and shit. hes rich and now he just manages his shop.
took him 4 years working every day including weekends until he found people competent enough to make food as good as him.

I'm glad you get it. It comes down to two questions:
>Am I doing something unique?
OR
>Am I doing something better than someone else?
If you can't say yes to either of those questions, you're going to fail.

Oh lol I run two businesses.

This guy also has a good idea.

Op your main goal after you find out what you can sell is how can I get other people doing this for me so I can kick back.

You can become a freelancer or contractor or whatever, get some clients, get people under you, have them do it, you collect the money, eventually you let the top dog manage everything and you invest your money somewhere else.
No, you need to find a field or a product or whatever, then study that field. You are not trying to be wonder boy and know everything, you want to succeed in one area, have somebody run that company for you, and then you can move on to other shit. If you want to be smart and become successful like I think you do, this first business is just something to put cash in your pockets to get you playing with the big boys. Don't think whatever you start with is going to be the next Microsoft.

aren't Restaurants known for being extremely hard to maintain due to all their regulations and stuff and the fact that most people who work at them are incompetent?

>

Thats not even true.. input = output sure

if you run an average business you will get average returns

if you do it better than most you will earn better than most

thats what is so good about entrepreneurship

rewards are mostly in tune with performance.. can you say that about most 9-5s? nah

then sell one and stop complaining like a lil bitch

yeah but playing titan fall 2 is easier.
that guy who made his gyro shop drives a sick ass porsche. hes definitively rich

But the money.... the money man....

>i don't want to be a worker bee all my life
>how do i obey the global capitalistic model of subservience to money as commodity?

All you're asking us is how to be a better worker bee.

Protip: that's why you hire somebody who already knows all this shit to run it!
No, it's "is my product selling" and "will people buy it"

It doesn't matter if your shits unique, you should be doing it better because if not your product wouldn't sell anyways. There's a billion different earbud manufacturers using the same style and looks, but who ever has the shelf space or the best packaging wins the money.

You don't need to re-invent the wheel, you need to take the wheel, slightly improve it, and sell it where wheels aren't sold.

ive been there bro

maybe im just a little bitch but i spent my 20s cultivating my business and I cant even speak to people with 9-5s seriouisly anymore the only friends i can get along with are other leaders. Nutcases

sometimes I wish I went the normal route but then again i love the work&money

Spotted the poor fag with no ambition
Have you learned nothing from this thread? Why aren't you having people under you managing these companies so you don't have to wake up like a wagecuck every day?

I see, having this put into words instead of a vague idea in my mind makes so much more sense, thank you for that.

I also understand now what you mean.

Correct me if i'm wrong but my plan should be something like this:

1. Aquire Capital
2. While aquireing the capital for the business, look for ways I can invent something, or make something better.
3. When I have sufficient capital, start a business creating my product, enough to get me noticed by some people.

That's all I have at this point, however if I may hazard a guess onto the next steps, they would be:

4. Attempt to sell your invention/business to a large company, go for royalties on it or cash. (perhaps stock? I'm not entirely sure how they work at this time, but I know that it is an option)
5. Redo step 1, or look for small business and purchase them so you can make a profit?

Please correct me if i'm wrong.

Because I'm in the process of hiring someone, but every little shit I interview is untrustworthy at best or a completely unqualified liar at worst. Answering honestly btw.

Ah but the hard part is finding someone who is actually competent, and not just on paper.

idd

bosses are honorable

its rare to find someone wanting to work for someone else to be a man of honor and not a complete ratty snake

>annihilate one race

I start: pic related

reason?
solves literally 99% of the world's problems. and with literally I mean LITERALLY! they are the world's cancer

Look up Neville Medhora of Kopywriting Kourse. He's a great example of an average entrepreneur and blogs about his stuff; he's gonna try to sell you shit but the blog and his lessons are great (nevblog.com). I would also listen to Alex Bloombergs "Startup" podcasts. He records himself starting a business from pitching investors to daily life of running his company, and it's a great way to dive in to the experience (and risk) of entrepreneurship.

I believe you posted to the wrong friend user.

Ah thank you very much! I will definitely look into this.

>friend
Meant thread fml

Never put others down, user, regardless of their jobs. Not everyone was born to be a leader like us, but our success does not make us better people than them.
>1. Aquire Capital
Yes
>2. While aquireing the capital for the business, look for ways I can invent something, or make something better.
Possibly, it's more or less finding something people will buy
>3. When I have sufficient capital, start a business creating my product, enough to get me noticed by some people.
Yes, but you must learn how to market the product and such.

>4. Attempt to sell your invention/business to a large company, go for royalties on it or cash. (perhaps stock? I'm not entirely sure how they work at this time, but I know that it is an option)
If Google will buy you out for millions you'd be a fucking fool to pass it up. I would say if it's giving you a steady income, hire people to take over and use the funds from the business you gain passively to repeat from step 2
>5. Redo step 1, or look for small business and purchase them so you can make a profit?
Don't purchase a business. You don't know how to run a business, you know how to get people to run a business for you.

Besides your first startup, you fund, hire people to run it for you, over see it, repeat.
Ever consider going to competition companies and trying to recruit management there? Offer better pay, more responsibility etc. Gotta do what you gotta do, ya know?
You could look in to this op, but like I've said, I HIGHLY recommend you first get an idea of what exactly you want to do. When you look at those programs and blogs you will get overwhelmed and it will flip you upside down. Just be warned.

okay Elon Musk

Thank you for your advice. And also thank you for the warning, i will be prepared for that.

Fun Fact, first trillionaire probably gonna be the guy that mines an asteroid. Said person will probably also be able to make space travel cheaper than what Elon Musk has managed to achieve.

This is a thread for business men, Elon musk is a visionary trying to change the world, I'm the guy who would be paying for space flights.

Well asteroid mining would probably require semi-permanent bases on Near Earth Asteroids, probably around 150 people from what I have read, After that, you could probably make a killing from building stuff in orbits for both your own company, and governments (Though that would require processing the metal in space, 3d printing?) Fuel Depots would be the best way to make a killing.

Lurking on this conversation. Tell me more about our future in space, guys.

I was gonna write a post about how that's far off from now, but you know what? I mean this in all seriousness

Don't fucking lose sight of that, dude. Become successful and contribute to that, create something that can produce the metal, become the ultimate. I think I've given you enough advice, it was more than I was given when I initially started understanding how to be a successful entrepreneur. Hope your learned something.

Maybe, just maybe, what you learned will lead to a change no one could possibly imagine. Make it happen, everyone's waiting on it, yeah?

Hope to see your name on the drill that pierces the first asteroid, op.

See you starside.

If you want to be both a visionary and the richest man in history, asteroid mining is the best way to go. Getting the precious metals out and to earth would be the easiest part, determining how much you could sell at one time without crashing the market is difficult, as is finding a way to make fuel depots in space. I think (Though this is merely conjecture) that if both funds, manpower and resources were available it could achieve at the speed of 6 - 10 years. With the ability to build ships in orbit we would be able to build bigger and stronger ships, thus making more room for hydroponics, recycling centers, crew and defense against micro-meteors bouncing off against the hull when the craft is moving at several thousands of miles per hours.

This is my dream company, but it's all pie in the sky at the moment, because of the astronomical (Pun intended) resources required.

Thank you user, you have given me the best advice I could have ever hoped for when I made this thread. I hope you become the first person to purchase a house on mars or a orbital station in orbit as a vacation home.

See ya later, ya glorious human being.

I wonder if we should be using the moon more than we are right now.

It be a good way to beam solar power to earth, as well as build telescopes that are unobstructed by atmostphere (Though if you're going to do that may as well have them in orbit, only problem then is access but you can rotate it in any direction) As for mining, I mean, maybe? It'd be alot harder to prospect areas of the moon than it is just to pick and choose an asteroid that is already dense with precious metals. However space tourism would be an amazing reason to use the moon, use it to expand humanities understanding of colonization. Use the Moon and Mars as a test of sorts.