Men who have started your own business, what are somethings you wish someone had told you?

16 comments

1. The crap that they send you after opening up a business, do your research. You can generally file for those things for a fraction of what the companies are going to charge you. Some aren’t even needed especially if you are a sole-proprietor.

2. “Don’t do it.”

3. I’m a welder with 14 years experience. To this day I have no idea how to aquire a repeat customer.

   I’ve done plenty of 1 off jobs or service and repairs, but nothing has came my way with repeat business and orders.

   While frustrating, I’m not giving up. One day I’ll be the owner of my own fabrication shop with employees.

4. Everything is more expensive cuz you have to buy the commercial price.

5. Stop. This is a horrible idea.

6. Competitors will drive down prices by taking advantage of their employees. I was an owner operator (lawn care) and spied on the company who I lost my customer to. I was making $75 for almost 3 hours work, they would do it for $60. I watched 8 people unload from 2 trucks and work for 1-1/2 hours. After paying for materials/fuel and accounting for transit time, the employees could not have been making $5 an hour.

7. You need a usp (unique selling point), it’s hard af and seems cheesy but works.

   For instance in my industry we are known for being late and leaving a mess, I go to huge lengths to do neither, it’s surprising how easy word passes about you.

8. Keep every receipt and write down every expense.

9. If you are on your own like most people starting out, you have to figure out the balance between when you actually “go it alone” and when you pay for help. You might think that it is cheaper and therefore better if there is any chance you can do something yourself instead of hiring a professional, or paying for the good/service to be processed/closer to deliverable.

   The common thing that people do not consider in the “can I buy the supplies for cheaper and do it myself?” is the time involved, because chances are you vastly under estimated how long something is going to take particularly if you are doing it the first time, or you are scaling something up, etc. Not only did it take longer than you thought it would, but what other things could you have accomplished with that time?

   The one we don’t think about that much is “are there necessary tools, machines, supplies, consumables, etc. for this task?” Do you need a bunch of tools you don’t own to do a job and now it’s way more expensive? Are you scaling up and that involves bigger/more machines? Do you now require a lot more raw materials, supplies, and consumables like (sand)paper and need storage for all of those things? What do you do with everything involved when you are finished with this task?

   This might sound like I’m talking about turning a woodworking hobby into a business, but lots of “business people” need things like pamphlets and brochures and business cards for the people who still want a physical reference instead of a QR code, and plenty of people think “I only need like 300 programs for our open house/launch/that convention I’m going to and it’s cheaper for me to do it myself than pay the printing shop” and very much regret that decision for example.

   Are you making a 100% jump into this, are you working part-time at another gig/have other sources of income that also require your time, is this a side hustle, what part of your income is this? If you want it to be 100% full time, 100% of your income, is that realistic? If it’s a side hustle/monetized hobby, will you be able to scale it from where it is now to where you want it to be?

   A lot of people make a few things, sell a few to their friends, think they can do it full time, and then don’t have the clients to sustain their income. “I sold 20 cutting boards at the farmers market this weekend” might be a big win for you if you haven’t sold anything before, but it doesn’t pay the bills if you think you are going to do it full time. How do you make that transition if you are trying to do so, and if that means a change in other sources of income/employment for/during that transition, how do you make that work?

   My biggest thing stopping me personally is both start up cost, and having the right stream of clients. I handmake something you likely aren’t going to buy a lot of yourself but you might tell your friends about it and they might want one too, but because of the amount of time involved in making them, I need a steady trickle of clients here and there or people willing to be on a waiting list, instead of a social media campaign and a sudden burst of interest.

   The reality being that sales come in waves and often around events in the field, but that has significantly changed since Covid. So I would also need the ability to weather periods of both production time, and unreliable sales in a market that hasn’t really recovered since the pandemic.

   Instead I work at a repair shop where I get to use that knowledge but not on my own stuff in a city where I can’t afford space to do it at home/outside hours, and where cost of living has exploded to the point where any savings for the build up to the business being full time is being eaten up on survival right now.

10. Don’t undercut yourself on price. There’s always someone who will do it cheaper while starving themselves.

    You don’t want to be the cheapest, you want to be the best. Customers will happily pay more for quality , reliability and service once they have been burned by cheap a few times.

11. Join a quality business alliance/association that advocates for independent businesses if it exists in your area. Just getting a head start on understanding things like health and safety, tax changes, insurance etc that was curated by then is a huge head start.

    Even if you don’t need it at all, work with the bank to establish commercial credit for the business.

    Hire the best accountants and auditors and lawyers you can afford. At minimum, use a reputable law firm to set up and agreement / paper you use for your customers.

12. Maybe it depends on the specific business, but you’re not really “your own boss.” Customers and clients just become your boss.

    People get caught up int his idea that somehow not having a manager over you is the ultimate goal for everyone but I found that i Just hated having to do all those things myself when I’m really only interested in the technical/creative part of work. I have ZERO interest in sales, collections, marketing, hiring, firing, etc… that’s some bullshit that I wish someone would do and with a small business you probably can’t afford it.

13. Answering the title, you already have some skill at time estimation for your specialty, but you’ll dramatically underestimate how much time everything ELSE takes that you have no experience with. Doing taxes. Creating advertisements. Sending invoices. Paying invoices. Balance checkbook. “I just have these ten little tasks that should only take ten minutes each after that I can get to work” and it ends up taking the entire work day LOL. Its not that I can’t figure it out, in fact its usually pretty simple stuff, it just takes X hours of drudgery per year to mechanically operate a business and X will be more than you estimate, at least for the first few years.

    Also its hard to turn down work, but if its not something I do or am good at or enjoy, its always proven to be a mistake to experiment using the client. Sometimes the best business decision is saying “no”.

14. You don’t have to have a grand scale large business to be successful! I learned about lean business models in my high school business classes, but I never thought I would own a lean business until I founded my tutoring business a few years ago.

15. Before you start anything make sure check out all permitting and licensing. Lot of people try to start businesses out of their home only to find out that they can’t get a permit or a license or even their HOA prevents it.

    Make sure you have plenty of savings. Because you’re going to burn through a lot of money for the business can support you.

    Understand outside services you are probably going to need. A lawyer and an accountant for example.

    Use contracts for everything and that’s what the lawyer was for to build your boilerplate contracts or at least review the ones that you purchase. Because the ones that you buy may not be correct for your locale.

    Never do work for exposure. That’s total BS.

16. Running a business is hard long hours shit pay for awhile and a lot of hours to build your business