Who here owns their own business?

[lagstronaut]

lagstronaut:

These were just ideas. Ultimately you have to decide for yourself what you want. Find your love in life and follow that.

All business is freelancing. There is never any guaranteed income. In a business you determine if you fail or succeed.

Right now the future of music is online. You need to learn digital recording. With my PC right now I can record anything digitally with no hiss and burn it to a CD with crystal clear sound.

In music it is all about exposure. The more people who hear your music the more chance they will buy it. It is that simple.

Sounds like you need to figure out what you want to do and just go do it. If you need the training, get it.

Regardless of what you do you will have to pay your dues. If you love your music and want to share it with others you will do what it takes.

I understand my businesses and can show people how to sell ideas, services, and products. But it is up to you to decide what you want to do with your life.

I am not a musician. But if I were I would study the industry and the trade publications and then decide what the market wanted. Then I would provide it.

Or I would go to school, learn the trade and then whore myself out to the industry.

Either you decide or someone else does. It is simple really, kind of like life.

Thanks for the advice over the past couple days, Eric


I know you THINK you can record digitally and have no hiss with "crystal clear" sound but trust me -- you cannot. I record digitally as well and if either of us were to achieve crystal clear sound it would be because somebody snuck into our house at night and engineered+mastered the tracks himself. Unless you have training or experience with mic placement, and have quality mics, as well as top-notch amplifiers and perfect equalization, there will be dull noise going on. You may not be able to hear it on your computer speakers but listen through a Studio Monitor and you'll have no doubt

[partyguy420]

You can make a mint in the auto service industry. If you love doing it I know you will succeed.

ohh no shit i can succeed... cars are my life... and all of the shops around here charges 40 dollars an hour... and then down the highway, theres a chevy dealership, that charges 90 fucking dollars an hours... and the day i start looking for a place to rent for my garge, im going to go the the richest part of tacoma washington, and set up shop charging around 120, and im going to spechilze is chevys, VWs, and putting together rice burners for everyone... and it will some day be passed down to my childeren...(the day i die, cause im gonna work in that shop till the day i die, and hopefuly, i will die in the shop.... then to be barried, im going to buy like 3 or 4 consecutive graves, and have then burry me in my chevllee... in full racing suit... with a set of screew drivers, pliers, sockets... wrenches... and maybe a welder... and a pund of pot, and a bong in the shape of a skull with about 30 bic lighters... ahh dreams... dreams... dreams... THAT WILL BECOME LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!! AND MY LIFE AT THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

[Delta9 UK]

I have been self employed now since 2004.

Never looked back

It is very hard work, I started with nothing I didn't have any loans or grants and just built it up the hard way through doing a decent job and getting referred to new clients.

What some people fail to realise is that even with a lot of hard work and dedication a business can still fail (and most likely will) so you need a solid plan.

I am a web designer my start up costs were £0 and I am self taught but now specialise in only certain areas of design. In 1 year I made a steady profit - so pretty much from day 1.

The toughest thing was building a portfolio - it can be difficult to convince a company to use you when you have little to back up what you say! thankfully I worked with the right people and didn't lower my standards.

This is the best bit of this thread IMHO :
2. Find a trustworthy partner or associate interested in the same goals early, preferably one who has expertise in things you don't, and vice versa.

[Wesley Pipes]

me and a friend tried to open up our own comic shop, but it didnt go ahead, we are just too inexperienced in business despite a wealth of knowledge about comics, also we didnt have the money and couldnt see the business doing too well in our town, despite the large fanbase here we still wouldnt make enough cash to cover all the expences including stock and our own "wage".

but we know more about business now than we did when we started, so maybe if i moved i might give it another shot, and have my friend handle online sales as he wouldnt be moving anytime soon

[nikweiser]

i have a question.
my friend wants to open up his own hookah bar/headshop
what do you think the whole starting up costs would be??
he has 19 grand, would that be enough??? we want to get a small lot, big enough to have a headshop in it with a hookah bar type shit goin on.. put some nice tvs up, get the place hella chilled out lookin, get some nice custom pieces etc..

[RichieRich]

I have owned my own business for about 4 years now. I can say that I really couldn't imagine working for anyone else ever again. The freedom that it gives me in my life is great. Plus the pay is good as well. It took me about 6 months to really be able to consistantly make good cashflow.

[Skrappie]

Orginal poster. Apply for college now, and if you don't want, just don't go. I did that a while back, and although i'm in school now. Even if you end up in school a small break might do you good, and help you grow and expand as a person. i know a lot of 26 year old kids in school, so i always drop this advice when i can.