joeKnowledge

Join Date 03/2004

Owning Your Own Business

Anybody here own your own small (like one employee... maybe 2 or 3) business? Know any pitfalls or tips?

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My husband does. He owns a Land Surveying business. The best tip I can give you is to start out with as little overhead as possible, pay cash for everything you can, don't hire anyone you don't or can't trust, keep your own books, and do everything by the book. And research all your states laws and regulations regarding your type of business till you know them by heart. Oh! and if your business is in the construction field or the like make sure you have your E&O (errors & omission) insurance, and that it's always up to date

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1845

When you work for yourself there's never anyone to 'take over' for you when you want a holiday....so you never get them.

Last...'sit-under-a-tree-drink-beer-and-read-a-book' holiday I had was the year BEFORE Australia got the FIA GrandPrix.....1984.

Haven't had one since....

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Isn't that the truth Jafo! Yes when you own your own business it's a 24hrs/7 days a week job! Good luck!!

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WebGizmos

Join Date 09/2003

+735

Best business I ever had was in Florida. I sold and installed Vertical Blinds & Mini Blinds in houses...Yachts...and motor homes. Basically if you had a window and wanted one installed...no problem. I sold high end to low end...remote control blinds and blinds on timers.

How I started the business was. I paid a direct mail outfit to send out 20,000 flyers at a cost of $600.00. That was my biggest expense...ever. My gimick was...up to $250.00 in blinds and you got a $50.00 savings bond...$500.00 or more and you got a free Hunter ceiling fan installed.

My other expenses were 2 electric & cordless drills at a cost of about $200.00...a specially made pair of sissors to cut the mini blinds when needed at a cost of $100.00...Vertical Blind sample book at about $75.00 and the mini blind samples were free. After all that, my only expenses other than gas was hex nut self tapping screws at about $5.00 a box. Maybe once a year I had to replace my drills.

Once I was in business I was making $185.00 to $400.00 an hour. I never charged anyone more than my cost for the blinds, I only charged for installation at $30.00 per window and gave them an additional 2 year warranty on them as well.

The only problem with this kind of business...it works best in warm weather areas like FLorida or California. Here in Pennsylvania, peoples idea of blinds are bedsheets and cardboard.

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