Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with entrepreneur

Broke but ambitious in Barcelona.

Zé Pequeno — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:42:07 -0800

I've just finished business school and have landed myself an internship at a very respectable multinational company in Barcelona, Spain. The internship is great, the salary dreadful. So, I'm now in a position where I can barely afford to live and need to find something else to suppliment my income. Can someone give me an idea of what formalities I need to address in order to sell food in the streets of Barcelona? I work just six hours a day so I have plenty of free time and I'm warming to the idea of starting my own business. I have identified a possible business opportunity centering on selling a very easy to prepare, mouth-wateringly delicious South American dish at night to drunken revellers. All I need from a purely logistical perspective, as far as I can tell, is a mobile barbecue, food and a few cooler boxes. I don't want to have any problems with the law, however.

I would be really grateful to anyone who could explain exactly what legal obligations I must fulfil before I can be legit. Also some indication of the probability of being able to do this would be also appreciated. I've already found out the hard way how spirit-crushingly obsinate the Spanish bureaucratic behemoth can be.

I'd welcome any informed suggestions but also ideas from anyone at all as to how I could feasibly make honest money in this city.

What's the profitability of getting into the restaurant industry?

CWitt — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:27:19 -0800

What is the profitability of a small restaurant? I'm a young entrepreneur graduating soon from college and can not bring myself to getting a 9 to 5. I want to be self-employed and I know that I will be successful. I think the first step is entering a business that I know will make me some residual income.

I've become very interested in owning a small restaurant. I cannot decide if the restaurant industry is for me or not, but I think I could succeed. I could obviously start my own local cafe or something, but I'm worried of the risks. I quick fix could be to open a Subway or Quizno's franchise (something with a low franchise fee), but I don't know if they are very profitable. Does anyone own a franchise restaurant or regular restaurant that could offer some rough figures to get me going in the right direction?

Inspire me with your best personal entrepreneurial story

jmnugent — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:27:15 -0800

I'm looking for practical, first-person, inspirational stories of how to launch/bootstrap entrepreneurial ideas with little or no resources. The more specific and detailed, the better. I'm in a life-phase right now of working hard to pay off some significant debt. During the slow and painful process, I'm building up a stack of creative ideas that I'm pretty sure would be successful if I only had the resources to nurture them. (I have no delusions of going "rags to riches", I'd just like to go "rags to being-able-to-pay-my-bills" before I turn 40.)

I hate to let the ideas stagnate, but there are weeks I can barely afford to eat, much less anything else. I just have this sinking feeling how much it will suck to hit 40 and look back to see all those ideas that died on the vine. (I also am starting to resent being referred to as the "guy with a bunch of ideas who never does anything with them" because I'm totally NOT that guy, but I have no resources to prove otherwise.

I realize the pragmatic answer for me (at the moment) is to keep doing whatever I can to get out of debt, but I'm hoping other MeFi's will have some inspirational stories of times you were at the bottom, and found creative ways to jumpstart one of your favorite ideas. Bonus points to anyone who started their own in-house business and eventually moved to it full time.

I need tips to be a tougher negotiator

Anonymous — Thu, 22 May 2008 07:52:22 -0800

I think I'm too nice to do certain things entrepreneurship requires. I need tips to be a tougher negotiator and be able to drive good deals. Here's my background: After 7 years of working regular corporate jobs, I took a 2-year break to do some independent consulting, pretty much working from home. Then I decided to start up a proper business on my own, with about 20 employees. This new business was based around another area of expertise that I had. I've been running the business for a bit more than three years.

Here's my problem: I think I'm too "nice" to be a tough negotiator on business deals like negotiating office rents, equipment prices, etc. It's a character trait that I am a big believer in "fairness", so I can't negotiate the best prices and rates because I want the other person to make a "fair" deal. When somebody tells me something like "Oh Mr. X, our margin on these products is only 5%, I really can't give you any more discounts", I find it hard to press any more. (I suspect the 2-year consulting break may have mellowed me out too much. I was quite an assertive firecracker in my mid-20s.)

My speciality is production, planning, and project management but as a small business owner who doesn't have specialists to handle various areas, much of the high-level negotiating has to be done by me.

What tips do you have to make me better at these things? I want to be that ruthless Donald Trump type of guy who gets the best deals.

Trying to brainstorm for a one-person business idea.

pinkbungalow — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:41:30 -0800

Help me think of a new business or career that can be started by one person with a small start-up budget? The more portable the better, and I hope to be able to support myself (not extravagently) with income from the business within 2 years. I have done this before starting a massage therapy business in FL that is now quite successful. I don't need to change the world, I just need something interesting and challenging to support myself until I retire in about 15-20 years. I am more of an idea and big-picture creative type than a detail or numbers person, but I am not averse to hard work. I do enjoy flexibility, travel, and living in a temperate climate. Start-up budget of $50k +/- Thank you!

Which Web Tech?

mooders — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 06:48:45 -0800

Which web development technology should I pursue for a commercial venture - php, python, perl or ruby? I am an ex-programmer with around 8 years of development experience in ASP, VB, .Net, Java, T-SQL, HTML, CSS, Javascript and XML. At my peak, I was considered to be a talented programmer. I moved away from development about 5 years ago and have coded probably less than a dozen lines since then.

I now find myself boot-strapping a web-based commercial venture and think I could code the back-end (using the MVC pattern) given a solid grounding in the right language. I am keen to use one of php, python, perl or ruby as these seem to be the de facto standards for this type of work.

So given the above, which one should I spend a month or so getting to grips with? Or is there something else at which I need/ought to be looking?

What should I build for my final project (in a technical Master's program)?

k7lim — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:32:00 -0800

What should I do for my technology-related Master's final project? -How can I better brainstorm my own ideas? -Do you have a dream app you want me to implement? -Are there areas or problems that you feel are underserved by technology? I have a few ideas that I'm kinda excited about, but none that's pure gold. My program is pretty technical, but has close ties with econ, sociology, law, et others. Pretty loose requirements. Hive minds are of interest to me, so I thought this would be a cool place to hear people's suggestions. I like to approach brainstorming by identifying either 1) problems or 2) things that people naturally like to do. Subsequently, I come up with solutions to alleviate the issues or facilitate the natural pre-existing behaviours in a novel way. I've been told to narrow the scope by focusing on one type of people.

I would love for this project to capture my passion, and subsequently my time, and then possibly some money. I'm not raring to get back to work for big tech companies. I'm ready to collaborate with some cool people on cool things, and to look for many "thousand-dollar ideas" that pique me (and feed me), instead of one big idea that may never hit.

Help me appraise the intellectual property values of acquaintances, if I do all the work bringing their ideas to market.

Redruin — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 12:34:21 -0800

Need help appraising the intellectual property values of acquaintances, if I do all the work bringing their ideas to market. I seem to have interested a number of people/friends in entrepreneurial endeavors. People whose ideas I think have good value and high potential, but people who are utterly clueless about how to turn it into money, and who are completely unmotivated to make things happen. In other words, their ideas will stagnate, and eventually be exploited by someone else if not for my effort and time investment.

Since I find inherent value in their ideas, I am considering lending myself to a few of their projects; but if I decide to "partner" with them I will be doing nearly all the work, using my own ingenuity and creativity to turn the ideas into products, marketing them, etc.

In cases like these, where the final product would consist mostly of MY intellectual property and effort, which is however, completely built around the initial kernel of THEIR intellectual property, how should I determine the profit split?

It seems that people's opinions of what they deserve for their ideas varies, but most expect a high percentage of the profits, with minimal involvement, (one facet of The American Dream). I would like to be able to present clear guidelines that would explain to them what is fair.

Help me prepare to prepare my web project.

croutonsupafreak — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:56:16 -0800

I'm in the very early phases of putting together a special-interest web site, which will begin as a blog but could eventually add other features. For at least the first year or two, I expect to lose money on this. Eventually, I hope to cover my costs or maybe even make a small (very small) profit with advertising. What business, tax and technology considerations should I keep in mind as I get going? For example, should I incorporate a business before I register the domain name and launch? Are there books I should read on sideline businesses? On building online community?

Help me create my new job.

iurodivii — Tue, 22 May 2007 08:43:30 -0800

Help me create my new job. I have started a part-time (20-25 hours, though I can work as many as I want) job at a small company which deals in restaurants (3 or 4), a couple of apartments, homes and small warehouses/storage spaces. Basically a small real-estate company whose cash comes from the restaurants and goes into more real-estate or restaurants.

I have been hired on as a Comptroller/Controller. My assignment is to learn the current routines and come up with processes to staunch money loss and generally tighten up the ship. As an example: my first project is calculating the rents we are charging and comparing them to the expenses to make sure we are covering costs...It is a business currently run by entrepreneurs and I am being looked to as the professional (having studied accounting and finance) who will know how to impose order on the chaotic methods that have become entrenched over the last 15 years.

Does anyone know of any good books or other resources that I can read through? I am currently in school and am using my professors as resources already, but they are as academic as I and what I need is to learn how to support, not stifle, the entrepreneurial creativity that has driven this business so far.

[Entrepreneur] What do you call yourself?

dcbarker — Thu, 03 May 2007 12:33:32 -0800

You're an entrepreneur. You're the owner and head of your own business. You're a completely new start-up with no (or very few) employees. What do you call yourself? CEO? Managing Director? Development Manager? So I'm considering starting my own business (in the UK). The specifics are non-existent at the moment and I'm no-where near writing a business plan but some friends and I got into a debate about titles.

Some entrepreneurs call themselves CEO or MD. Personally I find this unnatural when they are the only employee (or there are only a couple of people involved). I know lots of people find this really pretentious and a bit of an ego-inflater. "Partner" doesn't sound too bad but there need to be at least two people.

Google are well known for their zany titles, but less established businesses may find it more difficult to get away with this.

I know a title isn't all that important but for the sake of things like domain registration, bank accounts, business cards, contact details for suppliers, etc, it would come in handy. Many other businesses require your title in communications.

So to all the entrepreneurs out there - what do you call yourself and why?

I want to start a search engine...now what?

undercoverhuwaaah — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 12:41:49 -0800

So I'd like to start a website. More specifically, a search engine. Turns out, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to, well, everything about starting it up... I understand the basic framework of crawler, index, database query, search interface. What I'd like to be able to do is get a better idea of the overall architecture, what sort of hardware is needed, and how long it'd take to make this happen. This in turn would help me understand the kinds of costs I'm looking at, which in turn helps me develop the beginnings of a business model. I'm not opposed to checking out a consultant, but not sure what type of consultant to contact. Any and all help is much appreciated.

Do you know of a "Founder's Forum" for startups?

Occams Hammer — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:15:26 -0800

My wife and I are about to launch a new web startup. This is her second successful venture and I am moving from agency creative to join her. Throughout the process, there are many opportunities to reinvent the wheel and I would love to connect with other people that are putting their nest eggs on the line and taking the web 2.0 leap. I am looking for a "founders forum" for entrepreneurs. Does anyone know of a forum or community that is centered around the trials and tribulations of serious startups?

Opening a PC Repair shop?

Phyltre — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 13:13:38 -0800

Considering opening a computer repair store. Input desperately needed. A small section of a building (owned by a company my father is VP of) is going to be available for rent soon. I'm thinking of renting it as I live less than 100 feet away in an apartment (also owned by said company) and can't find a computer repair position in the area. I believe the building costs ~$700 monthly, and it's in a decent location near lots of neighborhoods. I don't have professional experience but have built several PCs from scratch and informally supported PCs back at high school as well as lots of relatives, and recently bought/read/understood Scott Mueller's "Upgrading and Repairing PCs."

I need lots of advice. How much money can a small computer repair shop expect to take in? Is going as an entrepreneur advisable for someone finishing up college? Anyone have any experience running a small computer shop? What should pricing be? What can I do as a sideline to keep income steady? Is the market oversaturated? What supplies do I need? Feel free to pour your hearts out over this one.

If anyone has any input on this I'd be welcome to hear it. Suggestions, ideas, anecdotes, whatever. The shop would be in West Columbia, SC if that's relevant to anyone.

Books by serial entrepreneurs

Moistener — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 11:03:50 -0800

Please help me find this biz book. Topic: small biz startups. Author: a serial entrepeneur who claims to have started ~20 companies, none of which failed. Date: About 2-3 years ago. (I'm basically interested in any authors who have a track record of multiple successful small biz starts.)

What to do with my startup?

lunchbox — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 21:12:19 -0800

What should I do with my internet startup business? At the beginning of the year I started a startup with some friends. It's a really good Web 2.0 idea; we have been offered funding several times. Unfortunately, in the past few months the team members have had other pressing issues in their lives. It doesn't seem that anyone on the team, myself included, has the time and energy to make this a successful startup.

A little background: the project has a similar infrastructure to multi-user websites like eBay, del.icio.us, or MySpace. Money exchanges might take place between users on the site, and there are of course ways to make the site profitable.

So now we've got a lot of functioning code, although the software needs some more work before launch. What do I do with the project? Some options I can think of:

* Can I sell the startup, along with our intellectual property?
* What about open-sourcing it, so that the code becomes open-source but the users' data is kept private? (Just as the SourceForge or Connotea websites are open-source.) How much effort would it take for me to maintain ownership of this project? What resources are available for me to learn about doing this?

Note: I know that everybody's going to be gung-ho about the open-sourcing option, but remember that I and my startup team have poured hundreds of hours into this project and want to consider ways to compensate ourselves for having done so.

Stories about clever young moneymakers?

mhuckaba — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 09:32:21 -0800

I'm interested in hearing stories about people who have cleverly worked the system, or set up innovative small businesses in emerging markets. While I was at the dentist last week, the dentist's aid talked for close to 30 minutes about how her son had started (somehow) flipping properties at the age of 19 and was now (I think he was 22) working for a bank doing finance or mortgages and continuing to borrow and flip properties for a significant profit.

Another example is that I have a friend who spent a year abroad in China, and has begun importing cultured pearls from a dealer overseas. The price is extremely low, and the pearls are of high enough quality that they can be resold for decent profit.

I'd like to hear other stories/examples of other people who have done things like this, or have tapped into niche/emerging markets.

Help me grow my small computer repair business?!?!

Bjkokenos — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 19:55:35 -0800

I need advice about taking my side business to the next level. I have been repairing peoples computers for a while now and earning some extra cash and I am ready to start turning it into my full time job. Wanna know why? I work construction by day and I hate it. I am pretty much self taught on computers and i have no certifications but i know a lot about hardware and software and a little programming/web design. What should i do to start taking it to the next level? I have gotten a DBA (assumed name) in the name i use for the company. I want to start advertising. I have set up a website.

Is there anything i should know before i start advertising? I think my best bet is doing a PC Tune Up type of thing where I remove adware/spyware, clean up the registry and optimize the startup programs and such. Any other suggestions?

I am a home owner and am getting married later this year. I want to be out of the construction field before i get stuck having to stay at the job i am in because i have to support my family so i can't take any chances. I am confident in myself but I really am not sure what the best move is. Any advice from business owners would be appreciated.
Thanks

Office parenting

acoutu — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 22:02:50 -0800

Parents with home-based businesses -- how do you do it? I've been a home-based, self-employed consultant for many years. I've got a toddler now and I'm starting to ramp up my business again. I'm wondering how other self-employed parents work from home with a toddler at their feet. I'm not planning to work a lot of hours. I can schedule the work during naptime or in the evening. I can do a little bit of work when my toddler is awake, but childcare is the primary focus at that time. The biggest things for me are how to handle new clients who want to meet in person and unscheduled phone calls. I'm not really in a position to go to a meeting for more than an hour, given my childcare arrangements. And I typically only do phone calls during nap time -- but there's the risk my toddler will be in the background.

Hiring someone to do childcare is not an option right now.

Any tips on how to handle this? What works for you and other people you know?

Make Money The Odd Way

divabat — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 19:08:19 -0800

Interesting entrepreneurial ventures - what are some unique and quirky ways that people have used to make money? The ones I've heard:
Million Dollar Homepage
Selling stories on the street

Any others?

Who can make custom iPod accessories for me?

zeerobots — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 11:14:38 -0800

I have an idea for a couple of new iPod accessories. Unfortunately, I have no technical knowledge to design and manufacture them myself. I have put some money aside which I can use to finance the production. Where can I find someone who I can hire to build these products for me?

what are some good ways for a creative person to make money? (the problem is no business know-how)

GleepGlop — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 16:34:44 -0800

what are some good ways for a creative person to make money? (the problem is no business know-how) id much rather make money by using a powerful idea than working my ass off, given the choice. im not necessarily looking to be rich. having not much understanding of the business world due to vehement avoidance all these years, the only thing i can think of right now to make money with creativity is with patents. i feel like if i had a business degree right now i would know exactly how to go and make money. surely, people make money with good ideas in ways other than patenting.
any business-minded people know what i should look at if i do indeed possess this ability to come up with original ideas?
another thing im thinking would be a good way to brain-power my way to money is with the creative application of math skill (which i dont have, so i cant verify this).
the main thing is id like to set my own hours. i dont want a 9 to 5. brain over sweat, basically.