Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with entrepreneurship

Help me buy or start a company

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:39:36 -0800

Suppose an entrepreneur has 100k to 200k cash. He has some experience launching and marketing a small scale services firm, but has no financial background. He wants to use his 100/200k to start a new business venture. Is it better to use the 100k as seed money to start something from the ground up, or to get a loan and buy a company of, say, some 500k-700k worth? What kind of company would 500k buy? Am I right to assume that it would buy a company with about 50k profits yearly (10x annual profit?).

What do you look for when buying a new business? What are the pitfalls of starting a second business next to your primary one? Can you show me some good books or blogs or webinars on the subject?

Real Estate development in a nutshell

drea — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:38:47 -0800

I think I really, really want to get into developing real estate. Can anyone give me an overview description of what the work / process is is like? The thing is, I have no educational/professional background in real estate per se.

I want to start small and I know it will be a long while before I see my big hairy audacious goal realized. So what I want to know exactly is:

What books, articles do I read on basic strategies for real estate business development? Where do I get ideas for a business plan? What knowledge is within my reach for me to study? Where do I start looking?

Social housing (which is a big reason for my wanting to go into this), from the little that I know, is usually done by nonprofits and the government. Is providing that a commercially viable option? Can private companies survive while providing low-cost and public housing / has it been done?

What am I expected to reasonably accomplish every five years up to the twenty - year mark?

I know I have to start small, but where exactly does developing real estate start, and how does it grow, exactly? Where does my funding come from apart from loans?

So far, what I can see about the idea is to buy lots, develop houses, and then sell or rent them, use the profit to develop more houses, and so on until I gain momentum and a large portfolio. But it seems to me that it's like living hand-to-mouth, and given the recent financial crisis it doesn't seem like a good idea to just borrow a ton of money from the banks from the get-go.

I hope my questions makes sense. The idea fires me up and I want to start but I hope my lack of experience and knowledge doesn't cause me to stagnate/give up. I'm also really really young, but I'm looking at this as a way to give me a headstart in the business. Eventually, I hope the answers will give me what I need to start pursuing this goal. The answers might not be as in-depth as I'd like but I figure the hive mind can give me various points of view to assess.

Thank you very much.

How to Write a Business Plan

KokuRyu — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:59:32 -0800

I'm looking for some freely available online business plan templates for a quasi-client who wants to start a training business catering to IT project management in government. I've Googled around for business plan templates, but are there any ones that you particularly like or think are effective?

It would be great if the business plan example or template (or free, online how-to guide) is technical enough so that it can be applied to an entrepreneur wanting to start a consulting business (see above at the start of my question for a synopsis) to government's IT project managers.

In other words, my quasi-client may be turned off by business plans for flower shops and restaurants and dog walking services.

Thanks for your help!

good research materials on the subject of electric cars, 3d modeling and/or entrepreneurship?

groovinkim — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:40:29 -0800

good research materials on the subject of electric cars, 3d modeling and/or entrepreneurship? my boyfriend is the son of a mechanic and dreams of starting his own electric car company (not for the everyday consumer, more like higher end sports cars). he does a lot of online research. he's very intelligent and relatively knowledgeable about cars, engineering, etc. when he gets that dreamy look in his eye and starts rambling about the technical specifics i usually don't understand a word he says. his feelings were hurt initially because i was skeptical about the project. he has viable ideas, but he's more of an archetype of a creative genius/professor than a pragmatic businessman. but i do think that his business has potential.

his birthday's coming up relatively soon, and i'd like to help him by getting him some books and magazines on related subjects.

some things i can think of that i could possibly get him reading materials about:

- electric cars in general. manufacturing processes, the market overall, engineering of them, etc.

- 3d modeling. he's mentioned that he plans on acquiring dual lcd monitors, a 3d scanner and whatever else he needs to make clay models. i don't want to buy him any of that stuff (not that i could afford it anyway) because i'm sure he's very specific in what he wants/doesn't want and probably already has his software of choice picked out. but if there are good books or magazines for a beginner, that could be useful.

i'd much rather have him rent or share a workstation somewhere here in seattle than invest a bunch of money in equipment, but he's weirdly paranoid about using public workstations and the slight possibility of his designs getting disseminated without his knowledge. i really doubt that would happen but haven't been able to successfully talk him out of his paranoia. i'd really like to find local people doing it that would be willing to talk to him about it so he doesn't accidentally buy something crappy, but if there's a consumer reports type magazine that covers related products that could potentially help.

- starting a business, specifically the economic aspects (licensing, getting funding, attracting investors, patent laws and copyright laws, etc.) i do sales/marketing for a voip company currently. although it's not my passion in life and i plan on switching careers, i think i can help advise him on marketing, networking and related topics. but i know nothing about starting a business... i've always worked for other people's small/midsize companies.

also, if anyone happens to know about related college or non-credit programs in seattle, that'd be of interest too. he's currently a programmer making a good living but he never finished his bachelor's. he preferred teaching himself. although he's generally good at self-education, i really feel like it'd be helpful for him to get hands-on experience with 3d modelling, advice from someone knowledgeable on the subject etc. while i don't think you need a degree in business to start one, i've also seen several friends start small businesses that were great ideas that failed miserably. my outside opinion is that they failed in part due to lack of sufficent research/knowledge.

i also feel the need to include a rambling offtopic paragraph about how i <3 metafilter. i work full time and go to school full time so i don't have much time to spend here, but it inspires me that there are still little pockets online where intelligent people communicate in a usually-respectful way. i'm sad that there was no seattle meetup and i didn't have time to organize one myself.

What is the best way to be a part owner in the restaurant I'm helping design?

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:13:53 -0800

What is the best way to be a part owner in the restaurant I'm helping design? I have been working closely with an associate of mine to help design a business plan for the restaurant he wants to open in the near future. I've invested many hours in the project and I've basically been his right-hand-man for the most part. The funding for the restaurant is virtually assured once a final business plan has been reviewed so we have been working day and night to iron everything out.

The restaurant is his vision, and he's had a lot of success opening previous establishments in the past for other people. This is his first attempt to open his own restaurant.

We both agree that together we make an excellent team and he has asked me to come on as the bar manager (I have a decade of experience in the industry). I have an excellent full time job that I can't afford to leave right now, so the role of bar manager is a pretty good fit since I can work around my existing schedule. I am very interested to learn about the ins and outs of opening a restaurant as well, so this is a great learning opportunity for me.

One thing that sticks out in my mind though is that I'd really like to be a part owner as well as an employee. I don't mind if it's only a 5% share or anything like that but I would like to have more incentive to invest vast amounts of my time and creativity into the establishment. Sadly I don't have the liquid assets available to invest upfront.

In an ideal world, I'd be able to take a smaller salary than he'd originally intend for the bar manager and use the difference as my share of the investment. In return I'd own a small percentage of the restaurant and would benefit from it for years to come if we're able to turn it into a successful business. But I'm not experienced in the art of entrepreneurship finance and I have no real understanding of how these ventures usually work. Do the investors just loan him the money and he ends up with 100% ownership after he pays them back plus interest? Or do they usually want a piece of the pie in the long term?

Does anyone have experience or insight into this situation? How do situations like this normally work when it comes to investors funding the owners idea?

Any suggestions you can give me would go a long way!

Is cutting stickers like printing money?

box — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:55:56 -0800

Can I get rich by making custom-cut vinyl stickers? I see a lot of people on eBay selling vinyl decals--the carefully-cut monochromatic kind, where the sticker is sandwiched between two sheets of paper before application. Generally, a wide variety of custom colors and sizes and designs and whatnot are available, so I figure they're either making the stickers themselves, or working closely with a print shop or something. And people sometimes specify 'vector artwork,' making me think it's computer-controlled. But what about the rest of it? What tools do these folks use, and how much do they cost? What about materials? Can you actually make a profit selling the stickers? What's the economy of the eBay sellers? Do these guys ever get shut down for copyright stuff?

How to teach a microbusiness workshop in the Philippines?

cusr0002 — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:35:45 -0800

What are some good resources on teaching micro business in developing countries? I've been invited by the charity that I volunteer for to help facilitate a leadership retreat for high schoolers in provincial areas of the Philippines. Being a recent business school grad - I'd like to come up with a 2-3 hr workshop on basic business skills thats fun and engaging but have no place to start. Most of these children will go on to become farmers so anything in the agricultural field will be helpful too. Does anyone have any resources or references on putting together a curriculum of this kind?

I'd also like to hear from any peacecorp workers out there that are helping out with entrepreneurship too!

Opening a Guesthouse in Cambodia = Newhart + The Beach?

pokeydonut — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:33:09 -0800

My wife and I want to drop our corporate lives in New York and open a guesthouse in Cambodia for backpackers. Anyone have any experience with this or other crackpot plans? My wife and I have contemplated breaking out of the rat race in various ways, but as we are about to finish paying off her student loans, our discussions are becoming decreasingly hypothetical. Our latest plan, which is actually getting a surprising amount of traction, is opening up a guesthouse/hotel/hostel in Cambodia or Laos. I'd originally planned on Siam Reap, where I went in 2002, but I've heard that it's been ritzed up lately and we might need to find a more under-the-radar locale.

Regardless, the same concerns would apply. Although we're both lawyers and ostensibly smart and hard-working, etc. we have no experience in the hospitality business, no contacts in this region and, last but not least, no abilities to speak in the native tongue. On the upside, we only want to do this for a year or so and we're willing end up $10-20,000 in the red on the whole enterprise so we've got that going for us. We are, however, strenously opposed to being robbed, raped, murdered or thrown into a Laotian prison. Plus there are real concerns like insurance and drug laws and kidnapping and and bribery and Khmer overlords and lawsuits that can't be dismissed with the sheer force of a Carpe Diem attitude.

So has anyone out there ever done something similar to this and do you have any constructive advice on starting a business in a foriegn country?

How do I get software development projects?

zavulon — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:31:06 -0800

I'm a software developer who's tired of corporate 9-to-5 and wants to quit my job, and support myself by working on programming projects while focusing on building my dream business. But how do I get my foot in the door on (not "need a small website") software projects without really having a network of connections? I've been working as a programmer/analyst at a large corporation for a few years now, and would consider myself pretty good (honestly ;-) ). However, over the last couple of years I've been getting more and more tired of the stuffy corporate atmosphere... and I have dreams of starting my own business.

I've had a few ideas, but what I found is I just don't have the time to concentrate on them properly... Doing software development after a 10 hour work day into the wee hours of the morning just doesn't work for me :-( So what I want to do is quit my corporate job, pick up freelance software dev projects, and work just enough to support myself - maybe 5 hours a day - while I concentrate on working on my dream.

The only problem is - it looks like it's very hard to get a foot in the door to get software dev projects. Sites like guru.com focus mostly on small websites - my experience is more with enterprise Java apps. So ideally, I'd like to get bigger projects, for either one person or a small team (I have a couple of friends who are in a similar position). But how do I get in the door without having connections?

What questions do you have about crowdsourcing?

japazillian — Tue, 13 May 2008 07:24:48 -0800

Stanford/MIT Venture Lab (VLAB) is holding a panel discussion at the Stanford Business School on Crowdsourcing -- when companies use the wisdom of crowds to build business value. We're crowdsourcing questions for the event and want to ask for suggestions on what our moderator, Jeff Howe from Wired (who coined the term crowdsourcing) should ask our panel of participants about the topic. What questions would you want to ask a panel of top VCs, company CEOs and journalists involved in the space? What are you most curious about when it comes to crowdsourcing?

How do i get started with a dog walking service?

fjardt — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:19:07 -0800

How do i get started with a dog walking service? I wanted to start a dog walking service but i have some questions about where to begin. How much should i charge? Does that depend on the region of the country (i have heard it might; i am in Arizona suburbs)? Should i charge per hour? What sort of legal things might i worry about? I did read some walkers have their owners sign a sort of contract, but i have no idea how to draft such a thing.

..and i'm sure there are things i am not asking that might be helpful to know!

Looking for resources to research market size of a very small industry.

mamessner — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:18:32 -0800

How do I find the size of market and market share of various small companies in a small industry? In particular I'm looking at the online photography equipment rental sector, although a general resource would be best. Are there any databases that show market size for various (very) small industries? Or that show market share within these industries? How do people find market size when writing a business plan upon starting a business in a tiny industry?

Social Entreprenuership in Print

divabat — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:49:34 -0800

What are some good books and magazines related to social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, and the Fourth Sector? I've seen a lot of management/business books but they tend to focus on "MAKE MORE MONEY YAY" and not much on benefiting society or community development. Some I've found useful are:

* GOOD magazine
* Let's Not Screw It, Let's Just Do It by Richard Branson
* Occasional issues of Fast Thinking

any others?

I have a half-baked idea

wolfsleepy — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:46:08 -0800

Are there any websites or online communities in which people submit their 'ideas' for public use? I understand how vague this sounds, and will do my best to explain.

I have a lot of half-baked ideas. These may include websites, plots for short films, fast food restaurants and so on. While I lack the motivation and knowhow to implement most of these things, I'd still get a kick out of seeing them brought into existence.

I thought it would be interesting if a website existed in which people were able to submit their ideas, plans and designs for public review, with the expectation that more resourceful people may actually choose to implement them.

Basically it would be a community based 'think tank', a forum for 'open-source imagining' (cough). The website would involve registered members submitting their ideas while others provide feedback and criticism. There would be some degree of moderation and perhaps some sort of voting or upmodding system which would make particularly outstanding entries more visible to everyone.

Understandably, people may be reluctant to divulge a good idea without receiving credit or compensation, but participants would understand that this is the nature of the experiment (and one would hope that a good natured community would look after these elements anyhow).

After all, why let a good idea lie dormant?

My ultimate question is whether or not something like this already exists, or whether or not it would even be feasible?

starting a museum: advice?

luser — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 12:43:20 -0800

Starting a for-profit museum: Lots of questions inside. I'm considering starting a small for-profit museum and want to learn as much as I can about starting & running one profitably. So my questions are many:

I understand the difference between for-profit and NP might be academic to the casual visitor, but what have been your experiences visiting museums you understood to be for-profit enterprises (probably were very pop-culture-y, probably had noticeably prominent retailing operations, probably spent a ton on marketing)? The R&R Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the Spy Museum in DC are examples, but way bigger than I'm contemplating, so if you've seen any smaller, quirkier ones, I'm particularly interested in those. What did you enjoy about them? What did you feel was not well-done?

How could I learn more about the economics of these types of museums, such as cost of servicing each visitor, typical income via retail vs. via admission, revenue per square foot, etc.?

Where could I get advice on the arrangement of the exhibit area and overall - I guess it's -- interior decorating? I know it's a big mishmash of retail sales, educational, and maybe even restaurant design, but this is very much a bootstrap effort so it has to be done on the cheap and I'm a marketer, not a designer.

Business plan. I know I need one because I want to attract financing -- are there templates for this kind of operation?

Any other thoughts welcome!

Starting a Magazine

divabat — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 01:01:22 -0800

How do I start a magazine? I've got a concept for a magazine that I find promising. I just thought of the concept yesterday, so I haven't really gone too indepth into it, but I do have some ideas of content, distribution, publication, and associated activities and media.

How do I go about making this magazine a reality? I understand that a large part of this is country-specific (licenses and so on), but what do you need to consider if you want to make the magazine international? Where do you find your team? What do you put in your business plan and budget? Where do you get the money?

Where do you start?

How do I leave the self-employment world?

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 21:11:05 -0800

How can I prepare myself for the transition from self-employment to regular employment? I’ve run a marketing and business consulting business for about six years, after having worked in marketing for technology companies for a few years. I started the consulting business so that I could have flexibility while pursuing a part-time MBA (completed) and so that I could eventually work from home while I had small children. I don’t foresee myself continuing in self-employment for more than another three to five years -- around the time my kids are settled in school. My work/income is currently only limited by the time I have available -- I've got tons of leads and I turn away a lot of work. However, I honestly don’t want to do what it takes to make a high income in self-employment. I hate having to start from scratch all the time -- building new relationships, going through the sales process, learning about a company and so on. I'm not bad at it, but I really do prefer a regular job.

Right now, I get calls from recruiters who are offering positions that would pay $100k. In three to five years, I’d like to go back to the work world as a product manager, marketing manager or marketing director. (I had previously worked my way up to the manager level.) In three years, I will have more than 15 years of work experience. However, a good deal of it will come from self-employment.

How can I best ready myself for the transition back to a full-time position? I expect that many employers will be put off by my years of self-employment. Moreover, I went through three jobs in four and a half years before that. So I sort of look like a job hopper who preferred to work on their own or who couldn’t get along with people. But that’s not the case. I was working for the same boss at two of those jobs and the third involved contracting for the other two companies. Even today, much of the work I do involves people with whom I previously worked.

My other challenge will be presenting my experience. I can’t really show measurable results. I often just get to work on a piece of a project or my client may decide not to track numbers. For example, two of my biggest clients regularly hire me to do marketing strategies, direct mail campaigns, search engine optimization and so on. But they don’t track results or report them to me...even when I ask. Granted, they keep hiring me, so I’m obviously not disappointing them. Still, I have no idea how many leads, qualified leads or sales my work generates. It’s like this with many other projects. I’m concerned I’ll look junior or that I won’t have numbers to put on my resume.

So what can I do to help myself transition back to work? I’ve got a few years to start putting these things in gear. I'm not worried about references or contacts. It has more to do with the way I position myself and my experience. And, no, I'm not willing to leave self-employment yet. Thanks.

(Anonymous because some clients read AskMefi.)

Is entrepreneurship inheritable?

damn dirty ape — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:19:41 -0800

Is entrepreneurship inheritable? I feel like unless I am running my own business, in some way, I'm not doing things right or at least nor living up to my potential. I'm not sure where I got this idea from but my father was a self-employed entrepreneur his whole life. I understand my current office job is stable in a way my own theoretical business could never be, but this does bug me.

I can either try to stop thinking about it or perhaps start a side-business, but I'm afraid if I do the latter I might just feeding an unhealthy part of me.

Do the children of the self-employed feel the need to do the same? Is this common? Am I romanticizing something that is high-risk? Thanks.

She works hard for the money, so hard for it honey

universal_qlc — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 18:18:24 -0800

Are there any notable female tech entrepreneurs? I was reading an article online today profiling women entrepreneurs, and every single one of them ran a jewelry/clothing/gourmet food design/importing/wholesale business. I was kind of miffed. But to be fair, this was an MSN link to Country Living. And in my defense, I didn't know it went to Country Living when I clicked on it. (I guess there isn't much defense for reading stuff off the MSN homepage, though.)

Then I thought about it some more - I couldn't think of any women mathematicians/scientists/engineers who have founded a successful tech company. But in my born-in-the-80s, womenfolk-can-do-it-all mind, I figure that surely they're out there. But who are they?

make an idea into money, even if it's only a bit

andifsohow — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 23:04:41 -0800

i have a business idea but not much time to start the business. i think it's a good enough idea that it's plausible enough to sell to similar companies; how would i do that? without giving up details, i've concieved a pretty viable value add to a service that exists in startup form in several places around the country. it's far outside the scope of my nornal interests and i'm in the middle of school, so i don't really want to try to make it into a business at all right now, but someone's gonna think of it sooner or later. how can i take advantage of the opportunity?

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 are the heavyweights of the academic ethnic entrepreneurship field?

tozturk — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 12:36:00 -0800

Who are the heavyweights of the academic ethnic entrepreneurship field? I'm in the process of doing a lit review type of thing for ethnic entrepreneurship. Thus far my research has focused on company examples for successful ethnic entrepreneurs. I'm about to delve into the academic part of the research and the amount of information is a little overwhelming. Who should I investigate and read to get a real feel for the field?

Thanks!

Anybody Have Good Franchise Ideas

willnot — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 08:04:15 -0800

What are some really good franchise opportunities for somebody looking to start a business? Any tips about what to look for and what to be sure to avoid? I've been getting an itch to start my own business. My background is marketing oriented. I'm interested in selling a service more than I am a product. I'd very much prefer something that can be sold through advertising and marketing as opposed direct sales, which I would not be at all comfortable with (and which eliminates the most likely choice given my career to date -- marketing consulting).

I've had a few ideas, but as I explore them, none of them seem very interesting and/or workable. Just because none of my ideas seem to click with me, I keep coming back to franchises as a sort of business in a box concept. I'm far from sure that a franchise would be right for me, but I feel like I need to explore it at least enough to intelligently dismiss it.

Part of the drive here is to build something for myself. I enjoy creating systems and putting my stamp on them. I enjoy a high level of creativity. I'm not sure how much freedom I'd have within a franchise concept, and a lot of them just seem like you're paying somebody for the privilege of being one of their store managers. Also, as I look at them, I can certainly see how the person selling the franchise gets rich, but it's sometimes a good deal less clear how the person buying the franchise gets rich.

Mostly, I have money to invest in a business, but I'm prepared to invest whatever time equity I need to in order to get it running. However, I'd like to be able to keep my current job as a safety net, and at least part of the drive is to get to a point where I can generate passive cash-flow.

I found a strongly related question here, but none of those answers exactly addressed my needs.

Good $25k business?

MattD — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 06:06:14 -0800

What are some good ideas for a business that could be started with $25,000 in capital and run by a talented person a less-than-full-time basis? (Obviously, this person could be assisted by employee(s) if the cash flow supported them, so it doesn't have to be a less-than-full-time business.) Assume that the person in question can draw a good salary working full time, and thus the effective investment, against which to measure returns, would be the $25,000 in one-time capital cash plus $50,000 a year in foregone take-home pay and benefits.

Help me think of a name for my DJ/Events company!

FearTormento — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 15:34:17 -0800

Help me think of a name for my DJ/Events company! I'm starting out with primarily DJ services for now, but in the future I am planning to extend into creative event and lighting design. For this reason, I'm searching for a name that is somewhat broad to cover these secondary markets, but still relevant to any single one alone. I'm starting out with primarily DJ services for now, but in the future I am planning to extend into creative event and lighting design. For this reason, I'm searching for a name that is somewhat broad to cover these secondary markets, but still relevant to any single one alone.

The DJ industry has a propensity for amateurish sounding names such as "A Classy Affair," "Extreme Soundz," and "DJ Stu" which I would like to avoid.

Some defining characteristics:

• I will be promoting my deep catalogue of 80s (New Wave, Synthpop)
and 90s (New Jack Swing) music
• I aim to cater to a niche in weddings that want a low-key DJ with superb musical selection in specific genres vs. the typical highly-moderated chicken dance/slide/YMCA-type affair that plays a little bit of everything
• I will be promoting creative lighting design (not just a disco ball) as an effective and low-cost way to create a dramatic environment at events.

Some names I have been kicking around:

• Epidemic Events
• Radiant Events

I'm kind of stuck on this "__ Events" theme, so I'm looking forward to other creative names others might think would be good. Any advice from people that have embarked on similar ventures is also very welcome.

Many thanks!