Why Do People Start A Business?
If you’re like me and want to start your own business, first ask yourself why? Are you just bored with your current job? Tired of working for a company that really doesn’t appreciate you? Or do you just want more out of life?
Starting your own business can be the answer to these questions and many more. First, figure out why you want to work for yourself. This will give you a reason to start and continue to work at your business. If you don’t really know why then you will lose interest and stop.
We will discuss some ideas of how to work for yourself here. There are traditional businesses, online businesses, scams, and much more.
Why I Started My Online Business
I wanted to talk briefly about why I decided to start my own online business. I really was tired of working for companies that never seemed to pay me enough, even after getting my bachelor. I understand why companies want to hire the best employees for the lowest wages. After all, someone has to answer to management or the board. It’s all about the bottom line!
Is this really the best practice or way to run a business? I don’t believe so. You get what you pay for! If you hire employees at low wages, they bring that low-wage attitude with them. This will hurt any business and chase away good employees. That’s why I left a couple of the companies that I worked for, they started hiring people at low wages and wow, the company’s attitude really changed.
I have been involved in three companies that went through a major downsizing. One day management started calling people into the office and BAM, 25% off the company was gone in about an hour. Why should we have to pay for their poor business decisions?
In another company I worked at, I was passed over for a promotion because another manager’s son was looking for a job. The job was posted, I applied and some of my more troublesome accounts were switched to the supervisor’s spot. Then HR had to open the position back up because a customer service manager’s son wanted to apply. He got the position because he had a degree, my accounts were switched back to me, and guess who trained him!
My last job was in the oil and gas industry. Decent pay and good benefits. But the schedule SUCKED! 12-hour shifts. Work 6 am to 6 pm a few days, take a couple off, then 6 pm to 6 am for a few nights, take a couple off, repeat. I don’t know about you, but I can’t live like that! Especially not as a single parent.
You might think I just had a string of bad luck – no it’s called Corporate America!
Traditional Business
A traditional business is great for anyone that provides a service and needs a place to operate from. This would include your auto mechanic, accountant, lawyer, doctor, hairstylist, restaurant, or other professionals.
Traditional businesses used to include depart stores, specialty shops, or other types of stores, but not so much anymore. Many of the products we use, we can purchase online. We can even order our groceries online and have them delivered now!
If we need something now or want to try clothing on, we can still go to the brick and mortar stores. Depending on what I am looking for and how soon I need it, I may go to a local store or mall. If I can wait, many times I can find the same thing cheaper online. Just look what Amazon has done to the way most people shop!
Advantages of an online business
Online businesses give us many advantages over traditional businesses unless you provide a service that requires you to have an office (doctor, lawyer, etc..) or physical location that you provide services (auto mechanic, local bakery, etc..). Some advantages include:
- No inventory – there are some online businesses that you sell from your own inventory, but if you use affiliate programs or provide downloadable eBooks, you do not.
- Low investment – you can set up a website with less than $100 (I will show you later where you can start one for free and try the thing out)
- Can have a business up and running in just a few hours or less
- Easy to start – using WordPress it was easy to create my first site and I was surprised how quickly it was up
- Inexpensive marketing – there are ways to advertise your site for free or you can do paid advertising at affordable rates
- Endless possibilities – when it comes to selling products, we are only limited by our own creativity and there are places that can even help with that
Avoid online scams
Just like any other place, the internet is full of people looking to make a quick buck and will gladly take your money from you. One thing that has helped me avoid them, is simply reading reviews and seeing how creditable they really are. (more on scams in a future article)
Feel free to read any of my reviews, both the good and scams. Keep in mind, that these are my opinions, as are the ones that anyone else writes. I try to be open-minded, but some are too obvious that they only want my money.
My top recommended online business opportunity
To help you avoid scams and to get you started, I want to introduce you to where I learned how to create a website, market it, and what it takes to build my online business. It is Wealthy Affiliate. There is a free starter membership where you can build your own free website. You can even take the first set of lessons free that will show you how to get started.
To find out more, read my review on Wealthy Affiliate.
Final Thoughts
Once we have decided that we want to be in business for ourselves, the next thing that we need to decide is what type. For most of us, creating an online business is the way to go, unless as we have seen there is a reason to have a traditional business. Many traditional businesses also have a website as an extension of their brick and mortar stores or offices.
No matter what type of business we want to create, we need to be careful of what we are getting ourselves into. The old saying “if it sounds too good to be true……” There are no shortages of people looking to take our money or trying to sell us junk!
Before I started my sites, I looked at several opportunities. The one that I use taught me:
- To choose and start my online business
- How to build my website
- How to Grow my business
One of the best parts of Wealthy Affiliate is the extremely helpful and sharing community.
Make sure you check out my review on Wealthy Affiliate, even if only for the free information.
Please leave any questions or comments below.
Thank you for reading and best of luck,
Jim
Hi Jim. Thanks for this article. I have run my own business for over 20 years and to be honest, in my 30 years of working, I have only ever worked for someone else properly twice. I’ve been freelancing for what seems forever, but I love it.
One of the reasons I think that people start their own business is for the freedom they get. The freedom to choose your own hours, not have to fit in with everyone else’s holidays and the freedom to work in your own space at your own pace. That is invaluable and I really don’t see why more businesses don’t allow this kind of working. Obviously if you’re running a traditional shop you need to have set hours, but as you say, online businesses are starting to take over there too and I’m sure we will see some dramatic changes to working practices in the next few years. Better to be on the inside than the outside I say!
And I love my online business for all the same reasons you pointed out too.
When I worked for someone else, their schedule always seemed to get in the way of this thing we call life. Even if you telecommute and work from home, but still for someone else you still don’t have the freedom that you pointed out. To me, being able to do what I want, when I want is huge. I missed a lot of my kids sports games because of work, but not anymore.
Thanks
Jim
As our world becomes more digitized, I think that more people are turning to online business and it’s an amazing opportunity for so many people. I agree with what you were saying about traditional businesses disregarding the needs of their workers. About how long would it take for me to get established and be making money online?
Depending on what type of online business you start may affect how soon you start making money. For example, as a blogger, I have seen some make money in a couple of weeks and others take a few months to get their first sale. This can also depend on your niche. Don’t expect to make money immediately. Just as it takes a retail business time to make a profit, an online business is no different and will take some time.
There are sites that you can do freelance work for such as Fiverr.com and Freelance.com, where you can work as a contractor doing writing or other jobs for people. Another system I ran across that is similar to these is app coiner. You can make money doing odd jobs online there as well.
Thank you for your comment,
Jim