Forum Post: What incentive does a person have for wanting to go into business for themselves?
Posted 12 years ago on Sept. 25, 2012, 11:45 a.m. EST by Shayneh
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There is a lot of talk on this site about taking away the profits from businesses because they have too much money.
I know for a fact there are very few people who post on this site, that have any understanding about managing or operating a businesses or even understand why a person would want to go into business for themselves.
Now for those of you who are familiar with running and operating a business you already know the answer -
I am looking for responses from those with no business experience who may think they know the answer.
So I ask you - what do you think the reason is for a person wanting to go into business for themselves. Do you really know why?
Let the dialogue begin.
My business is closing Saturday. I understand but it's difficult to explain to others. I did over 5 million in sales last year, but lost money. Corporations targeted my profits and got them.
Corporations are greedy, unfortunately they are also relentless and merciless.
18 more people will file for unemployment. Check to see where most jobs come from.
What type of business were you in?
there are many reasons to start your own business. The 2 reasons i have
1 - working for yourself instead of having a boss... aka more freedom
2 - And of course... better pay if you're profitable.
Those are the reasons I have my own side business outside of my main job.
Starting a business isn't that easy either. You need a lot of money first most of the time.
What's your answer?
Also no one is suggesting to take away profits from businesses because they have too much money. People are suggesting paying employees better because they are a huge factor in making the profits happen. People are suggesting they stop using so much of their profits to buy off aspects of the government.
Wal Mart couldn't sell shit without employees. No sales... no profits. They need employees to sell. They need consumers with money to buy.
Some people go into business for themselves because there doesn't seem to be any other option. Occupy Wall Street is my first business venture. I have basically no previous business experience. My goal is to profit from polarization. It seemed to work very well for the 1% so there's no reason to think it can't work for the 99%. My business is open to proposals from everyone. OWS isn't interested in turning 'dialogue' into a business. I don't see any serious proposal being made here. Is there anything else you'd like to share with us today?
We have a business. We call it Occupy Wall Street. We are in the business of polarization. Do you have a business proposal you'd like to make?
Well, I did write up a business proposal for the housing authority in one of the big cities.
It was designed around taking young men and putting them to work with skilled craftsmen. Everyone would be invested in the business and everyone would receive a share of the profits.
The revenues would be reinvested in the business to bring in more revenue.
Training would be accomplished in a warehouse where different areas would be set up for training.
To get the business off the ground would amount to around $450,000 - but it never came to be - not enough interest by the housing authority.
I believe that America is a sleeping giant. Its been loled to sleep by the corporate mouse who is siting high on the cheese block feeling quite proud. But when this giant awakens it wil scream of justice for all and the mouse will be stomped out of existence.
The vast majority of business opportunities out there are in the services sector(i.e. servants). Nearly all manufacturing has been sold overseas by Romneys' ilk to his corporate palls. The sales devisions have largely been incorporated as well. As long as we bow to the one percent, corporate monarchy represented by the two partys, we wil continue to lose the middle class. If we do not free ourselves from the corporate web of lies that is saturating the nation we will soon become as surfs.
I worked for myself and made about 17 grand for a number of years and paid about 3 grand in taxes. I found out you don't have to file a return if you make under a certain amount, something like 9-10 grand. I started working less to fall into the non-existent bracket. I am officially off the radar.
Hey, if that works for you and you are satisfied where you are there is noting wrong with that - people have different goals in life and as long as what they are doing works for them I think it's great.
As I have stated - there have been times when I was broke but we managed to make things work out.
A person can not go into business for themselves unless they have a boat load in the bank here are the reasons why:
NO ONE is SAFE from MONOPOLIES(except independently wealthy people and the occasional celebrity) just keep hope alive one day you may escape the rat race and make enough to live comfortably without fear - ha ha ha
oh yes wealthy people rent to poor people that's what they really do for a living they own lots and lots of property probably snatched up right when the struggling middle class foreclose after the last corporate down size or streamlining, or out-sourcing took place. These people don't create jobs they hold real estate for ransom.
Sound familiar?
1 and 2 are false.
Well, if Obama did something about shoring up the economy instead of shoring up wallstreet a person who wanted to go into business would have no problem.
Now that is not to say a person can't go into business for themselves without a boat load of money but I wouldn't count on them being successful because of the current state of the economy.
However, there are people out there who have started up businesses and are successful.
No problems except the imposed prices of the monopolies you'll have to deal with.
You know all these conservatives look at the government like it's the devil but they never stop to consider all of the costs they have to pay to the monopolies that steal from their coffers along the way - I can only conclude that is because all of these are tax write offs for them that allow them to go on avoiding paying the taxes they like to complain about paying which they don't really pay - ? The citizenry can't write off all of their own expenses and in effect are paying a toll to all of these monopolies who are definitely price setting through algorithms and technological programs that allow them to instantly know their other competitor's price without technically discussing it with them. As competition is limited and conglomerated and TechJunkie this one is for you -bought out- Americans are left with more and more limited choices which allows these companies to base prices not on market demand, but on whatever they decide. We can't exactly all go without gas or food. As smaller farms go under and are bought out - we'll be left buying from one company. When they poison the food with chemicals - are we going to starve or eat it? That is not a choice. Again Tech junkie - when for instance all the research or pharmaceuticals or whatever ends up in the hands of one company and they have no competition - what is going to cause them incentive to innovate any further when they already have easy profits? This is why this is bad for the American people. I want small business to stay small - I want everyone to be entrepreneurs - to have fair markets and competition. When a company gets too evil, if it's small enough and there is competition and they are not bribing our government with billions of dollars, then the American people can decide to put them out of business - right now they are to big to fail ... which is also the reason we're constantly bailing them out.
If you really care about small business and innovation then you would see why monopolies are bad and corporations must be limited in their scope and power. Once they get this large they become a feeding machine eating up anyone and everything they can to feed their stock rating, to build their own golden "escape" parachute while trampling the American dream and those of us who understand this country is full of people with ideas and intelligence - who should not be destined to a life of drudgery because the deck is stacked against them in favor of a brainless machine that cares nothing about them or innovation - but only exorbitant profits and their own escape and justify it by imagining they aren't just more ruthless but somehow smarter.
To make their actions seem less selfish they must convince themselves the rest of the nation is defunct and without ambition or imagination. It never occurs to them that the person behind the counter or getting them their coffee may not only be more intelligent than they are but a kind human being. When you work in the service sector you are not treated as a business builder and worker - you are not treated with dignity and honor, but with self indulgent disdain. Your business is built with the people who do the work - they allow you to fulfill your ideas and bring them to life. But you look at them like servants who should feel grateful and kiss your feet for being so intelligent they have the luck and privilege to serve your needs as though they are the servants to some invisible aristocracy. I think this is wrong headed and the relationship between employer and employee needs some re-thinking in this country. The scales have become so unbalanced that corporations have even forgotten all of us employees are also their consumers. Which is why you see they have begun to treat consumers as if they are employees and leave them on hold for hours, treat them with disdain and expect them to pay up no matter what.
Something is seriously out of whack in this nation - it surprises me that so many are blind to it. I suppose it must be those who had a spot of luck, or those who ruthlessly stepped on others or lied or cheated to get ahead, or perhaps even those who worked hard and have convinced themselves that all the people they see every day don't work just as hard as them and now justify the actions they take to further lengthen the gaps between us like buying up property and renting at ridiculous rates to that young couple just starting out with all those loans to pay back now that education has become so expensive. If you can't see it - I probably am wasting my breath explaining it to you.
This is not about disdain for success, this is about disdain for ignorance, disdain for a system for the masses that works for so few, disdain for corruption that is taking our country into the Orwellian universe of our nightmares. We are not profits; we are people. We are not money; we are the actions we take and the lives we change along the way. It doesn't matter how much you give your kids if you give them a world of conflict full of injustice. When the masses begin to rebel (and they will) they will not see your child as better or smarter, they will see them as the enemy. Isn't it better to create a world where everyone can profit, where caste systems do not exist, where people's voices matter more than profits? A system that brings out the best in people instead of the worst? The pigs aren't just the government when the government becomes corrupt and the pigs align themselves with monopoly money and power - it's the working class citizenry left pulling the entire wagon. As far as small business if it is big enough to exist right now, they probably aren't that small and if they are, their time is surely limited.
thank you elf3, we are on the same page.
I've been in business for myself for my entire life and I literally never had a "job" in my life before I became an employee of a company that I started a couple of years ago. I do it because I don't respond well to people telling me what to do. And also because I enjoy creating jobs, no joke. I created a software development job for a person from this web site a year ago who had no experience and he is now in his first week in college pursuing a computer science degree. I have made significantly less money over my career than my friends from college who took traditional jobs and worked their way up, but I'm also a lot happier because I work from home and I'm about to go and kiss my little baby after I press "save" on this message.
A. how did you pay for your education to learn what you know ?? (Computer Science Knowledge and upkeep on it isn't cheap).
B. How much of your profit pays back the loan??.
B 1/2 who gave you the start up money and what is the interest?.
C. How long until your competitors catch your heels or buy you out?.
A. I went to a state school and my parents took advantage of a prepaid program. The Florida Prepaid College Plan, which I am starting soon for my infant daughter. I also earned three different scholarships that I can remember. The Florida Academic Scholars, which I think is now called Bright Futures, a scholarship for winning a state writing contest, and a scholarship from my mother's company.
B. No loans at all.
B.5. I started my company with $5,000 of my own money in 1997 immediately after graduating from the University of Florida.
C. My career has involved starting many different ventures and having one get bought out is not a bad thing. The trick is to avoid being forced to continue working for a venture after it's bought, if your goal is to not have to answer to anybody else. Key phrase: "exit strategy"
you managed to succeed despite so many odds and when it all boils off the you will be bought out or undercut by monopolies and is the reason the country will not be better off for it nor will they benefit from any innovation you create solely you will benefit, collectively the rest of the American workforce will remain in the trenches and down the line opportunity and innovation will fade more and more from each new generation. This is the problem. You "escape" - but do you care about those left behind or future generations. Can you see the larger picture and understand what we are protesting and what the affects of not will be on future generations?
Why are you so convinced that getting bought out is a bad thing?
The venture that I'm currently involved in, which is in its fifth year, is soon going to become part of a constellation of companies funded by venture capital. If there ever is a monopoly in our industry then we'll be it. Is that a bad thing for me? It's not a bad thing for all of the people who we're going be hiring soon, is it? People on this site bitch about unemployment all the time but I've already created a job for one person from this web site and lots of other people and soon we're doing to be hiring dozens more. Why do you think that's a bad thing?
TJ - you are one of the few on here who have owned or been involved in managing and running a business. Sounds like you know what you are doing - keep it up.
It's hard to convince someone when they have a distain for businesses that it can be a great thing to own and operate your own business.
Small businesses are the backbone of this country - and it's those businesses that put people to work in this country.
Sure, there is competition out there but you have to find your nitch - as you did.
The company I managed and worked for was a HVAC contracting business. Volume was around 1 million a year.
When the bubble burst in 2008 we had to make changes to keep the doors open. We deversified the businesses into doing not only HVAC, but electrical work, renovations and auto body work.
We had the sub-contractors and the contacts to make it work.
That's what it takes to stay in business - you have to continually be out there looking for ways to succede - and we did.
Definitely. It obviously wasn't easy staying in the Internet business through the dot-com crash in 2001. The whole 2008 thing was easy by comparison.
There do seem to be a lot of Occupiers who resent all business owners, which IMHO is very misdirected. Small business owners are not the bad guys. Generalized anti-establishment sentiments are fun and all until you end up hating people who might want to help you.
Good for you TJ and congrats! (On both your happiness and your baby)
"I am looking for responses from those with no business experience who may think they know the answer."....
Why?
To see if they really understand why a person goes into business and their reasons. Too many people complain about the wealth of people who own a businesses but I doubt if they understand why.
The reason why I would go into business is to make money! I would jack my prices up and force you poor souls to buy my product. With luck I may become another Walmart!
Your business would never last so you shouldn't have to worry about it.
I think your just jealous of my money making machine that I have. You should try to work sometime it'll do you some good.