1000Names and I often dream of opening a dinner some day. We both enjoy to cook and work well as a team in the kitchen.
As far as seed money to get started - out of my league on that one. I know here in Michigan we have a small business association that will help new businesses get started. But I've never really checked into it. Not something I would be interested in actually doing until the kids are a little older.
Vickles, I've been there and done that. I'd love to hear more about your experience and abilities. That way I might have some better suggestions for you. If you don't want to post any additional information, you can PT me. If you don't want to do that, it's ok as well.
I have always been a believer in doing something that you, if not love, at least like to do.
Ive known quite a few people in the last few years who have taken what is in front of them, stuff that they do anyway--and make it into a viable business.
My sister, who has always loved poetry and graphic arts, has started a greeting card company.
A friend who loves animals, has a mobile pet grooming business (not my thing but she loves it..)
A woman down the street who loves to work with her hands and walk in the woods, quit her job a few years ago and makes really nice rustic furniture out of limbs and twigs...
My girlfriend who loves to cook and read is flirting with the idea of a restaurant or bookstore...
Everbody is different but everybody has something...
None of these are billion dollar ideas-granted- but they all live comfortably and have the added benefit of doing what they like to do on their own terms...
Thats just it. I have all kinds of people oriented background but just don't know what I like to do. All my ideas seem to not be something that would at least make me a little comfortable.
I have all kinds of people oriented background but just don't know what I like to do. All my ideas seem to not be something that would at least make me a little comfortable.
I don't know --there seems to be leap or a progression that took some time for the above people I know to conceptualize their ideas, believe in themselves enough, and then lay the groundwork where it actually works. There was a transition period from being a worker into being a business ownwer.
None of them happened overnight, and although the examples I gave are obvious now that that is what they should be doing, it wasn't obvious to them at all when they were still in the work world. Most of the transition was mental-getting to the place where they thought that they actually could do it, then jumping erratically off the diving board and doing it.
Sometimes, like with my sister, the transition took years. Some people seem to have an intutive sense about business,and can drop into it naturally-- for others, especially those of us who have spent alot of our lives working for someone else its more of a struggle to learn how and involves changing perceptions about a lot of things-mostly ourselves--At least thats the way its working for me, there is a world more things to think about when you aren't a cog anymore but the whole machine...
For me it took alot of stumbling and bumbling along for awhile (well i still am in many ways)because I have the natural business sense of a turnip. :D-->
I am not good at the business end, am terrible at sales and getting work but it all still works, mostly because I know what I can do, have stretched it out a little and have had a lot of things fall in my lap because I have a good reputation.
I don't know if any of this makes sense, is coherent or is of any help..(its 3am!) and it certainly isn't very specific...I wish I could give you the answer of what is right for you--but dont know you well enough and it probably wouldn't be right anyway...
It seems to me thats its a constant mystery to ferret ot what is really going on inside, finding, discovering and believing in your own talents or gifts and bringing them out. Thats the first job you've been given to do ;)-->
I do think that if you can work with people and know how to bring in the work--you have a huge part of the puzzle put together.
I have a friend who was in hospital personnel for years and years...she got fed up and became a Life Coach. She now makes oodles just talking on the phone with people she's known along the years helping them transition and go thru lifes changes.
I couldn't believe her income!!!! Just for becoming "one" with someone.
Sounds like you could use a life coach right now, but it also sounds like you could be one yourself.
Good Luck.
P.S. What's your bliss? When you find your bliss, you will have a direction. My bliss is the blending of color. I don't know how I found that out, but it's taken years and years. I now am a lampworker and watch hot molten glass blend into each other and it just blisses me out!!! I'm also heavily into dyeing and spinning yarn, which is also a blending of color...
It's not the lampworking nor the spinning that I really love. It's what it produces that keeps me motivated.
Look inside yourself a little deeper, vickles. Look for the bliss underneath things your like to do. Ask yourself "why" you like to do them. That may help.
Also...in the fall, start taking night classes at local schools. Sign up for things your wouldn't normally, like cake decorating, aromatherapy, soap making...You may find an underlying theme and then go from there.
gosh vickles...don't ignore the good ole TWI window washing gig...plenty of fresh air..in fact cooooool fresh air in Dec-March!! or later in Minnesota....LLOLOL JJ
I think mstar has it right. Do waht ya like. Better yet do what ya love. My problem is not that I don't know what I like, but I like too many things. So I am starting with the one that seems like will transition the easiest to the others. Like stepping stones, so that eventually as long as everything goes well, I may have a business with many susidiaries under it. Of course the first one will hvae to take off first.
I made custom furniture part-time before moving a month and a half ago. When I arrived here I decided I needed to get serious. So I have been doing a lot of homework. It may still be a while before it takes off, but when it does that will be something.
I have heard from many sources that at times people get started in a business that was, like mine, a former hobby and find they liked it as a hobby and not as a business. IMO to combat that spiral of death, start with learning the business of business, be prepared. I could say plan, but that has been so ruined by twi. So I say prepare. :)--> You can plan all you want, but life doesn't always decide to go along with your plan, so prepare so that you can be successful regardless of what life throws at you.
Anyway.
I once thought of starting an indoor plant business. I worked for one years ago. You go around to offices, restaurants, malls, hospitals etc. and maintain the plants. It is a cush, fun job. You just travel around watering, dusting, and grooming plants all day while talking with the people at the offices etc you go to. One down side to it though, is as a one person or small business you have to take small mini-vacations. You can't exactly go for a month, the plants will die.
My plan now is to do custom furniture and sell my art. From there I will transition into some interior design, maybe starting with kitchens for example. Later I would like to have a small store featuring my work with some accessories etc. If the interior design part works out I would like to go outside as well and do landscape design (more and more people are having "outdoor rooms" on their patios and decks). I am also in the process of designing furniture that can be mass produced and distributed on a larger scale...things like modular shelving systems. If all goes well and I become a high roler, LOL, I would like to invest and be apart of a restaurant. Food and dining out is my favorite way of watching my money disappear. :P-->
Well sorry for rampling.
Maybe start by telling us about your hobbies. If you don't have any, maybe there was something at one time that you enjoyed as a kid or in college or whatever. What do you think about or talk about a lot (other than TWI :D-->). Are there things you see in the store you pass by and say "I could do that".
Once throw out some thoughts like that maybe we can help you make something really happen. I wouldn't dismiss anything in perticular on account of thinking you won't make any money. You never know, and if you plan...I mean prepare for success you are more likey to be a success, and to the degree of success you desire.
There was a 15 year old kid who went to a provate school, in NY somewhere I believe. he didn't like the ties he had to wear. So one day he saw a bandana and made it into a tie. People loved it. He made others and people loved them and wanted to know where to get one. They took him to long to make so he found a place to manufacture his designs. He is now 18 I think, and is a multimillionaire.
Perhaps you have seen the "life is good" teeshirt line. The usually have a short positive message like "life is good" and a little stick figure doing something like hiking or just smiling. The shirts are made by two brothers that originally just drove from campus to campus selling shirts to college kids. When they came up with the little stick guy shirt, they took off. Now you see their shirts at REI and other stores nation wide and are making boat loads of money.
Another lady, was a painter. A successful painter, as successful as a painter can be these days, selling about 100 painting a year. See was hired to do an installation for a school or office, I forget. After much research and quite a bit of her own money she came up with a unique way of dying acrilic sheets. She patented the proccess and used them as room dividers and light filters etc. People like it so much she just started getting more and more jobs. Now she is dowing a huge job of IBM and has had to move to a giant warehouse and quadruple her staff. Needless to say she is rolling now.
Not to say that being a multi-millionaire is or should be your goal, but making money IS the name of the game.
BUT
Being rich monetarily is one thing and then there is being rich as in doing something you love and loving all of your life as a result of it, not just you days off, lol.
Do what comes natural, what comes to you with easy or take an idea you have and believe in yourself and your idea and make it happen. If your good with people and good with getting them together maybe start a makerting group and spread them across your state and then to the next state and on and on or however big or small you want it and are comfortable with.
So I hope this thread give you some ideas. I am looking forward to see how it goes.
You'd be suprised at how little craftiness or skill you need to be a successfull crafter. It doesn't hurt, but like I was saying I am one of those people that looks at things in stores and says "I can do that". Or many times I am saying "You've go to be kidding me they are selling this for how wuch? I could make that for 10 and they are selling it for 90." That just happened today. Many things are very simple to make, you just need to start doing them and see what works and what people like.
I mean the "Life is good" guys, have a teeshirt with a stick figure on it. A STICK FIGURE. That drives me nuts. This year I believe they are doing like 14 million in sales. It is one of those, "Why didn't I think of that" moments. Many time for me it is not that I didn't think about it, but that I though about it and did nothing. I see my ideas all the time gracing the pages of high end design magazines. They just did it first. DAMMIT!
I do have a good gift of gab and a good listener. I mostly am a people person.
There has got to be away to parlay that into a business somehow.
Who knows? There are boatloads of people who have no one to talk to and are dying of loneliness---Some people go to therapists that are highly trained (at $100/Hour), others really just need someone to hang with and to learn some social skills , like the ones you apparently have..can't you see it ?
Vickles-professional friend ;)-->, you could visit nursing homes, shut-ins, old people, coordinate social events, advertise to recluses, the single and newly divorced...
Heck I don't know, but don't be afraid -bizarre sounding ideas are the way alot of interesting things get born, don't be afraid to explore the unlikely possibilities that come to you that are out of the ordinary---something along the line may eventually stick, if you can do the legwork to put it together..
quote:
I guess I'm a dreamer.
Nothin wrong with that, the hard part sometime is pulling them out of the sky and doin the work to incorporate them into your life---but it is well worth the effort.
Mstar1, you just reminded me of the dog walker on "King of Queens" who gets paid to walk Arthur, Carrie's dad. LOL!
Vickles, you could start a "Granny Nanny" old people walking, visiting busiess. :D--> With older people moving in with their kids or living alone and lonely thsse days, there's probably many people who would pay to know that their parents are getting some much needed attention.
Vickles, I also remember reading a book called "I could do anything if I only knew what it was" by Barbara Sher.
She has great advice and tips on figuring out what it is you would LOVE to do and how to get started making money doing it. Here's one of her websites:
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vickles
I thought about the apt and home buying aspect as I have posted here before but I don't think that is the line I want to go into.
I want something that is very hands on that my whole family can be involved in.
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Abigail
1000Names and I often dream of opening a dinner some day. We both enjoy to cook and work well as a team in the kitchen.
As far as seed money to get started - out of my league on that one. I know here in Michigan we have a small business association that will help new businesses get started. But I've never really checked into it. Not something I would be interested in actually doing until the kids are a little older.
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vickles
I hear ya, abigail, my kids are older so it would be perfect for us.
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Jim
Vickles, I've been there and done that. I'd love to hear more about your experience and abilities. That way I might have some better suggestions for you. If you don't want to post any additional information, you can PT me. If you don't want to do that, it's ok as well.
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mstar1
What do you like to do?
I have always been a believer in doing something that you, if not love, at least like to do.
Ive known quite a few people in the last few years who have taken what is in front of them, stuff that they do anyway--and make it into a viable business.
My sister, who has always loved poetry and graphic arts, has started a greeting card company.
A friend who loves animals, has a mobile pet grooming business (not my thing but she loves it..)
A woman down the street who loves to work with her hands and walk in the woods, quit her job a few years ago and makes really nice rustic furniture out of limbs and twigs...
My girlfriend who loves to cook and read is flirting with the idea of a restaurant or bookstore...
Everbody is different but everybody has something...
None of these are billion dollar ideas-granted- but they all live comfortably and have the added benefit of doing what they like to do on their own terms...
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vickles
Thats just it. I have all kinds of people oriented background but just don't know what I like to do. All my ideas seem to not be something that would at least make me a little comfortable.
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mstar1
I don't know --there seems to be leap or a progression that took some time for the above people I know to conceptualize their ideas, believe in themselves enough, and then lay the groundwork where it actually works. There was a transition period from being a worker into being a business ownwer.
None of them happened overnight, and although the examples I gave are obvious now that that is what they should be doing, it wasn't obvious to them at all when they were still in the work world. Most of the transition was mental-getting to the place where they thought that they actually could do it, then jumping erratically off the diving board and doing it.
Sometimes, like with my sister, the transition took years. Some people seem to have an intutive sense about business,and can drop into it naturally-- for others, especially those of us who have spent alot of our lives working for someone else its more of a struggle to learn how and involves changing perceptions about a lot of things-mostly ourselves--At least thats the way its working for me, there is a world more things to think about when you aren't a cog anymore but the whole machine...
For me it took alot of stumbling and bumbling along for awhile (well i still am in many ways)because I have the natural business sense of a turnip.
:D-->
I am not good at the business end, am terrible at sales and getting work but it all still works, mostly because I know what I can do, have stretched it out a little and have had a lot of things fall in my lap because I have a good reputation.
I don't know if any of this makes sense, is coherent or is of any help..(its 3am!) and it certainly isn't very specific...I wish I could give you the answer of what is right for you--but dont know you well enough and it probably wouldn't be right anyway...
It seems to me thats its a constant mystery to ferret ot what is really going on inside, finding, discovering and believing in your own talents or gifts and bringing them out. Thats the first job you've been given to do
;)-->
I do think that if you can work with people and know how to bring in the work--you have a huge part of the puzzle put together.
What would you like to do?
What do you think you'd like to do?
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Wacky Funster
Have you looked into Life Coaching?
I have a friend who was in hospital personnel for years and years...she got fed up and became a Life Coach. She now makes oodles just talking on the phone with people she's known along the years helping them transition and go thru lifes changes.
I couldn't believe her income!!!! Just for becoming "one" with someone.
Sounds like you could use a life coach right now, but it also sounds like you could be one yourself.
Good Luck.
P.S. What's your bliss? When you find your bliss, you will have a direction. My bliss is the blending of color. I don't know how I found that out, but it's taken years and years. I now am a lampworker and watch hot molten glass blend into each other and it just blisses me out!!! I'm also heavily into dyeing and spinning yarn, which is also a blending of color...
It's not the lampworking nor the spinning that I really love. It's what it produces that keeps me motivated.
Look inside yourself a little deeper, vickles. Look for the bliss underneath things your like to do. Ask yourself "why" you like to do them. That may help.
Also...in the fall, start taking night classes at local schools. Sign up for things your wouldn't normally, like cake decorating, aromatherapy, soap making...You may find an underlying theme and then go from there.
Good Luck
:)-->
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Wacky Funster
P.S. Don't look for any penion in any of the above suggestions...and as I am seeing...that is a consideration.
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vickles
Jim I sent you a pt but you never answered so I erased it. I apologize if you just weren't able to get online.
Wacky, I sent you a pt. Thanks
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Jim
Vickles, sorry but I never got the notification. If you want to try again, I'll watch.
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Kit Sober
Hi Vickles,
I mentioned this on the "Pension" thread, but recently found the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad."
Maybe it will give you some ideas, too.
Certainly gives a different perspective on how to view money making processes.
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vickles
thanks kit I will take a look at it
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vickles
ok Jim I did a private message again.
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Second James
gosh vickles...don't ignore the good ole TWI window washing gig...plenty of fresh air..in fact cooooool fresh air in Dec-March!! or later in Minnesota....LLOLOL JJ
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vickles
LOLOL In fact I did do window washing around here years ago....when it would get 20 below...yuck and double yuck!!!!
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lindyhopper
Vickles,
I think mstar has it right. Do waht ya like. Better yet do what ya love. My problem is not that I don't know what I like, but I like too many things. So I am starting with the one that seems like will transition the easiest to the others. Like stepping stones, so that eventually as long as everything goes well, I may have a business with many susidiaries under it. Of course the first one will hvae to take off first.
I made custom furniture part-time before moving a month and a half ago. When I arrived here I decided I needed to get serious. So I have been doing a lot of homework. It may still be a while before it takes off, but when it does that will be something.
I have heard from many sources that at times people get started in a business that was, like mine, a former hobby and find they liked it as a hobby and not as a business. IMO to combat that spiral of death, start with learning the business of business, be prepared. I could say plan, but that has been so ruined by twi. So I say prepare.
:)--> You can plan all you want, but life doesn't always decide to go along with your plan, so prepare so that you can be successful regardless of what life throws at you.
Anyway.
I once thought of starting an indoor plant business. I worked for one years ago. You go around to offices, restaurants, malls, hospitals etc. and maintain the plants. It is a cush, fun job. You just travel around watering, dusting, and grooming plants all day while talking with the people at the offices etc you go to. One down side to it though, is as a one person or small business you have to take small mini-vacations. You can't exactly go for a month, the plants will die.
My plan now is to do custom furniture and sell my art. From there I will transition into some interior design, maybe starting with kitchens for example. Later I would like to have a small store featuring my work with some accessories etc. If the interior design part works out I would like to go outside as well and do landscape design (more and more people are having "outdoor rooms" on their patios and decks). I am also in the process of designing furniture that can be mass produced and distributed on a larger scale...things like modular shelving systems. If all goes well and I become a high roler, LOL, I would like to invest and be apart of a restaurant. Food and dining out is my favorite way of watching my money disappear.
:P-->
Well sorry for rampling.
Maybe start by telling us about your hobbies. If you don't have any, maybe there was something at one time that you enjoyed as a kid or in college or whatever. What do you think about or talk about a lot (other than TWI
:D-->). Are there things you see in the store you pass by and say "I could do that".
Once throw out some thoughts like that maybe we can help you make something really happen. I wouldn't dismiss anything in perticular on account of thinking you won't make any money. You never know, and if you plan...I mean prepare for success you are more likey to be a success, and to the degree of success you desire.
....
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lindyhopper
...so my one post wasn't so long....
For example,
There was a 15 year old kid who went to a provate school, in NY somewhere I believe. he didn't like the ties he had to wear. So one day he saw a bandana and made it into a tie. People loved it. He made others and people loved them and wanted to know where to get one. They took him to long to make so he found a place to manufacture his designs. He is now 18 I think, and is a multimillionaire.
Perhaps you have seen the "life is good" teeshirt line. The usually have a short positive message like "life is good" and a little stick figure doing something like hiking or just smiling. The shirts are made by two brothers that originally just drove from campus to campus selling shirts to college kids. When they came up with the little stick guy shirt, they took off. Now you see their shirts at REI and other stores nation wide and are making boat loads of money.
Another lady, was a painter. A successful painter, as successful as a painter can be these days, selling about 100 painting a year. See was hired to do an installation for a school or office, I forget. After much research and quite a bit of her own money she came up with a unique way of dying acrilic sheets. She patented the proccess and used them as room dividers and light filters etc. People like it so much she just started getting more and more jobs. Now she is dowing a huge job of IBM and has had to move to a giant warehouse and quadruple her staff. Needless to say she is rolling now.
Not to say that being a multi-millionaire is or should be your goal, but making money IS the name of the game.
BUT
Being rich monetarily is one thing and then there is being rich as in doing something you love and loving all of your life as a result of it, not just you days off, lol.
Do what comes natural, what comes to you with easy or take an idea you have and believe in yourself and your idea and make it happen. If your good with people and good with getting them together maybe start a makerting group and spread them across your state and then to the next state and on and on or however big or small you want it and are comfortable with.
So I hope this thread give you some ideas. I am looking forward to see how it goes.
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vickles
Well, I have never been good at doing arts and crafts...just not crafty enough.
I do have a good gift of gab and a good listener. I mostly am a people person.
I guess I'm a dreamer.
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lindyhopper
You can see many stories like I posted above in those entrepreneurial magazines. They are vary inspiring and sometimes spark ideas.
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lindyhopper
You'd be suprised at how little craftiness or skill you need to be a successfull crafter. It doesn't hurt, but like I was saying I am one of those people that looks at things in stores and says "I can do that". Or many times I am saying "You've go to be kidding me they are selling this for how wuch? I could make that for 10 and they are selling it for 90." That just happened today. Many things are very simple to make, you just need to start doing them and see what works and what people like.
I mean the "Life is good" guys, have a teeshirt with a stick figure on it. A STICK FIGURE. That drives me nuts. This year I believe they are doing like 14 million in sales. It is one of those, "Why didn't I think of that" moments. Many time for me it is not that I didn't think about it, but that I though about it and did nothing. I see my ideas all the time gracing the pages of high end design magazines. They just did it first. DAMMIT!
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mstar1
There has got to be away to parlay that into a business somehow.
Who knows? There are boatloads of people who have no one to talk to and are dying of loneliness---Some people go to therapists that are highly trained (at $100/Hour), others really just need someone to hang with and to learn some social skills , like the ones you apparently have..can't you see it ?
Vickles-professional friend
;)-->, you could visit nursing homes, shut-ins, old people, coordinate social events, advertise to recluses, the single and newly divorced...
Heck I don't know, but don't be afraid -bizarre sounding ideas are the way alot of interesting things get born, don't be afraid to explore the unlikely possibilities that come to you that are out of the ordinary---something along the line may eventually stick, if you can do the legwork to put it together..
Nothin wrong with that, the hard part sometime is pulling them out of the sky and doin the work to incorporate them into your life---but it is well worth the effort.
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Belle
Mstar1, you just reminded me of the dog walker on "King of Queens" who gets paid to walk Arthur, Carrie's dad. LOL!
Vickles, you could start a "Granny Nanny" old people walking, visiting busiess.
:D--> With older people moving in with their kids or living alone and lonely thsse days, there's probably many people who would pay to know that their parents are getting some much needed attention.
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Belle
Vickles, I also remember reading a book called "I could do anything if I only knew what it was" by Barbara Sher.
She has great advice and tips on figuring out what it is you would LOVE to do and how to get started making money doing it. Here's one of her websites:
Barbara Sher
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