Too Young and inexperienced?

I have a business idea. Well hundreds of them but apparently a lot of people do and do nothing about it, well this is one I'd like to do something about. It is nothing incredibly creative or inventive. It is something I feel is needed in a particular location. I'm in my early 20's, graduated from college with a business degree and would need ROUGHLY (more accuracy is needed) €120,000 to get it off the ground and that should include the necessary seed capital for the first year of operations.

What will be important for the business is setting it up correctly, interviewing the necessary staff who would be skilled to complete the tasks, promoting the business in the surrounding areas etc etc. I have no experience performing the required tasks but I will know if it is done correctly or not. I a in the process of creating a detailed business plan just for my own record and also to use to attract finance.

My question is, do you think I am too young? or inexperienced? Since I have never done it before but I intend to leave the running of it in terms of the tasks involved on a daily basis to someone else, I just intend on setting it up, getting the right people in, and managing the cash flow and ensuring the business succeeds. thanks for reading.

forbairt

From my point of view when I first set up I was young and naive that was in 2001 (not quite straight out of college but close) ... I learned a lot through mistakes and so on.

I think you asking if you are too young would mean you're unsure ? I know various people who are quite young and who are quite successful ... I know a lot more however who have failed.

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

Hey Entrepreneur,

You are definately NOT too young. The same people that say you are, will say you've too many commitments to take the same risk when you have the experience. Your at the best age to start a business in my opinion.

Experience is something that can tapped into by reading books on your business area and talking to people who have been through the same thing.

The only thing that worries me would be the fact that you think you can just set it up and walk away. Realistic you will have to work on the business for at least two years before you have systems good enough for it to run itself. But working on the business and in it are very different, hire someone to run the day to day tasks - but be there to over see it.

If you have problems attracting the start up capital ask yourself is there any way to test the market without spending the full 120k? If you can prove the model then you will have to give up less to the the funding (either equity or interest amount), and testing will help you build a better finnished product.

Ask Brandson said - "Screw it, Just do it"

shoutman

Maybe look into something like hothouse in dit where you might get some help on setting up and operating your business.

http://www.dit.ie/industry/hothouse/

Darragh29

Deleted User wrote: »

Since I have never done it before but I intend to leave the running of it in terms of the tasks involved on a daily basis to someone else, I just intend on setting it up, getting the right people in, and managing the cash flow and ensuring the business succeeds. thanks for reading.

Hi OP, fair play to you for deciding to be an entrepreneur! All I'll say is that based on the above comment, I worry that you have not thought this through as a business activity. Starting your own business is the most demanding and stressful thing you will probably ever take on. I fully encourage you to start your own business, it will distuinguish you as a person, but if you are going into this with a "hands off" approach, you are unfortunately doomed from the outset. Most businesses fail because they are not run with a proper business mentality from the outset, because the people who started the business, even though they had an excellent idea, had no experience in running a successful business previously and thought that it was just a matter of starting it up, taking a back seat, leaving others to do the graft, etc.

You need to understand every single aspect of your business inside out, even when you do, you will still have crazy business situations unfoldig in front of you which you will struggle to deal with. While I accept that you want to get the right people in and let them at it, the day you take your eye off the ball is the day people will start screwing you, especially if the business takes cash payment for products/services. Whatever your core business activity will be, you need to be able to say that you have done it before and you can do it perfectly and entirely while blindfolded in a room which is on fire. You need to be fluent in what you are doing, if you are relying on others, you will fail because others will expect you to be able to do whatever the activity is. There is no activity that you cannot become fluent in, if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to marry yourself to this belief. You are expected to be the expert in your business, it's a lonely role but extremely rewarding.

Just to leave you with this, I learnt the lessons, I had one employee take thousands out of my business and I was lucky to survive after this. You would not believe what some people will do if they are given the opportunity, so become fluent in your chosen field and trust absolutely nobody, especially if you are trading in cash.

One other thing I will say, at your age, many people wouldn't take you seriously if doing an interview for you. I once applied for a job where I was interviewed by 2 people and one of them was your age. He was a relation of the MD of the company and it was obvious to me in the interview that he hadn't a notion of what he was talking about and also lacked what I might call basic professional commuication skills during the interview, but at the time I was stuck for a job and when offered, I accepted. Obvioulsy I didn't stay there long, but bsed on that experience, if I found myself being interviewed by someone of that age again, I would leave the interview.

Best of luck, I hope you take my advice because I was given advice like this in the past but in the rush to success, I dispensed with it and ended up learning the hard way, war is hell!

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

Darragh29 wrote: »

One other thing I will say, at your age, many people wouldn't take you seriously if doing an interview for you. I once applied for a job where I was interviewed by 2 people and one of them was your age. He was a relation of the MD of the company and it was obvious to me in the interview that he hadn't a notion of what he was talking about and also lacked what I might call basic professional commuication skills during the interview, but at the time I was stuck for a job and when offered, I accepted. Obvioulsy I didn't stay there long, but bsed on that experience, if I found myself being interviewed by someone of that age again, I would leave the interview.

Thats blatent agism, the guy in question was obviously not capable. You can't tar everyone with the same brush.

I'm still a young business owner and have never had problems when any customers, staff or supplier give me anything but 100% respect. So in my opinon age is not an issue. Maturity is and if you've an issue with that then its your issue not this guys.

I do agree with everything else you said though.

benj

Fear of failure should never be a reason not to try something....
Good Luck!

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies. Just to clear something up, I will absolutely not be walking away. I intend on being there every day. My role in the business will be clear, i'll run it however like every business should be ran, if there is an area I am not capable of dealing with, I will have the expertise available who can. Specifically speaking, this will refer to the companies accountant (which the business will have) and the required staff to perform the necessary tasks. And without putting the business down, I see it as a straightforward but profitable business. It should not be too complicated at all however I am only just at the beginning of my business plan. I have not gone near market research as yet nor have I definitely decided on an area but this should not be hard. The key is location, location, location and I know that's what everybody says, but really and truly, in this case this could not be more truthful.

I don't personally think age will be an issue as I am confident enough and intelligent enough to deal with people properly and maturely regardless of the scenario.

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

Sounds great, you seem to have a great head on your shoulders. Go for it! Feel free to PM me if you need advice from someone who's gone through start up a few times before.

Regarding accountants maybe use a book keeper and accounting firm while starting up before you get your internal accountant. Cash Flow is key during start up.

Darragh29

Fancy Dresser wrote: »

Thats blatent agism, the guy in question was obviously not capable. You can't tar everyone with the same brush.

I'm still a young business owner and have never had problems when any customers, staff or supplier give me anything but 100% respect. So in my opinon age is not an issue. Maturity is and if you've an issue with that then its your issue not this guys.

I do agree with everything else you said though.

I accept that what you say is ideally how things work out, but I don't accept that someone of 21 should be in a managerial position, this is the problem we have with the standard of management in Ireland, every person who is in management thinks that they were born with a natural ability to manage, which is simply not true. The OP should do a course in management and learn the theory of what mangement involves. Then get experience managing a team of people, so he is learning the job and not risking his own money while he is learning, it is someone else's money that is involved. When he has enough exposure to management, and feel's competent and confident in starting at position A and bringing a team of people to position B, then he should go at it. Again, I was given all this advice before but in the urge to "go at it" as entrepreneurs do, I lost a lot of money because I believed what I read in the textbooks in college but never actually had to deal with a situation in the workplace involving fraud.

Darragh29

benj wrote: »

Fear of failure should never be a reason not to try something....
Good Luck!

Someone said to me once when I was in dire straits, "A man who is at the bottom may fear no fall"!!! Very true!

Fancy Dresser

Fancy Dresser wrote: »

Sounds great, you seem to have a great head on your shoulders. Go for it! Feel free to PM me if you need advice from someone who's gone through start up a few times before.

Regarding accountants maybe use a book keeper and accounting firm while starting up before you get your internal accountant. Cash Flow is key during start up.

Thanks a lot for the advice, will be pm'ing you.

Darragh29 wrote: »

I accept that what you say is ideally how things work out, but I don't accept that someone of 21 should be in a managerial position, this is the problem we have with the standard of management in Ireland, every person who is in management thinks that they were born with a natural ability to manage, which is simply not true. The OP should do a course in management and learn the theory of what mangement involves. Then get experience managing a team of people, so he is learning the job and not risking his own money while he is learning, it is someone else's money that is involved. When he has enough exposure to management, and feel's competent and confident in starting at position A and bringing a team of people to position B, then he should go at it. Again, I was given all this advice before but in the urge to "go at it" as entrepreneurs do, I lost a lot of money because I believed what I read in the textbooks in college but never actually had to deal with a situation in the workplace involving fraud.

I do have an honours degree in business and have studied management from a basic level(Taylorism etc) to an advanced level (Strategy etc) in extensive detail however this is just theory, I don't have experience of managing people however I really can't see it as being a problem as we are talking about small teams. I don't think I have a natural ability to manage however I know I have people skills and I think that is the most important aspect of management.

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

Darragh29 wrote: »

but I don't accept that someone of 21 should be in a managerial position, this is the problem we have with the standard of management in Ireland

Again age has nothing to do with it. I know several guys in their twenties who can out preform, out negotiate and manage employees better than "veteran" managers. I also know bad ones, such is life. I can gaurantee you wouldn't sit across from the table for long and be condesending to me about my age (apologies cause that sounds argumentative which its not intended to be).

Yes experience is important etc, this guy says he has a degree and therefore must know the theory. Experience is only learned by doing and you learn faster when your head is on the chopping block. The problem with starting in a big corportation to learn is you get sucked in to the rat race and it can be very hard to leave once you start depending on the income for mortguages and car loans to keep up with the guy in the next office.

At the end of the day if you want to do business and a 21 year old can put the best proposal on the table and execute it better that anyone else thats all that matters. With regard to you being burned in the past, i do feel sorry that you got burned in the past, but with the right advisors, mentors and a competent accountant that can be avoided.

Remember the golden rule of business - He with the Gold makes the Rules.

Darragh29

Deleted User wrote: »

Hi guys,

If there is an area I am not capable of dealing with, I will have the expertise available who can.

OP, you will have to be the expert, when the sh*t hits the fan (and it will!), people will be looking to you for the answers, not the other way around! I made this mistake once in business, I basically "outsourced" a sales problem once, I underestimated my ability to bring sales into my business, so I involved an well known advertising company that sell a big yellow book that brought in very well presented sales people and sold me thousands of Euro's worth of advertising that was (verbally!), guaranteed to bring my sales to a particular target, in fact these sales people suggested that I would surpass my sales targets and have to hire more staff, buy more equipment, etc, etc, etc.

Anyhow, I signed a cheque for somewhere in the region of 12,000 Euro and low and behold, my sales hardly changed! After the sh*t hit the fan and the post mortem was done, it turned out that I was the person who should have been in a suit, knocking on doors and drumming up business. I should have spent 1,000 Euro on leaflets and thrown them in doors and on car windows myself. I didn't think I was up to it, so I threw the problem at someone who convinced me that they could resolve it, they couldn't, but still charged me 12,000 Euro for it and that was the end of that little business venture!

For the first 2-3 years of the business, you won't be able to afford people to offer you consultancy advice, except for the absolute bare minimum.

I really respect your decision to start up, it is the bravest thing any person can do I think. But answer the following questions:

(1) Why are you starting up a business? The first time I did this, it was well intentioned but it was for the worst possible reason and ended in failure. I had left a job that I was very unhappy in, I had an awful manager who held me back at every opportunity and basically when I got out of that situation, I was like a horse that had been locked in a stable all winter and spring had arrived and someone had just opened the stable door!!! I had money behind me and all I wanted was the freedom of working for myself. I wasn't really interested in profit, I just didn't want another arseh*le boss, which I didn't have now, and everything seemed grand. Because I wasn't too interested in profit, I had a half ars*d attitude to sales and controlling profit margins on transactions and numbers/accountancy in general within the business. Obviously this didn't work and that was the end of that.

It might be that money is not the key reason why you are starting out on your own, for me, I'm not a money orientated person, but I had to learn through time and failed experiences, and learn how to disicipline myself how to put accountancy at the centre of my business, in the first instance, your business has to be about money, and that means more money coming in than there is going out! Whatever about personal freedom, having no boss except yourself, flexible hours if it works out for you, from day 1, it must be about $$$ and I can't emphasise this enough to you, as someone who failed to do so and paid the price in the past.

(2) Why can you not be an expert in every area of this business? What part of it is rattling you and requiring you to rely on someone else? If this particular area happens to be sales, then stop and go no further until you have tackled this. I'm starting up an IT business as we speak, I had to learn how to program for that to happen. I could have spent money on someone with this skill but why should I pay someone else to do something when I can learn how to do it myself and pay myself instead of paying someone else???

Finally, will you be taking a wage from the business from the outset? If not, then remember that some of those people who you will be relying on will be getting paid weekly/monthly and it starts getting hard after a while when they are drawing a nice salary from your business and leg it at 6 on the dot and you're there at midnight putting in the hours and fire fighting and not getting paid for it.

Tell me this, will this business be dealing with cash payments from customers and will your staff be handling cash on your behalf???

Darragh29

Fancy Dresser wrote: »

Again age has nothing to do with it. I know several guys in their twenties who can out preform, out negotiate and manage employees better than "veteran" managers. I also know bad ones, such is life. I can gaurantee you wouldn't sit across from the table for long and be condesending to me about my age (apologies cause that sounds argumentative which its not intended to be).

Yes experience is important etc, this guy says he has a degree and therefore must know the theory. Experience is only learned by doing and you learn faster when your head is on the chopping block. The problem with starting in a big corportation to learn is you get sucked in to the rat race and it can be very hard to leave once you start depending on the income for mortguages and car loans to keep up with the guy in the next office.

At the end of the day if you want to do business and a 21 year old can put the best proposal on the table and execute it better that anyone else thats all that matters. With regard to you being burned in the past, i do feel sorry that you got burned in the past, but with the right advisors, mentors and a competent accountant that can be avoided.

Remember the golden rule of business - He with the Gold makes the Rules.

Listen, I agree with you! All I'm trying to point out to the OP is that there people out there with preconceived ignorant notions regarding age and ability, I am one of them! I'm just saying that based on my experiences, if I turned up at an interview and a 21 year old was interviewing me, I'd be shaking hands and wishing them the best with their project.

One thing I've learnt is to trust your gut feeling when dealing with people. I remember my own interview situation with this other gimp I referred to above and I remember my gut feeling being, "this guy is an arseh*le", this was my guy feeling. Now you sill argue that this guy will still be an arseh*le at 31 and I accept that.

I genuinely think that in terms of life experiences alone, most 21 year old's might not have encountered the type of situations that would temper him for running his own business. However, the OP is an entrepreneur and in my eyes has set himself apart from normal 21 year olds and he could acquire the skills if he is determined enough. Even if the OP got some people management experience under someone else's flag, this would help, if he is driven enough, he can do it, this is what being an entrepreneur is all about, doing it instead of making excuses for not doing it!

For example, what is he going to do when some employee is taking the p*ss and he has to fire them, and don't tell me this won't happen!?!?! I'm not saying I've the answer, because I'm just giving the OP the benefit of my experiences of failure! The hardest thing I ever had to do in business was get rid of a guy who was robbing thousands a month off off me to feed coke habit but who had also helped me set up a very successful business before he developed a drug habit. These type of situations would challenge most people with way more experience, that's all I'm saying.

Darragh29

Deleted User wrote: »

Hi guys,

The key is location, location, location and I know that's what everybody says, but really and truly, in this case this could not be more truthful.

Just remember these days, location, location, location == $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$,

So just make sure you are properly capitalised.

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

All good points, i think were on the same page. I guess were agruging the points to help this guy be aware up the upside and downside of the same issues.

Getting mentors is very important when you have issues for the first time. Hire with caution and if someones not working out let them go straight away and stop holding them back from their potential else where.

And to add to your location quote, as trump said:

Location, location, location, Marketing!

antoinolachtnai

My concern reading over the thread is that you do not have a clear conception of how much it will cost to start your business. I don't see how you can start a business that requires a couple of employees (which I gather is what you have in mind) for the sort of money you mentioned. That's not to say it's impossible, because it isn't, but it is extremely unlikely.

For me this is a signal that you have a lot more to learn. Still, you are going the right way about learning, but I wouldn't like to see you get into an impossible position where you start the business then find you don't have the capital you need and have no way of raising it quickly.

Darragh29

Here's another bit of advice I'll give you OP, another pitfall I fell into at one stage in my early entrepreneurial career! Early on, I developed a bad habit of making decisions based on the best available information at the time, it could have been sales data, transaction data, marketing data, but not actually executing these decisions. I might have looked at data for a month previously and seen that my sales were down so I'd have to let someone go, then on the day that I was to let that person go, it would get very busy and I'd change the decision that had been made to let someone go, then it would be quiet again and I'd be back to where I started.

I had to learn that decision made must equal decision executed without any delay, no matter what type of emotion might get in the way, if you make a decision about your business operations you need to put effect to that decision almost immediately. This is why I'm saying be very careful about taking on people unless it is absolutely necessary, because they are hard to get rid of on several levels (sometimes they become friends or trusted within your business and you rely on them to do daily work although they are losing you money, there are also usually legal implications or a threat thereof), if it needs to happen (through no fault of your's or their's), especially if they have been with you since day one, they might feel that they were completely central to your sucess, although they will usually not have access to the data that you will be looking that makes their departure inevitable.

As was said to me, "decision made equals decision executed, exceptions none". It was mentioned, "well, what if the decision was wrong?", well if it is, fine, we'll learn from it, but whatever we do, where we make a decision, we will implement it immediately whatever the consequences and by repeating this process, we will uptimately learn how to improve our decision making process!

davty10

Was Bill Gates too young ? If your good enough your old enough! Its all about the kahunas and a steady head..

antoinolachtnai

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

My concern reading over the thread is that you do not have a clear conception of how much it will cost to start your business. I don't see how you can start a business that requires a couple of employees (which I gather is what you have in mind) for the sort of money you mentioned. That's not to say it's impossible, because it isn't, but it is extremely unlikely.

For me this is a signal that you have a lot more to learn. Still, you are going the right way about learning, but I wouldn't like to see you get into an impossible position where you start the business then find you don't have the capital you need and have no way of raising it quickly.

This is a very quick response until I read over all the information and additional replies in this thread later but I just noticed this. As I said earlier, I estimated the costs ROUGHLY, I'm in the middle of doing the costs part of the business plan properly and accurately with sources to prove it etc. But my ball point figure is not off the mark give or take 10/20K and yes that will include one years seed funding for the business. I'm a huge believer of the business plan and once it is done properly, I will know exactly where I stand but I do take your point on board and thank you for it.

Darragh29

Deleted User wrote: »

This is a very quick response until I read over all the information and additional replies in this thread later but I just noticed this. As I said earlier, I estimated the costs ROUGHLY, I'm in the middle of doing the costs part of the business plan properly and accurately with sources to prove it etc. But my ball point figure is not off the mark give or take 10/20K and yes that will include one years seed funding for the business. I'm a huge believer of the business plan and once it is done properly, I will know exactly where I stand but I do take your point on board and thank you for it.

Regardless of whether you have the money you need or not, if you have the drive you will achieve the objective. The only thing that will possibly get in the way of that is if you start hiring experts and staff that you cannot afford, in the hope that your sales will quickly kick in to cover these costs. Here's another bit of advice: whatever sales targets/projections you ultimately end up with in your business plan, when you have refined it to as realistic as you think it can possibly be, put a line under every figure for each month and under that little line, put a 2 and work from there!

Darragh29

Darragh29 wrote: »

For the first 2-3 years of the business, you won't be able to afford people to offer you consultancy advice, except for the absolute bare minimum.

I really respect your decision to start up, it is the bravest thing any person can do I think. But answer the following questions:

(1) Why are you starting up a business?

(2) Why can you not be an expert in every area of this business? What part of it is rattling you and requiring you to rely on someone else?

Tell me this, will this business be dealing with cash payments from customers and will your staff be handling cash on your behalf???

Thanks for all the advice Darragh29, I'll answer your questions now that I have a bit more time. I'm in the middle of doing up all my costs for my business. Also note, this business will not be launched until next year, I am just creating the business plan so I can add to it. I am also going traveling shortly for < 6 months and would like to have the business plan ready to go for when I am back.

Why am I starting up a business? I want to be my own boss and need to be my own boss. I can't work under someone else or be a number in a company. Don't ask me why, I just can't. I feel I can do it, it may be over confidence but with my ambition and drive to succeed, i feel this will win over any difficulties. I also personally feel I can contribute to society with my enterprising nature, I believe that I am a very enterprising person, I'm not the person who was selling apples at the age of 5 on the side of the street or anything like that, I'm just a normal guy who had raw business potential who is slowly but surely developing into this enterprising guru who dreams of setting up his own business and owning multiple companies. Everywhere I go, I analyse and spot potential enterprising opportunities, I go home with an idea in my head and I can't stop thinking about, I can't sleep with the passion I have inside me to get this idea off the ground, up and running and know that I am satisfying people who use my products/services, satisfy myself by knowing that I am doing what I want and making money doing it at the same time. Profit is my number one priority but developing as a young ambitious entrepreneur-to-be with raw potential into a seasoned, successful businessman is also something I feel is essential for me personally and can only happen with profit because let's face it, money is what makes or breaks businesses (Lehman Brothers???). Sorry for rambling but I'm just trying to convey the overall passion I have for this, I have found my passion and it's being my own boss and being responsible entirely for it.

2) Why can I not be an expert in every part of the business? I could be if I wanted to be, but there are more passionate people than me in that particular area of the business who would do a better job than me, I feel it would be foolish for me to even try and get to grips with the passion these people have, as my passion is spotting the idea, turning the idea into a potential business (business plan) , setting up the business, promoting the business myself, presenting the business to interested parties and then running the business and ensuring it operates smoothly and correctly. I feel for a business to work, you need the right parts in order for the machine to operate, having three people like me in this business would result in catastrophe, I know this. I have come to grips with this. I need other people for this business to work effectively and as best as it can be. However, the culture and attitude comes from the top and trickles down, that is my job. I will be responsible for getting the right people in and ensuring that the pieces to the jigsaw fit and get this wheel rolling.

I would also like to think if i get the correct staff in (my responsibility), that I would be able to trust them enough to handle the cash when I am not present. However, I would only do this if there are ways to ensure that theft/fraud can not occur.

Darragh29

Darragh29 wrote: »

As was said to me, "decision made equals decision executed, exceptions none". It was mentioned, "well, what if the decision was wrong?", well if it is, fine, we'll learn from it, but whatever we do, where we make a decision, we will implement it immediately whatever the consequences and by repeating this process, we will uptimately learn how to improve our decision making process!

And that is the most important part. Learning and ensuring that it does not happen again, becoming a better business man, and hopefully not losing too much in the process.

Darragh29

Deleted User wrote: »

I would also like to think if i get the correct staff in (my responsibility), that I would be able to trust them enough to handle the cash when I am not present. However, I would only do this if there are ways to ensure that theft/fraud can not occur.

Just be extremely careful if it is a cash business, because you will be snowed under a lot of the time with different competing priorities, and you might be tempted to put accountability on the long finger if you are busy. Use friends that are unknown to your staff to mystery shop and approach them anonymously. If you have a policy where every customer must get a receipt and you find that your undercover mystery shopper didn't get one, that's a classic sign that the payment has gone into the arse pocket.

If you are dealing with account work where a statement goes out to every customer once a month and a cheque gets sent in, then you have a lot less to worry about here.

I really admire your reasons given above for wanting to start up, all I'll say is that there is nothing like a business start-up to eat cash, and the vast majority of start ups are about one man and his horse. The banks are not lending at the moment so your own cash is going to have to go fairly far. My best advice to you is to cut everyone else out of the equation for 1 year, when you start up, just do it yourself and take a wage out of it, if at all possible, start up from home and keep your overheads down to an absolute minimum, forget about a glossy building in some fancy location that is going to cost you a fortune...

Musha

This is the most intresting threads on business I have read in a long time,
Darragh29 you sound like you have been around the business block a few times and are older and wiser for it, a lot of your comments I wished you had written them two years ago when we started our business esp the Big Yellow book one

We are heading into year 3 of our business venture and have taken many different paths to get where we are today and have fallen into the pit holes along the way.
But everyday we are still open for business is a good day in the current climate as we have seen others fall by the wayside.
My comments for OP are

Watch every penny because they do count!
Never give anyone sole access to your cash/cash flow
Sales people will tell you everything you want to hear, Whether they are trying to sell to you or selling for you
Source products carefully
People want Quality and Excellent Customer Sevice
Price is God, but only if you can add value (see above)
Making a small profit is better than not working at all.
Stay fuild, you never know your next product line, prepare to adapt and expand.
Know every part of your business as Key people can leave.
Stick to the basic's and do it well, expansion will come in time.
Discount your product but never your time.
Beware of fools making unrealistic promises!!!!!
Beware of fools making unrealistic promises!!!!!!!!
Beware of fools making unrealistic promises!!!!!!!!!!

We have built our business on Quality Product and Excellent customer service
we turn up when we say we will and workmanship is second to none.
Most of our business is referals from other clients, We answer the phones, reply to emails and give honest advise. We have in the past month Aug/Sept have 100% hit rate on turning quotes to jobs. We may not be the cheapest but we are good at what we do, and make no apology for the expence of the product because we know it is the best available in the market place and we sell it at a reasonable price and have had no returns in two years of using these products.


Oh and have fun, it's not the end of the world if it does not succeed the first time. You will always have another chance

Gareth37

Deleted User wrote: »

I have a business idea. Well hundreds of them but apparently a lot of people do and do nothing about it, well this is one I'd like to do something about. It is nothing incredibly creative or inventive. It is something I feel is needed in a particular location. I'm in my early 20's, graduated from college with a business degree and would need ROUGHLY (more accuracy is needed) €120,000 to get it off the ground and that should include the necessary seed capital for the first year of operations.

What will be important for the business is setting it up correctly, interviewing the necessary staff who would be skilled to complete the tasks, promoting the business in the surrounding areas etc etc. I have no experience performing the required tasks but I will know if it is done correctly or not. I a in the process of creating a detailed business plan just for my own record and also to use to attract finance.

My question is, do you think I am too young? or inexperienced? Since I have never done it before but I intend to leave the running of it in terms of the tasks involved on a daily basis to someone else, I just intend on setting it up, getting the right people in, and managing the cash flow and ensuring the business succeeds. thanks for reading.

I would not encourage you to do so at all.

Do you realise that there is a recession in place and that Banks are struggling big time? Do you realise that 25% of our economy was built on construction and that this is now redundant? Do you realise that 1000s of jobs will be lost in the coming years, HP and Dell the latest to hint at huge redundancies with Intel building a new factory in China to replace their Kildare factory.

What is your market/product? I hope that its not targeting the western economy?

Gareth37

Fancy Dresser wrote: »

Again age has nothing to do with it. I know several guys in their twenties who can out preform, out negotiate and manage employees better than "veteran" managers. I also know bad ones, such is life. I can gaurantee you wouldn't sit across from the table for long and be condesending to me about my age (apologies cause that sounds argumentative which its not intended to be).

Yes experience is important etc, this guy says he has a degree and therefore must know the theory. Experience is only learned by doing and you learn faster when your head is on the chopping block. The problem with starting in a big corportation to learn is you get sucked in to the rat race and it can be very hard to leave once you start depending on the income for mortguages and car loans to keep up with the guy in the next office.

At the end of the day if you want to do business and a 21 year old can put the best proposal on the table and execute it better that anyone else thats all that matters. With regard to you being burned in the past, i do feel sorry that you got burned in the past, but with the right advisors, mentors and a competent accountant that can be avoided.

Remember the golden rule of business - He with the Gold makes the Rules.

At this stage think about only 1 thing - making money. Can you make money!!

You must do a lot of market research before setting anything up and then once you have done all the market research you think that you need do more market research.

Gareth37

Gareth37 wrote: »

I would not encourage you to do so at all.

Do you realise that there is a recession in place and that Banks are struggling big time? Do you realise that 25% of our economy was built on construction and that this is now redundant? Do you realise that 1000s of jobs will be lost in the coming years, HP and Dell the latest to hint at huge redundancies with Intel building a new factory in China to replace their Kildare factory.

What is your market/product? I hope that its not targeting the western economy?

My market/product has nothing to do with construction or technology and yes I know enough about the current climate to know that if you are in the wrong industry, you are totally ****ed.

The way I look at it, the current economic climate means I can bargain my way to 6 months or so free lease relatively easily. There is always opportunity in times like this. The recession is not something I am scared of, it is something I respect.

Gareth37

Gareth37 wrote: »

At this stage think about only 1 thing - making money. Can you make money!!

You must do a lot of market research before setting anything up and then once you have done all the market research you think that you need do more market research.

I definitely believe money can be made. What will make it clearer is when the financial aspects of my business plan are fully done, I can realise HOW LONG it will take to make money!

Agreed about the market research, that's one thing that stuck with me from college.

Darragh29

Gareth37 wrote: »

I would not encourage you to do so at all.

Do you realise that there is a recession in place and that Banks are struggling big time? Do you realise that 25% of our economy was built on construction and that this is now redundant? Do you realise that 1000s of jobs will be lost in the coming years, HP and Dell the latest to hint at huge redundancies with Intel building a new factory in China to replace their Kildare factory.

What is your market/product? I hope that its not targeting the western economy?

Gareth, there is no perfect time to start up a business! This is what distuinguishes entrepreneurs from others as is the case here. Entrepreneurs see opportunity where others see doom and gloom. There is no change that doesn't bring with it opportunity, in fact all opportunity is actually based on change. The OP isn't like the majority of people in this country who look to HP, Intel, Dell, etc, to come waltzing into town with their big swinging di*ks handing out jobs!!! Small businesses are the largest source of employment in the country, not US multinationals! The world doesn't stop because Intel are building a fab in China!

Darragh29

Musha wrote: »

Darragh29 you sound like you have been around the business block a few times and are older and wiser for it, a lot of your comments I wished you had written them two years ago when we started our business esp the Big Yellow book one

I was also given good advice before I started but lacked the discipline at the time to heed it, I just wanted to go at it and thought I knew it all!

Musha

What industry are you in Darragh? Are things on a slow down for you?

All this talk about job losses and re******ion are realy P***ing me off,
Some people I know are sitting on their asses, smoking their brains out oh woe is me and not getting up looking for work.... the riders of the celtic tiger do not know how to generate work themselves.
We on the other hand we have always been broke, pouring our money into our house and kids, so it is nothing new :P Ride out the waves and onward and upward :D:D


(:eek: OMG Hide under the bed until it all goes away :eek:)

Trojan

Some great advice in this thread. I agree with both sides of the age argument, you're young and inexperienced, but you're young and that's a great place to start from. (I started business at 28, I wish it had been 24 or 25, maybe 21 wouldn't have been right for me but that's me.)

The only advice I completely disagree with is that you shouldn't do it because of the economic climate. If you're able to source investment and get started, do it. If there's jobs in it then the enterprise boards or Enterprise Ireland will be all over you to give you a hand - they are desperate for some good news to announce.

Check out some of the articles from Paul Graham (YCombinator):

Paul Graham wrote:

The big mystery to me is: why don't more people start startups? If nearly everyone who does it prefers it to a regular job, and a significant percentage get rich, why doesn't everyone want to do this? A lot of people think we get thousands of applications for each funding cycle. In fact we usually only get several hundred. Why don't more people apply? And while it must seem to anyone watching this world that startups are popping up like crazy, the number is small compared to the number of people with the necessary skills. The great majority of programmers still go straight from college to cubicle, and stay there.

It seems like people are not acting in their own interest. What's going on? Well, I can answer that. Because of Y Combinator's position at the very start of the venture funding process, we're probably the world's leading experts on the psychology of people who aren't sure if they want to start a company.

There's nothing wrong with being unsure. If you're a hacker thinking about starting a startup and hesitating before taking the leap, you're part of a grand tradition. Larry and Sergey seem to have felt the same before they started Google, and so did Jerry and Filo before they started Yahoo. In fact, I'd guess the most successful startups are the ones started by uncertain hackers rather than gung-ho business guys.

We have some evidence to support this. Several of the most successful startups we've funded told us later that they only decided to apply at the last moment. Some decided only hours before the deadline.

The way to deal with uncertainty is to analyze it into components. Most people who are reluctant to do something have about eight different reasons mixed together in their heads, and don't know themselves which are biggest. Some will be justified and some bogus, but unless you know the relative proportion of each, you don't know whether your overall uncertainty is mostly justified or mostly bogus.

Source: http://www.paulgraham.com/notnot.html