What would a business person do?

DaSilva

Hey, I have never studied or learned anything business related, so in an attempt to understand how business people think I thought of a question that might give me some insight into what "doing business" really means.

The question in a way should be aimed at "successful" business people. I know success seems subjective and that's because it is, so don't hesitate to answer regardless, it's all useful knowledge anyway.

The question is, suppose you woke up tomorrow with nothing. None of your current contacts (family, friends, business partners..), no money and no assets, pretty much totally broke. What would you do? You don't have to be specific about a specific product or anything, but what are the things you would do.

Thanks.

drunkmonkey

Sign on, collect the dole and go for a few pint on Thursday with the other 400,000.
Sounds like bliss but i'd be bored in a few weeks and be back to wheeling and dealing in no time.

PCPhoto

DaSilva wrote: »

Hey, I have never studied or learned anything business related, so in an attempt to understand how business people think I thought of a question that might give me some insight into what "doing business" really means.

The question in a way should be aimed at "successful" business people. I know success seems subjective and that's because it is, so don't hesitate to answer regardless, it's all useful knowledge anyway.

The question is, suppose you woke up tomorrow with nothing. None of your current contacts (family, friends, business partners..), no money and no assets, pretty much totally broke. What would you do? You don't have to be specific about a specific product or anything, but what are the things you would do.

Thanks.

get a job. ...or create one ..... see if you can apply a business model you've seen to a different area.

ie. if you have no assets, no contacts, you have effectively just arrived from another country.... so first thing you do - 1. find a place to sleep 2. find a job ..... once you have an income you can build some savings - which will help you in the future.

if you had asked the same question 5-10yrs ago - the answer would have been goto the bank and get a loan - build a business.... of course there is always grants available but they are harder to get nowadays.

CompFix

DaSilva wrote: »

The question is, suppose you woke up tomorrow with nothing. None of your current contacts (family, friends, business partners..), no money and no assets, pretty much totally broke. What would you do? You don't have to be specific about a specific product or anything, but what are the things you would do.

I'm guessing that you mean what would you do on day 1 of this disaster. If I had somewhere to stay then the first place I'd call would be somewhere like a stationery/office supplies company (people are giving credit) who could provide me with 30 days credit. Purchase a small printer, good quality paper & produce some ads on servicing computers/laptops/servers. Distribute as appropriate to colleges/supermarkets/houses.

bobbytables

OP I think your question is excellent because in the current climate the reality is not to far away for many.

One thing that I firmly believe in though is if you want something to happen, you have to make it happen because nobody else is going to do it for you (not family, friends, or the state). That applies to everything from the roof over your head / food on the table to everything beyond that. Also a lot of time can be wasted either ranting over the injustices of difficult situations or talking about change, it's not until you actually start changing things yourself, your situation start to reflect those changes. It's a bit of a no-brainer that one, but many people (myself included) still waste a lot of energy being unproductive in the hope that some of it will be classed as productive (i.e. ranting & moaning).

Everyone is unique and has something more than others, be it a skill, knowledge, qualification, passion for something, location, experiences, etc. Know what your strengths are. Every moment of every day we as human beings are fulfilling needs. Bottom line, we have needs.

The things we have "more than others" is our ticket towards making money, a common necessity. If you have more money than others, you can put that to work to make even more money. If you have no money, you have to start identifying what else you have to use. Everybody has something of value, whether they have identified it already or not. Also what I think is interesting is that the knock-on effects of something like a recession, creates widespread change, and with such change comes new opportunities. So in many regards the fact that change occurs is of great importance in business, because change is the starting point that creates new needs that people will want to fulfill.

Sorry if my post was a little abstract, but I think the above should be considered as part of a day 1 strategy. It doesn't matter if you are looking for a job or starting a business. Employers pay people to help them achieve goals, and the people are rewarded with financial security but reduced freedom. Entrepreneurs identify opportunities (the result of change), and from there gain immense freedom but move with little or no financial security.

If you want to start a business, don't rest your dreams on the availability of seed capital from banks or 3rd parties. Money is not always the only means to achieve business goals, so in times like these when you think you may have nothing, the reality is that you may have none of something {money, contacts, etc}, but still some and maybe even lots of something else. I think the road to success starts with the realization that nobody is technically starting with nothing, and that they should first identify why that is? (what they already have to use to get more).

magunk

nail on the head bobbytables.

padser

I would attempt to figure out a way to start making some money again - assuming I couldn't get a job. For me, that would probably be playing poker - I'm not good enough to do it full time in preference to options I have now - but if I woke up with nothing I could grind away enough online to get by for a while.

For you it's probably something else - buy a car and get a taxi license - use the flexibility of that to try out some other things.

Ahorseofaman

take a walk around the sunday markets,I got laid off in june after 30 yrs of employment,saw a gap in the market and bought a few hundred euros of product(not telling).after 3 weeks I'm turning over 600 a week and making 40-50% profit on that.Its not a lot but I'm back in work now and it makes a big difference to me.I plan on growing it slowly by adding new lines and hopefully next year to go full time and never depend on anyone else for a living again.If you cant see a gap thats not being catered for look at what someone else is doing and do it better.A mate of mine was in the same position and started selling tools and by putting his name on his stall and making it look really professional he took a lot of businness from the travellers with scruffy stalls who didnt inspire confidence in themselves or there product

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

Take out a pen and paper to start writing the next business plan. I'd probably do affiliate marketing / consulting for a while to get cash flow until I got back on my feet.