Anyone care to share their story? Part 2.

Forsaken1 wrote: »

Hmm, I too am an Enterprenewer!:)

Granty your story brings back memories, I think I may have attended your Atari and Amiga sessions being a computer junkie from early childhood...

Was that the club in the Northstar hotel?
That was when the Internet wasnt so well known, I trawled BBS boards for apps and software...with 19,200 bps modem !!


Also your business and shop?!

Around dublin at the time there was a string of shops called Computer City...

Did you have anything to do with them...

In my old Amiga days myself and a friend setup the Backfist Public Domain software club and advertised life-time membership for £20 and £1.50 per disk copied (public domain of course!). We stopped trading after a year...;)

Those were the days....

My current business is IT applications and is working out quite well...
2 years running and going strong...

Darragh29 wrote: »

I decided to go out on my own after having a series of completely inept and utterly useless & highly devious managers.

barry333 wrote: »

refused refused refused refused thats the replys im getting from a business loans ,i have a great business idea have done every course know to man ,the backing of everyone out there ,no faults with business plan ,cashflow projections,profit & loss,and still those f****** banks and credit unions will not help me get a start up.is anyone else having this problem or can anyone help point me in the right way cheers

teddy12345 wrote: »

this is a great tread fair play to all. It is not easy
also agree with last poster great to have this place to go to get advice etc
My story (def. the short version lol)
I had my first venture in to business at the age of 9 got a projector for Christmas and so many of my friends wanted to keep watching spider man over and over again that i thought you could make a few quid here.
so as with a lot of my "PROJECTS" i had not all of the resources i needed (isn't that all of our story's) so i set a goal and started any way a pattern i was to repeat many times. my friend had a shed i rented it off him for 10 pound a week i then drew fliers and put them in the local shop.
i got 50 people the first day at 20 pence a go result rent covered
next day their was 60 and i showed it again and they all came back second time.to cut a long story short i hen rented a second film of my other friend who had one as well i then had an inter vile between them and sold a glass of diluted orange and cheep crisps for 20P 50% profit by week 2 i was making 35 pound a day (my da was getting 40 a day )but like all fads week tree saw my plans of world domination end with 25 people all week
but i had let the monster out of his cage and it wasn't going back ever.
my next one i rented school ties for 50 p a day in school so people didn't get detention for not having one (great business as every one forget at least once a week ) Ties only cost 1pound 50 in town tree days and rent payed for tie then 100% profit for rest of year i made about 40 pound a week in 5th. year and 6th. year
the bug had well and truly bitten now.
me and a friend ran a lottery , a sandwich round and a "loan company" (my brother was 18st.mussel 6.2" and liked pain)all with some success
but mostly a steep learning curve.
i have started a log cabin company and a poker club one failed miserably one failed slowly but with each go i got a bit better
i ran and still do a plastering firm (pays the bills and then some)
i started a maintenance company and sold it. i also started a magazine called Celtic tiger witch i sent to people who had applied for planing permission. it had tradesmen in it they were looking for tradesmen no brainer. i sold at markets and sold antiques at fairs .
i bought and sold cars.i done roofing for a year and window fitting for a year.
i am so glad i did all of these things as i have lived my life to the max. and will keep doing so i love it the ups the downs.making buckets of money losing buckets of money.
my latest venture came about after i fell off a roof and broke my ankle
not fun in its self but i had to for the first time in my life sit and do nothing witch gave me lots of time to think .
i decided to put my self to the test and i came up with an idea for a book("BREAK A LEG / HOW I TURNED 50 EURO IN TO 5 MILLION EURO IN FIVE YEARS") And so my next chapter in life begins.
it is one year on and i did start a company for 50 euro running psychic fairs
witch now makes a bit of a profit but witch promises to make 70+g next year and a sub idea has came about witch should make 40+
so im on the way i hope i get their but ill dam enjoy the climb as well as the veiw from the top.
i spend a lot of time making my self more positive and will do so for as long as i live hopefuly you can read all about it in 4 years thanke for takeing the time to read this and thanksd for the help.
top 10 things i learnt along the way.
10.make goals/write them down
9.ask for help
8.push your self
7.have pasion
6.make shure you have more money coming in than going out.
5.if you dont think your costmers are inportant try doing without for 90 days
4.find under serviced /badly serviced areas and go and over diliver
3.start now with wath ever you have and keep on keeping on
2.try to create win/win suituations
1.NEVER NEVER GIVE UP
amd rember a plane flying from la. to londen is off cource more than 80%of the time but the poilt keeps addusting for londen so set your target and keep addusting go around up over under and even somtimes backwards but keep addusting to were you want to go.

Mylesie wrote: »

Set yourself a challenge, if you are in work, use that ambition and give yourself at least six months “ideas free” to chase every opportunity for advancement within your current employment.
If you are currently unemployed, forget all the get rich schemes for the time being and volunteer your spare time to a worthy cause, chances and opportunities come in all manner of places.

Mylesie wrote: »

We can all think of airy fairy schemes but unless we challenge ourselves in the real world ???????

chowdown wrote: »

I’ve been thinking about trying to tell my story. I’m a relative newcomer to the entrepreneurial world, and I’m really enjoying it.

Over the last year I became really frustrated with working in an office for a salary. It was a classic shirt-and-tie 9-to-5 job in the city centre. I ran the research function of a fairly major industry body in Dublin but after a few years, I was a bit tired of the organisation in which I worked and a lot of the daily work was becoming quite routine. Nonetheless, it was well-paid and I made some great connections.

I took voluntary redundancy at the end of 2009 and set up on my own, selling my research services direct to Irish corporations. Some of my new clients are clients from my old job, but rather than receive a salary, I invoice them directly. I put a lot of time and money into setting up a decent website (available on my profile), learning new business practices and developing a good client list. The first month without a pay-day was quite weird, and it has been strange not to have an office to go to. I work from home.

I work on a number of projects at the same time, which I split into writing and research. Much of my writing work – in trade magazines, for business newsletters and as a specialist in broader reports – I do pro bono, to raise my profile and expand my client list. The money comes from undertaking research work for clients who have occasional need to commission research, but don’t need (or can’t afford) a full-time paid researcher, economist, analyst or writer. I look after the whole spectrum – from initial project scoping, to first hand research, surveying, data analysis, to reporting, writing, editing and presentation, so at any minute I can be analysing data from an online survey as well as writing up a report. I love the variation.

The variation in work is easily the best part of the job. I love learning – I’ve two Masters degrees and a PhD so I’m used to being self-motivated and learning new things.

There are a few downsides. It can be quite frustrating pitching for work which never materialises, and not having someone to turn to, in order to get a second opinion can be quite lonely. Because I don’t manufacture or export anything, it’s hard to get support from Enterprise Ireland or the County Enterprise Boards. I’m lucky that my overheads are very few, but there’s a lot more the State could do to encourage service sector entrepreneurs.

Overall, I’m really enjoying working for myself rather than working for someone else. I love the freedom; the fact that I don’t need to toe a corporate line or seek my boss’s approval before doing anything.

I love helping people out and I enjoy nothing more than saying to a stressed out client that I can take all of the work of their shoulders and I’ll deliver the report as they want it, when they want it and they can concentrate on something else. That’s when I feel like a therapist!