anyone run their own business??

Not yet but I hope to someday and work from a home office

Btrfygrl! What's up? What do you want to know??
Hope I can help!

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Posted by ThongLori

Btrfygrl! What's up? What do you want to know??
Hope I can help!

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Thong Lori....I've always dreamed of doing my own thing, just wondering how truly difficult it is to start your own business....do you have any advice on how you started your business?

Btrflygrl...

YES its hard work to start your own biz! My FH has a very successful design company (www.choppingblock.com) and he is fortunate enough to be able to do it full time. Curliegirl is still in the fledgling stages, so I still have my 'regular' day job along with it. Sounds exhausting, doesn't it? LOL

My advice is this: once you have your idea, STICK WITH IT!!! Make sure it is something you LOVE and really BELIEVE IN, or you will not find the motivation to do it. It is great to not have a boss... but if you don't have someone telling you what to do -- you need the drive instead!

You learn something new every day when you have a biz. So, don't expect to have everything set up before you begin. There's a lot that you'll take care of along the way... But as a starting point, I would draft up a rough plan just to help organize your thoughts. Some questions you can ask yourself are:

-- What is my business? Is it service-based? Product-based? What do we provide for the customer?
-- What do I want to call my business? Name?
-- Under what structure will the business be set up? Sole Proprietorship? Corporation? etc.
-- Who is my target customer?
-- How will I promote my business to the target customer?

Also-- do you know anyone who works in the industry that you are interested in? Ask many, many questions! Be a sponge! Acquire as much information as you can from related trade shows or networking events. There are so many opportunities that come from who you know and random people you meet. We got to produce our own bikini fashion show at the Altman Building through someone we met at a trade show who's friend was running an art/fashion event. Crazy, right?

You'll also need business cards (with a logo would be great -- branding is very important), a bank account, a website... that's probably the bare minimum you can start out with. When Curliegirl started, we didn't even have a name yet!! Even now, over a year later, we're still in the process of setting things up -- credit card processing, Fed Ex accounts, etc...

Take it one day at a time. Having your own biz is very rewarding!! I have some websites that you might find helpful, let me know if you are interested and I'll pass them along.

Best of luck!!! Please keep me posted!

Thonglori gave some great advice! i'm in the process of starting up my own business, things are finally starting to move! i hope to be up and running by summer. it's really helped me to visit sites like sba and score to get advice. also, there are a ton of great books out there that will make you answer the hard questions so you know you're headed the right way. it's definitely scary at times but SO exciting if you're really into the business idea.

I do. I am an independant contractor filed as an s-corp. This is different than most of the ladies here but we all started the same. Thonglori had some fantastic advice and I agree with it all. Especially that line about the day job! One thing I would like to add is that you also need some start up money.

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Posted by belle31125

WOw.. sounds like so much work!

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but so more more satisfying than working for someone else!