Are They Looking To Start A Business Or A Hobby?

You know it always amazes me at how many people say that they wish they could go into business for themselves, and yet when the opportunity arises they balk at investing a hundred dollars in themselves. I always tend to wonder if they actually want to own a business or do they just want a hobby that might make a little money on the side.

I have personally owned 4 different businesses at different times, with different levels of success each time. I had one that I had to invest about $300 with marginal success. On another I invested $5,000 up front and paid about $2,500 a week and just about lost my shirt. On still another I paid $9,000 up front with about $4,500 a week in payments and expenses with great success.

One thing that I can say about each of these is that:
#1 They instilled in me a love of the freedom of being self employed and,
#2 I wouldn’t change my decision to do even the one that failed big time, due to the fact that I learned from the experience and on my next business had more success than I’ve ever experienced at any other time.

The amounts that I invested in these businesses might seem like a lot to some people but in reality it really isn’t much when you look at the fact that you’re talking about starting a business. There are some businesses that it would cost much more to start and maintain and then there are others that do not require near the investment but do require more work to get up and running.

One of these is the business that I’m doing now. It requires only $150 to get started and then $100 a month to maintain. The great thing that I’ve found with this business is although it starts out slower than my other business, there is no ceiling to the income that you can earn with it. It builds up residually so you might start out only making around $500 a month but by the end of the year be bringing in over $1,000 a week with just consistent work. And then in another year you could be making $10,000 a month. The reason it works like this is that you get paid on the business you do over and over every month so every piece of business you do just adds with everything you’ve already done in previous weeks, months, and years.

I mean I don’t know about you but even starting out if you pay out $100 a month but make $500 that’s a 500% gain on your investment, and even that is not half bad. When you take into account the residual income it is unbelievably great.

The truly unbelievable part about this is, that when you come across somebody else who is looking at what you do, and they are interested in doing this themselves because they see the success you are having with it. You tell them about the opportunity and they are even more interested, then you tell them that it requires an investment of $150, and they balk.

I don’t know, maybe they got business opportunity mixed up with an employment opportunity. They are not exactly the same thing. This is a business that you own, it’s not free.

The funny thing is that these same people wouldn’t hesitate to encourage their children to spend and go into debt for 15,000 a year to go to an university so that they could have a chance of being amoung the less than 20% that actually get a job making a portion of the money that could be made in this business. It doesn’t even matter that with that degree, whether or not they even get that job, is not up to anything that they do. Somebody that you don’t even know decides if you get that job. If you do, they decide how much you will make, when you will work, and if you will ever advance up the ladder.

So I don’t know, I guess I could see where paying $150 might be considered a lot to pay for a hobby, but it will always blow my mind that some people view it as too much for a business that provides a good living and at the same time provides financial freedom.
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Is Higher Education Overrated?

I’m writing this article today not so much about the value of gaining knowledge through education but rather the perceived benefit of education in being successful making a living. There is no denying the fact that many people do go on to universities and earn a degree allowing them to get a decent job working in the field of their choice. But the question I’d like to look at today is, is this the rule or the exception.

I remember during the earlier years of life right up through my early 20s, I was always told that if you wanted to make a good living you needed to do good in school so that you would be able to go to college and get a degree.

I didn't do great in school but I did good enough I guess and went onto college and then two different universities. I received a degree in computer information systems, and for the next two years worked in sock mills under the management of others who were at times former classmates who had dropped out of high school and had been working their way "up the ladder" while I earned my degree. After two years, I was wanting to get married but couldn't afford to even move out on my own much less try to support a wife so I decided to get a CDL license and drive a truck.

So, what's my point. I've got friends who even now are paying right around $1,000 a month, trying to earn a degree that will hopefully allow them to get a great job paying a whopping $30,000 a year fresh out of college. I've talked with others who know some that are paying half again as much and still coming out of the universities with close to 6 digits in debt. And the sad truth of the matter is that most of them are having the same experience that I had.I was reading an article the other day. It told of how 80% of last years graduates are living with their parents due to the fact that if they are able to find work at all, many of them are delivering pizzas or working at jobs paying little above minimum wage.

To tell the truth, most of the really successful people that I know either didn’t even attend a university or college, or they have been successful in a field totally removed from the field of their degree. Personally, in hindsight, I wish I had taken the money I spent on education and had used it to get set up in my own business years earlier. I believe it would have been a better investment.