Considering starting a business and need some insight

[Derwin0]

I've seen forecasts that expect auto manufacturing in this country to die out within 10 years.

That's only the big 3 automakers. Toyota and Nissan are still expanding their manufacturing base here.

 

[Van]

I've seen forecasts that expect auto manufacturing in this country to die out within 10 years. Hope not. But then, I also don't want my tax dollars to pay off the "Jobs Bank" or generous pensions/medical plans for auto company retirees. That's what the unions and car companies want, to "remain competitive."

Dont get job banks confused with an auto workers retirement, my father had to retire earlier and is living on a medical pension, its been rough for him and my step mother to live in abject poverty for the last 20 years.

Moving all this manufacturing out of this country will come back to haunt us. This country was built on our manufacturing might. I'd rather pay more for American built products, than buy products from Walmart that produced outside of our borders. If we don't build it , where are our children going to work?

Buy American!

Granted there is still some things that are made here in our country but not on the scale it was 40 years ago. Jobs going over seas wont change until the rich have to experience daily life in the home of those of us who make 40 grand a year or less.

That's only the big 3 automakers. Toyota and Nissan are still expanding their manufacturing base here.

Atleast they are putting people to work, theres a bmw plant not to far from me, a Kia plant is going in, and theres supposed to be another plant around here somewhere in the region. I've considered shoving my distate for standing in one spot for hours and hours to go to work at one of these plants to better care for my family if I am unable to come up with an idea for a self employeed business that will be feasable.

Something to consider though is how long will it be before these foreign auto makers decide that its going to be more cost effective for them to close plants here and go to china as well?

 

[navychop]

That's only the big 3 automakers. Toyota and Nissan are still expanding their manufacturing base here.

Yes.

Dont get job banks confused with an auto workers retirement, ...

Agreed, two totally different things. There should never have been a Jobs Bank. It's an example of union success in strong arming, benefiting their members at the cost of the rest of the county. And now they want a federal bail out.

 

[Kevinw]

Having grown up in the metro Detroit area and been affiliated with automotive -both my Grandfathers and an Uncle retired from the Big 3, failure of the US auto market is a combination of greed, poor work ethics and near sited business plans.

The Unions squeezed every dime they could for workers that were not required to make the best product possible as well as lined the UAW coffers.
The management never saw the Japanese coming with cheaper, better designed and more fuel efficient vehicles in the 70's.
In the 80's they started sharing technology but the damage was done. the younger market turned to fun and sporty cars like Accords, Celicas vs Mustang 2 or the Grand Prix. The Japanese cars were engineered and built to last longer.
No longer is there a buy American theme. Ford and GM have no choice but to merge with Honda/Toyota. Event that may to late now that Daimler- Benz wants to kick Chrysler to the curb.

 

[Bob Haller]

Moving all this manufacturing out of this country will come back to haunt us. This country was built on our manufacturing might. I'd rather pay more for American built products, than buy products from Walmart that produced outside of our borders. If we don't build it , where are our children going to work?

Buy American!

exactly.

 

[Van]

The loss of manufacturing as it is known now doesnt have to be the end of life as we know it. No matter how you look at it and dress it up or paint it life does have to change as our world advances, if America stayed as an industrial manufacturing society how would this benefit us? Remember that as plants and refineries began closing up shop the extent of decades of pollution on the properties the facilities sat on as well as off started coming to light and was finding its way onto the front pages of every paper in every city each day ( remember the PSA's showing the contaminated rivers full of trash and dead fish?).

It is unfortunate that right now we are heavily a service industry but this will change and is starting to do so albeit slowly but it has to and will change as we advance in technology. What will the future bring for jobs? I dont know but if you look at what technologies are emerging and starting to gain some footing then thats where you should look.

 

[z4ccamaro]

You can learn a lot about business / careers from these guys Dan Miller and Tim Knox. They do a radio show together which is also available as a podcast.

48 Days - Your Source for Career Building!

Tim Knox also does a radio show / podcast you can get here:

Tim Knox, Serial Entrepreneur, Speaker, Columnist, Author, Consultant, Small Business Expert

Each of these guys has written books on the subject also.
I just started listening recently and have learned a lot myself. Give it a try.

 

[FIREBIRD81]

Internet cafes are a bad idea. Here in orange county they started popping up and Asian gangs quickly overran them. There were a few high profile murders and many cities started requiring cafes to provide security, and even the full onesd weren't making a lot of money. The liability ran them out of business. I have been self employed for 4 years now. There are many things to consider, not the least of which are your state's'politics. Example: California Democrats are currently pushing a plan to force any company that doesn't spend 7.5 percent gross on health insurance to pay it in taxes. Any small businessman knows that gross receipts are meaningless. 100k gross can mean 60k after expenses and BEFORE that 15 per cent self employment tax, which can itself be 30 percent of your net.

If you want to hate Democrats, go into business for yourself.

 

[Bogy]

My daughter spends a lot of time in internet cafes when she gets the chance. Mostly in Nairobi and Kisumu. In Kenya. Not to much internet access back in the bush where she is stationed in the Peace Corps. But you relocation costs might be higher than you were figuring on.

I just got back from vacation. We own a membership in a resort in Missouri, outside of St. Louis, fairly remote setting. Last year the only internet access on the place was a phone jack you could use if you had a dial-up account you could use. I spent some time every few days looking for a motel or some other location to steal some access from so I could check email. There weren't even any Paneras handy (or St. Louis Bread Co., as they used to be known in St. Louis, the original name. Although we had lunch in one this year before a Cardinal's game and it was now Panera). This year one building had wireless access, evidently a satellite connection. What I needed access to, and had to scramble to find, was a printer, and that is only because I didn't bring my portable printer because I couldn't find the AC adapter when I was packing. I needed to print out some tickets.

 

[Van]

Well at best it looks like I could try setting up wireless by the hour access at some backwoods rv parks and resorts but the net cafe just doesnt seem to be worth going into at this point as it seems to be a flop for the states but works out great if you want to open one in many of the asian pacific rim countries and certain european locations ( I wont even consider any part of the african continent ).

I guess for now that I will look into janitorial contracting, Ive found a company that has contracts but needs contractors so its atleast a start and could help fund one or two other idea's that I have such as a niche resturaunt geared specificaly towards the college crowd and a starscape ceiling that I can not claim as my own ( think along the lines of what the kid had in his room in the movie Shazam ) but Ive been sketching out some plans and think I have improved on it considerably, only thing is I would need a wall muralist to finish off stuff I cant do yet.

 

[TheForce]

Van- You seem to be searching with the wrong priority. Like saying I want to invent something, anything, so I can be an inventor. Inventors become inventors because they solve a real world problem with their creative solution. If you want to be in your own business, you need to have something you are really passionate about, enough to be willing to do the 2/3 of the work that has nothing to do with the real passion but is necessary as part of doing business. What ever it is, it must be fun to you so it is not considered work to you. First consider your hobbies that you would like to do more often, even all the time, then take that hobby and list all the parts of it that would work as a business. I knew a guy who loved model airplanes and loved video and traveled around the country going to different model airplane shows shooting video of the planes and how the planes flew. He formed a successful business traveling to model airplane shows shooting video and publishing a video monthly magazine. The hobby stores carry his videos and many people subscribed to his videos like a magazine. He told me he does about $200,000 profit a year with this but it was slow getting started. Now his wife and kids all help with the "family" business and they love it because model airplanes IS a family activity. The big difference is he first wanted to marry his passions into a single product he could sell that would be in demand and have longevity. It has worked well for him. But, he worked many long days, with no income to get it started.

 

[navychop]

What a great success story! Who'd a thought.

 

[Van]

Its a rare story Don, my hobbies really wouldnt do me much good to do as a business, I have to be more realistic and after looking at the responses Ive gotten from here and the info online the two ideas originaly posted would not go anywhere. Turning a hobby into something that can make you money is rare, you dont hear of it often and my hobbies are in things that are either highly highly competitive ( photography ) or waning in popularity ( aquariums ).

 

[TheForce]

Well, I combined my photography skills with some other talents ( underwater) and that got my start in a good business. So, I would really differ with your opinion on that. What I did learn is that underwater photography was indeed limited, so I went commercial, then Broadcast video. But my start was in film 16mm and later super 8 and also 35mm still. There is lots of demand for photographers but you have to do it professionally and the best way to get started is to work as a free lance for another photographer as his assistant to learn the ropes. If you are good and own your own equipment, you can soon be in the business making a decent living on something you love to do.
Aquariums- I did a TV show a couple of years ago on this and the owner of the store got started as a service maintaining aquariums for busy people, next was a store, and today, he has a thriving business. Yes, it's not big with lots of competition, but if you establish yourself in a community as the only one, you'd get all the business. When I lived in Middletown NY, there was only one store in the town for miles around and they were always busy. Then again that was a few years ago.

Maybe you should examine two roads- One is to make what you have fun doing as a business, or the other way- get something like a franchise and put up with employee problems, retail issues etc. Since I had my fill of managing lots of people I didn't want that hassle again. That's what drove me down the first road.

 

[Van]

If I was going to do any aquarium it would be saltwater but thanks to 9/11 importing has hit the industry hard and its made it even harder on salt species of fish and inverts and many area's that once were allowed for harvesting on a controlled basis are no longer open. Still it is tempting and there is one shop here in town thats not a chain and theres two chains plus two walmarts wich has the town kind of saturated but the speciality store leaves alot to be desired both in equipment and in species carried, Im thinking about going to talk to the owner about working under the table to get the place cleaned up and make some store credits to get my reef tank back up and running.

Freelancing is something I hadnt considered, I read an article about up the top up and coming freelancers and it was a good read but how does someone live on working for free?

 

[TheForce]

free doesn't mean you work for Free. LOL. It means you are free to work for any client who wants to pay your fee.
In my business, FREE lance work ofgten comes through the agencies like Cruise Control. You list your services with them, Client contact the agency and pay the agency the fee. YOU are guaranteed your rate from the agency and they pay quickly.
Free lancers normally have their own equipment but not always. I hired a freelance editor here over the past month to get me caught up during a busy spurt of work. With him, I paid directly, no agency involved but I first learned of this person through an agency and to keep my rep clean I bought out the right to hire him directly to avoid the agency fee on each job. It's a fine line to work but it is a common practice in photo and video work.
When I was active in freelancing, I did a lot of PI work which was risky and not very glamorous although fun at times. Most of that work comes through the detective agencies and insurance companies.

One saying we have in the business is - If you always want work, learn the camera. Never ending supply of jobs. I get contacted several times a week here for day jobs that pay typically what many make in a week. When I got started, I told my wife, if I invest $50,000 in a camera and infrastructure, I could do one job a month that will pay the bills. The rest of the days would be profit! In reality, It was 2 days a month to cover all the equipment but I ended up spending nearly double my estimate. Didn't realize every client had unique requirements. Rentals eat you up so I bought and sold off when I didn't use the stuff after awhile. I know the photo business, but not the fish stuff. Just the one show I did on it.

 

[Van]

What do you use mostly now for your still images, digital or the tried and true negative format? When I was actively taking pictures in the 90's I would use a Konica auto reflex T, it was cheap but the best 35m camera that I had ever used and I still wish I had it today. I have a sony mavica now mostly for taking pics of the little one but I'd love to get my hands on a good condition F4 with a flash, macro, 28 - 70, and a telephoto 70 - 200 plus a few necesities. I loved using Ilford black and white film as well as agfa and either kodak paper or Ilford paper.

 

[TheForce]

Van- understand that 99% of my still work is for use in TV shows / 30 second spots. A Canon G3 4 M pixel works just fine and it rides nicely in a holster on my belt. A 1 G card allows me to get plenty of pics at 2K res which is perfect for SD TV and allow animation of the images in the edit. If I did pro still work as an end product, I would be using one of the larger format digital SLR cameras. In my film days, I had a NIkon F1 and and a NIkonos 5 with all the lenses. Actually, I had all the NIkonos series up to the 5
My last 35mm camera was a MInolta that I gave to my daughter to use in her photography class in college. Even her instructor was envious of her lens and accessories kit. Personally, I don't care if I ever see film again!

 

[Van]

I love film and always will, digital on the other hand has been a bit of a pain but it might be due to the idiot proof settings on most main stream stuff, I guess Im more of a traditionalist in this respect and fall into the artistic field. I'll have to scan some of my work and send it to you to see what you think, I had gotten some good words in the past but then again that was the past.

 

[Van]

You wouldnt by chance happen to have an F4 still would you? Im looking at one one now on ebay with a lense and battery pack for $250.