Originally Posted by HammerTime

Jay101, you're really asking the wrong questions here. You're also getting a lot of skewed advice.

I've been running my own business for around 5 years. Started completely from scratch. After 3 I quite my shitty job at a supermarket. Now I employee 3 others, full time. This was not my first business, it will not be my last.

I 'own' my business, I do not 'have' a business. The difference? When you own a business, you sit on top of it. You put the systems in place so it can run autonomously, if you need it to. While I'm not at the stage where I can gallivant round the world for 6 months at a time, I can go on a relatively stress-free, two week holiday multiple times a year, without things falling apart.

Phil is in the position I was a while back, but he's building for the future. Unfortunately it sounds like he's doing it wrong. He currently has a job. His business owns him. I'd strongly recommend he reads the 4 Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferris. It's not a great book, and Tim's a bit of a dick - but his work ethic and methods are inspirational.

Let me tell you some truths about running your own business:

Any academic qualifications in business are a complete load of shit. Your MBA doesn't mean shit, profit does. Sure you can study some accounting course so you can do your own books. But that's wasted time and money, if you don't have a business that makes money, you won't have a use for that fancy accounting qualification. Work on the stuff that matters in your business, the stuff you like doing - pay someone else to do the other stuff. Don't pay an accountant though, pay a bookkeeper - they're much cheaper. Only get an accountant for your year end.

Don't step on people, don't 'network' - just make good friends and help them first - call in favours later when you need to.

Academic qualifications (and I'll get slated for this) are purely for others (potential employers) to judge your competence. They push out of date techniques and ideals, by teachers who have never actually done it (can you afford to pay Richard Branson for tutor lessons?) Unfortunately most courses are based on a linear way of learning. Aka, memorize as much of this stuff as possible, just in case. Anyone whose worked a job for 10 years will tell you their education started on their first day, not on theory, not in school.

The way you learn in business, the only way you learn business - is to actually do business. I dropped out of going to uni at the age of 19, so I could spend more time on my (then) businesses. One went under. This happens, a lot. Failure happens a lot. Failure in business is like approaches in pick-up. Just embrace it, don't let it knock your confidence - if anything use the experience to build your confidence. By the time all my friends left uni I was earning more than any one of them. Many times more.

Don't get investment. You rarely need the money, you need advice and knowledge. People go on Dragons Den for advice and publicity, not money. Learn on the job. If you need to find a way to market your business on a budget, buy the best rated books on Amazon on marketing. Buy a Kindle, it will save you a lot of money. You will need to read a lot of books. I said academic qualifications are a load of shit, education on the other hand is extremely important. It's also criminally cheap to acquire. You can gather millions of pounds worth of sound business advice from an £8 book.

Ideas are cheap. You don't need the perfect idea, you just need to execute it well. I've never had an original idea in my life, I've just picked bits of what other people do well and use it myself.

Make sure you're making profit from month-1. If you're not making profit, you can't reinvest back into the business and you can't grow. Compound growth, Google it. If you make too much profit, you're not growing fast enough.

Think about why you want to build a business, and what your business will do differently or better than your competitors. How you will serve your customers in the best possible way. Building a business means you'll be skint for a few years, you'll not have much free time, you'll worry about where your next meal comes from, you might have to sell your TV for rent...

I by no means see myself as coming out of the other side. I've just replaced one load of stress and problems for another lot. You will fail, you may crumble, you'll get told you can't do it by family and friends - keep your overheads low and you might just prove them wrong.

Now I earn a comfortable living, I answer to no one, I have complete freedom and I've created something in this world that's much bigger than myself.

And I fucking love it.