Complete: Year 1 of running a business.. need advice.

[240 is Back]

I just finished year one of running my own business.  I don't feel fulfilled.

I paid the house bills all year (all the woman's $ went right into savings) and I still came out about 10k ahead.  bought a new car too and paid off a baby born.  So for year one of running a business, was pretty good. most lose in year one, right?

I worked way too many hours.  I'm beat. 

Thoughts?  Expand services and enjoy more variety to myself?  Raise prices?  Get a part-time job and get out of the house 3 days a week?  One year gone and I don't feel like I've grown a lot.

[JasonH]

Nah man, keep going to the best of your abilities. You say you're tired but knock a few hours down a bit but making a ten grand profit in your first year is excellent - I'd be pleased with that.

Bear in mind that most new businesses fail within eighteen months to two years souse the money you've made wisely and either save it or plough it back into the business to make it even better - perhaps spend more on advertising or even recruiting an employee to help you out.

[b.c.]

240, I just completed my 2nd year of my own buisness too.  Just paid all the dividends out to investors.  Part of being on your own is the lack of getting to interact with other people face to face. Anyway,keep working on expanding your financial game plan outside the internet, that should keep you busy.  Real estate, investments etc...

[240 is Back]

Good points, thanks.

I am loving doing web design.  i just feel like in the last year, I didn't grow as in years past, when going to college.

I guess I need to just start spending an hour a day reading, learning something new.

[Alex Velickovic]

Good points, thanks.

I am loving doing web design.  i just feel like in the last year, I didn't grow as in years past, when going to college.

I guess I need to just start spending an hour a day reading, learning something new.

You need to post more, 19+ thousand posts is just not enough.

[the choad]

You need to post more, 19+ thousand posts is just not enough.

what about that 10K account that was wiped out after 240s little meltdown...

So were looking at 29k+ posts//

[nycbull]

Good points, thanks.

I am loving doing web design.  i just feel like in the last year, I didn't grow as in years past, when going to college.

I guess I need to just start spending an hour a day reading, learning something new.

read "the End of Faith", i did, and felt like a grew a lot after that. Inspired me to keep growing. IT has a lot to think about, religion, politics, philosophy and death, dying, living. etc etc. You don't have to become an atheist to get something from it.

[240 is Back]

youre definitely right about that G - I'm much more of an hourly trade guy than a manager of resources at the moment.

posting here keeps me sane in a world of coding all day

[24KT]

Remember what I told you tho...web dev can only get you so far since you can only work X hours/day.

So even if you charge $300/hour, you can only work 14hours/day 7 days/week:
300 * 14 * 7 = $29,400/week. But in reality you have to factor in things like billing, advertising, etc...so that brings your daily max hours to like 7:
300 * 7 * 7 = $14,700/week. And you're not gonna charge $300/hour for years (or probably ever), so say $90/hour and only work 5 days a week and only work 10 hours/day (7 billable):
90 * 7 * 5 = $3150/week
12,600/mo
$150k/year

Even with lots of employees, eventually the cost of overhead/bureaucracy goes beyond what you can bring in. Biggest web dev company I've seen has about 80 employees and they're about maxed out at what they can make vs/ overhead costs.

You need Intellectual Property or residuals.

 Ding Ding Ding!

 

[chainsaw]

I just finished year one of running my own business.  I don't feel fulfilled.

I paid the house bills all year (all the woman's $ went right into savings) and I still came out about 10k ahead.  bought a new car too and paid off a baby born.  So for year one of running a business, was pretty good. most lose in year one, right?

I worked way too many hours.  I'm beat. 

Thoughts?  Expand services and enjoy more variety to myself?  Raise prices?  Get a part-time job and get out of the house 3 days a week?  One year gone and I don't feel like I've grown a lot.

Having employee's or an employee that you pay so he can pay rent and live is fulfilling.  Consider takin someone on.  Go rent a cheap office somewhere.  I have had an office here in Vegas on Sahara for 2 months now, and havent' been able to hire people because of a business license I need.  But I'm gettin it.  Been workin in my home too for the last year since moving from Los Angeles.  My only outage is the dog park and the gym 2x a day.  Cardio morning, and weights afternoon till this license comes.

[chainsaw]

I just finished year one of running my own business.  I don't feel fulfilled.

I paid the house bills all year (all the woman's $ went right into savings) and I still came out about 10k ahead.  bought a new car too and paid off a baby born.  So for year one of running a business, was pretty good. most lose in year one, right?

I worked way too many hours.  I'm beat. 

Thoughts?  Expand services and enjoy more variety to myself?  Raise prices?  Get a part-time job and get out of the house 3 days a week?  One year gone and I don't feel like I've grown a lot.

Booths at the fitexpo at Ironman are only $1600...  I know you do great stuff, could be worth the investment.  A lot of trainers, models ect will be there.  Maybe you could split a booth with someone.

[Bluto]

stay in school kid

[onlyme]

Having employee's or an employee that you pay so he can pay rent and live is fulfilling.  Consider takin someone on.  Go rent a cheap office somewhere.  I have had an office here in Vegas on Sahara for 2 months now, and havent' been able to hire people because of a business license I need.  But I'm gettin it.  Been workin in my home too for the last year since moving from Los Angeles.  My only outage is the dog park and the gym 2x a day.  Cardio morning, and weights afternoon till this license comes.

They now have these places called Executive Centers.  They are all over the country.  You pay a very cheap rent and you get an office which is shared by many others.  There is a central operator that directs phones calls.  Their is a reception area and you share all the common spaces like copier room, fax, break room, restrooms.  It is really neat and inexpensive and very professional.  The one here in Honolulu is really cool.

[24KT]

They now have these places called Executive Centers.  They are all over the country.  You pay a very cheap rent and you get an office which is shared by many others.  There is a central operator that directs phones calls.  Their is a reception area and you share all the common spaces like copier room, fax, break room, restrooms.  It is really neat and inexpensive and very professional.  The one here in Honolulu is really cool.

Those can be fabulous, ...especially if those who share the commom spaces are also your colleagues.

We had similar centres years ago with one of my network mktg ventures. All the other tenants were fellow distributors within the company. It was also where we held our meetings and training sessions. We had about 4 different co-ops within the GTA

It's also great for appointments when you don't want to bring strangers into your home.

[4thAD]

Hey 240 what technologies are you using for web development? ASP, ColdFusion, etc... Just curious as I am a part time web developer! Been developing for 10 plus years....