Small buisness owners- who has thrown it all in and gone out on there own?

[rodderz]

Originally Posted by WGN-355

Ok in regards to starting your own business what is the possibility of making it your apprenticeship. Idea would be to start up a business say building as an example then hire a trade builder and put urself on as the apprentice in your own business? Would be alot of work with running the business and tafe but can it be possible?

I wouldn't recommend it. For starters you need to know the ins and outs of the industry and in particular your chosen trade. That only comes with experience. If you hired a builder to do the work it would basically be him calling the shots and running everything, you would save a whole lot of hassle and money by working for someone else, learning your trade and learning how they run their business. It's certainly a big responsibility, you need the contacts, quoting skills, licenses etc. The guy you hire as the chippy would be hanging off your shoulder all the time as you would have to get him to guide you through everything. And the only sorts of decent guys that are skilled at what they do and are able to run a business, are running their own business.

Will take more time but start from the bottom and work hard and work up.

[BLKWDW]

I only asked as taking a normal apprenticeship is unviable for me as i have kids and a house and would not be able to support both. I got my hr licence maybe buy a truck and start something there hmm.

[trippytaka]

I have been working for pittance (relative to the amount of hours) for my whole career and only in the last month have I set out onto a side venture (online t-shirt company) with the hope to build it into a full time gig.

Rodderz is right. Cashflow is a massive thing to get right. If you can afford to finance yourself enough to keep your business a few months ahead of itself, it's a good move. Overcapitalising initially is important to make sure you have enough to pay your bills...

When it comes to marketing, this I understand. Word of mouth is good, but think more along the lines of how to tap into your networks. This forum is a good example, then your family and group of friends, every company they work for / have worked for etc.

I can never stress enough how important a good, easy to navigate, fully SEO (search engine optimised) website is. Research I have been involved in recently shows that (depending on which sector - retail, service etc) 60-80% of potential customers are searching online first beofre they even ask friends or even head to yellow pages. 90% of these people are using Google. So it's a no brainer to get a good website.

Thing is, make sure it's easy to navigate, looks sharp, gives the customers all the info they would need. Don't skimp on the site, a cheap website gives big bounce rates. People click on and bail.

Anyway, good luck. Sorry for rambling.