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pauline
02-09-2011, 08:58 AM
Hi everybody,

This new topic to share together about your business experience, your success stories also

When did you all first launch your own businesses and took the plunge?


Have a lovely day :cool:

regards

Pauline

savantcreative
02-09-2011, 10:10 AM
I opened my own commercial photography studio in 1990 when I was 33. It was a great business for several years until photography got wiped out. Because of my background in advertising and marketing, I went on to owning a marketing communications firm.

vangogh
02-09-2011, 10:30 AM
I started almost 8 years ago. First by partnering with a friend. Our businesses didn't do well and she decided to go a different way. I took what I learned from that businesses and started out on my own a couple year later. 6 years later and that second business is still growing. I had no experience in business prior to that first one and have learned most things on the job.

savantcreative
02-09-2011, 10:37 AM
I started almost 8 years ago. First by partnering with a friend. Our businesses didn't do well and she decided to go a different way. I took what I learned from that businesses and started out on my own a couple year later. 6 years later and that second business is still growing. I had no experience in business prior to that first one and have learned most things on the job.
Can I ask you what kind of business you are in? Thanks.

vangogh
02-09-2011, 11:37 AM
Check my signature.

savantcreative
02-09-2011, 12:22 PM
Got it. Thanks :)

Patrysha
02-10-2011, 02:36 AM
Uh well I started my first business when I was maybe five or six, I distinctly remember a lemonade stand...I dabbled in things off and on throughout my teen years, between holding down a part time job, in my grade 12 year I also babysat, house-sat, provided deep cleaning (wall washing) services, shoveled sidewalks and mowed lawns. I started my first official business in 1997 when my first son was born, an at home childcare. Which is the first time I dabbled in marketing and publicity. And from there I revisited my childhood dream of writing a novel...and got sidetracked by freelance writing...which required way too much patience for my impatient nature...so I developed an interest in and began studying copywriting, marketing and publicity...and then began applying it in 2003 when my third son was an infant. I've bounced back and forth between entrepreneurship and being an employee through those years...and that continues to this day as I work part time at a restaurant because I couldn't figure out quite how to cover one and three quarters salary from the business without going bonkers...so I took the job in May and will quit as soon as hubby finds a job or I can build up the income from business steady enough to feel safe and secure. What can I say? I like to eat :-)

Harold Mansfield
02-10-2011, 11:28 AM
I started working with a guy around 5 years ago selling domains and other web services. I actually met him while trying to sell him some domains. Wasn't exactly crazy about it, hate sales, but I learned a lot about the business from him.
We went our separate ways after about 2 years and I had to get a "real" job to pay the bills, but continued to build websites for myself and study the web when I wasn't working. In June 2008 ( the 2nd month that over 30 mortgage companies closed) when the bottom started dropping out of the economy, the company I worked for was going down with it (real estate) and after they made the announcement that they were done in a few more months, I quit to spend more time on my own websites.

It wasn't until Nov of 2009 that I started offering Wordpress Services as a business. So I have officially been in business for a little over a year.

Spider
02-10-2011, 11:46 AM
Pauline - this is for you. I'll be brief so as to not bore the regulars who have heard my story too many time already. I am currently preparing a speech about growing a small business and the first couple of paragraphs will answer your question.

In 1975 the magazine Popular Mechanics had an article about personal computers. Personal computers didn't exist at that time, but you could buy a kit - it was called the KIM-1. Two young students at Harvard bought a KIM-1. They got fired up by it and in 1977 they formed a computer software company.

1977 was the year I started a company, too. I had been in the workaday world for nearly 20 years by this time and was controlling the finances of major construction projects. I had already spent a number of years in the Middle East, in Europe and the Caribbean. I wasn't a kid anymore. I called my company, Plumbing Partnership. The two Harvard chaps - Paul Allen and William Gates - called their little company, Microsoft.

Yes - 1977 was a very good year.

I think the reason that Microsoft and Plumbing Partnership were able to go on and grow into multi-million dollar businesses, is because they weren't set up as a little business at the outset. Most small businesses are started as a micro-business. After a while, they may add a helper or two, but so often they don't get much further than that.

Why is that? How difficult could it be to grow beyond the Mom and Pop stage? That is what I do now - help small, micro-businesses climb over that barrier.

huggytree
02-10-2011, 03:34 PM
4 wonderful years ago...12/1/06

i was part time for 9 months until i got fired for owning my own company....boss considered it sidejobbing

i went full time and survived just fine through my first winter.....now im doing better than my old boss....i love it

Spider
02-10-2011, 05:19 PM
now im doing better than my old boss....i love itThat's always a good reason to start your own business! :-)

Weldathome
02-11-2011, 10:16 AM
I started my business working after hours and weekends, more than 20 years ago. After a couple of years, I had built a big enough client base to resign, and spend all my time working for myself. By continually reading about, and applying business, website and advertising strategy, I have earned a good living and had a wonderful time doing it. What a pleasure it has been, not having to work for an idiot boss.
Nowadays, I value my free time more than earning pots of money, so I work less, spend less on the pursuit of material possession, and enjoy my extra free time. I work a 4 day week, and enjoy 52 long weekends every year.