The purpose of this thread is to encourage those that are unemployed to create their own business and to discuss ideas and share resources.

I have had times in my life when employment was scarce and I got tired of not getting calls back so I just started my own small enterprise. The main one I did was mowing lawns and I started with a piece of crap car and a used push mower and weed wacker. It looked rediculous driving around with a mower hanging out of the trunk but I made about $10 and hour at it when I started out.

I got accepted to a much higher rated college and we sold everything we had and moved 1,500 miles in 1995. I found that most jobs compatible with my class schedule to be in the $7/hr range which sucked and didnt really pay the bills. So, I scraped up some money and bought a little equipment and started cutting grass using my 69 mustang with a small trailer.

It was a horendous looking setup but my customers appreciated the fact that I busted my ass, i was reliable and I did a good job which got me a lot of referrals. After the last two years of college, I had truck with a dump bed, trailers, thousands of dollars worth of equipment and was making about $70k a year.

I did that for about 6 months after school but ddecided that I was tired of the heat, cold, rain, bees (bees suck, try cutting a hornets nest in half with commercial hedge trimmers..ouch)and moved into the real estate business for many years.

Anyways, the thread isn't about ME. It's about YOU and what you can do to get out of your rut with unemployment and relying on someone to give you a job. Is it easy? NO. It's hard work but it's something almost anyone can do. What ideas can you come up with that others here can work with in starting a business?

I'm going to try to figure something out after I can any job that gets some money rolling in.  Already can't pay my rent on October 1 and I'm a bit scared right now.

It really is amazing what can be done with a little confidence and motivation. Confidence can at least be faked but motivation can't. What ideas do you have Zoe? Maybe we can help you iron out the details and help motivate you. I would encourage you to start now and not wait til things are in crisis. BTW, my degree is in business and I am a very entreprenurial person who has always been know as "the idea" person wherever I work.

That's just it... I don't have any right now.   I fight off tears when I try to think of what I can do because I believe that what I can do is worthless.  And I have a complete lack of confidence in my ability to succeed at something on my own.  Then I know it's just stupid childhood stuff that I'm fighting off, messages I got from my parents.  Even my well-meaning parents.  My stepdad told me the other day that I need to ditch my counterculture friends and find normal people to be around if I don't want to end up just like my friends and actually have a "normal" job (which, as has been the case my entire life, means going to work for a corporation).

And I'm so stressed about money that I can't think of anything.  I have just over two weeks before my financial doomsday comes.

Hmmm let's see...

1. I heard webcam modeling pays well. You can sign up at different sites. All you need is a computer, a webcam(there are cheap ones), and decent lighting.

2. Building your own website can bring in cash depending on what you want to do. 2createawebsite.com has good information.

3. Use your talents to make income. Maybe you're really good at cooking, or you're a great designer, or you're a creative videographer. Sell your talents.

4. Try various work at home sites. Liveops and West at Home are legit companies.

5. Are you good with kids? Try babysitting.

These are just a few that came to mind. I hope someone finds this helpful.

 This sounds like a good idea, I did the guy with a truck and mower thing for a while , then got a real job, and it kinda sucks.  Well Zoe, time to make a list of what you CAN do , by the way, how much is rent?

What CAN I do?  I really don't know.  Not stuff that pays, I guess.  I've got two degrees from fully accredited (regional accreditation) universities, one in film, the other in psychology.  I was once a park ranger, a graphic designer, an HR rep, accounts payable clerk, head of international tax compliance for a royalty-processing firm, editor, and a university tutor in psychology and ESL.

Guess you could say I've never had a definition, and I'm well past the age where I feel like I should have been something and that I should have SOME marketable skills.  But I'm ridiculously shy when it comes to relationships and work-related activities (yes, only those two situations).  I'm not a natural networker and I have severe difficulty planning things from start to finish.  I see big pictures and get panic attacks trying to figure out how to achieve them.

I also do photography, and I've always wanted to do more than rudimentary web design.  I have a website I created a few years back, but haven't touched in a long time.

My thoughts, and here I really my be so wrong! Surely I over look something – BIG.

1) To become entrepreneur, even a small one, yes, you need motivation, BUT also simply entrepreneurial skill.

2) Most folks grew up in situations that had parents work for some kind or other corporate. It therefore is a skill set that has not been developed by many. If it were --- no one would want to work for corporate. Ever. Corporate is simply a kindergarten for grown ups... I worked there for the better part of my life.

3) In fairness --- before one starves one tends to become entrepreneurial. Just look at beggars, they do.

4) Even starting a Union for beggars has/had been done. Also for thieves and other sundry 'entrepreneurs'.

5) The way commerce has developed is, that people have/had to have, become over-dependant on corporate business. The rich get richer the poor get poorer?

6) Small businesses are talked about lots (E.F. Schumacher's "Small is beautiful" etc.) but as soon as e.g. a trailer with two lawn mowers becomes a proposition, corporate will do it. It's called: Franchising over here.

7) I did say the above to invite lots of constructive criticism, because I myself, after been booted from a lucrative consulting job, was completely out on a limb - and still are.

Dreams are only useful if you can recall how it was done.

9) One may have lots of skills or skill sets (I do), without entrepreneurial thinking and gut-feel, you're still dependent on corporate. If you too old, it's best to just die and not take jobs from the needy younger folks. Corporate totally supports this position.

10) I could go on and on in this fashion but it is not really helpful to be all negative, I do realize that. So let's see.

Let the flaming start, I'll put on my asbestos vest in the meantime,
Axelle

I agree with the philosophy of this thread, and would like to add the following:

1. Network. I'm highly introverted, as i imagine a lot of others in here are. Still, approach networking as a job in and of itself. It's a necessary evil that has the potential to pay out huge dividends in the future.

2. Keep busy. If you're looking for an example to go from, look at Lafayette from True Blood. That dude is ALWAYS working!

3. Follow your interests. I like politics and writing and have been doing it for a few years now. While I haven't gotten paid for it yet, I have gotten published, which you can use for a resume enhancer. Eventually I do hope to get paid.

4. The more you can do yourself, the less you have to depend on anyone else for ANYTHING, the better off you will be.

*keeping yourself busy also has the ancillary benefit of keeping your mind occupied, which can help suppress GID attacks.

They key to being successful at something is to just DO IT! You want to shoot short films ? Work with some non profits or small business that has a need for training videos or promotional videos so you can start building library of your work. No one is going to give you 5 or ten thousand dollars because you like making videos. I had a budget of about 10k a few years ago to have a promo video made for our company and I was rather disappointed by what was being offered.

If you want to sell yourself, you HAVE to have a portfolio of your work. Do stuff for free or cost until you can build a reputation. Also, I know there is a lot of talk about "do what you love", "follow your passion" but enjoying your work is a modern concept and a luxury that you can't afford if you aren't making ends meet. 

Didn't Kevin Smith shoot "Clerks" for less than $30k?

Quote from: NatashaD on September 12, 2011, 11:32:31 PM
Didn't Kevin Smith shoot "Clerks" for less than $30k?

That is too funny. I almost wrote in my last post that Kevin Smith filmed Clerks for about 28k and maxed out credit cards, savings, and invetments from friends. I guarantee you though, I was hardly his first film. I'd bet his friends were amazed by smaller stuff and jumped on the chance to help him make a full length film.

It's a good point about having a portfolio of work build up, and that's what I've let slip through the cracks over the years.  Part of it was that I got so drained from my regular jobs that I didn't have the energy to do anything.  I'm so scared of going back into that now that I'm once again in the job market, no better off now than I was before I got my second degree (since my second degree is worthless without graduate study).  All that's open to me are the same jobs that were open to me before, the ones that felt like they sucked my soul dry.

And so for too many years I've done nothing.  Built up a solid body of academic work that didn't even manage to get me into grad school, and so now I'm at a loss.  Feeling so dejected from what happened to me earlier this year that I don't even know if I want to do what I set out to do when I went back to school, but that leaves me once again at a place where I have no professional identity.  And now I have no more money so I no longer have time to pursue what I want.  I need to get whatever crap job I can find that pays the bills.  This is the exact thing I worked all my life not to get into.

Sorry, I'm just really at the lowest point in my life right now.   I can't even see the other side of this dark tunnel.  Except for the permanent option, which keeps popping into my brain too many times each day.

This has really inspired me to get my photography printed and to mainly do the finishing touches on my novel. I'm going to start freelance writing for magazines on wednesday 

I have so many ideas for businesses, it's disgusting. I've even drafted business plans and am assured of the ideas' viability. I have about 7 completed novels and numerous stories laying in wait, never published, rarely read. I don't know what the hell to do with all that, though, in the absence of money.

Here's the problem: it's great to have ideas, or to want to be an entrepreneur. But what about those of us who are truly BROKE? Much like Zoe, my financial world is crumbling around me. I have been bouncing back and forth between my girlfriend's family home and my parents' house, but the first of those has been sold and closes in a week, and the second is far from a welcoming place. The house closing will already render my girlfriend either homeless or living in one small bedroom and sharing a bed with her 52-year-old, illness-riddled mother. I am worse than broke (see: tens of thousands of dollars in debt from school), have a small truck that's uninsured and falling apart, and have submitted over 100 job applications in the past 3 weeks with no bites.

So, where's the hope for those of us without two pennies to rub together? I have the will, the drive, and the ability, but not a cent to my name.

I was made redundant 9 months ago and have only just reached settlement with my ex employer.   I want to start my own business but lack capital.  The reading I have done in the way of research indicates that you should not consider starting a business unless you have enough cash to live off for 6 to 12 months.  On top of that you need working capital.  The biggest cause of failure for new start ups is cash flow.  I spoke to my bank about a start up loan and I estimated I needed around £60,000.  The bank would only lend me the money over 4 years.   I would have needed a turnover of around £100,000 from day one of the new business just to pay off the loan and after paying living costs, to break even.  Not a great prospect for a new business.

Obviously not a great prospect for the business you are wanting to open, but her initial post wasn't talking about something that ambitious.

*

Another idea in this realm would be soda and snack machines. Either look to buy a route with machines already in place, or work for a company that does it already and learn the ropes if you want to break into the market. I have a friend that does this and it pads his bank account pretty well.

Quote from: Zoë Natasha on September 13, 2011, 12:07:27 AM
It's a good point about having a portfolio of work build up, and that's what I've let slip through the cracks over the years.  Part of it was that I got so drained from my regular jobs that I didn't have the energy to do anything.  I'm so scared of going back into that now that I'm once again in the job market, no better off now than I was before I got my second degree (since my second degree is worthless without graduate study).  All that's open to me are the same jobs that were open to me before, the ones that felt like they sucked my soul dry.

And so for too many years I've done nothing.  Built up a solid body of academic work that didn't even manage to get me into grad school, and so now I'm at a loss.  Feeling so dejected from what happened to me earlier this year that I don't even know if I want to do what I set out to do when I went back to school, but that leaves me once again at a place where I have no professional identity.  And now I have no more money so I no longer have time to pursue what I want.  I need to get whatever crap job I can find that pays the bills.  This is the exact thing I worked all my life not to get into.

Sorry, I'm just really at the lowest point in my life right now.   I can't even see the other side of this dark tunnel.  Except for the permanent option, which keeps popping into my brain too many times each day.

What are your degrees in? I'm a perpetual college student myself and in grad school. PM me and maybe I can help come up with ideas.

Quote from: Pippa on September 13, 2011, 04:27:05 AM
I was made redundant 9 months ago and have only just reached settlement with my ex employer.   I want to start my own business but lack capital.  The reading I have done in the way of research indicates that you should not consider starting a business unless you have enough cash to live off for 6 to 12 months.  On top of that you need working capital.  The biggest cause of failure for new start ups is cash flow.  I spoke to my bank about a start up loan and I estimated I needed around £60,000.  The bank would only lend me the money over 4 years.   I would have needed a turnover of around £100,000 from day one of the new business just to pay off the loan and after paying living costs, to break even.  Not a great prospect for a new business.

If you couldn't pay off £15,000 a year  from the proceeds of a business, then I wouldn't loan you the money to start it. Cash flow IS very important, especially if you have a lot of overhead. Unless you have family money, I'd never build a a business with high fixed costs that can't be shed very quickly. Long term leases and loans can strangle you and leave you without options.


Quote :  "The reading I have done in the way of research indicates that you should not consider starting a business unless you have enough cash to live off for 6 to 12 months."That may be true if you are leaving a job and already have $4,000 a month in bills. If you are unemployed the downside risk is very small! Working from home on your computer or doing labor, the biggest risk is not getting paid for your time which is cheap if you aren't doing anything anyways.  Start off slow and before buying anything for your business, ask "how will this thing pay for itself and then some?"

If it doesnt make money you dont need it unless it saves you more time than you have available to waste.