I am business dumb, but I have a very unique mix of skills I would like to turn into a side hustle. Needless to say, there is going to be a huge learning curve for me.
Sure, I could just sell 3D prints on Etsy, but I would rather focus on B2B type work with a more hands on approach than the Chinese print farms/PCB manufacturers. (I’ll start an Etsy shop for practice, but that particular market seems extremely saturated.)
So, if you have started a business before, what are some basic things that you wish someone had told you before you did? Are there good books or other references I could use?
Invest in these books, now:
( not affiliate links, which should be obvious from the short uri’s )
https://www.amazon.com/Slicing-Pie-Handbook-Perfectly-Bootstrapped-ebook/dp/B01LZJWFXH/
https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Right-Your-Companys-Type-ebook/dp/B01N6QY98O/
https://www.amazon.com/Business-Model-Generation-Visionaries-Challengers-ebook/dp/B06X426D4F/
IF you do not understand all the stuff in there, THEN you’re suckerpunching your life, and I don’t want that happening, ok?
Salut, Namaste, Kaizen, & Fare as well as you possibly can.
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Sometimes, actually kinda often, people come to you who know the costs of your materials pretty accurately. “I used to own a…” and “My industry uses that too, and it…” or any info regarding your costs.
Almost always those phrases are followed by some level of attempt to lower your prices.
Don’t, even at the start, even if its family. You don’t even have to explain it to them if you don’t like confrontation.
If they know it so well, they also know why your pricing is the way it is, and what they’d like you do is bend over.
Also, relatedly, inflation always sucks, and your pricing, if fair, reflecting that will be anticipated. Trying to remain at the same price when your costs really change isn’t good business. For something like filament, idk if wholesale prices fluctuate or just go up, so leaving some space if the former so you can avoid constantly updating your pricing is cool too. For a business I used to own, I just priced factoring my gas pricing a half a dollar more than the start of the year’s, and rarely had to adjust it within a year.
If they can get better prices elsewhere, they can go elsewhere.
Depends on what you do; if you specialise, there aren’t other places to go to, if you’re easier to work with, deliver superior quality, are more responsive or just plain likeable, people/customers will stay with you for longer.
I am running my own business coming up on ten years now. You need to go and do a “Start your own business” course.
Lots of places have one that is state or local government sponsored so have a look around. It’s good to meet other local entrepreneurs too.
Apart from learning how to actually do business basics you’ll learn about legal requirements, filing taxes, registering a limited liability company etc that are all essential parts of a business.
Many of these things can be outsourced but you need to know about them in advance.
When you write your business plan BE HONEST with your numbers and assume everything will take longer and cost more because it will. I had huge respect for one dude I know who did then walked away before starting and losing money and / or not making enough.
Good luck!
The amount of time and money spent doing all the starting and running a buisness crap that has nothing to do with the actual work is staggering. I started my own LLC in an industry where I am considered an expert, and it was a complete failure in less then three years.
I had clients, I had projects, but was so overwhelmed with all the buisness elements I just couldn’t spend the time required to get the work done properly. On top of that, while the money was good, the clients were often late paying, so all sorts of fees piled up and quickly ate into the profit. In the end I realized to do it right would have required at minimum four full time people.
Ended up taking a job with a large company as their in house specialist and I’m so much happier. I work shorter hours, get a regular salary with benifits, and spend my time doing the technical stuff I like.
Not saying don’t do it, just be aware of everything that goes into it beyond the core elements of the work / product.
My biggest pitfalls were not realizing how fucking expensive it is to run a business. licenses and taxes and paying accountants and shit I hate it but it’s better than having a real job
You can grab a copy of entrepreneurial small business 5th edition used for probably 20 bucks. I’m about one semester out from a business administration associate’s degree. That textbook was the most comprehensive of anything that I studied over the last year and a half. And the only textbook I made sure to buy a print copy of, so I have it for reference.
