Started a Business that I was terrified about.

[Romer02]

 

So, as the title says, I've decided to start a business I'm scared of pursuing. It has always been in the back of my mind, and I've always wanted to do this.

It feels so good to be taking this step; I'm incredibly proud of myself. I feel like I'm experiencing a wide range of emotions daily.

Now, the big question is, if I continue doing this for a long time, let's say 5 years, will it eventually become profitable? I'm working really hard at it and giving it my all, but I haven't reached that point yet.

[cjoseph90]

What is the business? Well done for taking action

[D2sage]

Fear of success, common among people who will get the big bag 

Good you got started.

When I started it took 2 years before serious money came in. 

Keep at it.

[Romer02]

@D2sage is it common to feel strange energy when you go to sleep? Can someone help with this? 

[txs]

Congrats on taking the leap! Regarding whether you will be profitable, remember to keep your market and what matters to them in mind, and to be ok with letting go of your current baby to make changes - when it makes sense, of course. There is a balance between changing completely for your audience, and remaining authentic to your offering. But so long as you understand that balance exists, you will be fine.  

[BlessedLion]

What's your business?

[Yimpa]

On 9/4/2023 at 11:08 PM, Romer02 said:

Now, the big question is, if I continue doing this for a long time, let's say 5 years, will it eventually become profitable? I'm working really hard at it and giving it my all, but I haven't reached that point yet.

No guarantee, but you will gain massive experience if you commit deeply into it.

[Chadders]

@Romer02 The average lead time to start a scalable company is around 5 years. I am in my fifth year and we are edging close to trading. We first need product validation, initial client business for investor readiness 

Personally it’s a god damn long journey. You will get pissed off multiple times if you’re anything like me about how slow everything is. You wouldn’t believe how long it takes to create something truly valuable to both society and people but also financially 

[flowboy]

On 02/11/2023 at 9:52 PM, Chadders said:

@Romer02 The average lead time to start a scalable company is around 5 years. I am in my fifth year and we are edging close to trading. We first need product validation, initial client business for investor readiness 

Personally it’s a god damn long journey. You will get pissed off multiple times if you’re anything like me about how slow everything is. You wouldn’t believe how long it takes to create something truly valuable to both society and people but also financially 

Agreed. I'm in my first year or my third year depending on how you look at it (pivoted several times, held steady since december '22), and it's a real battle wrought with many mental ups and downs (totally sure this is going to work - this will never work I'm wasting my time) - and that's not even counting with the battle with myself I have to fight in order to be consistent and prioritize correctly.

I'm glad I didn't stay in higher education as I view that path generally as more time to remain innocent, and marinate in a mindset of following society's authorities and trusting them over your own ability to make things happen, as well as it delays the time to find out how brutal and lonely the path really is.

If I could do it all over again, I'd start from my parents' basement when I was 18 instead of ten years later working a job at the same time. Swallow the tough pills early and have more time on my hands. But alas, I wasn't that audacious back then.

What type of thing are you building?

Edited November 4, 2023 by flowboy

[Chadders]

@flowboy Yeh it’s a real challenge. And people don’t understand. I’ve had to straddle having a job as well as working on my business. It has impacted my career hugely along with relationships and the obvs one, finances. Would have been on the property ladder by now. 
 

In terms of my job I work in business development and have been wanting to get a job as a business advisor but they ain’t having any of it. Applied for around 6 business advisor roles and haven’t landed a single one. Around half I got to interview stage. Now you would think they would actually consider someone with lived experience of starting a business as applicable experience but they don’t. Not really. They want you to have done it as a direct employment which is just ridiculous. I honestly hate the system sometimes

with your university studies this is part of the technocratic system we live in where everything is a tick box and is ‘skills based’ (in other words have you done this very specific thing before?) it’s bs. Public sector is more inclined to do this and the business advisor roles are mostly for state sector. 
 

I did go to uni and I would still recommend it on the whole but I understand not wanting to go. There are other options now but outside of doing you’re own thing you have to follow the rules of the game which is technocracy and tick boxes for the most part. 
 

The business I’m starting is mental health based. Developing an app on mobile but also desktop along with a physical journal companion. Going for a B2B model primarily. We still need to develop a HR dashboard for organisation login. 

As mentioned everything takes ages. I’ve been waiting four months for a grant for the journal manufacture! Now got this and now have to wait another 5 weeks for manufacture and delivery.
 

We’ll be going next year. It’s actually all very exciting when it gets going but at the moment it’s just a lot of waiting for me. I don’t put all my eggs in one basket so I still work but my career ambitions are severely hampered. I actually thought about retraining as a teacher but can’t fucking do that. 1 year teacher training it’s just not practical when the demands of the business could increase very suddenly 

hope your business goes well for you. You live in the states?

[flowboy]

@Chadders Oh Nice, I’m in the mental health space too.

can relate to everything taking ages compared to expectations, so frustrating.

No I’m in Austria. My customers are a mix of US and Europe

[Leo Gura]

@Romer02 A tip for you: Don't just wait, hoping for your business to become profitable. You must make it profitable immediately. Look for ways to turn a profit tomorrow. You find a way to turn a small profit, and then you spend years scaling that. You don't wait for years for profit to magically come your way -- because that will not happen.

Edited November 23, 2023 by Leo Gura

[Hardkill]

My parents say that it's not worth trying to start a business because most fail anyways and if you bother trying then you will just end up with a massive amount of financial debt for the rest of your life after failing at it.

[Yimpa]

@Hardkill Interesting how exactly what you just said can easily be applied to dating,

“It’s not worth getting into an intimate relationship because most end up in separation, cheating, or divorce anyway and if you bother trying then you will just end up with major trust issues with future partners for the rest of your life after having a wealth of failed relationship experiences.”

[OBEler]

@Yimpa that cannot really be applied.. 

You have an alternative for business: work in a company. 

For relationship you dont have an attractive alternative. 

So saying dont do your own Business because it fails 95% anyway is a valid reason in terms of risk Management/opportunities .

[Miguel1]

@OBEler

If you go one more layer meta:

You don't have an alternative option to making money. You cannot NOT make money

Whereas when it comes to dating, you have the option to be single and happy.

You CAN be single. You CAN NOT be without money.