← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · JoseyWales
Thread ID: 17044 | Posts: 10 | Started: 2005-03-01
2005-03-01 16:27 | User Profile
just curious if any of you work from home and have been successful. ive got a few ideas im kicking around.
i was surfing a few minuites ago and stumbled on this [url]http://www.dwave.com.au/wfh.htm[/url]
its not as easy as some might think. add to that, if your business model is not well thought out, you can easily join the ranks of the (75% ?) of startups that fail.
2005-03-01 18:03 | User Profile
[QUOTE=JoseyWales]just curious if any of you work from home and have been successful. ive got a few ideas im kicking around.
i was surfing a few minuites ago and stumbled on this [url]http://www.dwave.com.au/wfh.htm[/url]
its not as easy as some might think. add to that, if your business model is well thought out, you can easily join the ranks of the (75% ?) of startups that fail.[/QUOTE] I'd heard it was closer to 90%. And probably most of the 10% had already acquired experience in a field by working for someone else.
You need a very strong drive, and a very unusually good idea, to succeed, if you're competing against the big boys, now just cleaning houses or something like that.
2005-03-01 21:30 | User Profile
I don't know how they count home business starts and failures. The IRS might keep count, but this wouldn't be very meaningful. A lot of these so-called businesses may be nothing more than miscellaneous jobs that were never meant to last a long time. Some of them are these are those gimmicky home sales things like Avon where no one should really expect to last long.
Most successful home businesses are probably where people provide a needed service, such as child care or a plumber who works out of his home. Compare to Avon, which is not a valuable service.
If you want to manufacture something at home, there's probably not many things you could make competitively. In any case, having a retail store connection would be a great help.
If you do start a business, remember to keep records of all expensess (to deduct for tax purposes), and miles you drive for that business. If you have a part of your home set aside for your business, you can get a home office deduction (Child Cares don't need to set aside a part of the home for business).
2005-03-01 22:10 | User Profile
I am trying to do a business selling truckloads of horse manure to gardeners. Put my ad in the local paper of the wealthier neighboring county -- no calls so far :angry: I can dump 1000 pounds of horse manure on their lawn for a mere 80 dollars -- this would cost them about 160 if they bought bagged manure! I get the manure for free every day, as I do a morning side job cleaning stables on a horse farm (I love that job!)
I'm also going to get a Patriot electric chipper-shredder with my tax refund and sell woodchips, at the very least, to the horse man for whom I work. That'll add about 30 a week to my 80 a week in horse wages. I'll see how many chips I can yield, and if it's quite a lot, I'll try to sell chips to other horse farms around here.
Also, hoping to sell food, of course. I really really want out of this corporate thing. I want to work outside, on the land, not for any bosses. I want to get up in the morning and stay on my own property. I don't want to commute any more, I don't want to deal with people except at the farmer's market or when I am delivering wood chips or horse manure.
If Peak Oil hits hard and the price of food goes way up, I'll be well positioned. I plan to grow a huge bumper crop of potatoes and tomatoes this year, and lots of cabbage. It'd be nice to transition from office work to full time farmer and "gardening services busniess" perhaps, if the gas is affordable enough to be worth it.
Rob
2005-03-01 22:45 | User Profile
Kievsky, that is my kind of thinking ! I hope you do well, the trick is to stick with it and keep using your imagination. I really want to work the land also. Im about 1-2yrs away from buying some land. We are moving soon, but will move again when i can build on some land. Im thinking about goats, organic chickens (fresh eggs) and blueberries.
At present ive got a few ideas im tinkering with for an online venture. Im pretty handy with a computer, so im gonna try to sell stuff online as well. I will also sell the store - a complete, working online storefront with management features. I just wish i had started this sooner instead of plowing along in the corporate la-la land, rubbing elbows with the dark masses.
2005-03-01 23:10 | User Profile
[QUOTE=JoseyWales]Kievsky, that is my kind of thinking ! I hope you do well, the trick is to stick with it and keep using your imagination.[/QUOTE]Hate to say it, but his idea sounds like a lot of horse:dung: to me :biggrin:
2005-03-01 23:37 | User Profile
[QUOTE=JoseyWales]I really want to work the land also. Im about 1-2yrs away from buying some land. We are moving soon, but will move again when i can build on some land. Im thinking about goats, organic chickens (fresh eggs) and blueberries.[/QUOTE] If you want to sell produce or meat, I would recommend going the organic route. I have a bunch of kin in Virginia who have been farming for years, and that is the only way they can survive anymore. If you try to sell regular produce and livestock, there is simply no way you can compete with the giant agribusiness outfits. If you sell organic, on the other hand, you can charge a premium for what you sell.
2005-03-01 23:58 | User Profile
I don't know how much horse manure you have but if you haven't sold any then you must have tons and tons of it.......I don't thing that I want to pay you a visit any time soon.
You should get in contact with gardeners that take care of other peoples property and maybe they will buy it from you.
For those who want to start something from home, get in contact with companys like "Cheaper Than Dirt", "Cabelas", "Sports Mans Guide" and so on.
Those people sell over the internet and I believe that their operators (orders takers) work in different states from their homes, all you need is a good computer and two phone lines.
At this time I go into the forest and cut down some branches from trees that are at least four feet long and fairly straight and I make walking canes out of them, I sent samples to three different companys and got two orders one for six grosses and one for ten grosses but I am not sure that I want to get back in business......mainly I did it to see if I could do it, like when I make a prototype of one of my inventions and then put it away and forget about it.
Is the challenge of doing it and not the actual selling that attracts me.
2005-03-02 00:02 | User Profile
[QUOTE=JoseyWales]just curious if any of you work from home and have been successful. ive got a few ideas im kicking around.
i was surfing a few minuites ago and stumbled on this [url]http://www.dwave.com.au/wfh.htm[/url]
its not as easy as some might think. add to that, if your business model is well thought out, you can easily join the ranks of the (75% ?) of startups that fail.[/QUOTE]
I run an IT-contracting business out of my bedroom. Been going about 18 months now and it's grown to the stage where I am sub-contracting work out to other programmers. I take a cut off the top and in return they get to use code that I've accumulated from previous jobs (and I get them the contract in the first place). With anything computer-related you can obviously cut costs working at home by not having the overheads associated with a nice air-conditioned office to worry about. When I visit clients I show up clean shaven in a nice suit, little do they know the reality is some guy stumbling out of bed and sitting unshaven at his computer in his pajamas.
One thing I underestimated was the amount of time you spend on "business" (calling clients, soliciting work, doing tax returns etc) as opposed to "work". For me it's about 50/50. One piece of advice I would give is that in general it's a bad idea to hire/go into business with friends, because you feel hesitant/emotionally conflicted about "cracking the whip" when they don't deliver on their contractual obligations.
It took me about a year to get to the stage where I was earning the same amount of money as in my previous office job. I'm working slightly longer hours, but the lack of commute and the freedom to work whenever I want makes up for it. Also, a lot of my time is wasted posting to online message boards! ;)
2005-03-02 03:46 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Kievsky]I am trying to do a business selling truckloads of horse manure to gardeners. Put my ad in the local paper of the wealthier neighboring county -- no calls so far :angry: I can dump 1000 pounds of horse manure on their lawn for a mere 80 dollars -- this would cost them about 160 if they bought bagged manure! I get the manure for free every day, as I do a morning side job cleaning stables on a horse farm (I love that job!)
Kievsky, I also like the way you think. But, I can get pp for free from the zoo. None of that horse sht. I'm talking elephant drppings. But, if I didn't have that source, I'd be looking for someone like you. Certainly there are some hobby gardeners around who would want the stuff but just haven't found your ad yet. I don't read the local paper.
If you're selling food, you might want to look for items that aren't so cheap at the grocery store. I can buy a big bag of potatoes for not even a couple of dollars.