What ideas do you guys have? I'm sure there's more than I put int he poll.
guess you've never had a real entreprenuerial spirit burnign inside of you. if you did, you'd understand where im coming from. ive crunched number and toyed with ideas for maybe 30 businesses of the last few years. im in no hurry, but i know running my own business is my calling. i've built up, run, and sold 2 companies so far...but neither was as successful as i wished (one was painting bus,one was a website)
I'm just lookign for ideas, plain and simple.
Well, your perspective has changed over the last few years, and so has mine.
At this point you might benefit from some sort of business school. I don't mean the sit-in-a-classroom-and-do-homework kind, nor even an MBA program. But at this point you could benefit from honing your knowledge in accounting, finance, estimation, and project management. You already have the experience, but you might benefit from learning more vocabulary & techniques. You'd learn other people's experience at what worked or what didn't, and why. You'd gain more skill at using cashflow & financing to grow the business.
I've sat through a few dozen business-plan presentations. The ones who immediately shut down their audience project an attitude of "I'm a successful entrepreneur and I know how to do this." (Well, one presenter actually said that, which brought a whole roomful of entrepreneurs to laughter, so I guess they didn't shut down their audience. But that was an exception.) The ones who get money are the ones who lay out their concept and then spend the next 20 minutes with pessimistic spreadsheets and risk analysis picking it apart to show how they're going to avoid disaster. They get the audience to skip over the "Why invest" and go straight to "when" and "how much". The entrepreneurs are practically begging you not to give them money, but if you happened to shove it into their pockets then this is what they'd do this next.
Here's another idea, not intended as criticism (you already have the credibility) and not intended to offend. Your posts have a tendency to highlight conflict & controversy between you and... others. You might benefit from mentored training in public speaking and negotiations. Sort of a Dale Carnegie/Toastmasters version of "Getting to Yes" or Marshall Goldsmith's "What Got You Here Won't Get You There". And if this paragraph is raising your hackles... well... that reaction is exactly why this type of assisted education/training would benefit you. I speak from my own credible experience.
Or you could just ride your current system until you reach your ER number, at which point you won't really need those skills anymore. Unless you're raising a family.
