I had a house painting business once which doesn't sound stupid until I tell you that I had almost zero capital to start with.
It seems obvious now that I would be living hand to mouth and always under-pricing work just to maintain basic cash flow.
My youthful naivety convinced me that hard work and great service would eventually pay off though.
The only surprise was how long how I managed to keep going, even to the point of employing two other people full-time. Inevitably, my relationship broke down when my girlfriend at the time decided our landlord might be a better prospect (she liked spending money and gravitated towards people who could pretend they had some) and locked me out of the house. As a consequence I was forced to find a proper job for a while.
It just goes to show that even a reasonable business idea can be doomed to failure if the basics are not in place at the outset.
I had a house painting business once which doesn't sound stupid until I tell you that I had almost zero capital to start with.
It seems obvious now that I would be living hand to mouth and always under-pricing work just to maintain basic cash flow.
My youthful naivety convinced me that hard work and great service would eventually pay off though.
The only surprise was how long how I managed to keep going, even to the point of employing two other people full-time. Inevitably, my relationship broke down when my girlfriend at the time decided our landlord might be a better prospect (she liked spending money and gravitated towards people who could pretend they had some) and locked me out of the house. As a consequence I was forced to find a proper job for a while.
It just goes to show that even a reasonable business idea can be doomed to failure if the basics are not in place at the outset.