3 Reasons Why Running an Offline Business After a Year is No longer Worth It
Address these issues to avoid wasting your time before spending money on starting an offline business
I’m a 9–5'er who is attracted to the idea of side hustles to supplement my 9–5 income.
This is what prompted me to start a sole-proprietor business that caters to small local manufacturing businesses that couldn’t afford a full-time engineering designer. What started as a very smart business idea, turned into a nuisance after a few months.
The biggest reason why it didn’t work out was that I was winging it.
Why wing it? It was my way of getting myself to take action and avoid the paralysis from over-analysis. However, taking action (to get started) is just the start. Running a business requires “stamina” — in the form of money and patience.
And because I winged it, my “business stamina” was not conditioned to make things work.
The local business I started turned into a huge waste of time due to the following reasons:
Reason #1 — I didn’t have the time and the skill to find clients
I had no clue that the business I started is freelance work!
That means I needed to learn the skill of finding clients. And this is not as simple as spamming everyone on LinkedIn. This requires you to learn the art of reaching out, establishing trust in an e-mail or quick phone call, an offer and a guarantee.
I wouldn’t have this problem if I already had a list of potential clients before launching my business.
Reason #2 — Working for yourself is more complex than when you work for others
As an employee, all I had to do to get paid is to put in my hours and the paycheck comes in after 2 weeks. That’s it!
But when you’re a solo business owner — accounting, tax, sales, marketing and all that jazz is also your responsibility.
And because I was new, I had no clue how to do any of them. Hire people? Sure, if you have the money to pay them. Learn it yourself? Sure, if you have the time to learn and do all the other stuff at the same time.
In other words, it’s hella tough to make this happen if you’re winging it…
Reason #3 — Having your own business can make it seem like you’re making more money it, but that’s not necessarily true
I’ve heard service businesses (that offer the same service I wanna offer) get paid more than what I typically get as an employee. This made starting a business very attractive.
Money talks.
However, after starting my own, I realized why it made sense that you need to get paid more.
Your business expense needs to come from somewhere. That includes the equipment, WiFi, software, electricity bills, subscriptions, etc. What about the gas for driving your vehicle to meet with a potential client? Or that fancy lunch? You get it.
Just imagining that makes starting your own business (to make more money) seems like a dumb decision.*
*It’s only a dumb decision in the beginning because once it takes off, you should be glad you started it. Question is, can you handle making nothing for 3 years?
Conclusion
Starting a business (whenever I hear other ex-employees talk about it) seems easy. However, not a lot of business owners talk about their struggles — the kind that makes starting a business feel too risky.
These are the realizations I had that cost me time, money and stress.
My hope is that you won’t make the same mistakes I had when you decide to start your own local business.
