I noted in the post "Top 10 reasons to start..." (below this one) that the impact of a bad economy can adversely affect one's good health. I found it affecting mine, seeking out and reviewing too much information about the current strife, what horrible errors -- scams, regulations, and more -- brought us here. I strive to not go blaming it on one person or group or any persuasion, too, so it gets ugly listening or reading much of what's out there (including my own thoughts on the situation).
Starting a business now could be a very welcome distraction for many, if one found like-minded, driven people to get it going.
Shutters may be going up, but not a lot of them, not right now. That could change in six months, or a year. I believe, sternly, that many opportunities arising right now are suitable to the "mother of invention" adage. This as others are coming down. I have had my own idea about a concept for other businesses, not for a standalone company, while I might have to pursue that direction for it. It is an idea that suits the time, but is no huge moneymaker, just a good idea for helping folks when they need a job.
Just today (this morning), driving a regular road pattern of mine, I noticed the second of three small car sales businesses at a large intersection closing up. Literally: there was a guy at the gate to the property, pulling closed the gate on a big, empty slab of asphalt. That company had only just opened up some time in 2008. Adjacent to that used dealership was another, long there, which was now empty. Happily, a third which always seemed to have very clean, very current or well taken care of vehicles, was seemingly very much in business.
My wife works for a married couple who just started a small business. They are so dedicated to the task, as is my wife and the other employees, that they cannot help but succeed (the particular field is a good one, for one thing, for good or bad times). It comes from their dedication, though: that stuff rolls from the top, as they say. A company will never fail from the bottom up! An important (evasively obvious?) lesson, for anyone wanting to start a news business: you better love it! If you don't, then you might not want to bother. If you do not love the field in which you want to start a company, then you will perhaps succeed, but just how miserable do you want to be? The hardest thing to do everyday is to work at making a business succeed if you are unhappy, painfully disinterested, or just plain miserable everyday doing it.
The prospect of starting a new business has long appealed to me. I had a hand in startups and very small companies on about five or six occasions. I ran, partly managed, or otherwise helped launch three media companies, from 1997 to 2002. I moved in 2003 from the area where two of those companies are still in business, to follow my career wish to stay in news media. As I've covered on this blog, an ownership and management shuffle led me out of the last startup company, a daily paper (it was a tough time, too, in the industry -- among the great many things it changed, permanently and briefly, Sept. 11 steeply lowered ad dollars in 2001-02). After a while, staying in news media proved contrary to my fate.
In 2005, after a stint in graphics and computer services, I became a tech writer and proposals writer. The work was quite unlike news design and journalism, but it paid much better and I found myself to be very well suited to it.
Those exciting and challenging days of startups are fond memories in lots of ways. As with anything, there are caveats. As I opined long ago (1992): "Some people rise to an occasion, others just show up." (That's mine: you can use it with attribution. Grin.) So long as folks are in it to work hard and do things appropriately, strive to avoid, briefly, an "amateurism trumps accuracy" attitude, startups can always succeed, both in appearances and on the all-important financial records. Most of all, the people running the thing have got to love the work, and the more those working for them, WITH them, also love it, the better the likelihood for success.
- Jon O.
Starting a business now could be a very welcome distraction for many, if one found like-minded, driven people to get it going.
Shutters may be going up, but not a lot of them, not right now. That could change in six months, or a year. I believe, sternly, that many opportunities arising right now are suitable to the "mother of invention" adage. This as others are coming down. I have had my own idea about a concept for other businesses, not for a standalone company, while I might have to pursue that direction for it. It is an idea that suits the time, but is no huge moneymaker, just a good idea for helping folks when they need a job.
Just today (this morning), driving a regular road pattern of mine, I noticed the second of three small car sales businesses at a large intersection closing up. Literally: there was a guy at the gate to the property, pulling closed the gate on a big, empty slab of asphalt. That company had only just opened up some time in 2008. Adjacent to that used dealership was another, long there, which was now empty. Happily, a third which always seemed to have very clean, very current or well taken care of vehicles, was seemingly very much in business.
My wife works for a married couple who just started a small business. They are so dedicated to the task, as is my wife and the other employees, that they cannot help but succeed (the particular field is a good one, for one thing, for good or bad times). It comes from their dedication, though: that stuff rolls from the top, as they say. A company will never fail from the bottom up! An important (evasively obvious?) lesson, for anyone wanting to start a news business: you better love it! If you don't, then you might not want to bother. If you do not love the field in which you want to start a company, then you will perhaps succeed, but just how miserable do you want to be? The hardest thing to do everyday is to work at making a business succeed if you are unhappy, painfully disinterested, or just plain miserable everyday doing it.
The prospect of starting a new business has long appealed to me. I had a hand in startups and very small companies on about five or six occasions. I ran, partly managed, or otherwise helped launch three media companies, from 1997 to 2002. I moved in 2003 from the area where two of those companies are still in business, to follow my career wish to stay in news media. As I've covered on this blog, an ownership and management shuffle led me out of the last startup company, a daily paper (it was a tough time, too, in the industry -- among the great many things it changed, permanently and briefly, Sept. 11 steeply lowered ad dollars in 2001-02). After a while, staying in news media proved contrary to my fate.
In 2005, after a stint in graphics and computer services, I became a tech writer and proposals writer. The work was quite unlike news design and journalism, but it paid much better and I found myself to be very well suited to it.
Those exciting and challenging days of startups are fond memories in lots of ways. As with anything, there are caveats. As I opined long ago (1992): "Some people rise to an occasion, others just show up." (That's mine: you can use it with attribution. Grin.) So long as folks are in it to work hard and do things appropriately, strive to avoid, briefly, an "amateurism trumps accuracy" attitude, startups can always succeed, both in appearances and on the all-important financial records. Most of all, the people running the thing have got to love the work, and the more those working for them, WITH them, also love it, the better the likelihood for success.
- Jon O.
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