Do you dream of having your own business?

[IncyWincySpider]

I'm always trying to come up with business ideas and trying to think through ways in which they would work. Does anyone else do this? Or did you do it and then actually start up on your own?
What sort of business ideas have you considered/started?

Most of my ideas I just couldn't see going anywhere or would be a lot of hard work for relatively little gain.
A few recent thoughts were:
Local/organic food shop + deliveries as I haven't been able to find anything truly local to me.
Website + shop selling handcrafted items - a bit like a craft fair in a shop.
Running a shop is inflexible and neither of these ideas are scalable.

Have also been toying with a personal finance related idea but I don't have any finance qualifications or the time to gain them so didn't think I could make it work without falling foul of financial services regulation. Had a brainwave the other day and came up with a new angle which I don't think would be affected by regulation. Now I just need to find the energy to try and do some more research and do something about it!! can't see that happening for a while!

[Matilde]

Yep! all the time!!!!

I still think everyday about my children's clothes online retail business and about the 100 reasons why it would flop :rolleyes:.

I am also thinking of starting a local El Club Espanol (this is like Le club francais you may have heard of) but again I mostly think about why the hard work wont be financially worth it at the end.

I am not having the most positive day.:zombie:

[pooch]

Yes and that is why I went for it!! It really isn't as daunting as you first imagine. I was so scared of starting up so I did things little by little and I finally launched my business in May. It took me nearly two years of planning but I am so pleased I did it.

Also, what I did is, when I found out I was pregnant I reallly did tonnes of stuff while on maternity leave and now I am concentrating on my business while getting paid my maternity leave:teehee: So if it doesn't work out I still will have a job to go to at the end of my leave but positive thinking... its going to work out, its going to work out....

Just start researching and getting things moving little by little. Also really important to write down a business plan so you know what you want to achieve. It doesn't have to be pages but just jotting down your main idea etc. I am constantly tweaking mine.

Matilde, I would definitely send Lucas to your el club espanol if you had one:grin:

[scatterbrain]

All the time, but I can't think of a skill I have that people would pay for!

SB

[cartchick]

Yep, and I do :smile:

Now I sometimes dream about being an employee again :lol:






nah, not really!

[minigirl]

:agree: me too.

[Princess Fiona]

All the time, but I can't think of a skill I have that people would pay for!

What SB said :sigh:

[cheeky_biscuit]

DH has his own business. When he decided to go for it, I was just about returning to work from Mat. leave to part time hours - my wages after childcare did cover our mortgage and council tax, but hardly anything left over. Fortunately it went ok. It does get stressful at times, and DH can't switch off, but our lifestyle is so different to when he was working - and so much better!
Go for it.:thumb:

[sapphire]

I work for myself and I took a huge risk doing it but life is too short and sometimes you've got to take a risk and just go for it!!

[Jamtart]

I would love to own my own health and beauty spa and have a range of skincare with my name on it! I want to start by running my own beauty salon and I am going to go back to college evenings to train as a nail tech in Feb and full time in sept to do beauty therapy! Its been a dream of mine for years and now I can start to make it a reality.

Also this is totally different but I have always dreamed of owning my own cafe bar thats a cafe by day and cocktail bar come nightclub by night!

[sapphire]

Also this is totally different but I have always dreamed of owning my own cafe bar thats a cafe by day and cocktail bar come nightclub by night!

I'd LOVEEEE to do this too. There used to be a place in my home town that was like this but it closed down due to the owner doing dodgy deals lol

Great news on going back to college...you can def do it!!

[twirlygirly]

I would love to do something completely different. I'm a nurse and would love to have a job that doesn't involve life and death!
I have crazy dreams of learning to sew and making childrens clothes or maybe learning how to make jewellery. All my dreams involve me doing something I have yet to learn how to do, so not sure how possible it would be.

TG

[Jamtart]

sapphire there is a place like this in my town too but its really down market (full of kids and chavs, sorry but it is) and its grubby looking too... mine would be so much nicer :lol:

[Aunt Fanny]

:smile: I dream daily. Doing it right now, I'm a nurse too. Due back from Mat leave very soon. I'd love to set up my own shop selling all things baby. I'd also have a small cafe with a soft play area for those coffee mornings mummies need. Mainly I'd want to sell real nappies. Theres no where round me that does that.

[icclebunny]

Mainly I'd want to sell real nappies. Theres no where round me that does that.

Now, as long as you promise not to steal all of HH's custom from me - we know what a softy she is about real nappies :teehee:

Im looking into setting up a small real nappy business, as a re-seller/agent, and hopefully branch out onto a website etc, perhaps even start off with a small market stall before progressing onto more shop like premises. Im not out to make megabucks, Id like to be able to chose my own hours within reason, be able to take the Mini IBs with me some of the time and be able to give demos to people about something that Im passionate but not pushy about

[ChelseaHarvey]

I would now like my own business and so wish that i had kept on at my beauty therapy course, i could have been working from home now..

I would love to have my own club (nightclub)but that is dreaming

The past few weeks i have been thinking of going back to college, to do massages or even nails, makue-up or just do the course i quit again.

[scarfy]

All the time!

I am a qualified accountant and have looked at going freelance but the market is flooded around here. I am currently started re-studying towards my professional tax exams to specialise in tax and will hopefully go freelance with this or at least work on a consultant basis.

other than that, I have thought about a design company, creating cards etc on the pc, or even letter heads or even PR as there is nothing like that round here but I know nats all about PR!

My hubs is really lucky as he has always been self employed and turned a hobby into a business a few years ago. He works the hours he likes, the business is totally web based and he makes lots of money. Wish I could make the leap and work for him as then his business could grow even more.

[Northern Angel]

I set up a tree surgery and garden services business for my DH last year, as this was always his dream, but he didn't have the confidence or admin skills to do it. He got his qualification in tree surgery years ago, but couldn't find employed work up here, so was just working in a factory.

I worked on it this summer while on Maternity Leave.
It went a bit manic during the Heat Wave and the work is still pouring in even though we're into Autumn and he's gone part time in his old job, hoping to go fully self employed next Spring. He's lovin every minute of it! :ellie:

A few people did say to us they didn't think it would be viable, and that it would only be seasonal. But our attitude was...at the age of 60, we would rather look back and say we gave it a shot (no matter how it worked out) than not tried at all...

I've got a little dream for myself too, which I'll do as soon as I have enough money.....

[Vickytoria]

I was talking about this last night to my 18yr old brother, i told him he should go into business with our older brother and buy a burger van, but he doesnt want to do that for the rest of his life - on the other hand aslong as it was my business and my burger van i would love it!:lol:

[Shaybabe]

I would love to, but don't know what skills I can offer. Really want to get DH set up as an independant Personal Trainer, but we don't have any funds for the start up costs (equipment, another car) and we couldn't afford to lose his wages at the moment either. The other problem is that, much as he *wants* to do it, he's not exactly pro-active, and it's a struggle to get him to commit to it. Just don't want him to turn around in ten years and regret not having tried! Might have a chat with him about it again.

[donna-j]

We dream about it all the time.

We went straight from 5 years at university into working full time, and could not have imagined anything else.

Being on mat leave made me see the other side.

We want to do property. It really is our passion, but we are living in the house we are developing and it's so difficult with a baby. Thomas doesn't do to bed until 8 and then we eat. By the time we are ready to get going it's nearly 9. We are working too.

We'll get there in the end. I'd like to sell this next year, move out of the city to somewhere cheaper and use some of the profit to buy a second property to renovate rather than the one we live in. Pipe dreams.

I could also do freelance copyediting/proofreading, and might go down that route to supplement the house stuff.