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>Overall, entrepreneurship is overrated. 5 successes for every 100 failures This is so ridiculously untrue. There are so many businesses you can run that are a

>Overall, entrepreneurship is overrated. 5 successes for every 100 failures This is so ridiculously untrue. There are so many businesses you can run that are almost impossible to fail. There are so many failures that are actually just "OK" in that they break even or lose a little money or whatever but don't actually cause you any problem to wind down. You have to have a certain personality type to do well as an employee and you need to fit a certain mold that employers demand. As an entrepreneur you just have to give your customers and clients what they want and nothing else really matters. You do not even really need many employees to make a very good living doing a whole lot of different things. If anything, being an employee is overrated particularly when people have career instability in midlife. Unexpected expenses like divorce and medical crisis often hit employees and people in general very hard because it both makes them less employable and disrupts their retirement plans. As soon as an oldster has a major gap in their resume, their ability to continue to ride on the employee gravy train diminishes by a massive degree. No doubt you can live well on a good salary and investments, but it is not the best option for everyone nor is it the only option. It is the best option for a certain kind of personality but not for everyone. I know people who dream of starting businesses but are employees but all their side projects suck and don't go anywhere in part because they are just not suited for independent business.

kwxza 8y ago
>There are so many businesses you can run that are almost impossible to fail. Can you give examples of some of these businesses?
- smallgovt 8y ago
  When it comes to "safe" businesses, some characteristics you may want to look for are: 1) high margins 2) inefficient operations 3)low barrier to entry 4) ability to drive down costs with technology As an example, the moving business. The current rates are north of $100/hr. They pay their workers minimum wage. They are run by non-techies who drive inefficient ops. Remember that you can always find reasons to NOT get into any business. Successful entrepreneurs are the ones who have the persistence to tackle problems and find creative ways to solve them efficiently. And, those creative solutions often won't be apparent until you pick an industry and dive in.
- seppin 8y ago
  It's not that failure is eliminated, but you can run a business with almost no risk or capital exposure. If that business fails, you walk away with no damage done.
  - canaus 8y ago
    >capital exposure Really, what type of companies are those? I've always seen the comment of, "there are so many more ways of making money than X" without the actual proposition of said companies. Hell, even Sam Altman said it in the Stanford Start-up class, but didn't give any examples.
    - ams6110 8y ago
      Small consultancy or web dev business. Your risk is the cost of a laptop and your time.
      - j-c-hewitt 8y ago
        Right. If you bill one hour and don't have to issue a refund, you're in the green. Nearly impossible to mess up. Harder to mess up than being an Uber driver with lower capital requirements.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - robocat 8y ago
    You have no capital exposure if either you (a) work full time and your living expenses are $0 e.g. parent's basement, or (b) you have a job to pay your living expenses and work on your business in your spare time and value your spare time at $0.
- indigo945 8y ago
  A pub, a bakery, a well-placed gas station.
  - iheartpotatoes 8y ago
    These are very hard businesses to run. Pubs have to deal with liquor licenses, rowdy clients, high staff turnover, and very high rents to be anywhere other than a dive. Bakeries have extremely high turnover, razor thin margins, expensive equipment, large kitchen, odd hours, and significant hours Gas stations are all franchises. It is notoriously difficult to make money on a franchise (e.g., you might make 30 or 40k a year take home) and there are huge lists of things that a franchisee can be penalized for. Plus you are hiring the least educated staff on earth and have to deal with all that shit. Compared to white collar work, which can pay 4-8x what you'd make doing any one of these, for a fraction of the headache.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    Do you know how many pubs and bakeries fail? "Pubs close at a rate of 18 a week as people stay at home more" (BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45086080 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45086080 ). As for "well placed gas station" that's factored in in paying enormously for the location.
  - markbnj 8y ago
    This is a downright bizarre list of "no risk" businesses. The first two of your examples are both restaurants. Enough said on that. The last one is a franchise that sells a highly regulated commodity product from a brick and mortar storefront. I mean geez... what do you consider to be hard business?
glennpratt 8y ago
I've run or helped manage several small businesses and watched folks move into middle age with them. Small businesses are hard and require an emotional detachment from pressure, long hours and risk. The failures I saw left people in worse positions than being let go - they had to fully retool themselves and find a new career with little in savings. Those new careers ended up being stable, high paying, traditional jobs. The poor insurance situation (at the time) left otherwise functional families begging to help get kids through medical issues.
coldtea 8y ago
>This is so ridiculously untrue. There are so many businesses you can run that are almost impossible to fail. What would those be, because from SV style startups (where the rate of fail is atrocious) to small businesses like funeral services, coffee shops and restaurants, most businesses fail.
dmitryminkovsky 8y ago
> This is so ridiculously untrue. There are so many businesses you can run that are almost impossible to fail. There are so many failures that are actually just "OK" in that they break even or lose a little money or whatever but don't actually cause you any problem to wind down. This is so ridiculously untrue :). Not a single business is easy. You can’t just coast and get break even. You have to slog from day to day. And if you’re not growing, you’re shrinking. I know that’s not a popular thing to say these days, but I believe that to be true even apart from the wild excesses of capitalism. In a free market, if you’re not constantly reinventing to keep people engaged, no matter what your business, you are going to fail soon enough. People get bored and move on, even if you’re laying golden eggs, people will get bored.

kwxza 8y ago

>There are so many businesses you can run that are almost impossible to fail. Can you give examples of some of these businesses?

smallgovt 8y ago
When it comes to "safe" businesses, some characteristics you may want to look for are: 1) high margins 2) inefficient operations 3)low barrier to entry 4) ability to drive down costs with technology As an example, the moving business. The current rates are north of $100/hr. They pay their workers minimum wage. They are run by non-techies who drive inefficient ops. Remember that you can always find reasons to NOT get into any business. Successful entrepreneurs are the ones who have the persistence to tackle problems and find creative ways to solve them efficiently. And, those creative solutions often won't be apparent until you pick an industry and dive in.
seppin 8y ago
It's not that failure is eliminated, but you can run a business with almost no risk or capital exposure. If that business fails, you walk away with no damage done.
- canaus 8y ago
  >capital exposure Really, what type of companies are those? I've always seen the comment of, "there are so many more ways of making money than X" without the actual proposition of said companies. Hell, even Sam Altman said it in the Stanford Start-up class, but didn't give any examples.
  - ams6110 8y ago
    Small consultancy or web dev business. Your risk is the cost of a laptop and your time.
    - j-c-hewitt 8y ago
      Right. If you bill one hour and don't have to issue a refund, you're in the green. Nearly impossible to mess up. Harder to mess up than being an Uber driver with lower capital requirements.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- robocat 8y ago
  You have no capital exposure if either you (a) work full time and your living expenses are $0 e.g. parent's basement, or (b) you have a job to pay your living expenses and work on your business in your spare time and value your spare time at $0.
indigo945 8y ago
A pub, a bakery, a well-placed gas station.
- iheartpotatoes 8y ago
  These are very hard businesses to run. Pubs have to deal with liquor licenses, rowdy clients, high staff turnover, and very high rents to be anywhere other than a dive. Bakeries have extremely high turnover, razor thin margins, expensive equipment, large kitchen, odd hours, and significant hours Gas stations are all franchises. It is notoriously difficult to make money on a franchise (e.g., you might make 30 or 40k a year take home) and there are huge lists of things that a franchisee can be penalized for. Plus you are hiring the least educated staff on earth and have to deal with all that shit. Compared to white collar work, which can pay 4-8x what you'd make doing any one of these, for a fraction of the headache.
- coldtea 8y ago
  Do you know how many pubs and bakeries fail? "Pubs close at a rate of 18 a week as people stay at home more" (BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45086080 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45086080 ). As for "well placed gas station" that's factored in in paying enormously for the location.
- markbnj 8y ago
  This is a downright bizarre list of "no risk" businesses. The first two of your examples are both restaurants. Enough said on that. The last one is a franchise that sells a highly regulated commodity product from a brick and mortar storefront. I mean geez... what do you consider to be hard business?

glennpratt 8y ago

I've run or helped manage several small businesses and watched folks move into middle age with them. Small businesses are hard and require an emotional detachment from pressure, long hours and risk. The failures I saw left people in worse positions than being let go - they had to fully retool themselves and find a new career with little in savings. Those new careers ended up being stable, high paying, traditional jobs. The poor insurance situation (at the time) left otherwise functional families begging to help get kids through medical issues.

coldtea 8y ago

>This is so ridiculously untrue. There are so many businesses you can run that are almost impossible to fail. What would those be, because from SV style startups (where the rate of fail is atrocious) to small businesses like funeral services, coffee shops and restaurants, most businesses fail.

dmitryminkovsky 8y ago

> This is so ridiculously untrue. There are so many businesses you can run that are almost impossible to fail. There are so many failures that are actually just "OK" in that they break even or lose a little money or whatever but don't actually cause you any problem to wind down. This is so ridiculously untrue :). Not a single business is easy. You can’t just coast and get break even. You have to slog from day to day. And if you’re not growing, you’re shrinking. I know that’s not a popular thing to say these days, but I believe that to be true even apart from the wild excesses of capitalism. In a free market, if you’re not constantly reinventing to keep people engaged, no matter what your business, you are going to fail soon enough. People get bored and move on, even if you’re laying golden eggs, people will get bored.