Going it alone

Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian · January 27, 2015

Tramps_mate said:
Of course they did.. Its terrible.

My missus trained as a driving instructor and signed up to the AA.. They wanted 300 quid a week in royalty payments. That was about 15 lessosn before she made money, plus fuel. Luckily I caught on and made her cancel before it was too late. First 2 months AA provided not one single learner driver for her.

The Cynical Nature of myself often makes me think I should be exposing scams and the like as a job, like that Dominic Littlewood or Matt Albright.

Tramps_mate · January 27, 2015

Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian said:
The Cynical Nature of myself often makes me think I should be exposing scams and the like as a job, like that Dominic Littlewood or Matt Albright.

Too right, I'll join you.. I hate people ripping off others. Theres too many crooks in the world feeding off of others.

Deleted member 24970 · January 27, 2015

The Cowboy said:
Just reading this article on BBC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30897077 - and it got me wondering if anyone on here has taken the leap into self-employment, and if it succeeded or failed?

I've always harboured ambitions of taking the plunge and going it alone, but have yet come up with a viable business idea, and even less so the ability to fund it.

If you could, what would you do? <opening the floodgates with this question, I fear>

My bit of advice is change your name from The Cowboy, it may kill your business before it has begun.

I now class myself as a qualified freelance business advisor.

atrottel · January 27, 2015

Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian said:
As you can probably tell I'm very much 'Glass 3/4 Empty' with regards to Employment at the moment, be it self employed or someone else's slave.

In the end though, whether online or offline, it is a question of finding a need which is not being fulfilled (or not being adequately fulfilled).

For example, to use the above examples of locksmith franchises and AA driving instructors, the 'need' is that current locksmiths or driving instructors find it difficult to sell their services on their own. Thus the overpriced locksmith franchises and AA selling their brand to instructors.

If those marketing operations are considered a rip-off, then there is an unfulfilled need for a service which would allow small businesses to gain visibility/customers at a more reasonable price. (This was actually one of the phases I moved through in my self-employed career.)

Identifying the need is the first step. Working out ways in which it could be fulfilled is the next.

The Cowboy · January 27, 2015

atrottel said:
In the end though, whether online or offline, it is a question of finding a need which is not being fulfilled (or not being adequately fulfilled).

For example, to use the above examples of locksmith franchises and AA driving instructors, the 'need' is that current locksmiths or driving instructors find it difficult to sell their services on their own. Thus the overpriced locksmith franchises and AA selling their brand to instructors.

If those marketing operations are considered a rip-off, then there is an unfulfilled need for a service which would allow small businesses to gain visibility/customers at a more reasonable price. (This was actually one of the phases I moved through in my self-employed career.)

Identifying the need is the first step. Working out ways in which it could be fulfilled is the next.

Many of the tat touted on Dragons Den appear to hope for a 'want' rather than a 'need'. Aspirational overpriced items which are rarely needed but they hope will appeal to the Waitrose crowd.

There's very few unique 'needs' left out there now. It's about