Tomas: Indeed. Anthony Bourdain says the worst thing you can do is open a restaurant because it actually has very little to do with being a great cook (especially when you have to pump out several hundred meals per night) and much more to do with a quite disparate set of skills that few can do really well overall. I should imagine it would be one of the hardest businesses to run.
Actually, that’s the challenge with ANY business. Can you master enough skills to survive well enough?
It’s not just enough to cook or speak English or be able to teach or whatever… You need to know a whole lot of skills or at least be able to learn them effectively. OR even find people who can do what you can’t or don’t want to.
Kenneth
Ken: Yes, of course. I should have said you have to do all of that right now when you’re in a restaurant. It’s frenetic.
[quote=“llary”] I think a more useful analysis is one that looks at how failed entrepreneurs work out in subsequent ventures.
Unless you are absolutely hopeless, basic math says that the more businesses you start the more likely it is that one will succeed.
Lots of people start a business then give up after the first try. Others follow up ideas almost obsessively and generally those are the ones who make it. Lucid entrepreneurs know that success in business is mostly down to luck, so the more opportunities you create the better the odds. [/quote]
Excellelt advice. The more we try, the better we get, and the more we know the pitfalls. If you fail, try again. I plan to, if I should fail. If I keep suceeding at my current venture, I will still try again.
Most importantly, if you do not try, you will not suceed.
Tomas, do you have any source for those statistics?
[quote=“Mr He”][quote=“llary”] I think a more useful analysis is one that looks at how failed entrepreneurs work out in subsequent ventures.
Unless you are absolutely hopeless, basic math says that the more businesses you start the more likely it is that one will succeed.
Lots of people start a business then give up after the first try. Others follow up ideas almost obsessively and generally those are the ones who make it. Lucid entrepreneurs know that success in business is mostly down to luck, so the more opportunities you create the better the odds. [/quote]
Excellelt advice. The more we try, the better we get, and the more we know the pitfalls. If you fail, try again. I plan to, if I should fail. If I keep suceeding at my current venture, I will still try again.
Most importantly, if you do not try, you will not suceed.[/quote]
Respectively I don’t thik that’s the point Mr. He. The more you try doesn’t mean you will get better, it simply means that the random factors of success and failure impacting each new business balance out…like if you have total 100NTD capital bet on a coin toss, on the first flick (major random event in the 1st or 2nd year such as disaster, Bush govt, salmonella poisoning, breakthrough tech etc.) you could lose all 100NTD and be out of business. But if you split that 100 into 10 x 10NTD invested capital businesses (that are scaleable) you’ve given yourself a better chance. That’s a theory not taking into account limited labour input and lack of capital to achieve scale but you get my point. I’m not sure how important ‘skills’ and experience are to a business…I think they can be picked up quickly as long as you don’t bet the farm too early! It depends what role you want to play, certainly in a tech related biz it can be useful to have an idea of the tech to get an idea of strategy but it doesn’t mean you will be good at running the biz, in fact it might make you too cocky and prone to quick decisions instead of getting different viewpoints.
Basically you want to avoid an all or nothing scenario, sure we’ve all heard the stories of the guys were one gamble for bankruptcy (FedEx founder almost went broke when he sank all his family money into his MBA new model business scheme, he claims he survived a cash flow crisis early on by taking the remaining money in the bank and gambling and getting lucky, a similar story is claimed by Trump who said he was almost bankrupted at least once by the banks).
Basically these guys got lucky, the won big but actually the odds were against them…the only reason we hear their stories is because they won big though…we don’t hear the other 90% who sank without trace.
One thing I would say though you have a far higher chance of success if you already have a client base to sell to and know the products and competitive basis, you don’t have to put in a steep learning curve and spend precious time looking for customers.
[quote=“headhonchoII”]
Respectively I don’t thik that’s the point Mr. He. The more you try doesn’t mean you will get better, it simply means that the random factors of success and failure impacting each new business balance out…like if you have total 100NTD capital bet on a coin toss, on the first flick (major random event in the 1st or 2nd year such as disaster, Bush govt, salmonella poisoning, breakthrough tech etc.) you could lose all 100NTD and be out of business. But if you split that 100 into 10 x 10NTD invested capital businesses (that are scaleable) you’ve given yourself a better chance. That’s a theory not taking into account limited labour input and lack of capital to achieve scale but you get my point. I’m not sure how important ‘skills’ and experience are to a business…I think they can be picked up quickly as long as you don’t bet the farm too early! It depends what role you want to play, certainly in a tech related biz it can be useful to have an idea of the tech to get an idea of strategy but it doesn’t mean you will be good at running the biz, in fact it might make you too cocky and prone to quick decisions instead of getting different viewpoints. [/quote]
Only to a certain extent, you improve all the time, and your basic skills doing business is something which will be the main determinant in doing business. Chances and technology breakthroughs will help, however your own skill and determination will be key.
If you look at Ray Kroc, then he ran several small scale businesses, before he ran into and took over the McDonalds idea. None of his earlier ventures were particularly succesful, however they helped him improve, and gain an increased understanding of the market he would end up serving. (He was no spring chicken when he discovered his personal fountain of wealth).
Also, honestly, the all or nothing scenario is also what it takes. Starting a business and getting it off the ground requires 100% commitment and determination. If you share yourself out, then you will not be committed. Trust me, I have seen several of my customers branching out without having their heart 100% at it and failing. I have also seen one succesful customer deciding to stop what he was doing, sell the business and invest every cent in a new venture, which he managed to make rather big and succesful in very short order.
Well, yes, however you will need to commit yourself. If you commit yourself, you may win. If you spread yourself, you will most certainly loose. Each market you might want to enter is packed with committed competitors, and if you are less committed and on the ball than they are, then you will be their lunch.
True, experience helps, and a fair portion of my current sales are to people I knew before starting. That said, most of my initial sales were to people who I did not know before I started selling to them.
There will still be a steep learning curve, even if you have a readymade customer base, and a knowledge of the market, trust me on that one.
I should qualify by saying it wouldn’t be a good idea to start 10 businesses at one time! Perhaps 1, 2 or 3 at most. Also, it depends on how labour intensive it is. Your comment is right on, each niche has strong competitors and you’ve got to be all in or else you will eventually be ‘tao tai’ as they say in Taiwan! There is also a big difference between investing in a business and running a business.
It’s certainly the most common way businesses are formed in Taiwan and elsewhere I guess, learn from the boss, take the supplier and customer details and then strike out on your own. It is the most practical way to get started. That is the reason why A. There are some many similar companies in Taiwan B. Why their scale usually stays small (not into blue ocean strategy here …
) . Still small scale can still mean being a millionaire and that’s nothing to be sneezed at.
What Mr. He said is correct - it is a combination of luck and experience and both are required to do well. Without luck a good idea cannot take off, and without a good idea you could befriend the president of IBM and have nothing to sell him.
One business I started at a very early age was in hindsight a damn good idea but I didn’t have the experience to exploit it and missed out on a great opportunity. Many years later I happened to be at the right place at the right time and realised that there was someone I know who would buy lots of a product I could source. Without the prior experience I would have neither spotted the opportunity nor acted on it quickly enough.
[quote=“KenTaiwan98”]Actually, that’s the challenge with ANY business. Can you master enough skills to survive well enough?
It’s not just enough to cook or speak English or be able to teach or whatever… You need to know a whole lot of skills or at least be able to learn them effectively. OR even find people who can do what you can’t or don’t want to.
Kenneth[/quote]
What has worked well for me is FINDING the people with the right skills. I don’t have to be able to do everything myself, but I need to find people who can.
Mind you, in the first year or two, I still had to do everything myself, until I had enough revenue to justify hiring people smarter than me.