Popular ways to get into business for yourself
The number of ways and accessibility to get into business for yourself and make some extra money, or make it your full time ‘gig’, have never been as plentiful. But this can make it even harder to find the best option for you...
I’m going to give our take on why we believe we are seeing an upsurge of people looking for options beyond turning up to a job each day, as well as the increase in people also looking at options other than the ‘traditional’ business. The reasons and paths mentioned will be just some of what’s happening and what is available out there.
Fortunately, in this great country we have numerous options regarding the question of “what do you want to with your life?”. So many options in fact, that it can be overwhelming, and many, frustratingly stick with the status quo.
Change
The world is changing rapidly. We all know it, and we can see it in just about everything we do on a daily basis. This is not the change in the 80’s – 90’s for example, when auto manufacturers we’re shutting down globally in locations, as cheaper vehicle production moved off shore and globalisation was an eye-roll producing word – remember that?
It created all sorts movements and social upheaval as communities in the USA, Australia, UK and so on, pushed back against this. They even wrote songs and made movies about it! That movement pales to the shifts that are happening now. This change goes to a whole deeper level in our society and the way we function and go about our daily lives.
The change, which is primarily brought along by the speed of technology and internet enabled ‘everything’ means that so many things we once had to leave our house or go to an office to do, now can be done as we sit in a room in our house that we prestigiously name our ‘home office’. Complicating it even more, for many tasks, a machine can, or soon will be able to do.
Six years ago when I started Franchise Buyer, I used to almost hide the fact that I didn’t have an traditional office and had some of our staff in offshore locations. I diverted my phone and our mail so we looked ‘official’ and like we had a ‘real’ office so we were a ‘real’ business. Now this is very normal as the traditional workplace transforms and people are not considered as having a rest day or day off if they were ‘working from home’. Not that long ago remember, we rolled our eyes when people said they were working from home!
This is the lens you need to be looking through now. What are you going to do in the coming years as all this happens around you? Don’t be scared of it, as this is not to scare you into action, but to prompt you to take action and be ready. It’s designed to get you thinking about your job, aspirations for a business, a different career, whatever it may be, but now is the time. Things are changing, you need to adapt with it and choose your path with insight.
Some Facts About Jobs and Activities in the Future
Here are some sobering facts if you think, or are hoping that the status quo will remain. A McKinsey & Company survey in 2016 showed that current technology could automate 45% of the activities people are paid to perform*1. The survey highlighted that automation will have an impact in the following work activities in larger or lesser degrees;
Furthermore, and closer to home, in the Centre for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), 2015 Australia’s Future Workforce report, that more than five million jobs, which is almost 40 % of jobs that exist today, have a moderate to high likelihood of disappearing in the next 10 – 15 years.*3
But it is by no means a doom and gloom scenario. This dynamic market place and pace of change brings enormous opportunity with it. New businesses (and jobs for that matter), are being created every day, and providing services and performing roles that didn’t exist a couple of years prior. You just need to be aware that your environment and where and how you are remunerated is changing. It’s being ‘disrupted’ as the tech world like to constantly refer to. You often hear the question asked ‘what is the next industry to be disrupted?’ Could it be the one you sit comfortably in right now?
What’s the answer for you?
Well, the answer is pretty simple as you have just a few options when you boil it all down. That’s the beauty of it, as the answer that’s right for you is still fundamentally pretty simple and it comes down to what you actually want to do for a living, for a lifestyle, for your family. But my suggestion is that whatever you do, you make sure that you are the person predominantly in control of your own destiny. Let’s pick through some of the popular options with some detail involved in each. Who knows, maybe you will find your next course of action or business for you!
Stay in your job doing what you are doing
This is perfectly fine if that’s what you want to do! Just make sure you keep your eyes open and look for the signs of ‘disruption’ like roles and tasks disappearing. The biggest danger is being naïve or unaware and not ready, this is how people end up shocked and totally unprepared to transition when a business / industry they’ve been so comfortable in suddenly dries up in opportunities.
The truth is, it is never sudden, the signs are always there some time in advance. Look for ways to develop new skills that add-value to your workplace that make you irreplaceable.
Start with a ‘Side Hustle’
This is a popular term in the US. “I’ve got 3 side hustles at the moment.” they might say. In the tech and associated world they call it ‘moonlighting’, and both refer to doing other jobs / projects in your own time after hours from your day job for income.
How big is this?
A recent Bankrate.com Survey in the US found that 44 million Americans (14% of the population) claimed they had a side gig, aka ‘hustle’.*4 It is a great way to start dipping your toe into the water to get into a business for yourself. Side hustles and moonlighting can turn into a full time business if you are doing the right things to set them up to do that.
Basically, you can take a side hustle using the skills you have from your day job, such as a designer or writer doing freelance work at night for example. Or your side hustle could be quite unrelated to your day job, such as acquiring and selling stuff on eBay. These side hustles are great as they sharpen your skills, you learn and can see what is possible outside of you turning up for work, to work for someone else every day. Seeing a bit of cash rolling in is quite nice as well!
It is a mindset leap to go from being a person who has always relied on ‘someone else’ to pay you for working, to realising that you can make money out of nothing but an idea and effort all on your own. That is hugely empowering when it happens!
Multi-Level Marketing
Commonly referred to as MLM or network marketing, this has moved way beyond the annoying friend who keeps trying to invite you over to their house to sell you stuff! It surprises me that some people still often have an immediate negative reaction to considering this.
They are business opportunities that depending on which one, have little or no investment required to get started. If technology has empowered the side hustle, it has turbocharged MLM. Global MLM companies like Isagenix, Avon, and many more have harnessed technology to deliver easy ordering and tracking of sales, training of ‘members’, social media marketing and more. All giving the ability to scale and reach a wider audience much faster than ever before. They all have their unique elements, but ultimately they are all about you selling stuff to people you can get yourself in front of.
Franchise / License
I’m not even going to try to go into the strict legal terms and definitions here for these two business models, the insight here is general in nature to help get your ‘head around’ where it all fits in the scheme of things.
Both a franchise and a license to varying degrees, allow you to access intellectual property (IP), created by someone else, for you to use. You get to use that IP to generate income under the terms of a contractual arrangement. How much it costs and what you get depends on the system and its structure and way of operating.
It may be the brand, the processes, a secret sauce, training, support, technology or a combination of many things. As a rule of thumb, the franchise is generally deeper in its involvement and direct regular support of you, but is also more prescriptive in what you can and can’t do. The license model is in general and more often, a more flexible approach.
Again, all systems have their own attributes and I can’t speak for all of them. In reality, what is important here in these models is not the strict definition of what they are. But rather, to be aware that what they give you is some form of IP, backed by proof of success by others, to make it worth your investment.
Choosing one that is robust and right for you can potentially fast forward your business ownership dreams. This is because you get all the advantages and knowledge of a business that is proven through historical operations rather than you coming up with all the IP yourself. This approach often gives comfort to new business owners as they are in business for themselves, but not on their own.
Buy an Existing Business
This is a pretty simple approach – you can just buy an existing business that’s already operating (re-sale). There are thousands of businesses for sale across the country and the advantage of this is that you can see the actual historical performance of the exact thing you are buying.
This could be a franchise or non-franchise that is being sold by the existing site operator. This approach also often gives comfort to people buying a business for the first time as you can literally sit and watch the way the business works, and access financial performance of the periods prior.
Start Up Your Own
This is the sexy one that everyone seems to want to talk about and do. The reality is though that it can be bloody hard to do! The old saying goes, ‘If it were easy, everyone would be doing it!’. And no truer words have been spoken than about starting your own business from scratch.
Don’t feel bad at all if this is not you, as in reality it is a pretty rare breed of person that can just go out and start their own business from nothing and make it work fast enough to support them and their family.
We get the enormous success stories of some APP selling whiz kid, or a stay at home mum or dad coming up with an organic muesli and stocking in Woolworths nationally and the rest is history. These are the miniscule noisy, enormous success stories that drown out the hundreds of thousands that start and try and don’t get close. That doesn’t mean you don’t try, but don’t think that level of success is achieved by anything more than a tiny percentage…
There we have it, the state of the world for you in your J.O.B, and a handful of get into business for yourself options!
I’m passionate and opinionated about this field as we can see it coming, and so many want to be the master of their own destiny and set themselves and their family up for a great rewarding life and lifestyle.
But the question is, how are you going to make that happen and how urgent is your drive to do it?
