Do you wish you'd started a different type of business?
Discussion
As I have some (a lot of) time at the moment I am just doing some self reflecting on business.
I have a business with 7-8 electrical contractors which is going well but I am thinking that as we grow we can employ our own electrician soon and then I'm into ensuring we have enough to keep him busy all the time, vehicle management/buying, and then, over time, potentially another electrician(s), office staff, maybe a dedicated office with all its 'fun' overheads etc. Plus a constant demand to keep workflow up/new customers.
For many businesses this is very similar, I know.
But, what do I really want? Money to do stuff and buy stuff, not lots, enough to be comfortable, and the time to do stuff. There are easier ways to do this, particularly with online business (I have a lot of digital exp) and I wonder if I hadn't gone down the electrical route, if some type of digital product would make life much much simpler and scalable without the challenges of a 'real world' business.
Fundamentally, selling one/a few product(s) multiple times digitally means 24hr income and 'work anywhere/live anywhere' flexibility. It's the Rock Star approach of singing one song but selling it digitally to millions or selling one bit of software multiple times.
I know my musings are in the right direction but it's hard to give up 5 years of business building and hard work. Anyway, I don't know, maybe its just musings....
Thoughts/you own experiences?
I have a business with 7-8 electrical contractors which is going well but I am thinking that as we grow we can employ our own electrician soon and then I'm into ensuring we have enough to keep him busy all the time, vehicle management/buying, and then, over time, potentially another electrician(s), office staff, maybe a dedicated office with all its 'fun' overheads etc. Plus a constant demand to keep workflow up/new customers.
For many businesses this is very similar, I know.
But, what do I really want? Money to do stuff and buy stuff, not lots, enough to be comfortable, and the time to do stuff. There are easier ways to do this, particularly with online business (I have a lot of digital exp) and I wonder if I hadn't gone down the electrical route, if some type of digital product would make life much much simpler and scalable without the challenges of a 'real world' business.
Fundamentally, selling one/a few product(s) multiple times digitally means 24hr income and 'work anywhere/live anywhere' flexibility. It's the Rock Star approach of singing one song but selling it digitally to millions or selling one bit of software multiple times.
I know my musings are in the right direction but it's hard to give up 5 years of business building and hard work. Anyway, I don't know, maybe its just musings....
Thoughts/you own experiences?
Sure, if you go down the online or digital route you won’t have any ‘real world’ business problems. Just ‘online/digital’ business problems 
Why not do some sort of combination of the two?
It seems clear to me that in weird times, the businesses that are going to come out the other side are those that can pivot.
For example, there’s a steak house not far from here who are selling butchered, seasoned high-end cuts of meat along with cooking instructions. Not quite as expensive as eating at the restaurant...but they’re still keeping profit coming in and the lights on.
Why not do some sort of combination of the two?
It seems clear to me that in weird times, the businesses that are going to come out the other side are those that can pivot.
For example, there’s a steak house not far from here who are selling butchered, seasoned high-end cuts of meat along with cooking instructions. Not quite as expensive as eating at the restaurant...but they’re still keeping profit coming in and the lights on.
What you have to ask yourself is how are your skills/experience transferable to an online model? What is it that you want to create and are you looking to do that as an extension to your current business or is it going to be an entirely separate entity?
Don't be lulled into the false premise that trading online is simpler or easier than what you are currently doing in the "real world". I do both and whilst our online business has absolutely taken off, it hasn't been remotely easy or straightforward. I'd go as far to say that most normal people would have given up a long time ago - it's probably taken about 8 years from having the idea to where we are now and it's only been in the last 16 months that it's grown to the extent where all that hard work is now being rewarded properly.
Don't underestimate the setup & marketing costs of trading online. I'm lucky - graphic design & coding is my thing. I knocked up our first e-commerce website containing 100 products in a day and it was an utter punt, but it cost us next to nothing and got us started. Had we had to have paid for it, I'm not sure we would have done it. Having said that, there are many cheaper avenues you can choose today, but you will still have to pay for someone to do it for you or put in the work yourself.
Building a genuinely successful business isn't easy regardless of what you're doing. I never take anything for granted. All I will say is play to your strengths and stick to what you're good at and have knowledge in. If you have an idea and think it may work and have the necessary skills to get it going online, go for it.
Don't think it is necessarily any easier than the route you've chosen until now though, because building an online business brings just as many challenges and hurdles!
Don't be lulled into the false premise that trading online is simpler or easier than what you are currently doing in the "real world". I do both and whilst our online business has absolutely taken off, it hasn't been remotely easy or straightforward. I'd go as far to say that most normal people would have given up a long time ago - it's probably taken about 8 years from having the idea to where we are now and it's only been in the last 16 months that it's grown to the extent where all that hard work is now being rewarded properly.
Don't underestimate the setup & marketing costs of trading online. I'm lucky - graphic design & coding is my thing. I knocked up our first e-commerce website containing 100 products in a day and it was an utter punt, but it cost us next to nothing and got us started. Had we had to have paid for it, I'm not sure we would have done it. Having said that, there are many cheaper avenues you can choose today, but you will still have to pay for someone to do it for you or put in the work yourself.
Building a genuinely successful business isn't easy regardless of what you're doing. I never take anything for granted. All I will say is play to your strengths and stick to what you're good at and have knowledge in. If you have an idea and think it may work and have the necessary skills to get it going online, go for it.
Don't think it is necessarily any easier than the route you've chosen until now though, because building an online business brings just as many challenges and hurdles!
Edited by dangerousB on Thursday 23 April 20:53
Agree with most of this ^^^^
Dont forget everyone wants a slice of YOUR action, banks, card companies, paypal, ebay, amazon, website chaps, your erp system (in some cases) etc, etc.
Its very easy for the %cut all these people take to erode your margin completely.
One could argue that instead of doing what you suggest, become one of the leeches above and earn your income off the back of others. You would probably earn far more.
Dont forget everyone wants a slice of YOUR action, banks, card companies, paypal, ebay, amazon, website chaps, your erp system (in some cases) etc, etc.
Its very easy for the %cut all these people take to erode your margin completely.
One could argue that instead of doing what you suggest, become one of the leeches above and earn your income off the back of others. You would probably earn far more.
I used to run an electrical contractors (up to 20+ staff at one point).
Now I own an eCommerce business and a software/affiliate business.
Both contracting and online have their own quirks and problems so don’t think online is easy. It’s very competitive and you swap one problem for another.
I.e. in contracting you get non payers and with an online shop you get fraudsters etc.
Getting work in contracting can be tough but so can getting decent quality traffic that converts.
Contracting can be tough when competing with people working at cost but in online you’ll find sellers happy to make 1% margin.
However most online businesses run 24/7, are scalable indefinitely and are not location dependent.
Personally I’m way better at online and made the right move.
Would never go back!
Now I own an eCommerce business and a software/affiliate business.
Both contracting and online have their own quirks and problems so don’t think online is easy. It’s very competitive and you swap one problem for another.
I.e. in contracting you get non payers and with an online shop you get fraudsters etc.
Getting work in contracting can be tough but so can getting decent quality traffic that converts.
Contracting can be tough when competing with people working at cost but in online you’ll find sellers happy to make 1% margin.
However most online businesses run 24/7, are scalable indefinitely and are not location dependent.
Personally I’m way better at online and made the right move.
Would never go back!
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