mattbutt

Just reading all your posts on running your own businesses...ive been out of uni now for a couple of years and was lucky enough to bag a job that transferred me over here. Working in the US was one of my ambitions, running my own business is another, which leads me to ask the question...

What inspired you all to start up your own business and go it alone? It must take a lot of guts and work?

lairdside

The money

No, well yes.....lol

I wanted to work on my own terms.
Provide a service to my patients which I could determine the quality of.
To create something, nurture and watch it grow.
To improve the general quality, standard of service and ethics available to patients in my location.
To mentor and train new optometrists and other optical professionals in their introduction to the commercial enviroment.


Need any more reasons ( I have 'em)?

Franklin

It must be different for each person who goes into business on his or her own. In my case I knew I just had to do it. But it is very hard work and very tiring. You have to do everything, even sorting out stamps (actually more complicated than it sounds). Marketing is a big issue.

Someone might do well from the get go, but most folks starting out on their own face incredible stress. Bills to pay absent the usual firm pay check. So much stuff to take in: new routines, marketing, finding office space, office furniture, networking (business networking and computer networking), and machines that break down. Setting up business bank accounts. Frustrating inspections by local county officials. Every Tom, Dick and Harry ringing you up (somehow you end up on a database and everyone wants to sell you something).

One thing that surprised me was the warmth and good wishes that flowed my way from the lawyers at my previous job. I realized that they saw themselves doing the same thing and they wanted me to succeed because they want to do the same thing, start up their own firm. I love those guys, and they are an excellent source of help in getting new clients. I picked up two new clients in Bel Air through a casual conversation between a lawyer I worked with and a prospect needing just the kind of biotech experience that I have to write up his complex biotech patent application. From that chance conversation has come a second client (again in Bel Air) who wants three patent applications filed on three separate inventions. Incredible.

You also learn about things that don't work or don't help you get business. Direct marketing produced only two prospects. The grind of sixteen-hour days faxing, ringing, and researching biotech databases not knowing if you will find a decent client. Not good. But recommendations seem to work for us.

It is very much like what someone told me, "You're bound to be surprised by some of the things which work - and those which do not ... [e]stablishing a customer base is always a voyage of discovery."

reallykool

i'm currently on an h1 visa which is set to expire in 18 months.
i want to start a business but i dont have any idea what sort of visa i need. any ideas???

effi

Am I right in thinking this has been on here before?

ladyofthelake

No, it's the same thread dredged up from the past.