Have a spare $18,000? Want to start a business?

byKerryAnn61

3.5K followers

6 years ago

Do I think money grows on trees? No. But I do have something that I wish to share and I ask you to seriously consider this each time you make your payment to Wealthy Affiliate.

Want out of Wealthy Affiliate?

I have seen so many people wanting out of this website for reasons of their own, and whilst I respect that sometimes events occur in our personal lives which take things out of our control, often this is not the case.

Often people think they can't do this, or the grass is greener on the other side or things have happened and they hit a brick wall that they can't be bothered climbing over. I often wonder what would have happened to me if I had given up so easily.

A little history to show you where I am coming from.

Starting a business from scratch.

I started my first business when I was 24. I was working and my husband gave up his job and started a mobile business. My income paid for the rent, food and essentials. We had no savings, I managed to get a lease to cover the business vehicle and equipment. Times were tough. We did not spend on anything but essentials. I was a secretary, so no big salary. We had an old bomb car, already paid for that took me to work, and a dog. We had the phone connected, and this became the work phone.

Initially a friend stayed and answered the phone during the day. After 6 months, I was pregnant and gave up work to stay home full time. We made less money that first six months, after business expenses than the unemployment benefit. Yet we survived and our first child was born slightly after.

Over the next 3 years we plodded on, I fell pregnant (oops a bit earlier than planed). I made my own clothes and the kids, made most of the soft toys, knitted jumpers, grew my own veggies and did everything I could to ensure that the business did not suffer from having to supply too much to our wages.

I even managed to find a melanoma which threw me for 6 and I ended up with a huge chunk missing out of my leg. You appreciate life when something like this happens.

The business earned a reasonable amount and enabled us to purchase our first really cheap home ($35,00). Not a lot but interest was 15% and the repayments were tough. That business become too expensive because of franchise fees we were paying for the use of the equipment and we were forced to start in another direction so we started a bricks and mortar Shop for our business and used different tools.

I Needed Money.

Now I needed money to do this. What do you think I did. Did I say - can't afford this anymore and give up. No, we sold our house.

Fortunately while interest rates were still reasonably high, they were coming down and the housing prices were starting to go up. We sold our house, and once selling costs were taken into account we had $18,000 to start our new business. This was in the late 80's. Probably an equivalent today would be closer to $60 to $80 thousand.

The message I am trying to make is if you want a business, you must expect that it will cost money. You will need to put in time and effort and do everything you can to ensure that the business has the best chance of success.

The second business had its ups and downs, good years and very bad years. Nothing is ever easy, but if we faced a brick wall we either found a way around it, or climbed over the top. Even being nearly a million dollars in debt, we never gave up.

I have sold this business, paid off my debts and started again. Life is short, but eventful.

Every business has costs

With an online business, the start up costs are so low. If you look at your domain name and WA costs for less than $400 a year you can start your own business. sure it will take 2 or 3 years to make money and longer if you want to earn a full time income from it. You may need to make 2 or 3 websites and spend time marketing it - again mostly free whereas I had to pay hundreds of dollar per month to advertise in the paper to get new customers for my second business.

Grasp the opportunity

Think very seriously about the wonderful opportunity that you have been given and when times get a little tough because you can't afford to have steak for dinner and instead have to settle for a hearty stew.

You may have to suffer holes in your socks, or learn to darn them (I did that too). Even thowing a few tomato, cucumber and pumpkin seeds in the back yard and supplimenting your food budget will save you $5 a week most of the year. All it takes is a little weeding and watering.

Remember, you have not forked out thousands of dollars and given up your home to start an online business. You may need to make some sacrifices along the way.

It will take time and work

Yes, you will need to work in your spare time. Long and hard if you truly want to replace your current income. But will the effort be worth it? You won't be risking everything like I, and many many other business owners have.

You have been blessed with a wonderful opportunity, if you will just reach out and grab it with your whole heart. And this is from someone who to date, has only had one person join under them, who just went premium.

Yet, I still have a positive outlook as I abandon my last 18 months work and concentrate on starting again with a whole new website as I have learned so much more and applying my training to make this website everything the other one was not.

Next time your $49 payment is due, or $359 annual fee - think how lucky you are to be starting a business without selling your house and your soul to do it.