So You Want To “Start A Company”
Something nobody told me when I was first learning about how to start a business is that you must first determine what kind of business you want to own. There are three main types:
Self-employed. This is fairly obvious. Think sole proprietor, freelancer, one-person shop. You do everything. This is what some cynically refer to as “creating a job for yourself”. But for many people this is an excellent route, and it comes with low overhead and fairly low stress. If you hate having a boss but love doing the actual work, and don’t like the idea of running a company (all that boring business-y stuff!) and being a manager, look no further.
Small business. Think 1 to 10 employees. This is the majority of companies you see around your town/city. The hardware store. The restaurants. Boutique law firms. Local retail shops and service companies like carpet cleaners, HVAC companies, etc. This is where a lot of people who want to “own a business” end up. Some call it a “lifestyle business”. If you like the idea of owning your own company, it’s not that hard to pick a retail or service sector that you have some skills in, learn the basics of business, open up shop, and be profitable. You will probably end up earning equivalent to a professional’s income if you pay attention to what you’re doing and learn and implement the well-known best practices in your industry. Join the trade organization and subscribe to their magazine. Network with peers. You’ll be fine. Attaining this is impressive to a lot of people, but if you really think about it, it’s not that hard. Think of how many successful businesses there are like this where you live, most of which are not owned by people who are trained or educated in business. There’s this idea that the owners of these companies are rich, but that is usually not the case. They’re doing fine, but they still need to show up every day and could probably make similar money working for someone else.
Medium-to-Large business. Many employees. Separate divisions. Multiple offices/locations. All the trappings of corporate culture (old-school or “bro”, pick your poison). Starting a company that reaches this status is NOT easy and you are unlikely (sorry) to succeed. I think this is what people who found “startups” think they are going to do, or at least think they want to do. When you hear people talk about “starting a business” they seem to by default think this is what they’re trying to do. There’s nothing wrong with shooting for this goal, but you shouldn’t necessarily assume you’re going to get here, and definitely not unless you have some sort of unique value to deliver to the market. You also should definitely not try to do this if you don’t like “business” stuff like creating and reading contracts, meeting with accountants, hiring/firing, etc.
What sounds good to you? Nothing wrong with any of these options, but spend some time carefully thinking about what you actually want.