Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.
If you had unlimited money to start and maintain a business, what would it be?
First of all, It’s good to be back. I took the month of November off, to concentrate on my NaNoWriMo project, largely because it was a new departure for me and I wanted to avoid distraction while I worked it all out. And I’m pleased to say that I managed to get 52,000 words written.
I won’t ask if you missed me, I don’t suppose you even noticed.
Anyhow, back to the prompt.
That’s a tricky question, speaking as someone who has set up two businesses since he retired, I have to share one thing that I found out very quickly.
It’s not the money that’s necessarily the problem, although it’s important to make sure you have enough to set yourself up and run at a loss for a while. The thing that nobody tells you about is everything else that running a business requires, the things you need to do before you can do what you set out to. That’s true in every field, writing is no different. Being self-published means that writing is as much a business as any other, with all it’s associated non-writing administrative chores.
In my first business after retirement, I set up and ran an organic bakery, supplying local shops and cafes with bread and biscuits. I started small, had all the equipment and facilities I needed and was expanding and making a small profit.
The problem came with the regulations and paperwork that I needed to do, the inspections, certificates and records. The allergy training and all the other things, right down to stock control, ordering and printing labels. It all took time which could have been better spent in baking. Which is not to say that those things were not important, just that, for a one-man operation they eat into your day.
In the end, I was spending at least as much time on paperwork as I was on baking, which was unsustainable as far as I was concerned. It stopped me expanding the business.
So, to answer the original question, if I had unlimited money, I would carry on with the writing business. I’d just hire someone to do all the parts that I didn’t enjoy, like the administration and marketing, for me.
It might even free up some time to let me do some baking.
Let me know what you think about this week’s subject.
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Stevie Turner
Yes, it’s all the nitty gritty of running a business that’s so tedious. I remember back in 1992 I set up an office and house cleaning business. I had to take out Public Liability insurance, but found that customers were always trying to claim on my insurance with breakages/damages my employees had supposedly done. One customer tried to claim for damage to her bath. When I asked her what date the damage had been done, she gave me a date that was 6 months before I’d even started up in business -too much hassle!
Richard Dee
Exactly, and in the case of baking, giving me 8-10 hours notice for an extra order of what was clearly described as 48-hour fermented Sourdough. It used to drive me crazy.
Lela Markham
Welcome back, Richard! I noticed you were gone. I was usually (not this week) the first one to post every week while you were gone and that felt so odd.
I think I would carry on with writing too, even though that wasn’t my answer in the article. It would be so much easier to hire people to do the marketing and other nonsense. And it is true that most businesses are overwhelmed with regulations and the associated paperwork that favors big corporations that can afford to concentrate on that nonsense, and makes small businesses less profitable. There’s no real mystery why that is — big corporations ask for regulation to make it harder for their smaller competitors to compete because the cost of regulation drives up the cost of doing business and prevents them from using the competitive advantage of lower prices. And ordinary people accept that regulation is something “necessary” when in reality it is (mostly) monopolistic.
Richard Dee
Thank you. It’s been so sad to see the small businesses unable to trade, while the big stores sell THE SAME STUFF as a sideline. I had hoped that good would come from what we’ve had to endure this year. Support small and local, I say. You know it makes sense.
P.J. MacLayne
I missed you, Richard! There was a time when I was employed by a business that expanded by buying out small business whose owners got tired of the paperwork and such. They’d let the owners become mangers and still interact with customers while the corporation handled the business end of things
And you’ve added math! Keep it simple, I hope!
Richard Dee
Thank you, I missed contributing too, now I’m all done I hope I can get back into the swing. If I could have made enough I would have farmed all the boring stuff out and just done what I loved
Lyndell Williams
Welcome back! Seed money is so important.
Richard Dee
Thank you, it’s good to be back.