Entrepreneurship

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Anyone else start their own company? Being that I couldn't find a single employer that was willing to hire me I started an alternative record label/modeling agency. I make less than $200 a month but the company is new. I found an investor who I'm going into co-ownership with. Eventually I'm hoping to make more than I make on SSI.

I'm finishing college as a business major. As a creative individual who is incapable of following other people I feel that this is what I need to do to survive. I will always be a leader. I'm condemned like that. So entrepreneurship is the only way unless I want to be on SSI for the rest of my life. Am I the only one?

I have websites and every once in a while I buy things off ebay to sell on local classifieds for profit (I would love to get a resell license to buy from real wholesalers). I also have a company that I hope to launch this summer and have other a bunch ideas. The only problem right now is that I lack to motivation to get all those ideas working. I also have one website that I hoped to launch this summer but it's high maintenance and I would need to spend probably 10-15 hours a week on it and like I said I lack the motivation right now.

Yes I have a really hard time working for other people . Right now i'm finishing my degree in economics so that if my crazy ideas don't work I will have something as a back up. I would not mind working for the government since your not working your ass off to make someone else money. (I'm not sure if that is greedy or what but I would much rather start my own business)

Motivation can be tricky. Try convincing yourself that it's the most important thing in the world if you're serious about the idea. Discipline yourself. Force yourself to work on it a certain amount of a hours a week. I hope you're able to get it kicking.

That's the problem. It's not really important to me since I already make enough money to pay for what I really need. So the idea of spending my spare time working to make money that I don't really need doesn't seem good. I tried this summer to set myself some hours per week but so many things happened that I never ended up starting.
Good luck with yours.

> I'm finishing college as a business major. As a creative individual who is incapable of following other people I feel that this is what I need to do to survive

I envy your knowledge background! I currently work as a home-based subcontractor, which means partly self employed and partly tied to how many hours I can work fast to make what I need. I can get by on 3 hours a day five days a week. But what I really want is to create something that makes money for me. Unfortunately, my weak point is marketing, knowing what's saleable. I suppose there are some things I like that others also do -- gardening, cooking, pets, frugality, etc.

I loathe jobs and my career search activity has made me realize I don't want a job again! I'm creative, organized, hard working and disciplined, and I want to own the factory, not work in it, so to speak. So I'm quite interested in these entrepreneurial discussions here.

Record label is hard due to piracy and the fact that record stores wont ship your product unless you pay up front for shelf space and a guaranteed paycheck.

Yes, I have started out small part time business in investment properties to get better return on my money. I'm really interested on the idea of self employment but there are plenty of what ifs that draw me away from doing it full-time at the moment. The problem with entrepreneurship is you have to be able to communicate your ideas to tough investors and sell your product to picky people. The only customer service I've done so far is fix things when they break. I'd try to keep partnerships out of the mix if at all possible... No will care more about your business than yourself

This is a great thread, after spending 20+ years banging my head against the "glass ceiling" I've decided that entrepreneurship is the best option for me. Hopefully my experience thus far will help other Aspies find independence and security too, so I will share my story.

After getting laid off from my Wall Street job, I put together what I thought was a bullet-proof business plan that no one in their right mind would decline to fund. I had the advantage of a fat Rolodex of high-level industry and capital markets contacts who should be chomping at the bit to get a piece of my "Magic ATM Machine". I spent the next year shopping it around, and everyone seemed to agree that it would probably work. I signed a few CDA's and went through a thorough round of due diligence with 2 companies and 1 private equity fund and...

I didn't raise one penny.

In retrospect, I think my undiagnosed AS had something to do with it (they didn't believe I could execute my plan), and also it was basic human nature. Capital (like girlfriends) is something that only people who don't need it get.

So I scaled back my business plan to something I could fund entirely myself. It wasn't too glamorous, but I didn't have to sell the idea to anyone to make it work. I incorporated (LegalZoom[dot]com works great) and started building it as finances allowed.

Sometimes it would come up in conversation with my colleagues, so I would let them know what I was doing and discuss my progress, but I never asked anyone for money. Finally, I decided my chances would be better with a trusted NT "frontman", so I offered him a 50% equity stake in the company for a little cash that he could easily afford. Pretty soon he was telling his friends about it and low-and-behold, they wanted in too (we turned them down).

Now I'm deep in the minutae of licensing, taxation, labor law, insurance, etc. and looking forward to beginnning commercial operations early next year.

Sure, it might fail miserably, but there's more ideas where that came from, and at least I've got the chance to try and make it work and finally gain control of my own destiny without depending on people who don't understand me and probably never will.

So that's it: my experience has told me that you need to be your own #1 investor. Try to get your business as far as you can with your own resources (and friends/family if available) and there's a decent chance that you will attract investors who are afraid of being "left out".

Anyway, that's my "free advice" (and worth every penny) ;o)

Good luck to all Aspie entrepreneurs...

Great Story! Let me in on your IPO whenever that comes! jk Smarter ATMs sound like a good idea than I dont see anyone else really developing. Best of luck!

Thanks!

No IPO planned, I would like to keep it private and closely held. But it would be really cool if I could run an "Aspie-Friendly" business and create a few jobs.

Also, I apologize for being too literal (especially on an Aspie forum ). I'm not selling ATM machines, I was referring to a business plan which throws off a lot of cash and has high operating margins...

Thanks Again!

That's awesome that you have your own firm. What do you do?