Should I learn accounting before building a business & how should I familiarize myself in my new community.

[Lawtiti]

I'm currently 15 year old in high school, in Australia and I just read all of MJ's books. I'm kinda asking myself the practicality and the usefulness of the lessons they teach in school, the concepts they teach in school don't seem practical or useful when I have a business to me. I always ask myself, "How can this help me" & "Why am I learning this" and see if this can help me in life. I also stress myself with confirming the lessons they teach as I like to think for myself and want to get the answer from myself rather than someone else.

I want to start a business but am concerned about accounting as I heard that it's crucial to learn accounting and it's the first thing an entrepreneur should learn. I was wondering should I learn accounting before I start a business?

I also moved in my new home recently so I'm not recognized by my community so I was also wondering how to get my new community to recognize me?

(I'm 15, so please correct me if I'm saying/doing something BS, would appreciate the wisdom from this forum )

TLDR;
Should I learn accounting before I start a business?
How to get my new community to recognize me?

 

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[Roli]

I'm currently 15 year old in high school, in Australia and I just read all of MJ's books. I'm kinda asking myself the practicality and the usefulness of the lessons they teach in school, the concepts they teach in school don't seem practical or useful when I have a business to me. I always ask myself, "How can this help me" & "Why am I learning this" and see if this can help me in life. I also stress myself with confirming the lessons they teach as I like to think for myself and want to get the answer from myself rather than someone else.

I want to start a business but am concerned about accounting as I heard that it's crucial to learn accounting and it's the first thing an entrepreneur should learn. I was wondering should I learn accounting before I start a business?

I also moved in my new home recently so I'm not recognized by my community so I was also wondering how to get my new community to recognize me?

(I'm 15, so please correct me if I'm saying/doing something BS, would appreciate the wisdom from this forum )

TLDR;
Should I learn accounting before I start a business?
How to get my new community to recognize me?

No, you don't need to learn accounting unless you want to become an accountant. You just need some basic principles, how to work out profit & loss, cashflow, budgets, etc.

If you want to know how to use a spreadsheet and do basic business accounting, join Udemy or similar and take a cheap $20 course.

The biggest skills you can learn right now are how to identify a problem, how to research effectively, how to market and sell your product/service.

Not sure about your next question, recognised for what? Just get out there and meet people I suppose.

 

[Lawtiti]

No, you don't need to learn accounting unless you want to become an accountant. You just need some basic principles, how to work out profit & loss, cashflow, budgets, etc.

If you want to know how to use a spreadsheet and do basic business accounting, join Udemy or similar and take a cheap $20 course.

The biggest skills you can learn right now are how to identify a problem, how to research effectively, how to market and sell your product/service.

Not sure about your next question, recognised for what? Just get out there and meet people I suppose.

I was thinking of saying if I need to know everyone in my community first so then I can start my business but then I realized that I can literally just go to people's houses and ask them if they need their grass cut or their walls cleaned, regardless if I know them or not. Sometimes I can answer my own questions if I thought hard about it

 

[Roli]

I was thinking of saying if I need to know everyone in my community first so then I can start my business but then I realized that I can literally just go to people's houses and ask them if they need their grass cut or their walls cleaned, regardless if I know them or not. Sometimes I can answer my own questions if I thought hard about it

That's cool, sometimes it takes saying a question out loud, or writing it down, before you realise you know the answer. Also the process of asking questions will tune your mind and get you asking even better ones.

So yes I agree, just get out there and start asking around your local community. Also as you're doing that, keep your eye out for any other common problems you see, maybe they need leaves clearing from their gutters as well, or their windows cleaned.

Keep asking questions though!

 

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[Kevin88660]

I'm currently 15 year old in high school, in Australia and I just read all of MJ's books. I'm kinda asking myself the practicality and the usefulness of the lessons they teach in school, the concepts they teach in school don't seem practical or useful when I have a business to me. I always ask myself, "How can this help me" & "Why am I learning this" and see if this can help me in life. I also stress myself with confirming the lessons they teach as I like to think for myself and want to get the answer from myself rather than someone else.

I want to start a business but am concerned about accounting as I heard that it's crucial to learn accounting and it's the first thing an entrepreneur should learn. I was wondering should I learn accounting before I start a business?

I also moved in my new home recently so I'm not recognized by my community so I was also wondering how to get my new community to recognize me?

(I'm 15, so please correct me if I'm saying/doing something BS, would appreciate the wisdom from this forum )

TLDR;
Should I learn accounting before I start a business?
How to get my new community to recognize me?

What can you sell to your peers who have pocket money?

I remember selling Digimon and Pokémon cards as a kid.

There are always some kids who are selling something.

 

[Lawtiti]

What can you sell to your peers who have pocket money?

I remember selling Digimon and Pokémon cards as a kid.

There are always some kids who are selling something.

Funny thing is, selling something in my school is considered illegal and it can involve the police. My friend sells can drinks and got caught once. It involved police and I don't know about what happened

 

[Kevin88660]

Funny thing is, selling something in my school is considered illegal and it can involve the police. My friend sells can drinks and got caught once. It involved police and I don't know about what happened

Good you can study about laws and regulation in your place.

But selling things in school, though could be prohibited by the school, should not be illegal in Australia.

Illegal means something against the statutory laws.

When it involves police most likely there are illegal things like selling stolen items or something.

You start with questions and research about it.

I remember that for U12 elementary schools it is tricky as they are worried about kids exploiting others selling overpriced items. For older kids is is free market.

 

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[Lawtiti]

Good you can study about laws and regulation in your place.

But selling things in school, though could be prohibited by the school, should not be illegal in Australia.

Illegal means something against the statutory laws.

When it involves police most likely there are illegal things like selling stolen items or something.

You start with questions and research about it.

I remember that for U12 elementary schools it is tricky as they are worried about kids exploiting others selling overpriced items. For older kids is is free market.

Maybe it's just prohibited and not illegal. I'm not very sure about what happened but regarding about laws and regulations, maybe I'll learn basics later on. I haven't even started a business and given value to people yet and I don't want to read almost everything before I even take a first step. Right now, since I'm in school, I'm literally quite scared that I'll read books and books and never act. That scares me.

 

[Lawtiti]

Maybe it's just prohibited and not illegal. I'm not very sure about what happened but regarding about laws and regulations, maybe I'll learn basics later on. I haven't even started a business and given value to people yet and I don't want to read almost everything before I even take a first step. Right now, since I'm in school, I'm literally quite scared that I'll read books and books and never act. That scares me.

Since I'm in high school, 15 years old. I feel like I should learn budgeting and basic financial structures and learn more about finance so I'll be able to make smart financial decisions when operating a business. I don't know if what I'm saying is right or wrong, do correct me if I'm wrong plz

 

[PureA]

20 something years into business someone had to pull Richard Branson out of a meeting and quickly explain to him the difference between net profit and gross because he didn't know...

 

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[Kevin88660]

Maybe it's just prohibited and not illegal. I'm not very sure about what happened but regarding about laws and regulations, maybe I'll learn basics later on. I haven't even started a business and given value to people yet and I don't want to read almost everything before I even take a first step. Right now, since I'm in school, I'm literally quite scared that I'll read books and books and never act. That scares me.

You can start some actions by emailing your school’s discipline master if there is any rule against any business transaction between students. Treat it like a personal project.

Most likely there is no official rule banning transaction but you cannot overdo it by turning campus into your marketing mall for your business and everyone knows it.

 

[Oso]

I remember being pulled out of class and lectured about flipping Pokémon cards. I remember the principle's exact words, too: "You're here to learn, not make money."

I'm not sure about your local laws, but here in the states, it's also "frowned upon" to run a side hustle out of your school. That said, we/I typically got around this via simply selling Pokémon cards, out of my trunk/backseat, in a parking lot, next to the school.

The quickest way for your "community to recognize you" is by being in front of them. Get out there and see who you can help. While doing this, analyze what you see around you as, when one genuinely pays attention to the world around them, the world responds in kind via showing you problems that we, as entrepreneurs, can solve.

Your greatest asset right now is time. Use it to build your initial foundation. In your case, based on where you're currently at, that more than likely includes networking (a ton), and building up valuable skills. Imo, once you've built a decent network, and you've spent time in front of these people, pick an industry and run with it.

One of my favorite theories/phrases/whatever in business is "if you can double a client's investment, they will give you every penny they earn." I'm personally in tech. You can find my progress thread around here somewhere. I can tell you, based on personal experience, that quote is 100% factual.

Help people first, make money second. Because helping people inevitably leads to financial/other gain(s) (and despite what some of the douches here say, genuinely helping people has a positive psychological effect on us as individuals).

 

[thechosen1]

You should absolutely learn the basics of accounting. You do not need to learn *formal* accounting, however.

Many of us on the forum have read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. I would recommend it. It's not totally accurate to accounting, but it gets your mind thinking the right way.

If you can learn what the financial statements are, how to calculate your net worth (super easy to do, add your assets and subtract your debts), and then calculate monthly cash flow, you should be on your way!

 

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[Subsonic]

I'm currently 15 year old in high school, in Australia and I just read all of MJ's books. I'm kinda asking myself the practicality and the usefulness of the lessons they teach in school, the concepts they teach in school don't seem practical or useful when I have a business to me. I always ask myself, "How can this help me" & "Why am I learning this" and see if this can help me in life. I also stress myself with confirming the lessons they teach as I like to think for myself and want to get the answer from myself rather than someone else.

I want to start a business but am concerned about accounting as I heard that it's crucial to learn accounting and it's the first thing an entrepreneur should learn. I was wondering should I learn accounting before I start a business?

I also moved in my new home recently so I'm not recognized by my community so I was also wondering how to get my new community to recognize me?

(I'm 15, so please correct me if I'm saying/doing something BS, would appreciate the wisdom from this forum )

TLDR;
Should I learn accounting before I start a business?
How to get my new community to recognize me?

If you want to learn a hard skill for entrepreneurship it's the classic: Sales.

Nothing will help you more than knowing that you can always get customers if push comes to shove.
Accounting is a pretty pointless job if your business is making no money.

 

[Panos Daras]

I'm currently 15 year old in high school, in Australia and I just read all of MJ's books. I'm kinda asking myself the practicality and the usefulness of the lessons they teach in school, the concepts they teach in school don't seem practical or useful when I have a business to me. I always ask myself, "How can this help me" & "Why am I learning this" and see if this can help me in life. I also stress myself with confirming the lessons they teach as I like to think for myself and want to get the answer from myself rather than someone else.

I want to start a business but am concerned about accounting as I heard that it's crucial to learn accounting and it's the first thing an entrepreneur should learn. I was wondering should I learn accounting before I start a business?

I also moved in my new home recently so I'm not recognized by my community so I was also wondering how to get my new community to recognize me?

(I'm 15, so please correct me if I'm saying/doing something BS, would appreciate the wisdom from this forum )

TLDR;
Should I learn accounting before I start a business?
How to get my new community to recognize me?

As a project manager with projects revolving around Accounting, I have to say this: Accounting is one of the most useless skills to waste your time on. Focus first on all the skills that will help product development and sales (the offense) and then you focus on Accounting (the defense). For my soccer analogy, there is also Budgeting which is one of the midfielders. It is important in order to not drive your business out of cash and to pay yourself out of your job so that you become a full-time business person. I am assuming you want to go fastlane, meaning having profits and not relying solely on VCs to pay you.

 

[Xeon]

Forget accounting and read Roli's 2nd last paragraph again and again till you can recite it backwards.

Accounting is long overdue to be replaced by AI outright. Humans are just a middleman in accounting : AI can do it more accurately and much much faster than any human.

 

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[Lawtiti]

If you want to learn a hard skill for entrepreneurship it's the classic: Sales.

Nothing will help you more than knowing that you can always get customers if push comes to shove.
Accounting is a pretty pointless job if your business is making no money.

I agree that accounting is a useless thing if I don't even start giving value to people. For sales, I might try to sell things to my friends. I'm expecting that I have to learn sales from experience not from a book? There's lots of resources in the internet and free knowledge. Would it be better to just do it rather than read about sales?

 

[Lawtiti]

I

I remember being pulled out of class and lectured about flipping Pokémon cards. I remember the principle's exact words, too: "You're here to learn, not make money."

I'm not sure about your local laws, but here in the states, it's also "frowned upon" to run a side hustle out of your school. That said, we/I typically got around this via simply selling Pokémon cards, out of my trunk/backseat, in a parking lot, next to the school.

The quickest way for your "community to recognize you" is by being in front of them. Get out there and see who you can help. While doing this, analyze what you see around you as, when one genuinely pays attention to the world around them, the world responds in kind via showing you problems that we, as entrepreneurs, can solve.

Your greatest asset right now is time. Use it to build your initial foundation. In your case, based on where you're currently at, that more than likely includes networking (a ton), and building up valuable skills. Imo, once you've built a decent network, and you've spent time in front of these people, pick an industry and run with it.

One of my favorite theories/phrases/whatever in business is "if you can double a client's investment, they will give you every penny they earn." I'm personally in tech. You can find my progress thread around here somewhere. I can tell you, based on personal experience, that quote is 100% factual.

Help people first, make money second. Because helping people inevitably leads to financial/other gain(s) (and despite what some of the douches here say, genuinely helping people has a positive psychological effect on us as individuals).

I could join a social community in my area and network with the people in there and ask if they need any help with their problems. I was thinking that as well. I'm going to join social groups and network with them. Thanks! This forum is such a gold mine!

 

[Lawtiti]

As a project manager with projects revolving around Accounting, I have to say this: Accounting is one of the most useless skills to waste your time on. Focus first on all the skills that will help product development and sales (the offense) and then you focus on Accounting (the defense). For my soccer analogy, there is also Budgeting which is one of the midfielders. It is important in order to not drive your business out of cash and to pay yourself out of your job so that you become a full-time business person. I am assuming you want to go fastlane, meaning having profits and not relying solely on VCs to pay you.

I actually never thought accounting could be an defense side of business. So offense in business are skills that helps propels the business forward by improving the quality and quantity of value to people. This is a really interesting idea that I haven't thought about yet, Thanks!

 

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[Lawtiti]

You should absolutely learn the basics of accounting. You do not need to learn *formal* accounting, however.

Many of us on the forum have read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. I would recommend it. It's not totally accurate to accounting, but it gets your mind thinking the right way.

If you can learn what the financial statements are, how to calculate your net worth (super easy to do, add your assets and subtract your debts), and then calculate monthly cash flow, you should be on your way!

I was thinking that I will learn basic accounting and bookkeeping skills and not the whole subject of accounting. Just learn basic things that a business needs and that's it. Leave everything to my future accountant

 

[thechosen1]

I was thinking that I will learn basic accounting and bookkeeping skills and not the whole subject of accounting. Just learn basic things that a business needs and that's it. Leave everything to my future accountant

Accounting isn’t rocket science. Little old ladies do managerial accounting in spiral notebooks for their stores they own in small towns. It works.

You can figure it out when you need to figure it out.

But you should learn how to calculate your personal net worth and make a budget for your personal finances *now* - that’s like accounting level 0.1

 

[Lawtiti]

Accounting isn’t rocket science. Little old ladies do managerial accounting in spiral notebooks for their stores they own in small towns. It works.

You can figure it out when you need to figure it out.

But you should learn how to calculate your personal net worth and make a budget for your personal finances *now* - that’s like accounting level 0.1

Will do. I'm going to take a "financial basics everyone should know" course in LinkedIn. I can watch any lessons for free as I'm using my dad account.

 

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