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- Feb 20, 2019
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To give you some background on me:
I started my entrepreneurial journey about 5 years ago (I was 17 / turning 18). I started a house cleaning business that I ran for about a year. The best we ever did was about 7K Revenue/Month. At that time I felt like I had something to brag about. Today, not so much.
I struggled to grow that business due to limited capital, trouble retaining customers/workforce, etc. I eventually just got tired from the constant fires to put out / low margins / etc. I moved into some similar home service businesses where I pretty much faced the same thing. Price war style business / low margins / high turnover in staff and clients.
I got out of all of that around 20 years old, this was the last time I was a "real" business owner. I decided to learn to code as it was a high-value skill, I had a son on the way at this point as well so I knew that I was going to need to make some sort of living. I figured I could also use this skill to get into a better business at some point.
I spent about a year and a half studying programming and landed a job as a software developer (what I do full-time now).
I am very grateful to work as a developer, I know there are much harder jobs to have. I'm able to afford to live and take care of my son, so I can't complain. But I know there is more out there for me.
Recently, i've felt lost on what my next steps should be. I've considered opening a software development agency, i've also considered going back to a "cash" business model, something that is tried and true. I know I probably won't get a 100M exit from a cleaning business, but I'm okay with "plug and play" business models for the time being.
I know that nobody on here can give me a step-by-step to success. I know that it requires action on my own. I just don't know which direction to look in. My mind constantly runs in "loops" of "I'll give the cleaning business another shot as thats the only type of business i've owned", to "thats a bad idea, maybe i'll try opening a software agency", to "thats to competitive and too much risk, maybe a home service business is a better bet". Constant bull**** that probably doesn't matter.
To make this a productive thread. I'll end this post with some questions.
- If you've been in a situation where you didn't really know where to put your effort, how did you find a new industry/problem to solve?
- What are your thoughts on restarting a failed business? Am I living in a scarcity mindset by not exploring other ideas, or is actually worth taking my prior experience and trying again? (I feel like I have some advantages now that I didn't then)
- If you're in a software business, how did you get started, and what would you recommend to a newbie getting into the industry?
I don't want the easy way, I'd rather triple my current workload just to work on my own thing again.
I started my entrepreneurial journey about 5 years ago (I was 17 / turning 18). I started a house cleaning business that I ran for about a year. The best we ever did was about 7K Revenue/Month. At that time I felt like I had something to brag about. Today, not so much.
I struggled to grow that business due to limited capital, trouble retaining customers/workforce, etc. I eventually just got tired from the constant fires to put out / low margins / etc. I moved into some similar home service businesses where I pretty much faced the same thing. Price war style business / low margins / high turnover in staff and clients.
I got out of all of that around 20 years old, this was the last time I was a "real" business owner. I decided to learn to code as it was a high-value skill, I had a son on the way at this point as well so I knew that I was going to need to make some sort of living. I figured I could also use this skill to get into a better business at some point.
I spent about a year and a half studying programming and landed a job as a software developer (what I do full-time now).
I am very grateful to work as a developer, I know there are much harder jobs to have. I'm able to afford to live and take care of my son, so I can't complain. But I know there is more out there for me.
Recently, i've felt lost on what my next steps should be. I've considered opening a software development agency, i've also considered going back to a "cash" business model, something that is tried and true. I know I probably won't get a 100M exit from a cleaning business, but I'm okay with "plug and play" business models for the time being.
I know that nobody on here can give me a step-by-step to success. I know that it requires action on my own. I just don't know which direction to look in. My mind constantly runs in "loops" of "I'll give the cleaning business another shot as thats the only type of business i've owned", to "thats a bad idea, maybe i'll try opening a software agency", to "thats to competitive and too much risk, maybe a home service business is a better bet". Constant bull**** that probably doesn't matter.
To make this a productive thread. I'll end this post with some questions.
- If you've been in a situation where you didn't really know where to put your effort, how did you find a new industry/problem to solve?
- What are your thoughts on restarting a failed business? Am I living in a scarcity mindset by not exploring other ideas, or is actually worth taking my prior experience and trying again? (I feel like I have some advantages now that I didn't then)
- If you're in a software business, how did you get started, and what would you recommend to a newbie getting into the industry?
I don't want the easy way, I'd rather triple my current workload just to work on my own thing again.
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