The Likely Result is Failure

I have had a similar prompt before in this occasionally repetitive daily prompt asking what type of shop I would open. As a result I am going to look at our seemingly increasing determination either to just work for ourselves or to set up a money earning opportunity alongside our main jobs.

As with so many things, the Internet is to blame for the increasing obsession with opening up businesses. Ebay, Etsy, Amazon and the various reselling sites are full of ‘success stories’ of people who have made thousands of pounds for very little effort. That is of course untrue. It reminds me of the old pyramid schemes where the people setting them up got very rich while the clueless individuals who signed up either got very little or they actually lost money.

On the Internet the life cycle of these firms is far shorter than the old mail in promises of getting rich quick. That is not the only problem. We are constantly being encouraged to ‘monetise’ our skills, or those things we don’t need or want anymore, to make ‘easy money’! Of course, in reality hardly anyone makes more than pocket money from building a business of any sort, either on or offline, and the vast majority lose all the time and money which are invested. The people who can least afford the time and the investment plunge into a market that, with vanishingly few exceptions, they don’t understand and can’t devote the time to.

So, unless you want to develop a proper business plan, can afford to lose all the money invested and have the money behind you to concentrate only on the new business, don’t bother. It’s doomed to failure!