Well Sans, I'm a business owner and I've had my business since 2004, funding what I can through my 401K (taking a 40% whack) and my paycheck, what I can spare. In my six years of doing business, I've damned near closed up shop 3 times because I'm barely making it. And it isn't just me, I know other people with businesses who are doing what they love and who have great product just barely making it. I do Renaissance Faires because it's the only place people will buy my lotions and perfume oils. My lotions are just as good if not better than what you'd buy in the store, people rave about my products when they get them and wonder why nobody knows about me.
Well here's why:
1. I don't have at least $500 a month to pay for website optimization so that my website will appear in the top pages of Google. And I don't have that web savvy friend who can do keywords and the like.
2. I can't afford the Pay per Click thing that Google, yahoo and others offer.
3. I don't have the cash to do any advertising of any kind because what little money I have I spend on buying ingredients to make my products.
6. I work a 40 hour week then get up early in the morning to drive out of town to faires and often sit there for long periods not making a dime. Out of my 3 years of doing faires, I've yet to have a day where I've been able to come away and just say "f**k yeah, I'm getting somewhere."
7. I spend my time marketing what little I can on the Internet, but my friends cry broke or just ignore me, but then brag that they just spent double the money buying some other product made by a big company or at the mall. It isn't that my stuff is bad, it's just when you don't have cash behind you, people don't take you serious. That's just how it is.
I can't get a business loan because of my bankruptcy and poor credit history when I was sick. Because I can't show a profit worth a damn, no investor will touch me in a 1,000 years.
Dude, if I offered a package on Kickstarter that reaches thousands of people saying that
For $5.00 I'll send you a bottle of lotion
(which is 50% less than my regular bottle)
For $10.00 I'll send you a bottle of lotion and a perfume oil.
That's begging? Really? When they're getting a deal for their money, cheaper than what I usually offer?
These days are different. If you want to make a business you need a minimum of $1,000,000 --- yes, that's right, and most of it will go into marketing and finding a celebrity to go "oooh this stuff is good." Everybody who has taken their business to the next level these days have gotten a big chunk of change either from a group of investors, their rich daddy, their ex-husband from taking their ass to the cleaners or somebody died and left them a fortune.
The only people I know how worked hard all their life and got something lost it because Wal-Mart moved into town. There's your hard work, Sans, it's bullshit!
Chaeya
Stop Talking and Just do it!
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