I WANT TO WORK FOR MYSELF
I WANT TO WORK FOR MYSELF
I WANT TO WORK FOR MYSELF
I WANT TO WORK FOR MYSELF
I WANT TO WORK FOR MYSELF
Charles Ryder
S U M M E R S D A L E
Copyright © Summersdale Publishers Ltd 1999
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced by any means,
nor transmitted, nor translated into a machine language,
without the written permission of the publisher.
Summersdale Publishers Ltd
46 West Street
Chichester
PO19 1RP
United Kingdom
www.summersdale.com
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman.
ISBN 1 84024 064 4
Kup książkę Przeczytaj więcej o książce
Contents
Introduction 4
Who wants to be a millionaire? 6
What personal qualities will I need
to work for myself? 11
Some case histories of successful
entrepreneurs 17
Setting up a business 24
Running a business 28
Business ideas 43
Business ideas: manufacturing
and production 46
Business ideas: trading 51
Business ideas: service 81
Kup książkę Przeczytaj więcej o książce
Help! I Want to Work For Myself
Introduction
This book is your first step towards working for yourself:
possibly the best investment you will ever make. Help! I
Want To Work For Myself is designed to give a general
overview of various routes an entrepreneur can take
towards successful self employment. It describes the kinds
of businesses that will offer you the level of potential you
require, and points you in the right direction to get started
in each of them.
The business aspect is only part of the story, however.
People who take the plunge and work for themselves
often possess personal qualities that make them stand out
from an average employee. An entrepreneur wouldn t
get very far without courage, self-discipline, and a strong
desire to succeed against all the hardships and problems
that the commercial world will throw at them. People
who work for themselves also take far less sick leave than
employed people  and this doesn t necessarily mean that
they re healthier, it s just that they can t afford to take a
day off. This book examines those qualities, and applies
them to the real world of commerce.
4
Kup książkę Przeczytaj więcej o książce
Introduction
One of the best ways to become skilled at a trade is to
learn by example. Becoming an entrepreneur is a trade
to be learnt, like any other, so a section of this book is
devoted to looking at the case histories of some well
known business people in order to see what personal
qualities and business skills they possess and whether these
characteristics can be applied to an entrepreneur just
starting out for the first time.
The business ideas featured are not intended to form an
exhaustive catalogue of all possibilities. Most of them
involve trade or services, rather than manufacturing, due
to the relatively high set-up costs of a new business in the
manufacturing sector. The majority of the businesses
described can be run from simple office premises, and
some can even be run from home.
It is not uncommon for people to start a new enterprise
in one sector of business without considering all the types
of business available. You would not buy a house without
first considering a large number of choices, so why do
people pick a business idea without considering whether
it offers them the best potential? If you have not yet
decided which business route you want to take, read
through the ideas suggested. Many of them are tried and
tested concepts (which means competition already exists)
while others would fill gaps in the market and offer
enormous future growth potential. Take a close look at
all of these and other business ideas before deciding what
you want to do, so that your eventual choice will be an
informed one.
5
Kup książkę Przeczytaj więcej o książce
Help! I Want to Work For Myself
Who wants to be a
millionaire?
Whether it is for our own benefit or to be able to afford
to help others, we all want to gain financial rewards from
running a business, and some of us want even to become
millionaires. But how many of us actually make a small
effort to achieve our dreams before giving up? A sizeable
percentage. Who actually pursues the dream to its
fulfilment? Hardly anyone. Why is this? Surely the prospect
of wealth, luxury, respect, splendour, power to do almost
what you want  including the power to do good  and
never again having to toil for a living are worthy ideals
that will motivate nearly everyone to make a financial
success of their lives? This is not so.
Let s take a random sample of one hundred ambitious
young people, about to commence their working lives.
They all think they will achieve what they set out to
achieve: a large income, a big house, nice car, no debts,
and prosperity far in excess of what they began with. Now
let s jump ahead to their retirement age. The chances are
that only two of them will be financially independent,
 wealthy . A handful will be comfortably off, some will be
dead, but the vast majority will have worked hard all their
lives just to keep their heads above water. Forty years of
6
Kup książkę Przeczytaj więcej o książce
Who wants to be a millionaire?
work has left them with very little. Why? Did they do
anything wrong, or is it that society does not allow success
for everyone?
The answer lies in a combination of factors. Luck is always
significant. Life is full of random events and meetings: who
we are, where we were born, and the people we meet
through life are all random things that can be financially
advantageous, harmful or neutral. Luck can to some extent
be controlled. Some people claim to have  made their
own luck , and this is normally true. They have made the
required effort, gone out into the world and  had a go ,
one thing has led to another, and finally they have
succeeded.
Forging your own good luck is a matter of making sensible
decisions and taking positive action throughout life.
Actually  doing something is far more likely to lead to
prosperity than sitting on the sofa in front of the television.
Successful self-employed people are those who do things,
rather than letting things happen to them, and this is how
they make their own  luck .
Perhaps another reason why most people don t  make it
is that the dream is so distant that they feel it is an
impossible dream? One thing is certain: working for
yourself is possible for anyone, provided you believe in
the dream and dedicate yourself to making it come true.
Generating an income for yourself by means of trade (the
 normal way) is the most openly available method, for it
is merely an extension of something that we all do every
day: we regularly trade for money. Usually we trade our
7
Kup książkę Przeczytaj więcej o książce
Help! I Want to Work For Myself
time for cash, giving up a number of hours a week for
someone else s business in return for money and other
benefits. We may also sell the occasional second hand
item such as a car and put the money towards a new one.
We are continually trading with money in one way or
another: the thing to remember is that there is an awful
lot of money in the world. While it is frustrating not having
very much of that money, it is vital to remember that a
very large proportion of this money is constantly changing
hands.
All over the nation, every day, money moves from person
to person, from person to institution, from institution to
institution, and from institution to person (see diagram).
8
Kup książkę Przeczytaj więcej o książce