Have you considered starting a business?

[stepee]

On 4/12/2022 at 12:38 PM, Mr.Vic20 said:

No, nope, no thanks! I'm 15 years to retirement and I plan to scale down my life to an extremely low cost style and live out the remainder of my days reading, taking walks, and working as little as possible. When death comes for me, I will not fight it. I have lived and that is good enough for me. 

 

bro you ran d1p for like two months remember!

[Mr.Vic20]

3 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

bro you ran d1p for like two months remember!

Non-profit baby! 

[Ominous]

9 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

Yes, in fact I've operated my own sole proprietorship the last five years doing wedding photography.

 

Riley Lewis Photography - Regina Photographer

WWW.RLPHOTO.CA

---

Wedding and life photographer in Regina, Saskatchewan.

 

EDIT - Oh nice, the preview image gets cropped to just boobs on D1P. That's on-brand.

 

The best part of the job is delivering the photos and hearing the clients gush over them. I'm fortunate to have a great full-time job that pays the mortgage and enough for retirement, so I am selective about my weddings and only take 4-5 per year (max). Enough to bring in some extra money (and I charge enough to be considered on the high end), but also low enough to not stress me out.

 

 

 

 

Nice! 

[Chris-]

2 hours ago, sblfilms said:

I pump the vast majority of my income back into productive assets.

 

My MBA will be a productive asset...

[Brian]

7 hours ago, sblfilms said:

There are all sorts of things I’ve kinda fallen into over the years, my most recent is that I had been doing random construction jobs on the side for friends and family, and everyone so often a friend of a friend. My little brother wanted to start doing some stuff on the side in addition to his software engineering thing, so we last month launched a construction company and have been picking up lots of jobs.

 

Like today, I am at a job site pulling glue down bamboo flooring up with a couple day laborers for a customer who had a pipe break inside the concrete slab. So gotta demo everything the next couple of days, then fix the busted pipe, then go back in and tile the whole thing.

 

But we also just signed a contract to do a custom home build, so I am excited about that. Building things is one of my favorite things to do. Getting paid is just a bonus at this point.

This the main reason I keep talking to new people. I hope to stumble across someone in construction that will help me with an extension. 
 

1 hour ago, Chris- said:

 

My MBA will be a productive asset...

Lol my MBA in accounting and finance has done jack shit for me. 

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, ManUtdRedDevils said:

Lol my MBA in accounting and finance has done jack shit for me. 

You have the wrong kind of MBA, sorry

 

How to Get an M.B.A. (Mop-Bucket Attitude) | Positive Communication Pro

WWW.DRZIMMERMAN.COM

---

Attitude may be the 6th "ingredient" to good health, but it's the most important. Here's how you can build an M.B.A. (Mop-Bucket Attitude) in 3 easy steps.

 

 

[Chris-]

2 hours ago, ManUtdRedDevils said:

Lol my MBA in accounting and finance has done jack shit for me. 

 

Mine has already paid dividends; it's gotten me interviews I otherwise wouldn't have gotten and is assuredly a reason I got the job I start next week. 

[Fizzzzle]

I don't have an opinion on it necessarily, but I do think inflation of education is something that doesn't get talked about enough.

 

1900: Any amount of formal education whatsoever? here's a good job

1940: Graduated high school? Here's a good job

1980: Bachelor's degree? Here's a good job

2020: Bachelor's degree? Oh, it was a political science degree from Southwestern Michigan State University - Alabama? Sorry, ain't gonna cut it

2040 (probably): How many post-grad degrees do you have?

 

There's a whole list of reasons that include an aging work force and student loans being accessible to anyone and machine learning replacing jobs and blah blah blah, but the end result is that gatekeeping to high-paying jobs keeps getting pushed higher and higher, while education keeps getting more expensive.

 

Shit, certain bachelor's degrees and certain career paths are blocked behind completeing an unpaid internship. Unpaid internships all but require that you come from money in the first place.

 

It's a mixture of both an increasingly educated populace and people already in positions of power pulling the ladder up behind them.

 

For many people from lower class backgrounds, starting your own business is increasingly the only way to climb the social ladder - you're basically shut out of doing it by any other means unless you're the best of the best (scholarships, ivy league, magna cum laude, etc).

[Guest]

38 minutes ago, Rachel said:

You need money and/or luck to start those businesses too if you’re from a lower class background so it’s far from a guarantee.  

Or be willing to do jobs white people aren’t. I have a lot of skilled trades I sub jobs to on projects that are from Central America, but work hard and have created businesses that are thriving because there is such a huge demand for people who know what they are doing in construction.

 

A Facebook page, and $200 worth of tools is all you need to start a drywall hanging business. A great work ethic is all you need to make it successful.

[Brian]

12 hours ago, Rachel said:

you’re the manager 

True but I am trying to pivot to a new company and it has been more challenging than I expected. At current company. the top level is retiring and the new management being hired/promoted have decided to increase their bonuses and salaries and fuck those beneath. Luckily, I started my MBA at a time when the company paid for the whole thing. Now they give you like $2500 a year. 

[Guest]

Just now, Rachel said:

It’s really not that simple for most people. For some people getting an extra $200 is impossible. 

It is that simple for most people. When people say they can’t find a good paying job, it is almost always that they can’t find a good paying job that is easy and comfortable. I mean, even if all you did was day labor in a city like Houston with no tools of your own, you’ll make $40k in cash every year. But that is hard work that white people don’t want to do!

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, Rachel said:

 

Omg. Stop. Go be poor in a disenfranchised community with generational trauma and not being able to even afford your basic needs and then come on here and say it’s that simple. Jesus Christ. 
 

Just because factors lined up for you and people and in your circle does not mean it’s that way for most people. Also $40k is a shit salary in this economy in a large city. 

I am a racial minority who grew up in poverty. Even were that not the case, what I am talking about isn’t even an example of what I did. I’m talking about what is entirely possible this very minute for people who are willing to do work that few native born Americans are willing to do.

 

$40k is a completely livable sum of money in Houston, my wife and I lived in waaaaay less than that for a long time. And you miss the point! Construction jobs are significantly more lucrative than that, $40k is just the absolute minimum you can earn if you day work m-F. Set aside some cash for a few months, buy your own tools (a drill, some trowels, and a mud tray) and you can bid out drywall jobs and go from $150 a day, to $500/day in an average week. 
 

I’ve, to my own detriment, convinced several of my best construction employees to start their own shops because they had the work ethic to do it, and now they are home owners living the American nightmare  

[best3444]

38 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

It is that simple for most people. When people say they can’t find a good paying job, it is almost always that they can’t find a good paying job that is easy and comfortable. I mean, even if all you did was day labor in a city like Houston with no tools of your own, you’ll make $40k in cash every year. But that is hard work that white people don’t want to do!

 

I'm having second opinions on you from the last few days. This is all nonsense. 

[best3444]

2 minutes ago, Rachel said:

starting to understand why @Kamushaleft the boards over him 

 

Well that was the other situation that has me confused with sblfilms in general. 

[stepee]

I love sbl, “just start a drywall business” is the new “bootstraps” and I’m here for it!

[Guest]

1 hour ago, stepee said:

I love sbl, “just start a drywall business” is the new “bootstraps” and I’m here for it!

One is possible, the other isn’t. Despite growing up in poverty, the only time I’ve been poor in my adult like is when I chose to help my dad figure out how to make his business actually work. From age 16 to 26, I worked to dig him out of the crippling debt he had to vendors, to the IRS, and everything in between. Changed his processes for everything. Changed even the services he offered. All sorts of stuff.
 

So who knows, maybe running businesses just comes naturally to me.

 

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, Rachel said:

Even if it were so easy to just start a business, there can only be so many. It’s not something most people can do. If most people did that then the market would be oversaturated and the businesses won’t be viable. There’s only room for a lucky few. 

There is plenty of room right now for more businesses. You don’t need to be lucky to identify that there are particular sectors of the economy that are very short on the supply side. The fact that if everybody did it the market would tank is not relevant to whether one could do something in the current economic reality. As the boomers have gotten older, the supply of skilled labor has decreased. Lots of opportunities for those who want to take advantage of that. Not everybody can, and the vast majority won’t, but it is more for the reason Kal said which is people are risk averse and prefer the comforts of a regular paycheck over the upside of going their own way.

 

And that is fine, but don’t discourage people with this notion of impossibility or that it is all blind luck. Neither is true. While we don’t have control over what opportunities come

our way, we mostly do have control over how we respond to those things.

[stepee]

29 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

So who knows, maybe running businesses just comes naturally to me.

 

 

ding ding ding!

[Keyser_Soze]

Maybe @sblfilms can start a business for @Rachel

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Maybe @sblfilms can start a business for @Rachel

Would love to. Or really any of you. Creating businesses is something I find very challenging and fun!

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Rachel said:

Okay what kind of business are we doing?

What are your best skills and are you able to learn new things quickly? And what are the demographics in the 15 mile radius around where you live?

[stepee]

6 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

What are your best skills and are you able to learn new things quickly? And what are the demographics in the 15 mile radius around where you live?

 

My answers:

 

Sucking dick, yes, single men in their 20’s.

 

What are we going to do?!

 

[AlwaysDyingX]

55 minutes ago, Rachel said:

I have a degree in radio broadcasting and I worked in the industry from 2008 to 2014 so I have skills in media, marketing, advertising, public relations, copywriting, audio production, voiceover, and social media. And some public relations.

 

after that I had to switch to a less demanding industry due to health issues so basically I have been doing different administrative jobs since then. At times I’ve been taken aboard some change management projects as I seem to have a natural apt for this area and continuous improvement. I have above average customer service and client relation skills and do well with de-escalations and resolutions. I definitely learn new things quickly and I am intelligent and intuitive. 

 

I’m probably forgetting some things but there you go. The only problem is my reliability as my episodes of panic attacks and suicidal ideation and terror are unpredictable 🤔

 

demographics: roughly 60% white and 40% black. Population 500,000. Average household income is $90,000 with a poverty rate of 12%. Median age is 33 years. 

 

 

 

Can you run a lawn mower? You can go on facebook marketplace and buy a lawn mower for $25 and start a lawn service company. I'd hire you. You have to do things white people such as myself don't feel like doing for ourselves 

 

*sarcasm font enabled*

[best3444]

15 minutes ago, BasemntDweller2 said:

 

 

Can you run a lawn mower? You can go on facebook marketplace and buy a lawn mower for $25 and start a lawn service company. I'd hire you. You have to do things white people such as myself don't feel like doing for ourselves

 

[stepee]

26 minutes ago, BasemntDweller2 said:

 

 

Can you run a lawn mower? You can go on facebook marketplace and buy a lawn mower for $25 and start a lawn service company. I'd hire you. You have to do things white people such as myself don't feel like doing for ourselves 

 

*sarcasm font enabled*

 

Can you walk a dog? You can go on craigslist and post an ad for free offering to walk peoples dogs. Once you get your first dog to walk it’s easy money. Network from there and get as many dogs as you can walk at once to maximize your profit per hour.

[AlwaysDyingX]

4 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

Can you walk a dog? You can go on craigslist and post an ad for free offering to walk peoples dogs. Once you get your first dog to walk it’s easy money. Network from there and get as many dogs as you can walk at once to maximize your profit per hour.

 

 

I have two dogs that need walking. Whitey dislikes walking their own dogs 

 

[stepee]

10 minutes ago, BasemntDweller2 said:

 

 

I have two dogs that need walking. Whitey dislikes walking their own dogs 

 

 

tbf that’s true @Commissar SFLUFAN

[AlwaysDyingX]

6 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

tbf that’s true @Commissar SFLUFAN

 

he isn't white doe 

[TheLeon]

I honestly have been wondering lately if I could just walk dogs and pet/house sit as my full time job. My sister has given my name to some friends/neighbors, and I have a couple of gigs lined up for the summer. She lives in one of the nicer areas in town, and they all have dogs. But that also feels like a teenager’s first job type deal, not something for a dude in his early 30s. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, TheLeon said:

I honestly have been wondering lately if I could just walk dogs and pet/house sit as my full time job. My sister has given my name to some friends/neighbors, and I have a couple of gigs lined up for the summer. She lives in one of the nicer areas in town, and they all have dogs. But that also feels like a teenager’s first job type deal, not something for a dude in his early 30s. 

Do it, hit it hard for a few months until you build up enough customers that you don’t have the time to add more, then bring a second person in as a contractor and split the dog walking fee with them. Do it over and over and build the business.

[Biggie]

14 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Do it, hit it hard for a few months until you build up enough customers that you don’t have the time to add more, then bring a second person in as a contractor and split the dog walking fee with them. Do it over and over and build the business.

Stfu he ain’t doing that lol

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, Biggie said:

Stfu he ain’t doing that lol

Maybe he will. I think he can if he is willing to put in the work

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Rachel said:

@sblfilmsso what business are we doing?

I have to think about it

[johnny]

my dad was a landscaper for 30 years and basically started with basic things like a lawnmower and rake when he was 20. he got cheap fliers printed and went door to door all over the city. got a few customers, and a lot of his customers lived near another customer because they knew the person or approached him since he was there every week. he ended up learning how to do other stuff like installing sprinkler systems. dude worked really hard for 30 years. grew the business a bit but admittedly didn’t grow it as much as he could have and because of age/health problems he had to end it. 

 

these things can be done but it’s insanely hard work especially if you are talking about something that’s physical work. 

[Dodger]

I would love to, but I don't have any business ideas and I don't have any real skills or passions except being lazy and playing video games, and I ain't even that good at video games so not like I can start a Twitch or something. But I also hate working for a soulless corporation. But my problems are my own, I basically did no work today. But I'll probably work this weekend to make up for it. Well maybe not my dad is visiting but he goes to bed early.

 

Because I'm lazy I've started to focus on frugality and those early retirement blogs and have been working to cut my expenses. Still got a few to go, biggest thing being is I need to get rid of my car payment, since I have some $60k leased truck that while nice, I never should have bought it. But used car prices are nuts too. So I'm working on how I will do that. 

 

Not to be a bootstrapper, but I'd be more successful in life if I wasn't lazy. Like I could spend my nights and weekends driving for Uber or whatever for extra money, but I don't. My company laid off a bunch of people end of 2020 including my old boss. He was making like 150 grand a year, now maybe he was shitting me but he said working 6 days a week 12 hours a day he was making more money than he ever did where I work. 

 

My dad grew up dirt poor, ended up pretty successful as he works 10-12 hours a day. He would work through his vacations. He went to school at night starting from community college and put himself through law school through his 40's and 50's retired from corporate world and became a lawyer, and got a huge raise where he works because he spends his free time working on Access databases for the company. 

 

The people that I know that are successful work crazy hours, or have side hustles, or were frugal and saved all their money, or took some risks and invested the money they worked their asses off for. If you're poor you aren't oppressed, you're just lazy and wondering why you can't get rich working 9-5 trying to dip out early on Fridays and calling in sick whenever you want to go party.