What would you do

[Nickolai Naydenov]

So you are in a position where you have some cash to start(not buy) a new business. I know many people are going to ask how much so let's say R2-3 million for argument sake. I've learned that a person can be great at what he is doing but on his own is limited, he/she can only do so much work and earn so much money, but when he/she employs someone their limitations are extended which theoreticaly means that the more people you have working for you the higher your capacity and the more money you can make (Time=Money) with less work done from your side. Needless to say that there are many capable people out there but not everyone can be a businessman. Of course you must love what you doing.

So the question is what would you do? I'm just looking for ideas and for out of the box thinking, I'm not asking for anything specific and there's definitely no right or wrong answer. It woulb interesting to hear how business people think

[Mike Simmonds]

I believe you hit the spot - "Of course you must love what you are doing". If you are going to employ people, then you also need empathy for people, otherwise you will only have workers and never thinkers. You have to buy in to your people if you are going to get any buy in from them, something like the old adage of respect is earned.
I was browsing the internet the other day and came across some hot trends in business. I see that someone has even started a vertical wind tunnel where one can go and fly, similar to what skydivers do at thousands of feet above the earth. I presume you may need to have a love for flying here :-).
Great topic, and one that I will follow with interest.

[tec0]

I myself would venture along the lines of a petrol station. But believe me when I say it is not an easy venture and the profits are sometimes questionable. That said the right location and the right side business alongside it and you are on the money. I have seen petrol stations earn well and I have seen others fail so it is worth investigating fist.

In the end it comes down to what are you willing to risk and if you are willing to lose that amount of money or not. If you cannot afford to lose it then consider safe investments in something with close to zero risk. The earnings may be slow but it will earn and may do so for some time.

[Blurock]

Give me R3 million to hire some of the best and most creative South African musicians. We'd practice for 6 months to build up a repertoire and then hit the road. We'll release our first CD in about 9 months with original music and a few covers to get the fans interested. Real GOOD music.

The CD will be a loss as the pirate copies will sell for less. We will not make money on the gigs as travelling and accommodation costs will cripple us.

The band may not last much longer than a year, but at least we would have had fun while it lasted....
Support your local band!

[adrianh]

Anything that doesn't involve employing people.

[Nickolai Naydenov]

Lol... R3 mil is not so much money realistically speaking. It won't buy me a petrol station and besides I don't want one I believe petrol will become an elestic product in the next 10 years, there will be more alternatives.

A band lol... It just shows your passion Bluerock, keep it up.

Adrianh if you don't employ people you can only do so much, you can only be at one place at a time therefore you are very limited so you need people, there is not one wealthy person that doesn't have many people working for him or her.

In anyway I'm just looking for fresh ideas and innovation as much as we think everything is alredy invented we are wrong, people invent things every day

[adrianh]

Adrianh if you don't employ people you can only do so much, you can only be at one place at a time therefore you are very limited so you need people, there is not one wealthy person that doesn't have many people working for him or her.

Rubbish

You are heading for a horrible fall if you believe that. Ok, to put things in perspective; I said employing people, I didn't say anyting about using other people's services. Let me explain it to you as a multi-millionnare friend of mine explained it to me. You see, he used to own a resturant, the staff would steal anything that wasn't bolted down, they would come late for work, they would strike etc. Then one day he simply wrote it off as a bad job and sold it. He then started a website that connects people that require a very specific service to people that supplies the service. He does the transaction via the site and pockets 25%. The workers "agents" take 25% of what he makes. They don't work for him, they simply do bookings the same way as a travel agent does. He has many people doing the bookings because they are free-agents, they can sit at home and do nothing or they can make him money and make themselves money. He does not employ any of them, worldwide. He clears anything between R70K - R150K a month, by watching his compluter screen while the agents make money for him.

There are two very important things that you must learn to use as quickly as you can: Other people's money and other people's time. (Other people meaning - not employed by you)

[AndyD]

Lol... R3 mil is not so much money realistically speaking. It won't buy me a petrol station

3 mil is more than enough to set yourself up in a petrol station. You don't 'buy' the petrol station as such, they belong to the fuel company. Owning a petrol station is about making money from the convenience shop franchise that's linked to it. In a modest one you pump a couple of hundred thousand litres a month which will pay the overheads, the convenience store is then your profit.

[Nickolai Naydenov]

Adrian there are many people that make over 100k a month, that is not making money, I've got a client who gets 400k salary every month and then I have couple of small business owners who make millions every month in profit, so if your goal is to make 100k a month knock yourself out, I'm talking about real business, you show me one world famous billionaire that doesn't have people working for him.

With regards to the petrol station Andy, I have beem to few property auctions lately to buy another property and I noticed that they had numerous petrol stations on auction, they were all out of major cities and the lowest starting price on one of them was 3.4 mil that means that it will end up on at least 10 mil. Second you definitely own the petrol station you just pay royalties to the franchise. And last but not least I asked for possible ideas not something that is already there, I also mentioned that I don't believe in the petrol stations as petrol will become an elastic commodity soon, that's of course my own opinion.

[adrianh]

hmmm....fair enough...

[Blurock]

Leadership is about people. Know yourself and know your people. If you are a good motivator and a good negotiator, you are halfway there. Imagine if Richard Branson or Henry Ford or Steve Jobs said they will not employ people!

The most successful industrialists and entrepreneurs of our age all employ people. By putting the right systems in place and appointing the right people, they managed to grow their businesses to multi million Dollar enterprises.

Buying a franchise is not entrepreneurship - you still work for the MAN. An entrepreneur is enterprising (entrepre-)and is a a doer (-neur). Someone who takes risks and responsibility for the outcomes. One definition I've seen describes an entrepreneur as an intermediary between capital and labour. (Not so sure about that one as many entrepreneurs start without capital).

If you can make money on your own by not employing people, good for you. But you may restrict yourself to what you have now and a business that does not grow, eventually dies. By duplicating your business you can multiply your income and also meet your social responsibility.

Remember, the more people that are unemployed, the more tax you will have to pay to sustain the unemployed as well as the infrastructure required to run your town and country. You will also have to provide more security to protect what is yours.

Conversely, provide jobs and the tax base widens. More workers = more buyers, so business grows. That is why China and India are booming. The workers are also buying. Jobs give people self respect and keep them occupied and off the streets.

[Citizen X]

Since capital is no problem for you, the business opportunities available to you are endless! The ball is in your court so to speak. You get to do things on your own terms! Not many of us can do things on our own terms because of a lack of capital!

[Blurock]

Since capital is no problem for you, the business opportunities available to you are endless! The ball is in your court so to speak. You get to do things on your own terms! Not many of us can do things on our own terms because of a lack of capital!

One of my friends started selling fruit and vegetables in the townships. Through hard work and perseverance he has progressed to provide guarding services and from there started a manufacturing business. In all of this he had little or no outside funding. Bootstrapping (pulling yourself up by your boot laces) made the difference as all profits were ploughd back to grow the business.

Ina Paarman started her business in her garage with money borrowed from her mother. Today you get her products in all all the shops that matter. Nature's Source breakfast cereals was also started in a garage. The business grew tremendously and was later taken over by SAD.

Opportunity is a mindset.

[Nickolai Naydenov]

Since capital is no problem for you, the business opportunities available to you are endless! The ball is in your court so to speak. You get to do things on your own terms! Not many of us can do things on our own terms because of a lack of capital!

I know a person very close to me who had nothing, he literally hit the rock bottom he somehow made it so good that he's running a company turning over millions every month and he has more than 200 people working for him now, so if you think money is the way to make money I don't fully agree.

[Norri]

Personally, I would invest the money in my own business - Just1.co.za. Something that a well-funded competitor of mine is doing that is great is they're offering the first 10,000 co.za domains free. Now if I could do something like that, I'd be able to grow my client base 10-fold. From there, I would keep doing what I'm doing now: up-sell other services through a "market place" where designers, SEO experts, AdWords Experts and copywriters could provide services for my clients and I take a cut.