hughs
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Way back when I was young I always loved the idea of owning my own business, and working on creating new things; it’s always been one of my top life goals. Having a nice steady salaried job had its allure as well, everyone older I knew doing this seemed really happy and would always tell me they would help me find a job if I went to college and did well. So that was my main goal, the years went by and I did really well in school.
Right after college I was applying to jobs, doing interviews, and it never really amounted to much. All the people who I thought would help me get an entry level job didn’t have their hand open for me anymore, and everyone I talked to gave me the same advice; go apply to jobs online, this is the best way and you will find one.
I didn’t give up looking for jobs, but after a few months I said to myself; why not try to start doing what you always wanted to do, start a business doing something you have knowledge and some expertise in. Originally my plan was to get a good job for a while and save up to start it; but instead I had to start from nothing and do it all on my own. Everyone I told this plan to thought it was stupid, and that I should keep looking for jobs online.
First I started doing some real research and trial/error, I won’t get into the specific product but I was building it from raw materials and it took a few months to get it right. I had some competition but set myself apart well, it was fairly unique. I could tell the margins were plenty good enough, and it was a good product. However, I did have my doubts until I started to sell. I was worried people wouldn’t like it.
I went on to build a website, listed the products and info, set it up for sales, etc. it turned out well, good thing I took a few graphic design classes. Then I went in for the marketing side; I did mostly social media marketing, with some paid advertising. It was slow (I was very new to internet marketing at the time) but I kept going at it and eventually started to get some sales!
I followed up with everyone who bought something and everyone who responded to my emails was really pleased with the product. This was a huge boost for me. All the frustration from getting turned down by human resources people seemed to melt away. I wasn’t making enough money to live on my own, my family still thought it was stupid, but I was happy for the time being. It went on like this for some time, I made some mistakes that I had to fix for people, some more demanding customers complained about certain aspects of the product; I took this as a challenge and improved it to their satisfaction.
Over time competition grew, and my sales were declining. What used to be a small niche when I started was now pretty saturated, and I was starting to get a bit burnt out as well. I decided to have another new product I designed made by someone else. It turned out to not sell anywhere near as well as I hoped it would, and I was grateful to break even on the experiment. I wasn’t passionate about the niche anymore either. I decided to move on and try to find a “real job” instead of a “hobby” (other people’s words). So this amounted to my first business failure.
Time went by and everyone’s disappointment grew, so I desperately walked into a temp agency to try to get the entry level job I was looking for before. I worked some jobs in sales and IT back in college, and even though my experience was pretty limited they said they might be able to find me an accounting job in less than a week. About a month later they called me and said they had a job for me to start tomorrow. Yes that’s right.. One day notice. I took it.
The job took me an hour and a half to get to and the same to get home, during rush hour traffic, and it consisted of staring at numbers on a computer screen for 7 hours. I know it sounds like an awful job but I was actually really excited to go and I barely slept that night before my first day. I got there and was pretty taken aback by how fancy the building was, and how nice my boss was. He said “anything you want to learn we can teach you” I gave it my full effort and learned a lot in no time from my boss, and even though it was extremely boring work I was learning something new every day. One day he told me he was moving on to another job elsewhere, and after he left no one else wanted to teach me anything; “anything you want to learn” turned into “it’s not worth it right now” and I was just doing the same grueling thing every day so I decided to quit. I really don’t think corporate America is for me after the experience. Another loss.
A family friend recently said I will be basically unemployable soon. Everyone thought quitting was extremely dumb. I still live with my mom and my whole family is disappointed in me. There’s a lot of drama every day. I’ve been treated like a lowlife by them for the last 5 years, and it’s hard but the dream still isn’t dead. That’s my embarrassing history to date, if you read it I appreciate it. Not everyone makes it but I’m going to keep trying.
Right after college I was applying to jobs, doing interviews, and it never really amounted to much. All the people who I thought would help me get an entry level job didn’t have their hand open for me anymore, and everyone I talked to gave me the same advice; go apply to jobs online, this is the best way and you will find one.
I didn’t give up looking for jobs, but after a few months I said to myself; why not try to start doing what you always wanted to do, start a business doing something you have knowledge and some expertise in. Originally my plan was to get a good job for a while and save up to start it; but instead I had to start from nothing and do it all on my own. Everyone I told this plan to thought it was stupid, and that I should keep looking for jobs online.
First I started doing some real research and trial/error, I won’t get into the specific product but I was building it from raw materials and it took a few months to get it right. I had some competition but set myself apart well, it was fairly unique. I could tell the margins were plenty good enough, and it was a good product. However, I did have my doubts until I started to sell. I was worried people wouldn’t like it.
I went on to build a website, listed the products and info, set it up for sales, etc. it turned out well, good thing I took a few graphic design classes. Then I went in for the marketing side; I did mostly social media marketing, with some paid advertising. It was slow (I was very new to internet marketing at the time) but I kept going at it and eventually started to get some sales!
I followed up with everyone who bought something and everyone who responded to my emails was really pleased with the product. This was a huge boost for me. All the frustration from getting turned down by human resources people seemed to melt away. I wasn’t making enough money to live on my own, my family still thought it was stupid, but I was happy for the time being. It went on like this for some time, I made some mistakes that I had to fix for people, some more demanding customers complained about certain aspects of the product; I took this as a challenge and improved it to their satisfaction.
Over time competition grew, and my sales were declining. What used to be a small niche when I started was now pretty saturated, and I was starting to get a bit burnt out as well. I decided to have another new product I designed made by someone else. It turned out to not sell anywhere near as well as I hoped it would, and I was grateful to break even on the experiment. I wasn’t passionate about the niche anymore either. I decided to move on and try to find a “real job” instead of a “hobby” (other people’s words). So this amounted to my first business failure.
Time went by and everyone’s disappointment grew, so I desperately walked into a temp agency to try to get the entry level job I was looking for before. I worked some jobs in sales and IT back in college, and even though my experience was pretty limited they said they might be able to find me an accounting job in less than a week. About a month later they called me and said they had a job for me to start tomorrow. Yes that’s right.. One day notice. I took it.
The job took me an hour and a half to get to and the same to get home, during rush hour traffic, and it consisted of staring at numbers on a computer screen for 7 hours. I know it sounds like an awful job but I was actually really excited to go and I barely slept that night before my first day. I got there and was pretty taken aback by how fancy the building was, and how nice my boss was. He said “anything you want to learn we can teach you” I gave it my full effort and learned a lot in no time from my boss, and even though it was extremely boring work I was learning something new every day. One day he told me he was moving on to another job elsewhere, and after he left no one else wanted to teach me anything; “anything you want to learn” turned into “it’s not worth it right now” and I was just doing the same grueling thing every day so I decided to quit. I really don’t think corporate America is for me after the experience. Another loss.
A family friend recently said I will be basically unemployable soon. Everyone thought quitting was extremely dumb. I still live with my mom and my whole family is disappointed in me. There’s a lot of drama every day. I’ve been treated like a lowlife by them for the last 5 years, and it’s hard but the dream still isn’t dead. That’s my embarrassing history to date, if you read it I appreciate it. Not everyone makes it but I’m going to keep trying.
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