Learning from some of my mistakes I’ve learned to build my own startups
I failed my first two businesses that were transitioning to become a business and it was all my fault! I made the mistake of bringing my family and friends into the business equation.
Blood is thicker than water
We have all heard this saying, friends are fun to be with but the people that will stay with you till the end are your family. Yes, we need to be close to our families but I’ve realized the reason we fail in our business is because of family issues as well.
My Failed Business Venture
By sharing some of my mistakes you can learn and hopefully avoid all these conflicts if you would ever like to set up a family business.
Vending Machine Business
I started a vending machine when I was 23 years old with my brother. We had enough saved up from working a part-time job and decided that starting a vending machine business was going to be the best passive income business we could do, how wrong we were.
We soon realize that the vending machine business requires a lot of manual labor including transportation of the machine itself, the drinks, and the tool to maintain it. There is a lot to share, so here is how started our vending machine and share whether it was worth doing. The answer is NO.
We fought over who does the deliveries, how we split the cost, and how much profit is split among us. Eventually, we were able to resolve the financial part of the business but decide to sell off the business because it requires too much time and was earning only a decent amount.
E-Commerce Business
Back in 2020 when the whole world got into lockdown, everyone was looking for ways to make money online. That’s where most people jump onto the bandwagon of starting their own E-commerce business. I was one of those idiots!
My brother and I started trying E-commerce selling sphere ice-cube makers thinking a product like this is a sure way to make money. Well, we weren’t the only ones thinking the same thing.
You see, the E-commerce business was simply just hype and there were too many competitors already in the market. This led to a battle for finding the cheapest supply to sell to customers to turn into profit which leads to many small-scale businesses failing.
Throughout the struggle trying to support the business, we both learned a valuable lesson about managing supply and demand. We didn’t want to call it a quit simply because of our big ambition of making large sums of money from this business.
Eventually, we decided to collect the products we plan to sell and sold them on local platforms instead to make money. Although I will say we didn’t make much profit in this business, we definitely learn a good amount of knowledge running an online business.
My Relationship with my Brother in Business
Through all the tough times running businesses together, we actually learn how to better work with one another and accommodate one another needs. We both now run a few businesses together and run our own separate businesses.
We learned that some businesses should not have any personal relationship ties and that some businesses are okay to share with friends and family.
What kind of Family and Friends are allowed to support your Business
In order to get family and friend support, your business needs to be able to handle its own finances separately. So my most important rule is to never rely on any monetary value from your close ones. They can be your marketer but they should never be involved with your company finances and management.
Why you should Run your Business Yourself
Unless you are able to accommodate and struggle together with your friend and family. Chances are this is pretty rare.
They always say that running a business is a team effort. What bullshit! With our times changing, it is getting way easier to hire an AI to support you in any of your businesses.
For example, If I were to run a social media marketing business, I can use Tailwind to help with scheduling posts at the best timing, write marketing content with good CTA(call-to-action), and have my content published on multiple social platforms.
If I were to run a content writing agency, I could have the support of an AI writing service to write content for me so that there will be less thought process needed in my writing and all I need to be doing is editing and proofreading.
Finally, if I were a business owner and in need to file for my taxes. I could have the support of AI accounting software to help file my taxes. So as you can see, the use of AI is growing so I won’t be surprised if businesses start hiring AI like the article below!
World’s first AI Intern Hired in the US for a 3-month Trial Job.
Are we losing our competitive edge against AI? What Amazon is doing to replace us humansmedium.com
