Ask HN: Has anyone started a non tech related business before?
Has anyone here started businesses that are not in the tech field, for example coffee shops, food franchises, worktop manufacture etc? What were the outcomes...
A few months later, I just realized the guy OWNS that coffee shop :) And another one too in chicago. He also owns a vintage clothing store across the street from me, and sounds like he's building bar.
Looks like he's constantly still designing web applications and manages to run all these other non techy successful projects (his 2 coffee houses are pretty busy and get very positive reviews).
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?article_id...
It's a couple of years old but describes his strategy, which seems to be: get a loan to buy a business, add value, sell and move on to gradually bigger loans and businesses.
Nice execution!
P.S.: I don't know why somebody voted down your comment because to me this adds helpful information.
http://zambeezi.com/ http://zambiansoap.com/
We're doing pretty well, have a couple employees that we pay — one hourly and one on salary/commission. We aren't yet making enough that the owners are getting paid, but that may soon change.
I am also writing two web apps that we use for managing customers, ordering, invoicing, etc... I'm planning on releasing them as SaaS for other small businesses, but have not yet done that.
Looking back, that cafe gave me a huge insight into leading a creative team-- we had 7 very active employees-- and taught me to to appreciate the less glamorous side of starting a business-- like staying late to clean up or restocking the shelves.
And no, I didn't have an "in" to the hydrocarbons business (a lot of people ask). My background is Stanford CS.
As for the outcome, we got bored after we had saved enough for a PS3 ;)
There is a lot of money it, considering that parents usually just pay for it, but me and my cofounder decided are taking a humane approach to it and trying to not rip off students.
A bunch of the big companies charge upwards of 50 dollars for a box that is about 2x1x1.5 feet. I realize business is business and that people are willing to pay that much, but it's nice being able to half those people's prices and still make a good profit.
We're looking to expand and maybe go head on with a bunch of the companies.
You could easily make an unpressurized one though, I made an autoclave for a 15"x8" solar car body I designed in college out of plywood, insulation, and a heater/thermostat.
My wife and I bought a business that does ultrasounds of expectant mothers (she's an ultrasound tech). It will be 2 years in Jan. Business is still growing, though not as fast as I had hoped. My wife mainly runs it and has learned quite a bit about business. Not yet profitable, but we're hopeful, we're working on getting a lower-cost lease and more clients each week.
Anything like coffee shops or restaurants are going to take all of your time and be difficult to scale. Only if you reach a level where you can franchise can you get to sustainable growth. Otherwise, it is how much time can you spend on growing it. Anyone who would be capable of taking over some of your responsibilities is likely to go and start their own restaurant.
That's why the acting trade is so hard to get in to. There are thousands of people willing to supply their skills for free. The supply vastly outweighs the demand.
What in particular do you want to know, aside from the outcome?
A former co-worker had a friend who became a burrito chain franchisee.
Last I heard it was running like a machine and he had already stepped back out of day-to-day management after the chaos of initial build-out and first phase of operations. I think the franchiser wanted him to open up more locations but he was doing well enough with the first that he felt no need to rush into it.
Of course I was told his family was rich and that's where he got the fundage (and he was idle before that), so . . .
Stays green and low growing without fertilizer or chemicals.
Built and sold coat racks when I was a kid.
I started with this franchisor when they were virtually unheard of, and now I'm sure all of you have eaten in one. For me, it's been highly successful and I earn a substantial income from it. However, the first few years were very difficult because it wasn't what I was used to. It's a totally different environment from professional engineering including the people. Dealing with them is quite different.
Running a restaurant means it's always on your mind. Things are always going wrong, mostly from people quitting, so it requires a lot of hours. It's also very hard on other family members, or perhaps due to other family members, that might want to put their two cents into how you should be running things. (Mostly wives.)
Almost everyone I know has provided themselves some income to a good salary but there were a few who went bankrupt. Now that's a few out of a hundred in my region.