Minding my own business [Gründer thread]

Legba

There are a few people here who run their own company, freelance or run a business on the side. And I don't know about you but I'm always dying to talk about mine. Let's share some ups and downs and whatnot of being your own boss.

In my case, I run a small business, Apekato, that documents theatre, dance and musical performances in the Oslo area. Just today we put a dance performance up on the web for a customer:



That video is 41 minutes long, by the way, so don't feel obliged to watch the whole thing unless you like dance.

And, we've just delivered a bunch of DVDs to various customers this past week.

The company is me, my brother and a friend, with them working part time and me as the only full-time employee (for now). We also have a few contractors who work for us from time to time.

I spend a lot of my day trying to reach new customers, talking to current customers and directing the efforts of my two more artistic fellows, as well as keeping bills, invoices and other fun things organised.

That might not sound like a lot of fun, and on occasion the stress makes me want to drop everything and move to Guam, but creating this company from scratch is pretty much the most rewarding thing I've ever done - and I've got the MPV achievement in Battlefield 3.

Tef

Good on you, legba. I'm going to eventually start up my own training consultancy for the mining industry over here. I'm still probably nearly 10 years off that though

Garlic Bread

Legba wrote:

That video is 41 minutes long, by the way, so don't feel obliged to watch the whole thing unless you like dance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxi73RQlLB8

Garlic Bread

Gründer? I härdly know 'er!

Brolo

thank you for both of those posts, keith

Junpei

I'd love to start up my own business, I'm currently in the process of helping my parents and older brother set up a home letting business. I enjoy the work and the idea of your time always being used on earning but I'm kinda stuck on what I'd actually start up : b

Legba

I kind of lucked into my company; my partners had been doing this for a couple of years on and off but never seriously, and I was in a rut when my brother suggested we start it up as a company. I jumped on the chance, we got the other guy involved, and the rest is a lot of work history.

Also, @Keith

Legba

Man, work creep is the worst. One delay and/or tiny little fix after another and then boom, you're working until midnight. But I've got this DVD in the bag now, just another few adjustments and I can set it to burn overnight and send it off in the morning.

Just another... few... adjustments.

Legba

Cold calling people is butts. I have no knack for it yet. So far most of our customers have been customers recommending us or introducing us to other potential customers etc. But if I want to make a living off this, I'm going to have to get used to making sales calls.

It's still butts.

Lost Salient

I am totally terrified of business phone calls to strangers, although since it's not my business I'm not as bad off! When I was interning at my aunt's publishing company I'd have to call authors a lot and some of them were quite acclaimed and my hands would shake like crazy.

VoproSTEIN

I would love to own my own production company and make short films and features for a living, but that will probably never happen! More likely will be after school I'll have to freelance and build up some kind of portfolio. What happens after that? No idea.

At least I have business cards!

Legba

Never say never, man. If you're going to freelance you'll have to set up a company anyway, so at that point you can do whatever the hell you like. It really depends on whether you're interested in the business side or if you just want to get paid and move on.