Business Ideas

How many of you started your own business? Can you share what it is?

I would like to start a business, but I have no idea what I would do. Most businesses for purchase require too much money upfront (20% down payment). If you guys can share any ideas, it would be great. Something that requires less than $50k to start.

Edit: Surprisingly people completely missed the point of this thread. The point of this thread is not how great being an Electrical Engineer is to find jobs. I already work at a fortune 500 company and have an amazing job. I am going to loose my job soon since my EAD expires in 11 months. That's the whole point of starting a business so you don't need to worry about finding a job once your status expires.

What I was looking for: if you started your own store for example, what are you selling? How did you get started? How did you come with the idea?

what do you currently do?

Currently an electrical engineer. Probably chose the worst major possible. Only thing I can do is work for a company. Don't have enough skills to design my own product.

Anyways, the business doesn't need to be related to what we are doing right now.

For a successful business, you will have to pick something you're good at and like. Competition is fierce and the hours of a entrepreneur is long. I'm in the restaurant, real estate, and glass fabrication business.

Can you share how you got started and give any insight on how one can?

Restaurant - I grew up in this trade. Each restaurant can range from 200k+

Glass Fabrication - Its heavy capital intensive. About 2.5 mil for this venture. I had to find partners to invest.

Real Estate - Relatively cheap to get into. You take a real estate course and then take the national and state exam. Join a brokerage and you can sell and help people buy houses. I would say takes about 1k to start.

I can't really tell you a business idea to be in...you kind of have to stumble upon it yourself. I would recommend the books 4 hour work week - it gives you some tips on starting a business with minimal capital.

Perfect. Llc do freelance and consulting. What really matters are your sales and relationship skills you master those and you will be set. That goes for anybody in any field thinking about opening a business. Good luck!

Long time lurker ! I'm interested in a business as well.

you chose the worst major? are you crazy or what? you chose the best major and electronics would be even better. anyhow, when I was kid I started fixing computers, routers, phones and anything related to electronics for community for free. I did for many years until I got AAS in electronic engineering technology. I stopped my studies because I gave up on future due to legal status.

with daca I got job with CATV instantly as a field service tech. first year I ended up top 10 employee from over 3000 employees in region. from there I became number 1 employee for next 3 years before company realize my skills and moved me into engineer department. now I do a lot of high end work related to servers ...ect. nothing rocket science and I honestly did not know much but they will train you. since I had electronic background and all experience i learned fixing computers and routers helped me as a Field tech.

every department has electronic and electric related stuff. every department need us. I don't know why you said you chose worse department. the best thing is get lower end job in any department related to electric, such as con edison, hospital equipments...ect. work hard and show them your skills. move up to high level. make good. money and save for your business. you might not even need to go to business side once you have good job with all benefits.

sometime you don't know about your potential until you exploit your self. I can not believe what I have achieved so far. I was very good with technical stuff but could not believe that what else I could do until my company put me onto and I was able to fix a lot of crazy stuff before their high levels certified technicians and engineers.

don't worry learn and get some experience before you get into your business. wish you good luck.

Find partners... It will be hard on your own but, attend trade shows or conventions and build up relationships.

I have a master's in mechanical and because of manufacturing, it is a little easier to find work that pays. I hate this line of work, specially because I am more of an electrical engineer right now, I work in automotive.

Also you don't need to build a product, most engineers have the same skill sets... Number crunching and ability to learn software platforms, programming etc...