Black Andy Dwyer
ATL
This thread is not about discussing the merits of entrepreneurship or whether or not black people need to be starting businesses. This is simply about bouncing ideas off each other and sharing advice and resources to help each other reach our goals of not having to rely on someone else to cut us a check for the rest of our lives.
If you have a business you're running, if you've got an idea of something you want to start, or if you have no ideas but just want to figure out where to start, this thread is for you. If you need some folks to help keep you accountable and not be a wantrepreneur, this thread will be good for that as well.
I will keep this thread updated with different resources people recommend. Even if I'm the only one posting in it while everyone else is focused on the latest PAWG thread, that's fine fine with me
1 year in corporate America was enough to let me know I gotta get back on my business grind.
Recommended Books
-The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco(one of my personal favorites)
-The 4 Hour Work Wee by Timothy Ferriss
-Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
-Brass Knuckle Finance Business School
-30 Days of Discipline
-Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris
-Genghis Khan and the Makings of the Modern World
-How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis
-Better and Faster by Jeremy Gutsche
-The Richest Man in Babylon
-You Only Have to Be Right Once
-Delivering Happiness
-Getting There
Recommended Podcasts
-BiggerPockets (real estate investment)
-100 Percent Financed (mix of real estate and online business advice)
-Creative Masters (interviews with different people who discuss how they turned their passions into careers)
Recommended TV Shows/Documentaries
-Bloomberg Game Changers
-The Profit
-Shark Tank
Recommended YouTube Channels
- 100 Percent Financed
- Hustler's Kung Fu
- Gary Vaynerchuk
- Sleepis4SuckersHD
Useful Threads
- Digital Marketing: Careers + Making Money Online
- Essential - Official Black Real Estate Thread
Business Industries For Those Needing Ideas
-Real Estate Investing: wholesaling, fix and flip, buy and hold, single family, multi unit, commercial.
-Food: this can be either owning a restaurant or food truck or it could be you creating a food product from a recipe and selling it. You can also start a catering business. Many options here.
-Clothing lines: somewhat of a saturated market but you can still eat depending on your brand. Whether it be hats, shirts, jeans, dresses.
-Web design: plenty of people need websites designed for them. I know folks who make money simply off doing Wordpress sites which are a lot easier to work with than fully coding HTML5 and CSS from scratch.
-App development: if you know how to code, you can offer your services making apps for individuals or businesses. Or you can create your own app and monetize it
-Home/Lawn Care Services: this can include landscaping, house painting, house cleaning, plumbing, electrical, etc. The key is scaling up. If it's just you doing all the work, make it your goal to hire another person or two to help get more done and increase your revenue over time. That's how the big boys in the industry got started.
-Online retail: this is basically where you set up a website to sell items that aren't your own brand. You can do this either by purchasing the inventory or drop shipping. Some people do it strictly through eBay and Amazon. Others set up their own website and sell through there. I did a little of both when I first got into e-commerce
-Black Hair Care/Beauty products: it's an industry that will always be needed. A friend of mine creates her own shampoo and conditioner and she's considering selling it this upcoming year. Hair products, shaving products, makeup, etc. There's a lot of opportunity here.
FAQ
1. B-b-but entrepreneurship is risky breh. Shouldn't I just focus on getting a good job and stick with that guaranteed check?
-Job security is a myth. Plenty of folks learned the hard way back in '07-08 during the economic collapse. And if you're black in a corporate setting, you pretty much have to be on edge 24/7 trying not to mess up just to get by. But even that might not be enough (as evidenced by my fired for being 2 minutes late thread
). If that's a life you wanna live go for it. You'll have to work hard either way. SO why not dedicate your efforts towards building something for yourself and giving yourself more freedom to live your life?
2. I'm broke right now. What if I don't have enough money to start a business?
-You gotta be creative and most likely start small then scale from there. For example, If you're starting a clothing line, start by creating a few shirts as you can afford, sell those, and use the money to create more inventory (i.e. selling 10 shirts first, then 20, then 50, etc.). One guy I know actually did a bunch of social media marketing for his clothing line to get a bunch of pre-orders and just used that money to fund the inventory costs. There's always a way to make things happen.
If you're credit is good, there are business loans and lines of credit you can look at. There are also options for folks with not so great credit like Kabbage. They look at what your business is already doing and offer up lines of credit.
3. What type of business structure do I need to set up?
-Getting organized is important and you should do your Googles to find out what structure works best for you. The vast majority of people will be fine with a LLC, but again, it depends on what you're doing. I ain't a lawyer so look that stuff up for yourselves
4. I have an idea, but I'm afraid someone might steal it. What should I do to protect my ideas?
-Ideas are meaningless, the execution of that is what matters. You could give five people the same "idea" for a business and all five will come up with completely different ways of making that idea a reality. Lyft and Uber are essentially the same idea. It's just an example of how two different companies execute it. You can be vague with your ideas if you'd like when asking for help. Just know that execution is what matters. There's no such thing as a million dollar idea. There's just million dollar execution.
"Until You Own Your Own, You Can't Be Free"
If you have a business you're running, if you've got an idea of something you want to start, or if you have no ideas but just want to figure out where to start, this thread is for you. If you need some folks to help keep you accountable and not be a wantrepreneur, this thread will be good for that as well.
I will keep this thread updated with different resources people recommend. Even if I'm the only one posting in it while everyone else is focused on the latest PAWG thread, that's fine fine with me
1 year in corporate America was enough to let me know I gotta get back on my business grind.Recommended Books
-The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco(one of my personal favorites)
-The 4 Hour Work Wee by Timothy Ferriss
-Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
-Brass Knuckle Finance Business School
-30 Days of Discipline
-Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris
-Genghis Khan and the Makings of the Modern World
-How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis
-Better and Faster by Jeremy Gutsche
-The Richest Man in Babylon
-You Only Have to Be Right Once
-Delivering Happiness
-Getting There
Recommended Podcasts
-BiggerPockets (real estate investment)
-100 Percent Financed (mix of real estate and online business advice)
-Creative Masters (interviews with different people who discuss how they turned their passions into careers)
Recommended TV Shows/Documentaries
-Bloomberg Game Changers
-The Profit
-Shark Tank
Recommended YouTube Channels
- 100 Percent Financed
- Hustler's Kung Fu
- Gary Vaynerchuk
- Sleepis4SuckersHD
Useful Threads
- Digital Marketing: Careers + Making Money Online
- Essential - Official Black Real Estate Thread
Business Industries For Those Needing Ideas
-Real Estate Investing: wholesaling, fix and flip, buy and hold, single family, multi unit, commercial.
-Food: this can be either owning a restaurant or food truck or it could be you creating a food product from a recipe and selling it. You can also start a catering business. Many options here.
-Clothing lines: somewhat of a saturated market but you can still eat depending on your brand. Whether it be hats, shirts, jeans, dresses.
-Web design: plenty of people need websites designed for them. I know folks who make money simply off doing Wordpress sites which are a lot easier to work with than fully coding HTML5 and CSS from scratch.
-App development: if you know how to code, you can offer your services making apps for individuals or businesses. Or you can create your own app and monetize it
-Home/Lawn Care Services: this can include landscaping, house painting, house cleaning, plumbing, electrical, etc. The key is scaling up. If it's just you doing all the work, make it your goal to hire another person or two to help get more done and increase your revenue over time. That's how the big boys in the industry got started.
-Online retail: this is basically where you set up a website to sell items that aren't your own brand. You can do this either by purchasing the inventory or drop shipping. Some people do it strictly through eBay and Amazon. Others set up their own website and sell through there. I did a little of both when I first got into e-commerce
-Black Hair Care/Beauty products: it's an industry that will always be needed. A friend of mine creates her own shampoo and conditioner and she's considering selling it this upcoming year. Hair products, shaving products, makeup, etc. There's a lot of opportunity here.
FAQ
1. B-b-but entrepreneurship is risky breh. Shouldn't I just focus on getting a good job and stick with that guaranteed check?
-Job security is a myth. Plenty of folks learned the hard way back in '07-08 during the economic collapse. And if you're black in a corporate setting, you pretty much have to be on edge 24/7 trying not to mess up just to get by. But even that might not be enough (as evidenced by my fired for being 2 minutes late thread
). If that's a life you wanna live go for it. You'll have to work hard either way. SO why not dedicate your efforts towards building something for yourself and giving yourself more freedom to live your life?2. I'm broke right now. What if I don't have enough money to start a business?
-You gotta be creative and most likely start small then scale from there. For example, If you're starting a clothing line, start by creating a few shirts as you can afford, sell those, and use the money to create more inventory (i.e. selling 10 shirts first, then 20, then 50, etc.). One guy I know actually did a bunch of social media marketing for his clothing line to get a bunch of pre-orders and just used that money to fund the inventory costs. There's always a way to make things happen.
If you're credit is good, there are business loans and lines of credit you can look at. There are also options for folks with not so great credit like Kabbage. They look at what your business is already doing and offer up lines of credit.
3. What type of business structure do I need to set up?
-Getting organized is important and you should do your Googles to find out what structure works best for you. The vast majority of people will be fine with a LLC, but again, it depends on what you're doing. I ain't a lawyer so look that stuff up for yourselves
4. I have an idea, but I'm afraid someone might steal it. What should I do to protect my ideas?
-Ideas are meaningless, the execution of that is what matters. You could give five people the same "idea" for a business and all five will come up with completely different ways of making that idea a reality. Lyft and Uber are essentially the same idea. It's just an example of how two different companies execute it. You can be vague with your ideas if you'd like when asking for help. Just know that execution is what matters. There's no such thing as a million dollar idea. There's just million dollar execution.
"Until You Own Your Own, You Can't Be Free"
Last edited:
in for later
If you're doing a blog, make sure you bring some quality content to the table. No one wants to waste time reading something with a lot of errors or that doesn't tell them something they haven't already read somewhere else.
