That is a very fair question, and so I will try to answer it as succinctly as possible. Everything you listed is quite true, yes, you need all of that, and a whole lot more. The problems you encounter running a business are seemingly endless. The best approach is to keep things as simple as possible. Small is usually better than large. Sales is a matter of correctly identifying needs. Then communicating the answer to the person who has the need, offering the solution in exchange for money. Making a deal. For example, if all you have is your own labor, then that is what you are selling. The question you ask is do you need labor? If someone you asked answers yes, then it becomes I will offer the labor you need for X amount of dollars. Do you agree? If they say yes, do the work and get paid. Congratulations, you are now in business. Of course, your capital is you. Maybe you have some tools, work boots, gloves, safety goggles, etc. You also have expenses, food, shelter, transportation, etc. Earn more than you spend and you are turning a profit. Advertising your product can be online, classified ads, word of mouth, whatever, try not to spend too much money on advertising. Cheaper is often better. Be reliable, show up on time, do good work, word will spread and business will grow. You earn a reputation. Ask for references and referrals from your best jobs. Once you are busy then you have options, you can raise prices and just stay small, picking only the most select jobs for yourself, and thus be very well paid for your work. You can hire additional workers, train and equip them, pay them as employees, provide the managerial functions, and be an employer. You can hire sub contractors to complete your contracts, or parts of your contracts, negotiating as you go. You can just offload entire jobs to sub contractors and earn finder fees or percentages on the job. You have options. You are always on the job. You are always wheeling and dealing. You always have work on the go, and work coming up. You try to keep that pipeline full. It's a balancing act. You are solving problems. Sometimes, you fuck up and lose money. It happens to the best. The trick is to manage that risk carefully. You have to budget for the fuckups. You have to turn down work that is so large, if it fucks up, you get wiped out. You have to restrain yourself, and don't try to take on stuff that you know is too big for you. Only agree to contracts you know you can fulfill. The worst thing you can do is fail to deliver on your end. People remember that for years. Sometimes you encounter clients who refuse to pay. You have options here too. If it's small you can just write it off, your time is valuable. If it's large you can go after them in court. Eventually you can seize their property and auction it off until your bill is paid. Some money you will never recover. It's a cost of doing business. The worst case scenario is you fuck up huge, do immense amounts of damage, and get sued successfully for a large payout. Then you liquidate your assets, declare bankruptcy, keep a few thousand back for yourself (the courts allow you to earn a living, regardless of what you owe,) and start over in a new company, with the court cancelling the remainder of the debt. In such cases, the person who contracted you also shares responsibility for the outcome. They are responsible for hiring contractors who can do the work. They will not hire contractors who are not insured for possible damages. Little contractors do not get big contracts, it's a s simple as that. It's not because you can't do the contract, it's because you can't afford to pay out if it goes wrong. Regardless of your reputation, you don't get to play in the big leagues until you are actually capable of playing in the big leagues. Everyone knows anything could go wrong at any time. All parties share legal responsibility in this, so risk is on all parties involved. It is a commonly held misconception that you need piles of startup capital and years of experience to operate a business successfully. You are actually much better off starting small, growing conservatively, learning as you go, and carefully reinvesting your earned profits into better capital equipment, etc. You don't need to borrow money, nor should you. You need to keep your costs in line, and you need to know how much you are earning and spending. You need to keep accurate books. Eventually you will be audited, and you need to pay your taxes. In most jurisdictions you need a license to operate a business. You often need tax numbers to purchase wholesale goods from suppliers. You need employer registrations to hire non casual employees, and you need to make remittances on their behalf. There are real advantages to staying small and keeping it simple. I'll paint these four rooms for $1200 plus the paint. Simple income, simple expenses = simple books. Job takes two days, plus a final visit for touch ups. Equipment expenses are about $50. Another $100 for food. Two long days, plus a couple of hours on day three. Clear about $1000. Do that once a week and make $50k per year. Take four and a half days off for yourself. Go to school. After write-offs, your taxes at the end of the year are maybe at most a couple of grand, depending on where you live. Usually my taxes were zero. Keep it simple. It's still much better than minimum wage. Any asshole can learn to paint. Mowing lawns, same thing. Shoveling snow, same thing. Half the work is under the table anyways. Casual work for cash. Nobody cares about that. Stay small and the government leaves you alone. They have bigger fish to fry. You may not know this, but auditors are required by law to recover X amount of money for every hour of auditing time. If they think you are too small, and there is only a little amount they can potentially recover, they will waste very little time with you. They go away, usually in about half an hour. What they are looking for is guys who are making tons of money and hiding it. Guys with a second and third home, and a handful of vehicles, with maybe $200K in cash hiding in a shoe box under the bed, and another $200K in the bottom of the freezer. There are guys like this all over the place. If you go into business for yourself, you will meet a bunch of them.

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