When I was younger, I use to work at my grandparent’s furniture store occasionally for a small amount of money. I was just a small boy, so I didn’t work for long periods of time. Most of the task I got paid for was dusting off merchandise on shelves and other trivial activities.
Later when I was sixteen, a close family member got me into a union controlled grocery store. The store was managed by a cruel older man who had worked in the grocery business since he was 13-year-old. The seasoned store manager treated everybody like dirt, so the work environment was horrible. At this store location, there always seemed to be a lot of backstabbing negative and often illegal activities, so this was a very negative experience for the young worker that I was.
After such a bad experience, I didn’t want anything to do with family or friends getting me a job! Now looking back, I realized that I missed many opportunities from family and friends that presented potentially great employment options to me! The business opportunities were both direct and indirect ones!
The direct business opportunities are pretty obvious. A direct opportunity is when work is offered to you via a job offer. That said, you may be wondering what I am talking about when I say “indirect business opportunities”.
Indirect business opportunities through family or friends are those opportunities that we are able to create or find ourselves. While not obvious, if you keep your eyes and mind open, such opportunities exists or can be created!
I thought I would conclude this post with an example that I recently learned about:
A cousin of a co-worker is well on his way to becoming a rich entrepreneur by fully taking advantage of indirect business opportunities through family and friends. Rich (the cousin) was smart enough start a business that was a sure bet.
What was this incredible business? Rich created a dumpster business. You see many of Rich’s family and friends are successful homebuilders. Instead of competing directly with them, he decided to create a business that could benefit off of their success. This was a win-win because they have enough competition already and they use his business for their dumpster needs.
I’d also like to mention that Rich has other business too. For example, I know that he is also a landlord.
So look around, do you see any side or full business that you could create?
-MR
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I think your indirect business idea is a great one. That way, you can leverage all your contacts without being a threat. As you said, ‘win win’.
You should pursue something like this MR!
Yeah, a complimentary business can be a huge win-win! I was impressed by the guy in my example above (Rich). He’s in his early twenties and already has multiple business started and establish in an almost guaranteed way for him to not fail. Smart kid!
This a form of networking! The difference is you are not looking for a job, but a business opportunity. Business people call this opportunities. Experience, skills, and background helps in this situation.
True, I always thought of networking as going to college, forming friendships and business networks, and then getting job/business opportunities.
I’m just saying look in your own backyard to form such networks too.
Krantcents nailed it! I too consider this as a form of networking. With various sites now, there is even more opportunity.
True, but too often we overlook the obvious! For example, my wife is an accountant. So we could be making more money if she were to work for some of my family and friends in such a capacity. Most of us have opportunities like these and we rule them out for some reason or another, but we shouldn’t!
Money is money, not matter if the money is from work done for family or friends or strangers.
I’m just preaching to look around and see if there is money being left on the table. 🙂
That’s an example of smart thinking, using existing relationships to start a business. He knew the people, knew the need that existed, and probably leveraged the relationships to get their business, right? Good business move all around, and I agree – it’s smart to look in your own backyard this way. It just might be the path of least resistance, depending on the existing relationship dynamics.
I was impressed with the young man in the example too! I wish I had capitalized on family and friends when I was much younger like he is!
At least I get the opportunity to communicate this business opportunity gem to my kids!
networking is one of the most underrated aspects of business today
Yeah, I have to admin, I didn’t use networking too much myself… That said, my most recent job I found, but a friend was working there a head of time and that helped get me in 🙂
I agree with Krantcents. This is like networking, except the network is a little less likely to turn around and nip at you. He-he.
Kind of like networking with strings… lol
Networking and relationships. First of all, congratulations to the young man for taking advantage of a good opportunity. More so, for working hard at it. Shuttling dumpsters in and out of construction sites is not for the lazy. I have to constantly remind myself at work to not spend too much time buried in spreadsheets and analysis (my comfort zone) and get out and about and just talk to people.
“The trouble with opportunity is that it always comes disguised as hard work.—-Anonymous”
I think the Rich example is a brilliant one. Most of the time when people think of utilizing their existing network, they think of the annoying insurance salesman friend or being invited to a tupperware party.
The key is to find something to do where both parties benefit as many of those sales schemes are one sided.
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