Is Business Harder These Days?

[OldJack]

I have the feeling that business is a lot harder these days. Competition is always pretty fierce and every market seems to be pretty much saturated.

I might be completely wrong, but I feel that succeeding in business these days is alot harder than maybe 25 - 30 years ago. There seems to be alot more red-tape and lots more competition (as already mentioned above).

I would be pretty interested to hear some feedback on this, especially from those of you that may have started a business in the 70's or even early 80's.

Is it much tougher now, or am I just disillusioned.

[smixel]

It is much much harder in my humble opinion. I started my first business in the early 70's with absolutely nothing. It was an ad agency and I had to get a client to buy a typewriter. Yes typewriter -- Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were toddlers at the time.

Raising money was easier too. Part of that is because in the state where I live there was a very active penny stock market in the 70's and 80's. As long as you were among the first fools to buy the stock and could alway find another, you could raise money for just about any kind of business.

The banks were the same as they are today -- a banker is a banker a banker and until you can deal directly and in person with the upper management tucked away in their Ivory towers (those who really know what's going on) you'll have a hard time with a loan officer who won't his/her butt from a franchise.

I would say that since 9/11 it's become evener hard to raise money for start-ups. I read some where, I wish I could remember where that the level of seed money in the market today is the same as in 1945!

Part of it too is the social changes that have occured and now affect the marketplace. I try to do business with people at least age 40. And the reason is I find they at least know what the meaning of the word integrity is. Whether they practice it is another matter. I find the younger generations to be disrespectul, incredibiliy ignorant in the ways of life, and they often appear to have the balls of a dragon. I can't count the times I'm asked just to GIVE something that I have either spent my time, money, and effort to get just because they want it. They have an attitude that whatever I want is mine. It makes me think the educational system in the United States is run by a bunch of cretonous petards.

Another major social change, but one harder to see is a primordial shift in access to money. Not to get to theoretical here, but the strength or weakness of the dollar is beginning to have an affect on the access to investment captial. Why? Well investors from other countries aren't as interested in business in the USA as they once were because the value of their past investments has declined with the value of the dollar. Not too long ago we all laughed at the Euro and todays its worth more than the dollar. The fact that the US is borrowing from China and other not so friendly nations scares investors.

And the last reason that its harder is a peronal one. I'm getting older to.

Sorry to rant on, but your question hit a live wire.

Kent Capener

[OldJack]

Kent,
I was quite happy to hear your response. Most of it is exactly what has been on my mind. I also couldnt agree more with the social changes. I am only young myself, but the lack of integrity and ethics these days is appaling.

I think that i am probably almost the youngest of the bunch at just 21 a few days ago, but that is one thing that i gaurentee you will find in may business dealsing i do ethics and integrity. When you are in a business such as IT where you are looking to keep a customer for the long term you have no choice but to be 100% ethical.

Anyway to answer the question. I cannot really compare being so young i do not know what the business world even was in 70's and 80's but i can tell you i do not know that business would be more diffcult. But rather it is just has different dynamics and probably a few more then it used to. I think that is still possible to build a business and make it very successful and it isnt any harder there are just different challengers that you have to face, and maybe there is more but it all depends on how you look at these challenges.

[1bad98gmc]

I think its a more dynamic environment now where you have to be up to date on the latest technology and methods otherwise you get left behind. Like Joel I wasn't exactly working the 70's or early 80's but I hope Kent doesn't feel the same way about all of us youngins. I agree it's harder to trust people now because of competition and the changing social environment.

Harder - no. Different - yes.

Of course, they types of businesses are different, some requiring more capital for computers, etc. But, overall not a lot of difference.

Go to any mall or shopping center. Or inner city for that matter. You'll find plenty of folks, many immigrants, who have started small businesses of their own and are living the American Dream. How many small mini-breweries were their in the "old days"? Nail salons? The good old service station is about history, but there are still people opening auto repaie shops all the time. And closing them, but that has always been the case.

There are plenty of new business opportunities around, both on the net and off. Attitude has more to do with it than the decade.

[stoopid]

For a service business like mine (copywriting), I think it's easier, for several reasons. First, I can keep overhead to a minimum and work out of my home. It's far more acceptable today to do that than it was 20 years ago - back then, you never would have been taken seriously. Phone service is cheap, fax machines are cheap, and the internet opens up the whole world to you. Half my clients are people whom I've never met in person - we simply conduct business by phone and computer. I don't have to spend hours at the library researching stuff when I write - it's all at my fingertips, via my keyboard and internet. There are many other fields besides copywriting that this applies to as well, of course.

I'm 43, and I don't think business today is harder; it's just different. But the same "success" principles still apply - work hard, learn everything you can, develop your sales and people skills, and fill a need with your product or service. Case in point - in my leads group is a young woman who is 21, though she has the maturity of someone twice her age. When she was 18, she went to a 3-month trade school to learn web design. Certificate in hand, she went door to door to businesses, asking if they needed a website. Today she has more business than she can handle, and also gets a big residual income from an internet business. It's all because she was willing to go door to door and risk rejection - not too many people are willing to do that today.

[1star4]

I think it's as difficult as it's always been; cept for the cowboy days. That's when there was usually one business per town, cept for bars

I think that people make business more difficult by not having a business and marketing plan to use daily.

[bearcat]

The level of difficulty really depends on what type of business a person starts. A manufacturing company is probably more difficult of a business. Capital, entry into the market, competition (foreign and domestic) and regulations make it just about impossible for a startup.

On the other hand, because of the Internet, computers and outsourcing, there are thousands of low cost businesses that can be started. As long as someone has an idea, it can turn into a major cash cow.

For example, let's say someone wants to export a product oversees. The internet will allow for free and easy research, the government will help with financing and finding a manufacturer can be done while sitting on the couch.

With business global now, an entrepreneur can instantly begin with market size of billions! The opportunities are definitely out there and quite possibly cheaper and easier to take advantage of than ever before.