Young Underpaid Professionals

In this episode of the Yuppie Guide, we’ll discuss something that most yuppies consider going into for extra income. There are several ways with which to go about setting up a small business and there are several kinds of small businesses you can try out. That said, we’ll limit each option to 500 words and post it in parts so you don’t have to contend with ginormous walls of text. First things first; what is a small business?

A small business is typically defined as a privately-owned company with less than 50 (in some countries, 100) employees. Since we’re still yuppies, I think “micro business” applies more to us as it usually has no more employees than owners, meaning if there are two owners (a partnership), there aren’t more than two employees. The good thing about building a small business is that you can do it part-time, though as compared to getting part-time work, there are certain additional requirements other than sacrificing your spare time.

The Requirements

Time. Yes, time. Like getting a part-time gig for extra money, you’ll need to set aside a certain amount of time for any business venture you’d want to try out. The amount of time you’d need may vary depending on the type of business you’d like to set up. If you want to start a chocolate empire for example, you’d probably need to set aside your Sundays or a chunk of your weekdays depending on the amount of orders you’d be getting.

Capital. Here’s a quick Commerce 101 lesson for you: The Law of Capital. It is stated (somewhere in a commerce book I read several years ago while in college and reiterated by my friend Millionaire) that Capital is directly proportional to Profit. In yuppie terms, that means that the amount of money you’re willing to put into a business directly affects the returns you can expect from the business. It can be argued that some megacorporations now started small, like Jollibee and SM, but what some fail to realize is that before they became megacorporations, those companies put in additional capital into the business to expand. Millionaire puts it into perspective for me: You need money to make money. Low capital, low profit; high capital, high profit. No capital, no profit.

Research. You’ll need to find out what you’ll be getting into first. Find out how much capital you’d need and how much you can afford, what sort of business you’d be interested in (you’d be supplementing your income and like part-time, you might as well get into something you actually like doing), how much time you can and should put in, and how you can start your business. Research both successes and failures; think about what made some businesses click and what made others sink.

Aside from the requirements mentioned above, you’ll also need a certain amount of balls. Yap, balls. You can’t start a business without taking a certain amount of risk. Most people counter this four letter word by taking the time to plan, though some people often get stuck in the planning phase because once they see the risks involved, they chicken out. Face it, you can’t plan everything, and you know what they say about the best laid plans. Millionaire always tells me, “It’s always good to have a spare tire.” And it’s true, Plan B’s are a must. Considering your world domination/conquering the universe plan is your Plan B to increasing your income and tapping your income generating potential, you’d do good to get yourself a Plan C too.

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