Re: Eh, not really.

All of my responses are aimed at Wil, thanks for the springboard.

Because they inherited wealth, started out with wealth, and (more often than not) invested in the stock market. The ones who made it big had novel ideas and had backers and formed fairly standard corporations.

Amen. Another issue on this front is the mentality that it takes money to make money. Sure, money will be spent in the process but it doesn't have to be much if both your heart and your mind are in the right place and you have an insanely cheap to produce product. I'll use ebooks for an example. How much does it cost you to produce an ebook? I've seen many people post that it is free to make one which isn't 100% accurate. If you don't own a computer then you have to borrow, rent, or buy one. That costs money. If you are getting it strictly to create ebooks then the cost is tax deductable as a business expense (better tread lightly and get professional help with taxes though). If you already own a computer then you already paid that expense. Then it takes time, which if you follow any of the economic mentalities that are beneficial to being in business then time equals money. How much money depends strictly on what you could have earned in that amount of time doing something else (most people use a formula, but I'll take the easy way out this time). Combining the cost of the computer (over time) and the cost of your labor, will you make a good profit on an ebook? Most likely you will not profit though you may break even. Eventually your computer cost will be paid off and then you may see meager returns but if you don't expand your business beyond ebooks you are very likely to burn out on it and then you would lose all the progress you have made.

Depends on what you mean by "team." Having a team is not tantamount to success. Furthermore, a team approach can be extremely inefficient (ala the "camel design" joke) and costly. "Team" is a term often poorly employed by managers and usually means either "you guys do all the work" OR it means "I'm the head honcho and you need to run around and fill my orders."

A properly constructed team is like an organism... it doesn't have 60 brains or 120 mouths. There's a limited number of people and each has an assigned function and territory.

Amen again. So, what do you mean by team Wil? I admit that I had a preconception in mind when I read your ad about what a team would have to be to work, but the previous post reminded me that not every thinks the same.

Uhm... worked in any law offices lately? My cousin's a lawyer and what I know of his business is most definately not a "team." Most of them seem to be corporate dictatorships with a dog-eat-lawyer mentality.

Again, a different definition of team in play. Get your definition of team set in concrete Wil. By the loosest of definitions a public school can be called a team, but is that a team that you would want to support your income? Yeah, they can hold a fund raiser ever now and again, but their long term profitibility is based upon the whims of all the kids.

THAT is the key issue with most teams. The leader has an agenda, and it may not always be apparent to the leader himself or herself (for instance, in MLMs the leaders genuinely try to help folks because their own income depends on the others running out and selling product and it takes a large and stable downline to support the manager. HOWEVER... the results are inimical to the poor guy on the bottom of the chain.)

The manager's agenda may be wrong for you. It may be wrong, period. It could also be right but not right for you.

So what is your agenda Wil? Do you really know and even if you did, would you tell us the truth even if it is legit? With the photography business I am starting I have an agenda. My agenda is to learn hands on how to run a business and make a few people happy in the process. It's that simple for me. I know that with the proliferation of professional portrait studios in the local area and cheap prints available at Wal-Mart that I don't have much room for profit, but my prices reflect that. I'm not in it for the money but I don't want to lose money either. In order to reach my goal of learning to run a business I have to know exactly what I believe a successful business is. I do believe that success is not based on profits, but profit is measured to determine the difference betweem marginal success and huge success. By that thinking, profit is another tool of the business.

So far, all you've done is recite what sounds like a typical MLM type ad -- the "we have a team and we're taking successful people to the top." We still haven't seen any advice from you or discussions or details that indicates you actually know what components make up an efficient team (and for which environment) and how the management and structure works.

This is your last chance in my mind to prove yourself here Wil. And you have gotten far more attempts than most. Do you know why? If you don't then you've missed the entire point.