Hi, my name is Richard Moore and what I am about to share with you is my life’s work experience including businesses that I have been part owner of and others that I have owned entirely. I am writing this not to brag, instead I provide it so you will realize that I am qualified to publish this blog of business ideas and business building strategies.
I am a serial entrepreneur. That’s a fancy term for someone who is addicted to business. Well, to be more accurate, I am addicted to making money. Most times, having your own business just makes that easier to accomplish.
I am also a failure. That’s right. I have failed to make money in business more times than I have made money. A few times I just broke even.
I started out with this burning desire at an early age. I spent two summers before high school (1960-61) working on my grandfather’s small farm selling flowers, fruits and vegetables from their roadside stand. One summer I made $1.00 per day. Sounds terrible by today’s standards, but I want to tell you, I was a wealthy person when compared to my peers. The great news is, the second summer, I was paid $2.00 per day!
After that second summer, I bought my own bicycle and put it to use riding around my neighborhood washing cars. I also did odd jobs around the neighborhood for $.50 to $.75 per hour. Weeding, lawn mowing, planting shrubs… you name it, I was your guy!
I also did a lot of babysitting which was kind of unusual for a guy to do back in the 1960s. One family that lived down the hill had me watch their two boys almost every weekend for several months. They both worked in New York City in entertainment and had to work a lot of weekends.
Then, I worked part-time in a supermarket in high school. During the summer months, I would hitchhike almost 5 miles to get to work. It usually took two or three rides and could take up to two hours to get there. Fortunately, my Dad was able to pick me up after work.
Out of high school, I worked at a retail store full-time during the day – and on evenings and weekends pumped gas and did oil changes at an old-fashioned full service gas station. I don’t know how many of you remember those. While the gas was pumping, I would wash the front and back windshields plus check the oil, water and battery. Even the tire pressures if they asked.
Then off to the Air Force during the Vietnam War. Fortunately, I didn’t get sent to Southeast Asia, but instead was shipped off to the Azores in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean for 18 months.
Being overseas and in the military, it was impossible to find a part-time job. If they were available, I may never have gotten that first exposure to making money without trading my time for money.
I purchased a car within two weeks of getting to the Azores. It seems there was a shortage of cars on the island. When a secretary in the office I worked announced she was selling her car because they were returning to the USA, a co-worker advised me to snatch it up before someone else did. So I took that advice.
I purchased a second car just a couple months later when another one came available. Why the heck would I need two cars?
Well, a sergeant that was a new arrival to the Azores was complaining that the ship that would be bringing his car over was going to take 2 to 3 months to get there. He said he wished there was some car rental place so he would have something to drive until his car got there.
Taa daa! I said “Hey, Sarge, I have this 1952 Plymouth that I will rent to you for $1.00 per day and we go 50/50 on any repairs it needs while you are using it.”
He went for it immediately. Which made me think I should have maybe asked for more. In fact, over the next year or so (just like on my Grandpa’s farm), I raised that price up to $2.00 per day. And, I always had a list of people waiting for that old Plymouth. My first exposure to making money without trading my time for pay. Interesting…
After getting out of the Air Force, I went to work for an advertising agency that also published a local tv magazine. We later acquired a printing company in another town and started a weekly newspaper. I worked my way up to become a 25% owner within four years.
I sold that 25% interest and moved back to Fort Walton Beach to manage Fort Walton Fast Print. When a new owner purchased that company, I acquired a 10% interest and later purchased a second 10% interest. I also owned a 1/3 interest in a weekly shopper newspaper that we started and 20% interest in a monthly newspaper called Okaloosa Business News. I was also a 50% owner of the 4-unit shopping center building with the owner of Fort Walton Fast Print. This gave me an appreciation of the value of owning a commercial building and collecting rent.
A falling out with my partner in Fort Walton Fast Print led me to start my own printing company and office supply store. I opened Business World in 1988 and sold it in 2013.
During the years that I owned Business World, I started several newspapers including Gulf Coast Business, Twin Cities Free Press, Shalimar Times, Mary Esther Messenger, Fort Walton Tribune, Suncoast Advertiser, Emerald Coast News, Extra Income News, Florida Business Opportunities, and Florida Family Fun (tourism).
During the time period of 1988 to 1992, I purchased (along with one, sometimes two, partners) three taverns and a seafood restaurant. Many lessons were learned about business, employees, customer relations, marketing, advertising and the fact that businesses with monthly rents attached to them are a lot more difficult than starting something in your garage or spare bedroom.
We added a contract post office to Business World as a means of increasing sales. It certainly increased traffic but didn’t do anything for the sale of printing and office supplies. So, I started thinking about what might sell to people who are standing in line waiting to be helped at the post office counter.
I purchased a florist business and relocated it from where it had been for years and put it inside of Business World. Lesson learned: big mistake. People did not know where the florist had gone and simply made new purchasing decisions.
Another lesson learned was that any business that deals in product that spoils, such as flowers or produce, is working with a ticking clock at all times. If you can’t sell it fast enough, it goes in the dumpster. I lost about 80% of what I paid for that business when I finally sold off the assets.
When I published Extra Income News, I became interested in mail order, network marketing and direct selling companies. We were always publishing articles about methods of doing business this way – and representing companies that were looking for commission distributors.
So, I spent a few years trying to make money in direct mail sales. We sold mailing lists, nutritional products, art prints and Silver Eagles for several years. We even started a lottery club. All of these did quite well until the explosion of the internet starting around the year 2000.
Now, everybody was jumping on the wagon offering their products and services on the internet. Everybody was going to get rich on the internet.
The first business to be closed because of the internet was Extra Income News. People were no longer interested in buying advertising in a print publication. The internet was faster and the advertising appeared to be free. So, in early 2001, I stopped publishing EIN.
I then tried several times to sell nutritional products and Silver Eagles through the internet but quickly learned a big lesson. Everybody – and I mean everybody – was opening websites and online stores at a ridiculous rate. It was impossible to get anyone’s attention to make a sale.
And so was born a new industry: selling people information products on how to make money on the internet. To this day, I think these are the only people making money on the internet. Of course, brick and mortar businesses have been able to launch successful internet sales operations – and Amazon is a great example of an internet success.
But how did they do it? Well, they either already had a customer base – or in the case of Amazon – they started using other media, especially television advertising, to find customers. So, in the end, you learn the lesson that the internet is a method of taking orders for products or services, but not the “free” advertising and marketing solution that everyone thought it was going to be.
Plus there are new industries being born to help you with SEO, reputation damage control, email marketing, etc. There is not a day that goes by that somebody is on the phone trying to sell me their expertise on building up my business on the internet.
Well, I could go on forever. But I believe you will agree that I have had quite an extensive business background – probably much more than most people you will meet. I believe that this qualifies me to make observations about many of the business opportunities that will be included in this blog.
Some of them – like babysitting – can be started with almost no money at all. Some others would require an investment of a few thousand dollars. Still others will require that you already possess – or you plan on acquiring — some skills to provide the products or services we share with you.
Your goal for starting a home business should be to make money. Paying rent and utilities on a commercial building makes it tough to put any money in your pocket. One day – whether you are operating your business from home or otherwise – you will probably be hiring employees which is another expense and another basket of problems.
Make sure that whatever you choose to do to make money – whether full-time or part-time – is something that you like to do. Because if you truly like what you are doing, it is not work. You don’t crawl out of bed in the morning muttering and grumbling. You will look forward to your day ahead.
“Choose a business that you enjoy and you will never work a day in your life.”