| Some people would think that in order to | | | | The next part is about capital. Well, do you |
| start business, you need to work and that you | | | | need a bit of capital? It took me $2,000 to |
| need to accumulate capital. | | | | start my mobile disco company. A lot of |
| | | | people have this mindset, that you need |
| There are two parts to this. The first is | | | | hundreds of thousands and from my personal |
| yes, you do you need a lot of experience to | | | | experience, no you don't, you can start with |
| start a business. The second part is you do | | | | just a few thousand dollars. |
| need a lot of capital. | | | | |
| | | | In fact, if you asked me, I think having a |
| A question people ask, do you need a lot of | | | | lot of money to start a business is a curse |
| experience in a certain business to start a | | | | sometimes. You know why? Because when you |
| business, I would say yes, you do. | | | | have got a lot of money, you tend to spend |
| | | | it. In fact, out of all my businesses, the |
| But people say I've never worked before and | | | | only business which I truly invested a lot of |
| they ask, "Where did you get the experience | | | | money in was my interior design business. I |
| from". | | | | invested a quarter million dollars only to |
| | | | lose it in a year. |
| Well here's some of my personal experience | | | | |
| that will answer this question. | | | | The strategy is that when you've got no money |
| | | | in starting a business, it forces you to be |
| Well I did work. It's just that I started | | | | creative; it forces you to think of ways to |
| very, very young. And in fact a lot of the | | | | do things without needing money. And when I |
| work that I did was voluntary work. I was not | | | | started, all the costs were kept variable. We |
| paid but yes, I did. | | | | didn't rent our own place. We couldn't afford |
| | | | it, so we worked out of our house and other |
| Like for example, the first business I ever | | | | people's company. |
| started was the mobile disco business. I | | | | |
| started at 15 years old and for those of you | | | | When we had no business, we have no costs and |
| who do not know what a mobile disco is; | | | | all the costs were variable and most of the |
| basically you own a set of equipment, | | | | staff we hired were freelancers or interns or |
| lighting, sound system. And when people have | | | | people we paid on a project basis so all the |
| got parties, like for example birthday | | | | costs were variable. There were no risks at |
| parties, functions, dinner and dance, you go | | | | all. A lot of the stuff we use were our own |
| up there, you set up the disco. | | | | personal computers so again there was no |
| | | | costs at all. |
| And in fact, before I set up that mobile | | | | |
| disco company, I learned it from another | | | | Therefore sometimes it requires a willingness |
| company by working for them part time as a | | | | to learn as well as thinking out of the box. |
| DJ. Even before that, I went to my own | | | | So hopefully these personal experiences will |
| parties and that's how it started basically | | | | help answer the questions of those of you who |
| | | | are seeking to start your own business. |