Opening a business that will grow and be successful, however, is a different story. One can never know what the end will look like – it’s just too unpredictable. Instead, begin without the end in mind, watching the business take a life of its own.

Businesses always turn out different than expected – which present some interesting opportunities. An accountant can expect to make anywhere from $50,000-$80,000 a year, depending on the kind of firm. But an accountant I know makes a whole lot more than that. Why? Because when his clients came to him for advice he used the opportunity to invest with the businesses that he saw were doing well, netting him very nice returns.

When considering a business, don’t be dissuaded by the perception of low returns other businesses of this kind seem to experience. Once a business is up and running, many opportunities will present themselves that would never have surfaced if you had not opened the business. Your business will take a life of its own, bringing it to a place that you could have never envisioned at the outset.

Opening a business is frightening, because you have no idea how things will turn out. But as we see more often that not, the unknown is what presents the best opportunity.

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Given that many partnerships don’t end nicely, why do we continue to open businesses together with someone else? If one person can’t come up with the money to start up on his own, he may have to look for someone else to put up part of the funding. But that is not always the case. Many times both partners are broke, and the money for starting up comes from friends/family/investors etc.

Perhaps subconsciously the reason we tend to open with a partner is from our yeshiva/kollel days, where we spend our days learning with a partner. We get used to only learning with someone else, otherwise the quality of the learning is not the same. Automatically we take this idea to starting a business. We tend to think that if we don’t have someone else to work with, then it won’t end up being worthy of anything.

Partnerships do provide this advantage, but there are serious risks involved. Everyone knows of a partnership that has a messy ending, splitting up lifelong friends and even family members apart. You don’t have to open shop with a partner. Instead, consider going over major business decisions with an advisor who is older, wiser, and more experienced than you. He will be more than willing to coach you along and give guidance. Or, if you do need someone else to be involved in the day to day operations, hire them and pay them from profits.

Frum business owners get their training in the beis medrash, not in the real world. Before jumping into business, think for a minute if you are doing the right thing. A bad chavrusa is an easy problem to fix. But a bad partner is a mess that can drag you down for a long time. There is a better way.

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And then came the crash. It started slowly, with all the stakeholders realizing that things were slowing down but at the same time were saying things like Lakewood is different, it won’t be so bad, things will bounce back quickly, get a bargain while you can, etc. etc.

Nowadays, saying “I do real estate” is less popular than saying “I’m learning in kollel.” Granted, there are a few people making money in real estate today, but it is nowhere near the levels of just a few short years ago.

So, what is everyone doing? If real estate is out, and yeshiva guys don’t have medical or law degrees, so how are they making money?

Believe it or not, the economy of Lakewood is changing into a “normal” economy, where the businesses are diverse and widespread. There are mortgage brokers, of course, but there are also medical equipment suppliers. There are construction firms, but also solar powered energy consultants. There are branding experts, high tech web development firms, and retailers of all kinds of products from handbags to business office supplies.

The real estate crash may have been devastating to the Lakewood economy, but it won’t be for long. It forced everyone to broaden their horizons away from just real estate, and there is plenty of opportunity elsewhere. Even without academic training, these savvy former kollel guys won’t let a real estate crash get in their way of success.

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But then everything came crashing down. First it was just Bear Stearns & Lehman Brothers, then it was the stock market, then it was investment housing market, then it was the price of the home you live in. Pretty soon people were being laid off, and everyone began to feel its effects.

It took time to for the average person to start feeling the crash. First the big businesses stopped spending, that affected the little businesses, some people lost jobs, then others began to fear losing their jobs, they stopped spending, businesses started to suffer, they too began to lay people off, and so on and so forth.

But just like it took time for the average person to begin feeling the pain, so too it will take time for the average person to start seeing the recovery. The economy will recover, once the fear is gone. Slowly people will revert back to their normal spending patterns. Businesses will once again start to hire, increasing demand for goods and services, which will eventually lead to more jobs being created. However, all this takes time. Until then, most people will not consider the economy to be improving.

If you want to be just an average person, continue waiting for the economy to recover. But if you want to capitalize on an opportunity, there is no time like now. New ideas are being sprung into successful businesses, and old businesses are being injected with new life. As the economy gets reborn, there is a need for some good, quality business people.

Don’t settle for being average. Take advantage of the unique opportunity, which is now.

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So when it comes to making money, why is anything different? Those who have nothing new to offer just don’t make it. How many accountants do we need that all do the same thing? How many dry cleaners can a specific place support? Do we really need just another take out store with all the same kinds of foods?

Instead, think of a novel offering. The first restaurant or caterer that offered sushi. The accountant that knows exactly how to deal with an audit on a particular tax credit. The dry cleaner that knows how to freshen up old dresses like new. When you have something new and interesting to offer, people will come and tell their friends.

There are successful examples of novel business ideas all over the place.  Starbucks, which is a multi-billion dollar company, sells coffee. So does every corner donut shop. But the way they sold their coffee got people to talk about it, and come, and spend an outrageous $5 a cup.

Is it more risky to only focus on the novelty? Sure it is. But it’s a risk you can’t afford not to take.

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If others could do it, why couldn’t you do the same? The excuse is, they are super achievers who are great at what they do. But the real truth is that excellence is only a tad better than average.

Being excellent at something doesn’t require you to be so much better than the other guy. If you are just a bit better at something, that is already a good enough reason for the business to come your way. And then you have the resources to get better and better, leaving the competition in the dust.

Remember, back when you were a bochur in yeshiva, the ones who became the ‘best’ in learning weren’t miles ahead of everyone else. Their success came by being just a drop better than everyone else. When everyone was goofing off, they weren’t. When everyone else thought about the kashya one time, they thought about it an extra time. When everyone else wasn’t paying attention, they were. And before long, they were miles ahead.

The difference between excellence and average starts out small, but it quickly becomes a wide gap that is almost insurmountable. (Think of Google vs. Yahoo). You already have what it takes to be excellent at whatever you do, it just takes diligence. Be just a drop better than everyone else, and you will have won the battle for good.

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A friend of mine who is going through a “career change”, is looking to get involved in a business that provides services to very specific kinds of businesses. Because the program is only of use to very specific kinds of businesses, he doesn’t have too many leads to approach. He asked me to call a relative of mine who works in the medical field to see if he could get some contacts from him. I called the relative, and after just 2 phone calls, I put them in touch with each other, probably resulting in a lucrative deal for my friend. This cost me nothing, and it gave my friend a great boost to his fledgling business.

In a similar story, a friend of mine connected me to a person who agreed to meet with me and offer me valuable business advice. This person runs a multi million dollar business, and I would never have been able to sit down with him and hear his ideas, until the friend of mine made the connection. Funny thing is – he was actually very happy to give me the time, and even offered to be of help whenever I need.

It’s hard to give someone your hard earned money. After all, there are so many things that you could be doing with that money, and giving it to someone else is probably not high on your list. But there are so many people who you could be helping without having to part with money.

Everyone is connected to someone who can help someone else. Networking, the life and blood of all business deals, is very easily accomplished in our community. Who doesn’t know someone who works in the medical supply field, the banking industry, real estate, etc.

Business is constantly evolving, and opportunities are always arising. Chances are, there is someone who you know that can be a great source of help for someone that you know who is trying to get a business started, or a deal through. Instead of shying away, help them by picking up the phone and calling that person for them.

You’ll be doing a tremendous chessed, and the person you are asking will likely be very glad to be of help. And best of all, it won’t cost you a dime.

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Everything is made in China. From cars to chairs, computers to pianos. Boats arrive to our docks full of pallets of merchandise, and return to China empty. If everything is being made by the Chinese people, where do we make our money from?

The US economy is powered not by goods, but by ideas. Steel mills have closed down years ago, car companies are going broke, factories are a thing of the past. Those have all been sent overseas, where cheap labor is plentiful. But smart people, with ideas, cannot be outsourced.

B&H Photo sells billions of dollars of camera and other electronics every year, and they make a ton of money doing so. There is nothing unique about the products they sell. 90% of what they sell is easily found in other stores, both online and off. So what is so unique about their business that causes pro photographers and amateurs alike to flock to them with religious zeal for their gear?

The answer is the “shopping experience.” The camera is not unique, but their ideas on how to sell the camera are. And that alone is worth billions in annual sales, allowing them to employ 1,600 people in the process.

Ideas are the currency of today’s marketplace. Don’t invest in products, they can be found anywhere. Instead, invest in creating a sales process that is unique. It may be more difficult to create a new idea than a new product, but ultimately, it is the only way to make money in today’s marketplace.

Because good ideas are the only things not being Made in China.

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When a job comes along that doesn’t really fit in with what you want to do, you may decide to take it just to be able to keep the lights on. This can be a life saver, but it can also have negative side effects which you weren’t expecting.

I made this mistake early on in my business. While I was struggling through in the first few months, an acquaintance of mine offered me some work which was not something I had wanted to take on. But the bills needed to be paid, so I reluctantly agreed to do the job. After a few months, the job – which was paying fairly well, disappeared. Had it been something which I truly loved doing, my enthusiasm and devotion to the work would have kept it going. However, since it became just a job, it never went anywhere.

How you start off your business is how your business is perceived in the eyes of the most important people in the world – your customers. ArtScroll set itself on a path to become the largest and most successful Jewish book publisher ever, because back in 1976, when no one really seemed to care, they exerted themselves to produce a Megillas Esther of the finest quality. If they would have just taken any job to make some money, do you really think they would be where they are today?

When you take on work, ask yourself if this job is really helping you in the long run. If not, turn it down. It may seem tempting for now, but six months from now you’ll be glad you didn’t take it.

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Every year it seems that we go through the same routine. Cry our heads off during viduy, promise to do better, and then life comes back to routine. Is there any meaning to all of it, if on Tuesday morning we all go back to our old selves?

The truth is that there is hardly such a thing as routine. We are living in a constant sea of change. In business, nothing stays the same for long. This past year alone, the biggest bank in the country was brought down to a shadow of its former self, hundreds of banks went under, the largest auto company declared bankruptcy, while companies like Google, Apple, and Amazon enjoyed comfortable profits.

Why such a difference? The former were punished by the forces of change, while the latter few were rewarded by it. Change is not necessarily your worst enemy, if you learn to embrace it and accept its existence.

How do you accept change? By anticipating it and realizing that by just doing the same old thing again and again won’t accomplish what it used to. Those who lean into the future of change are rewarded by it, while those who choose to remain in the “safety” of the present become the next GM and Citi.

We are all prime examples of this. Spiritual bankruptcy is rampant amongst ourselves, both in terms of individual behavior, and even in whole communities. If we aren’t willing to make changes, what will become of ourselves? It isn’t enough to say, “I’ll be the same I was until now.” Because one thing is certain, that what worked up until this point will not work in the future.

I’m directing my words and the reluctant kollel yungerman who knows in his heart that the time has come, but he is too afraid to do anything about it. One thing is for certain, that just because it worked up to today does not mean it will continue to work. You know that the pressures are mounting, the bills are piling up, and the stress levels are unprecedented. Leaving kollel does not mean leaving yiddeshkeit.

Look into yourself and realize that for things to work out, change is not optional. It’s now the time to make a move forward in life.

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