I’m an engineer with 14 years of experience, but I’m clueless about business. I want to start a service-based company in a field I care about (let’s just say it’s something I’ve personally needed and noticed is WAY too expensive). My goal is to make it affordable without cutting corners. I have somewhat created a business plan that includes salaries (jobstreet, LinkedIn), shop rental (propertyguru), utilities, 3 year plan with adding 2 more shops at end of year 3, number of client progression and occupancy rate, possible revenue streams based on my experience as a customer. My observation, the demand is quite high, I almost had to wait 5 months to get a slot, and as a returning customer need to wait for a month, the fact that they are packed despite only operating on weekdays from 9am-6pm is impressive.
Ive been to other shop that open weekends, always busy with customer coming in.

My situation:

Skills I have: Process improvement, automation, quality control, problem-solving.
Skills I don’t: Marketing, sales, hiring, or anything business-related.
Budget: RM 50k (my hard-earned savings).
Plan: Hire a technical expert to handle the “core service” while I focus on systems, efficiency and goals.

I need your help with:

Finding mentors: Where do I even look? No one in my circle runs a business.
First steps: Do I rent a shoplot first? Hire someone first? Panic first?
Hiring: How do I find/pay someone to lead the “technical” side, would they want to join me when I don’t know the industry (though I'm ready to learn)?

Why I’m posting:
I’m tired of overthinking and ready to take the leap. If you’ve started a business with no experience, please share:
What you wish you’d known.
Where to find mentorship.
How to avoid wasting money early on.

Thanks in advance

clinical therapy

well, I get what you mean - you need to get into the circle first before you can find one, or they find you.

the plan is to start small with 1 experienced, the rest freelance if needed.
not planning to quit my job. Wife who left her HR career to be home maker few years ago, willing to help manage doing admin/HR/logistics.

I asked my therapist during one of the session

1. how much they pay for this work and how far can you go?- 1800(starter) to 5000(supervisor) can go higher if you get into bigger corporate brands
2. whats your future plan, are you going to be a therapist forever? - I want to open my own center
3. How much to start? - Its not much, about 20k, monthly supplies are cheap - most opex is salaries
4. Well if its not much, why don't you start one already - Well if I have the money, I'll do it.
5. Where is your boss (husband & wife) - well they manage admin and payroll for 3 centers (each at different states) - but in the process of giving that to 3rd party.

These answers kind of pushed my interest further to think of starting one

The setup is simple. Nothing fancy, probable 2nd hand furniture - place looks clean and pleasant. 3rd floor shoplot, you wont know they exist. Only way to contact them by sending your contact in the company website, and they will contact you for initial verbal queries, then set appointments.

i checked around my area, 3rd floor shoplot is around rm1200-1600.

what do you think? 50k enough?

This post has been edited by Kakistok: Mar 1 2025, 04:16 PM

good point.
I think there are two situation that you would see these traits. 1. if they are desperate, say no job, no money, they have to give it a go 2. they have more than enough, they can rectify any mistakes from their action.
Thats why statistically many SMEs fail ~60% (from what I read) as they never get to point 2.

initial plan is to go with one "expert" then the rest freelance.

I believe there are experts out there who want to run their own but don't have the funds. I had a conversation with one of them.

I agree. I just do not know where to start but I've made my first move. Contacted 2 freelancers from a website for a free session. I needed the service plus I could get more info from them for the business side of things.

yes I think I need permit to run, I've seen that cert in the the center hence why I need an experienced (certified) member on board. Those online ones are freelancing, hence they may not need a center unless they want a stable income or a proper place to conduct their session.

It's funny that I have no interest in doing a business related to my line of work XD
1. the capital cost is high
2. you need to find a big contract to cover cost
3. my company contracts are all from abroad, local companies cant afford.
4. I can do online freelancing for clients abroad but you have to compete with people from pakistan/india who are 2-3 times cheaper.
4. there is one local company that I know doing something similar but the owner used to have ties with a former PM - so sapu all local n gov, now struggling to pay his employees because cant land contracts as former PM out of the game. One of the employees now works under me. The employee (n others) had to sue the company for not paying his salary and epf - almost a year court case before settlement.

This post has been edited by Kakistok: Mar 1 2025, 05:57 PM

yeap, that's one of the risk I'm trying to figure out as I would need their certification to apply the permit.

what do you meant by get your first sales? Do you mean like do a dry run to see how much demand is out there?

the plan is to go for a small place first, 3rd floor shoplot, those small office lots in apartments. Ive surveyed some places already within rm800-rm1600 price range.

yeap I thought something like salary + profit sharing. I'm trying to list down what other methods are available, the risk with the technical staff is you need a "certified" person to get permit. if they decide to leave, then we cant run the business - so what would be the backup plan?