Bill Carroll, Carroll Applied Science, L.L.C.: [00:00:00] It's going to be different for a lot of different situations, and let me try to give you kind of an array of what those differences are. So for me, after my career at "Occi," I have a consulting business. It's not a huge business. We only employ about 3000 people. I'm kidding. We employ me and that's a very different sort of situation than if you're talking about really trying to start a company and grow it and have products and so on.
If you're younger and particularly if you want your business to fully support you in the way that a salary in industry would, then you're really going to have to have a product that someone is going to want. So the way you start, this is your business plan. What is it that you have to offer? If you've ever seen Shark Tank, it's really always the same sort of thing.
What's your value proposition? Why am I interested in what you have at all? And then the second thing is, what are your differentiators? Why is your product better than somebody else's product? And then you have to understand the economics of it. And that's where the business plan part of it comes. It says, "Who are you going to sell it to? How much you're going to sell it for? How many of these are you going to sell, whether it's hours of your time or it's something that you make? And, how are you going to make a profit on that?" Because in the end, if you're able to support yourself, it's only because you've got a product.
So if you're interested in being an entrepreneur, I think it's wonderful. But, start out with having a killer idea and a plan for how you're going to market it and monetize it.
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