Hey everyone,
It’s often said that if you want to start a successful business but lack a groundbreaking idea, you should immerse yourself in an industry and identify its pain points. This thought led me to an intriguing consideration:
Working at the tax office provides deep insights into various business models and their financial performances. For instance, if all three car washes in a town are thriving and their owners are financially prosperous, wouldn’t this suggest that the risk of opening a fourth car wash might be comparatively low? Similarly, if the local kebab shop, pizzeria, and Chinese restaurant are all doing well, wouldn’t it be likely that a fourth restaurant could also succeed?
This brings me to the question: Would it be a strategic move to gather experience at the tax office before embarking on an entrepreneurial journey to gain insights into promising sectors? And does anyone know of specific examples of people who have worked at the tax office and later founded successful businesses?
I’m eager to hear your thoughts, experiences, and especially any concrete examples!
I think a tax official would run straight into the “Microsoft problem”.
[So named because former Microsoft staff used to be famous for setting up tech businesses that subsequently failed.
Why?
Well, because to start up your business, you have to do a lot of things. Tax, office management, IT, marketing, sales… the list goes on and on.
Microsoft - like most big organisations - goes to enormous lengths to ensure that most of their employees don’t even need to care about any of that stuff. They just come into work, do their job and leave. Most of them have no idea what else is going on, and a good number would actually hold those other business units in some contempt (while completely ignorant of the fact that the departments they’re holding in contempt work together to keep the whole sausage machine running)]