Do You own or have you ever owned a REAL business on or offline?

"Real" is relative; depends on how you define "Real". Is "Real" legally registered company, with office and staff, or can "Real" also exist in the virtual internet? and the like questions...

Of course. :-) However not sure how many. Apsense is a real business with staff. Gotsafelist is a real business. Amazon is a real business. Ebay is a real business and of course Google is a real business. Just to name a few. :-)

Is there such a thing as a Real business online?

@Henri Quick question: Never mind lol. :-) Welcome to the discussion.

@Trev You are correct my friend, it's a complete shock how many little steps make one larger step, which leads to multiple repeats of those steps to actually accomplish one thing online correctly.

Yes, those young whipper snappers think they have it all figured out don't they? LOL. To be fair they are rock stars with technology which is also their weakest link. Real business is done with people on both ends of the agreement or transaction.

The pressing of the flesh in the form of a hand shak

No, don't own a business, never have.

@Warren very pleased to hear that you can afford to approach your online adventures in a casual way given the successful offline foundation you built for yourself.

@ Joe thanks for the response and recognition. One would think years and building of wisdom in owning an offline business would be an advantage to bringing that business online...and to a great degree that's so untrue. What is super impressive is that those older ways are shattered by young digital entrepreneurs...and funnily enough we actually seek indirect advice from these younger people. sorry people if this response seems off track to the question.

yes I have an online business that doing pretty well i might add!

I have always had my own business since 1991, never an easy thing to do. Many sleepless nights. With all the world financial criss happen on a daily base, so many factors kick in, learning what your true (ROI) is is not an easy thing to do any-more. How do your forecast your point of sales, so hard to predict from day to day, week to week and month to month. How do your budget your advertising, what is the best bang for your dollar. How do you keep your workers or partners motivated. Training is

lol someone clicked "like" on my last comment, it breaks up the flow of the discussion.

Warren, you always say you don't work hard to make money online, but to reach the point where you are, we definitely need to work hard AND smart

Phillipe if what you say is true, I'm afraid there are going to be MANY disappointed tormented souls roaming around in a form of purgatory for a long time. I got where I am with a hard core business, not what I do now. If I had to support my family on what I can make online (with the exception of a few sweet months) I would go get a day job!

Warren, some ( most ? ) of us want to replace our day jobs with a business that will allow us more time off and reach the point where you are :)

I have followed this discussion and notice there is one point that isn't covered, some of us don't want a business (like me), I just want the money. I enjoy what little I do to generate contacts without letting it take over my life and for the last 12 years it has produced a few thousand dollars to make my retirement sweeter. Why would I want another business?

@Trev You are correct of course, the list is mostly for online marketers, however my thought was to list the items an offline business owner would need to be aware of.

RE: "most business owners still prefer offline traditional localized methods of advertising". Oh yes, this is very true in my experiences with working with business owners, and it is still very effective. However with the rise in gas prices, phone service and of course labor costs are starting to make this type of promotion a

@ Joe...you make an impressive checklist of necessary skills but they really focus at being in an online world...and Don is quite right...we are way of topic here as asked in your question . However..that being said your descriptive text (often overlooked) outlays the reasoning of the question. I find where i'm from most business owners still prefer offline traditional localised methods of advertising...and for those that have recognised the trend to an online approach think they can achieve res

Interesting question and responses. No sure but had Joe managed to turn this into a marketing question with the link to http://www.apsense.com/brand/GrowAMassiveDownline. Over 65 years, started at age 8. I have started a dozen successful offline businesses. Online I have several, some good, some bad - I investigate sites, scams and such. Yes Joe I teach people how to fail and by doing such, I they learn how to succeed

My wife and I ran an offline business from 1984 and supplemented this with an online business since 2002. We retire in 2007 but kept up our businesses online and still going.

Trev, you're right, I forgot to remind people to click the "thumb up" in the "recommended reading" at top right, and I notice you didn't click on it :)

for the past 30+ years I have owned and successfully run several businesses offline all of which now also trade succesfully online and have done for the last 15 years.
The internet is just another tool and wether you trade on or offline unless you master the basic fundamentals of Business and money management , which are the same online or offline, the likelyhood is the result will be failure