Aspies suck at business

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I agree, and to prove the point here's a video of autistics that own businesses: http://youtube.com/watch?v=S2BqZkS7ubg

That is EXACTLY what I do.

indeed, I wanted to get into buisness in high school so I took accounting and a few others things, then I realized that while I could do the whole buisness theory thing, I had a difficult time being able to judge how people/customers would react, and since being able to understand that huge variable is sooo vital in the buisness world, and cause I knew I never could, I changed my mind about buissness after that, tho I did learn alot of money management skills which I use today.

Could it be that we just don't believe in ourselves enough to take our ideas to the next level? I think that may be my problem. The thought of having to 'sell myself/product/idea' sends me into meltdown.
I have my wildlife photography, short stories, short films, my music and songs, digital art, and I'm unable to take the next step.
I could be worth millions yet I don't have hot water because it's just another bill I'll struggle to pay.
I seem to expend so much mental energy just to get through 24 hours that I can't even think about the full-on requirements of running a business.
I'm sure if all us aspies got together and pooled our talents we could make an absolute killing. Every business should have a 'resident aspie' to act as a systems manager. I know with every job I ever had I could see so many ways of doing things better within days of starting the job. Doesn't go down too well with the bosses and it gets demoralising to hear, "But that's not the way we do it."

Whether they suck at business or not I must not be one of them~ I'm going to major in business and be a CPA C:

"Could it be that we just don't believe in ourselves enough to take our ideas to the next level?...I have my wildlife photography, short stories, short films, my music and songs, digital art, and I'm unable to take the next step."

There is the notion that aspies are underemployed, I believe that. I know I have a strange problem that when I try to take my music and art to the next level, I seem to sabotage myself with negative thinking. Education seems to make it worse; now that I've been studying economics, Adam Smith, etc., I find myself arguing that I'm not offering anything that people don't already have, i.e., music, art, design, web skills, because there's SO much out there. It's like competing with Coke and Pepsi. I read marketing books that tell me that we have an overabundance of products and most of our needs are met. It's a wonder I even bother sometimes.

Anyway, there's a good book called the E Myth that talks about entrepreneurs as being different from technicians. A person who makes pies for a living and decides to run a pie shop is in fact changing careers, because it's not about making pies anymore; it's about balancing the books, ordering supplies, paying employees, etc. Totally different skills. I think many aspies are probably better as "technicians" than entrepreneurs, but why force ourselves unless it's something we really want? I'm getting tired of the pressure I get to be self-employed when I just want to "make pies."

It is too sweeping to say that Aspies are bad at business period. Not knowing how to handle office politics does not mean that one does not know how to handle a customer. Just like public speaking, customer service is a learned skill. In this sense, we are starting at the same level as everyone else. Whether or not one can be successful at business would also depend on the kind of business. And there are other attributes like personal drive and stick-to-itiveness. In fact, many entrepreneurs actually exhibit personality traits that are very Aspie. They are not usually the gregarious back slapping type of guy and many end up starting their own business because they found that they could not make it in the corporate world.

If you stop and think about it, though, this is pretty obvious. What do we need? Shelter, food, water. Arguably sex. Everything else is superfluous. I don't need a UMPC, but I'd like one. It would, by a relatively small measure, enhance my life, but it would be an enhancement. I don't need the 400 or so CDs I own, but they enhance my life. I don't need a $30,000 audio system, but one would definitively make my life better (but... yeah, I'll dream on on that score). Sometimes marketing is manipulation, sometimes it's just making people realise that a certain product would enhance their lives. It doesn't need to address a need, it just needs to add enjoyment.

I think this is why partnerships can be so effective. If you look at, to take one of my interests, mobile computing and specifically Palm, you have what until relatively recently an incredibly successful partnership of Ed Colligan, manager, and Jeff Hawkins, who's almost invisible but does most of the high level tech work and concept work. Absolutely no intention to imply Hawkins has AS here, but he is focused on making pies, while Colligan runs the business. It worked for a long time, and incredibly well. Without both of them, the Palm Pilot would never have been the success that it was.

I suck at being employed, but i am great at business.

Business is like computers, the reason most cannot understand it is because it is simple.

The basis is exchange. Most cannot seperate it from their endless social games, so dealing directly with the public is out for me. Web marketing works. 99.9% is fast exchange, and done. There have been a few, those who asked for my address three times, which was on the item they bought, took a month to pay, with a 7 day money back they complained 7 weeks later, and I ignored them.

All the books, lawyers, accounts, lie. It is what they are selling.

I am with the Rodney Dangerfield school, I grew up in a business family.

The question is how do you measure profit? Income spent on hiring someone is profit vanished, same for materials, and over a few years, machines. So more people work with more materials and better machines to make less profit? Yes.

Employers are tax collectors, employees pay, customers pay, and that is enough. American business with stockholders claim a 5% profit. That is just so they can pay some dividends. The oil companies are reporting the highest gross income ever, but profits are down.

It is not what you are doing, it is what you are becoming.

A business that never shows a profit can own land, buildings, machines, and have large gross sales.

You must understand GAAP. Generally Accepted Acounting Practices. It is an inside joke, think Worldcom. We do make the Mafia blush.

The point of business is to increase your pile, not your take, that would be taxable, and anything you are punished for must be wrong.

It is always better to have a bigger pile. What would have been taxable gets passed forward, and someday sold with payments over five years, so it is taxed once at 15% long term capital gains. As personal income it would be taxed half. Both ways, you get whats left.

Capital is not taxed, income is not taxed, profits are taxed, often several times.

Most think in terms of personal income, and that is taxed the highest.

Investments are not taxed, and they grow. At a 10% growth rate they double in 7 1/2 years. Some double every year, so 2, 4 8, 16, 32. Taken as personal income it would be 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, and 5 paid in taxes.

Aspies do have skills, most inventors I have met fit in, they see the future. Most do not know how to make it happen. It takes many skills to deliver. Not only a superior product that can develop a market, but production, and marketing. Then it takes someone like me to keep the money.

I am a hermit, and invent things that take many people. It did seem hopeless, till this Internet thing.

Traditional business thinks it should have a web site, like a Yellow Pages listing, I think of doing it all in cyber space. Location is everything, and this is in all the best homes.

Everything I use is less than five years old. I am sixty. It is a new economy, and just starting.

This is the greatest economic leap forward ever. With a little business sense anyone with vision should become rich. When I need help, I have the whole world to find what I am looking for. When I want to know about location, markets, transportation, a web search brings it all to me, and a lot of side information which fills out my idea.

So loners who stay in their room surfing the net are the best positioned to dominate the new economy.

It does help that we see things from several points of view. We do have splinter skills.

As Lightning88 said, she is good at marketing, which is not sales, but placing a product in the market.

I plan and manufacturer. Others write ads that sell, or create eye catching images. Business is a group effort.

Mostly it takes persistance, and we have lots of that.