How To Start A Business
Ever dream of being your own boss? Believe you might have what it takes to set up on your own? Don't dream on...read on!
There's a reason why you have been looking for information on How To Start A Business. Maybe there's an idea you've been kicking around for a while. It could be anything from running a corner shop or setting up a small community enterprise with a friend - to spotting a brand new business opportunity with a product or service no-one else is providing. You can!
The very first step towards starting your own business needs to start with you. You and your business are intertwined. Your business reflects you and your personality, skills and approach to life; your own personal objectives drive your business objectives. For success you need to be confident, focused, hardworking...all those attributes of entrepreneurs that you read about.
But you can't just jump right in and launch any old business. The market these days are so saturated with everyone trying to make some extra money. Redundancies being made left, right and centre, so people are using their skills to set up small businesses and offer their service to the targeted market which means that competition is going to be fierce and there is not much room for error.
More and more entrepreneurs are being born out of necessity and not out of choice. Petrol prices are going up, food is going up, everything just seems to be increasing yet our salaries are staying the same. So we are now pushed into making it on our own, calling out own shots and putting 110% effort into making our lives successful.
To make it out there in the business world you need to understand that when it comes to starting a business, the starting line is you! No matter what resources, products, services your business has, without you it doesn't exist. You can't win a race if you don't compete; you can't win the lottery without a ticket; you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs; just like you can't have a business without you.
You are the starting point for anything in your business - whatever your stage of business, whether you are starting, growing or diversifying. The starting point will always be you. So let's look at what you is and just exactly what you do bring to your business.
You and your personality are made up of your good points and your bad points. For your business to succeed, you need to make the most of your good points: your strengths; and minimise the effects of your bad points: your weaknesses. So you need to recognise what these good and bad points are. You need to develop your self-awareness; identify your good and your bad points so you can make the most of the good and develop coping strategies for the bad. You need to brutally honest with yourself. Be brave and find out how others see you.
How you see yourself may be wildly different from how others see you. If you want to be successful in life and in business, it's important to get to know yourself intimately and why you behave particular ways in particular situations and with particular people. Only then can you make any changes that you need to succeed. You may be blissfully unaware that people see you as 'airy' and disorganised, when perhaps you just have so much going on that you don't take the time with people or you're always late for meeting friends or you show up on the wrong day. Perhaps you can't say no to requests from friends and then when the time comes you have to invent an excuse not to do something.
We all have underlying assumptions and values that affect our behaviour and those around us. We all respond to the expectations of others: our parents, society, and our friends. We all have roles in life, which dictate our behaviours too. You need to take responsibility for yourself; it's up to you what you do, don't be driven by what others expect or think you should do.
Take a close look at some of your behaviours and especially recurring patterns of behaviours. If you do not organise your time well and are always late for meetings then you'll find that business people won't give you the second or third chances that your friends and family might. You will have to learn to plan your time better, perhaps you always underestimate the time that it takes you to travel somewhere, and never allow any time for train or road delays.
In the business world you need to be very careful. Or perhaps you perceive yourself as more important and that your time is more valuable that theirs, so it doesn't matter if you keep other people waiting. This is a really bad habit to have acquired, and you need to get rid of it because you are definitely not going to cut it in the business world if you have an attitude like that!
We all experience different challenges, behaviours and circumstances in our life so it is important to be aware of these challenges and rectify them (as much as we can) before we even embark on our enterprise journey.
It's tricky running your own business and balancing it with your personal and family life and coping with the ups and downs of life and business. You are bound to get knock-backs, failures and disappointments; it's the cold harsh reality of business. The secret to success is not to let them get you down. Try to bounce back and learn from mistakes - you need to be able to develop a positive approach to your failures, and overcome the myths and fears you may have about the business world. Only then are you ready to tackle your business plan and get your business up and running successfully.