Many people would love to start their own business and get away from the restrictions
and uncertainty of being stuck in a never ending cycle of being undervalued, underpaid,
and always at the risk of redundancy.
So why don’t more people take the plunge and go for it?
There are many reasons, but I think the biggest one is they are scared of getting it wrong,
they don’t want to crash and burn. That, of course, is perfectly understandable when you
don’t know anything about the business of being in business.
Creating a successful, long term business is about so much more than just being great at
what you do. However, even with the very best ideas, you can’t be successful if you don’t
lay strong foundations, do the necessary ground work first and make sure you really know
WHY you want to turn this idea into a business.
Creating your own business is a daunting task but when you take the necessary steps and
ask the necessary questions, you will gain a great deal of clarity which will help to make all
the later steps much easier.
Here’s a few pointers to get you started:
1. What do you want to do?
2. Why do you want to do it?
hint: it is crucial that you really know the answer here so keep
asking. be totally honest in your answers until you get
to the core reason.
3. How are you going to deliver your services /products?
4. When do you want to launch your new business?
5. Know your 3 Budgets:
∙Survival (absolutely must pay household costs),
∙Living (nice to have but not essential) and
∙Business Costs.
It is crucial to know your figures and you must be honest and scrupulous about this.
If you don’t know your budgets, how will you know if you are charging the right fees
for your products / services?
How will you know if you’re making profits / breaking even or making a loss?
You must make sure you create enough revenue to cover at least your Survival and
Business Costs every month to avoid getting into debt.
6. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN
Map out on paper exactly where you want to be in 12 months’ time, then track
back and determine where you need to be at 9, 6 and 3 months in order to
achieve your 12 month goals. Include all you will offer together with anticipated
revenues for each item.
There is no doubt that running your own business is challenging and exciting BUT we must
be realistic and understand the importance of doing the groundwork properly.
It really is worth the effort of soul searching and planning, as it will help you see where
things are going right – or wrong. The bumps and challenges can be overcome more
effectively by being proactive rather than reactive. Things do go wrong sometimes, but if
you’ve done your planning it will be easier to get back on track and re-focus on your long
term goals.
