You got into business to do great things and then what do you suppose happened when you discovered it was all going “pear shaped…” You wondered what you had done to deserve the hassle, the pain, the torment, the lack of dollars, the lack of customers the lack of support… the list goes on, and on… and it happens way too easily.

Here are a few things to get you thinking and in your initial start up phase these things should be priority number one!

1. Have I done enough research? - Not so much research that the business never gets started, but enough to know that what you want to do will be able to turn a profit, meet a need or want for the customers and provide the income you need to make a living and keep the business growing.
2. Will I be happy? - In a job you can duck and weave, take holidays, take sick leave and so on to get out of a ‘dud period’, in business however, you are it. So will your business keep you happy, make you happy, or build up to happiness? If not, why do it? Any thing less than happiness is probably misery, and in business you cannot just walk away without losing something (lots of $$, self esteem, respect, etc.)
3. Sustainability? Whats that? - You have a business idea, will it last, will it be something that peole want to have for a long while to come or will it be something that fades out in a short time frame (a year or two.) If you are in the research phase check out carefully if this will be the case, there is little sense in putting a lot of time and effort into something that will be gone in a year or two (e.g. some software ideas have come in and gone out in a few years.)

Now lets take a deeper look at what can be done.

1. Find out as much as you can about the buisness side of the industry - For many going into business will mean they have worked in a role for many years, built the skills and so on, but not really built any buisness skills to assist them in their endeavours. No need to do a big fully blown business course that take years, but do get any short term training to assist you in business. Then ask questions about growth prospects for the industry as well as finding out why a business needs to grow to be sustainable. Do the figures, how much do you need to earn to make things REALLY viable, its not dificult to do, it just needs some thinking and a calculator to bring it to fruition.
2. Happiness - Ask questions to find out what being in business is really going to be like, are other industry leaders in your chosen field that run businesses really happy? And how would you measure that? Too often I hear people say… “It will be ok, it will be worth it.” they set up and then fail… Is that worth it? “I would not change a thing…” Even though there was a lot of heartache and hassle? loss of $$ is that really worth it?
3. Do more than the basic research - It’s easy to research on the internet and chat to a few business people, but what is life really like for the industry leaders in your chosen business area? How will you find that out? After all going into business is not just about the money and satisfaction, its about lifestyle. It’s also about sustainability, so you can create an asset that will be of REAL long term value to you. Ask more questions, get face to face with the RIGHT people, not just supporters of your ideas. Start asking questions about buisness plans and chat to business owners about what plans they have… (if any). And also ask how much money they had to put up to get the business started…

It might sound like I want to put people off going into business, (actually I doubt that I would stop anyone that has a head full of emotion wanting to start a business!) but really I want to make sure everyone with a buisness idea sets off on the task with a clear head and a solid set of goals, after all it’s the lifestyle choice that will probably be your biggest one (and hopefully the most profitable one), so do it properly.

To find out more about getting started in business, or planning for more buisness check out the business profile PDf file for more ideas and information.

Business Profiles

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