It’s not easy starting your own business. But it can be one of the most exciting ventures of your life. There’s nothing quite like “owning yourself.” That is, working for yourself and not another entity that will be making a profit off of every hour you work.
In fact, for a change, you will be the CEO. The boss. You will be hiring trusted employees and if you’re smart and want to get off on the right business footing, you’ll hire only the most qualified personnel and pay them top rate.
You will also do smart things like take advantage of 21st century digital business tools like a time card calculator for accurately tracking employee hours rather than doing it by hand, the old fashioned, time consuming way.
But that’s just one thing to keep in mind as you start your own business. According to a new article, the decision to become an entrepreneur can be daunting to say the least. That’s because there’s no guarantee to success. You might end up starting and failing at several businesses before finding that one true success.
There’s also no way to be ready for every obstacle that will come your way. Despite all the challenges, pursuing your own business can be not only be rewarding, but a life changer.
But prior to getting your new business off the ground it’s of paramount importance that you build the confidence in yourself to make it work. That said, here are some business items and practices to keep in mind while you begin your venture.
Turning an Idea into a Solid Plan
Every single successful business venture begins with an idea—the ability to build something that people not only want, but they need. This can be anything from the perfect cup of coffee to a new eBook platform that can compete with Amazon. How do you bring your idea to life exactly?
You sit down at the kitchen table and create a “rough business plan” that not only spells out precisely what you wish to sell, but that identifies all the challenges you’ll encounter. For instance, if you’re interested in creating a networking application for accountants, you need to find out what goes into engineering and developing the app and also how it will meet the needs and wants of your target market.
It’s a lot to take in, but you don’t need to consider everything at the very early stage of the game. Try mapping out your business process in your mind. Eventually this will take the shape of a formal business plan and it will assist you in dealing with all the obstacles and challenges that will inevitably come your way.
Be Self-disciplined
All successful entrepreneurs from Elon Musk to Michael Saylor have one thing in common. Self-discipline. You are the beating heart of your business venture and that means the buck begins and ends with you. You need to stick to your business plan and you also need to meet the goals you’ve established for yourself.
If you naturally lack in self-discipline (if you’re not a self-starter), you need to work on this aspect of your life prior to beginning your business venture. You need to be fully ready to put in all the time and effort your project requires, even if it means sleeping at the office a few nights a week when getting things off the ground.
If you find you will never be self-disciplined enough to start your own business, then be honest with yourself and work for someone else.
Flexibility
Despite having the self-discipline required for sticking to a solid business plan, you also need to the flexibility to make necessary changes. Even if it took a whole lot of blood, sweat, and tears to create your plan, you still need to be “open to changes.”
Through the entire arduous process of engineering your business plan and then carrying it out, your venture will be vulnerable to all sorts of unforeseen factors that might result in either small or even big changes to your plan. As difficult and soul wrenching as some of these challenges can be, having the ability to be flexible can mean the difference between success and failure down the road.
Passion
Passion is always in fashion when it comes to starting a business. It’s what keeps entrepreneurs going during the hard times of which there will be many. If you are a staunch believer in the venture you are undertaking and the product and/or service you are delivering, passion will make you stronger and more determined to keep going.
It also pays to read biographies of notable business persons like the aforementioned Elon Musk or even Thomas Edison who failed nearly 100 times before successfully creating the incandescent lightbulb.
