If you are planning on starting your first new business in the New Year, here is some advice for you…for free…take as much or as little of it as you want to.
First. Business is simple. If it is not, then you are doing it wrong. In the end you are simply making something or delivering a service somebody is willing to give you money for. The other thing to remember is you need to tell people about it.
Do not make it complex when it doesn’t have to be. Change your mind set to think SIMPLE.
Choose what you want it to be, a lifestyle business that will provide you with a decent income and you may be able to pass onto your kids, or your friends. Or a business you want to build and sell for far more than it cost to put together. Both are fine but remember if you want to build a business to sell, the more valuable ones normally have a physical product that adds more value than a service business that typically would rely more heavily on YOU for its value to a buyer. Also remember if you are building a business for sale, the person or organisation buying it is probably going to give you more money for it the more cash it generates, otherwise they would leave their money in the bank, or invested in something else.
All businesses that succeed have something, or make something, that people want (yes, we are back to that). Test your business idea properly and thoroughly before you start out, and don’t convince yourself your idea is super, don’t get lost in the fog and excitement of thinking that chocolate teapots really have the potential to sell as a functioning product unless you really have solved the physical fact that chocolate melts! In other words, is your idea unique, or truly disruptive (and I mean DISRUPTIVE, not pretending to be) and will it produce value for its users. Remember people buy OUTCOMES, they buy pottery teapots because they want to make pots of HOT tea.
If you need money to start, borrow it from friends and family, or from a reputable lender. Don’t give up equity when you don’t have to and be patient when trying to find the money to start, even if you must save your own money to start the business.
Be prepared for disappointment, hard work and when you employ people worrying about them being able to pay their mortgages before you pay yours.
Make sure you want to be your own boss, don’t do it because you hate your current boss, or hate your current job, those are reasons to change your job, not start a business.
And finally, if you have a partner talk to them and make sure they are truly willing to support the quest and you. AND tell them that about nineteen in twenty business start-ups fail don’t sugar coat it.
Why would someone who has built successful businesses such as myself be so negative towards the concept of new people becoming entrepreneurs, I hear you ask?
It’s because just like dogs, a business is for life, not just the New Year. If after you have read this, you pass the tests, go for it. Trust me there is very little better than being your own boss.
