People nowadays know that being a entrepreneur can improve their quality of living; with more and more of the population facing their fears and searching for ways to leave the rat race. How many of you reading right now are still working for someone else....? First question to ask yourself, is it because you want to or have to? If the answer to that question is the latter then this will be some information for you to chew on...
Lets start with some basics - First identify what is a business....?
Their are levels to all industries, and just because it may take time for you to reach where you would ultimately love to be in business doesn't make you an amateur. There are professionals that work their business part time and if you treat your business with respect and integrity (doing what you say you will do above all else), clients will appreciate that and allow you to grow nit everyone wants the corporate chain. I say that to begin to dispel a myth that you have to be full time to truly be in business for yourself. Don't get me wrong, it helps when you are readily available, but most of us with responsibilities outside of ourselves can't afford to start out that way.
What shows a level of professionalism is when your business has systems in place. Systems allow you to be more productive and can allow you to replicate yourself in different parts of your funnels. Those systems help establish a consistent product that clients can rely on and you can rely on to build a revenue stream weekly or monthly.
Lastly, a business is transferable meaning that should you need to liquidate, use for leverage, or just plain die you are able to transfer the business to another party or at least shares within that business.
It’s important to identify what you have in-front of you early, because that will let you know what is involved with scaling the business, what is needed for it grow like its your baby, and for any new business it is a baby.
RECAP
- Professionalism - the opposite of...not honoring your clients or audience (amateurish)
- Systems - being replicable, increasing efficiency, and building consistency for trust
- Transferable - A business is transferable; skill set is not...
What I just said may sound controversial to you because if you are a content creator, salesman, product flipper, service provider that is generating income passively you are reaping some of the benefits of owning a business. But your business isn’t transferable immediately, however with the right approach it can be made into a complete business that provides support for your family for years to come. Maybe something discussed in a later post...
Now that we explained what a business is it’s important to address some pros and cons associated with starting a business.
CONS
Time Involved (can’t replace it)- you have to master your craft, learn, research, develop and find what works with in your industry and that takes time; for many of us there is a learning curve that has to take place before we can really start generating the type of income we truly want.
Money - no matter what business you are in there will be a cost financially. Not saying you can’t start a business from scratch or with no money down. But every business will have money vested.
Rejection/Failure - this isn’t tangible like the other two but for some is difficult to handle and it is a necessary part of mastering your business. Expecting that going in doesn't change the negativity of it, but knowing that it will be a certainty manages your expectations early and allows for long term vision.
Sacrifice - I wanted to separate this and give it its own special category because you will be doing this at any stage of your entrepreneurial investing life. And it’s important to become comfortable with making those sacrifices. I heard a quote from TD Jakes recently where he said he knows at the end of each day he is going to leave at least one thing undone and one person unhappy everyday....he just tries to make sure it’s not the same person or the same thing in consecutive days. And this includes yourself.
PROS
Growth - the first day of your entrepreneurial life will teach you something and if you are wise enough to take notes on yourself and pay attention there is a tremendous amount of growth from that point
Flexibility- most entrepreneurs while working a lot, also can pick and chose the schedules that fits there lifestyle the best. (KIDS, Productivity time, etc.)
Control - no matter what your industry is as an entrepreneur you have complete control over your income, over your time, over your choices. No one can ever fire you from your business and even if you aren’t majority shareholder in a company they still have to buy you out lol.
Money - when your business finally works and you get connected to resources that help you thrive you are able to make money that you use in any fashion you see fit. You can reinvest in the business, you can leverage it to generate more money, attract investors, pull resources to fund new projects/ideas.
Taxes - I put this on here because many entrepreneurs are able to reap the benefits of deductions and itemizing that most employees aren’t able to access, and if you've never operated a business before it doesn't fully come to mind what that can do to a tax return or simply not owing the IRS. disclaimer (I am not a CPA, speaking only from my own experience)
This is short list of both pros and cons to starting a business from scratch, there maybe more that you can think of really comes down to PERCEPTIONS too.
Now since we have identified some of the good and bad associated with running a business let’s take a look at few things that make a business right for you.
There are thousands of businesses out there and even more ways just to make money. So identifying what is best for you will be essential to your success of that business. Because when the cons begin to set in and again they will, for you the added benefit of choosing a business that adds more pros will motivate you to push past those cons.
AVAILABLE TIME TO WORK THE BUSINESS: there will be a sacrifice to all business as we talked about, but there are some things that you are responsible for and can not sacrifice: family, medical issues, religious commitments, etc. So identifying how many hours and what times you can work the business needs to be clear before committing.
COST OF DOING BUSINESS: how much does it cost to begin this business. What I’ve realized that the initial cost to most businesses is never enough so if you are not comfortable with that first investment then walk away.
What systems are in place? What do you have to create? There are some turnkey businesses where you are profitable on day one or at least generating revenue day one. Then there are others where you will have to create those systems and find the inefficiency to be profitable. These are all questions again need to be answered before committing so you can place a Value on that business.
PASSION: Am I passionate about this business/industry? Passion, excitement, and fulfillment are key to being successful business owner. When those are present energy is increased, momentum is increased, and productivity is increased: which means Money is increased.
GOALS: Knowing what you want out of life is important for anything, ask yourself "Would this business get me closer to my goals?" Identify what you are looking for right now, 6 months from now, a year and etc. Will this business get me there, how long would that take.
These are a few things that you want to consider when entering into any business. Grade it or score to see what the value of that business is to you. The higher the grade or score the more that business is for you.
Hope this helps some of you considering investing your money and especially your time into a new opportunity.
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