I’ve gotten a lot of inquiries lately via email and messages from business owners and bloggers with things like, “How did you start your business?” and “I’m so behind,” and, “Is it supposed to be this hard?”
The answer is Yes. Starting a business is HARD. Maintaining a successful steady business is even harder and YES, you CAN do it!
When I started each of my businesses, I had really been working on them all for months before they actually launched. I planned and strategized and did a risk analysis to really decide whether I would want to go full force and essentially take the risk of failure on my businesses and my reputation. To this day, I still consider the first 6 months or so of a new business to be an experiment. Fortunately, my “experiments” are working.
The best advice I can give is to know what you are getting yourself into before you start.
1. Do your research. Know who your competition is, understand how they do things and do them differently.
2. Have a financing plan. While there are low budget ways of getting your business off the ground, you will need some cash flow.
3. Get your legal documents in place. Nothing is worse than starting a business only to realize that the name you chose is already owned by someone else, or the domain is already taken.
4. Be unique! Anyone can open up a coffee shop, bakery or jewelry store. Not everyone has your concept! What will make your business different from all of those other coffee shops and bakeries out there? Before you launch your business, know the answer to this question.
5. If you need help that’s ok! Ask your friends, family, colleagues for opinions. This is great market research before you begin the greatest adventure of your life. If you are trying out a new recipe for your restaurant have your network of supporters actually try it!
Remember, you are not perfect. You may not get it right the first time and that is ok. Don’t let anyone discourage you. You won’t know unless you try- that’s what I did!