Many people have a preconceived notion that if they start a small business it will eventually make them rich and get them out of their humdrum life. These people open the doors of their new business and then wonder why they don’t have the customers they thought they would have. They continue to barely stay afloat each and every day while they sink deeper and deeper into debt. Eventually, tired and worn out, they close their doors.
Would better planning help these people? Probably not.
Why Do You Want Your Own Small Business?
People start a small business for a number of reasons. Some start a small businesses because they have a passion. They believe in their passion so much that they believe customers will also believe in their passion. What these people fail to understand is that if it were that easy, everyone would be doing it. Sure, everyone has a passion but some passions were not meant to become small businesses and some passions will never make money.
Then there are those who start a small business because they think they have the latest and greatest new product or invention. Just because you have the next best widget does not mean you are going to make a million dollars. In fact, getting a new widget off the ground is probably one of the hardest ways to start a small business. Unless you have a bazillion dollars for advertising, most potential customers will not even look at your new product and walk right by it.
There are also those who consult every self-help book they can lay their hands on. They listen diligently as the self-help guru’s talk about, “Believing your way to success,” or, “Thinking and wishing about success constantly will bring you success,” or, “Manifesting prosperity.” These guru’s also say, “Find your true passion and the money will come.”
This confuses people and often points them in the wrong direction. How do you know when you have found your true passion so that the money will come? Also, for those who are living paycheck to paycheck with absolutely no money to spare, how do they become entrepreneurs?
The problem with most self-help books is that everything if fluffed. The information you get looks so easy that any idiot could do it when in fact any idiot cant. Life is not like the movies with perfectly plotted happy endings. Life is nothing more than a bunch of up and down surprises. How you deal with the surprises on a daily basis will determine if you will be a winner or a loser.
Are You a Winner or a Loser?
Life is full of winners and losers. The losers get knocked down and stay down while they talk about what they are going to do. Losers will reminisce about how unhappy they are in their life. They will pick apart their life from 10, 20, or even 30 years ago. Then they will dwell on past mistakes they believe they have made. They will resent people and situations that they believe stopped them from doing what they wanted to do. They will blame everyone and everything. They successfully wake up and reinforce all of their negative situations and experiences stored in their subconscious mind.
Winners get knocked down and get right back up. They learn from their mistakes and immediately move on. Winners will work their rears off to get what they want out of life.
It is your life and you are in charge. You are the director. You are the creator of your path of life. Your life is what you make it. You are the only one who is one hundred percent responsible for your own successes and failures. If you really want to change your life, you will. You will do whatever it takes, within reason, to succeed.
Small Business: What’s it Really Like?
Once you start a small business you will find that it is one of the hardest jobs you will ever have. It is much harder than working for some micromanaging jerk. There are days when nothing goes right. Each day if filled with new surprises.
Most days are filled with worry. You worry that you will have the income to meet your expenses and you worry about the customers liking your product or service. If you have employees you will worry about each of them showing up for work so you do not have to cover another shift. You then worry if your employees will get along and not argue in front of your customers or worst yet, if they are bad mouthing you in front of your customers. You will worry about your customers being able to consume your advertising messages.
You also worry if your products will arrive on time and in good condition. You know you cannot sell products which are damaged and you have customers waiting on these products now. You worry about the amount of products you have ordered and if they will sell.
You worry if your products will be delivered on time and in good condition to your customers. You certainly don’t want unhappy customers!
Small business and worry go hand in hand. And when your day is over, you must then tend to your books because you worry about looking like an idiot in front of your CPA and also, you must take care of your spouse and your children. Your day could easily last fourteen to sixteen hours before it ends.
So Why Do So Many People Want Their Own Small business?
Speaking from experience, having your own business is one of the most rewarding and self-fulfilling achievements you could ever make in your entire life. You go to bed each night feeling good about your accomplishments.
When you own your own business, there isn’t any 500 page policy and procedure manual, there isn’t any micromanaging jerk to tell you what to do every five minutes, and most importantly, if you want to take time off to go to your child’s soccer game, most times you do it.
If you have employees and you treat them right, they will move the earth for you. They will also take care of each other as well as become your best form of word-of-mouth advertising. They will want your business to succeed as badly as you do.
The vendors you purchase your products or supplies from should also become your friends. They are interested in you becoming successful so you will purchase products from them, thus giving them a commission from the manufacture. They should earn your business; they are a wealth of information about your industry and should help you in every way they can.
When you have your own business, you will be surprised at how many entrepreneurs you will meet. You will become friends with these people and will trade advice often.
Many consumers want to do business with smaller, more accessible American companies and are turning to smaller businesses.
One of the best reasons to own your own small business is the ability to make good sound business decisions. Owners can see changing trends and quickly make the changes needed to continue the customer loyalty they have worked so hard to build.
Recent surveys by the National Retail Federation have found that consumers are more inclined to shop at businesses with better customer service. This is a new and emerging trend which many small businesses can easily take advantage of.
Small businesses do not have the extra expense from negotiating million dollar contracts with CEO’s just in case the CEO runs the business into the ground. They do not need high priced college professionals without any real life business experience telling them how to run their small business.
Small businesses interact with their customers on a daily basis. They can easily customize their products for the needs of their customers because they know their customers so well. They develop a deep knowledge and understanding within smaller markets which are too small for the big businesses. Small businesses are small and can find opportunities to flourish in niches that big business do not want to bother with.
Small businesses closely watch their “numbers,” but live by their customers and employees. They understand that without their customers and employees, they will cease to exist. Small businesses understand the key to getting their employees to be passionate about their work is through autonomy and creativity.
Small businesses are no longer in the shadows of the global giants. They can serve international markets just as easily as they can serve their local customers. Going global has never been easier.
Thanks to the internet, there is an endless supply of information available for any type of research anyone could want or need as they begin to start a small business. There are endless stories about people without money, family, or a support group who started their own small businesses and succeeded. There are hundreds of websites to learn the legal procedures needed for starting a small business. There are thousands of small business owners willing to share stories of horror and success.
Short on cash? Many small businesses are easily started in a home office with a computer. Equipment can easily be purchased new or used from hundreds of websites. There are freelance artists, website designers, programmers, logo designers, and many more creative people who are extremely inexpensive.
Starting a small business is the hardest, most rewarding work anyone could ever do. It drains you mentally and physically, but the rewards are invigorating. When you have your children working in the business, they learn the values of hard work, as well as the rewards.
Some entrepreneurs will get filthy rich from their small business, others will be financially comfortable, and then there are those entrepreneurs who will fail miserably. You must ask yourself if you are willing to take the risks to live your life’s dream.
