Want to start your own business? Give it some careful planning first and you'll enhance your odds for success.
1. Ask yourself why? Beware if all your reasons are negative. Say you hate your job and you don't want to face the boss or the time clock one more day. You also need to have positive reasons for being in business for yourself.
Is working alone really fun for you? Are you able to sacrifice a regular paycheck for the chance of bigger return down the road? Will you be willing to work longer than an ordinary working day to make your business succeed?
If you answered "yes" to these questions, you may be ready to be a business owner. It's better to be running toward something you want then to be running away from something you don't want.
2. Listen to the advice of people who really know. A man thinking of quitting his job to open a business first told his co-workers, who were horrified at the possibility. So were a couple of family members and a neighbor. Then he realized that none of these well meaning people had ever been in a business for themselves.
He went to a community organization of small business owners, who supported his idea. One even wanted to go into business with him. Don't ignore all negative advice. Consider where it's coming from. And get all the advice you can from individuals who are likely to know.
3. Make sure you know what you're doing. People who like to cook good food dream of owning a restaurant where strangers by the dozen praise their recipes. Cooking for your friends isn't the same as cooking for the public day after day. Too many would-be restaurateurs found the realities a lot different from the dream. They might have done better if they'd spent some month working in the kitchen or the back office of somebody else's restaurant.
Innkeepers, amateurs painters and many others try to convert a hobby into a business are likely to ignore the practical and financial side of running a business. It's important to find what you like to do, but it's equally important to know something about the type of business you're starting.
4. Study your customers. Before deciding to sell a product to large numbers of people, find out what a few prospective customers think of it. Have a model or prototype to show, and see if you can get some orders. When people have comments, good or bad, write them down. If the first half dozen people you talk to think the product is too costly, you probably need to rethink the price. When people say they like your product, find out why and how they'd use the product.
5. Plan how you'll sell the your product. If you aren't starting out with a big budget, you'd better plan carefully how you'll sell your product. It's possible to start a retail business with a desk at home and a few classified ads in the newspapers. Sometimes sales pick up fast through party-sales; give one party to get the ball rolling and sign up the people attending to give their own parties. Will you need a yellow pages ad? Flea market space? These need to be booked month in advance.
Not sure what's going to work best? Try many different methods as you can and keep track of the results.
6. Study your competition. Your competitors aren't the enemy. Think of them as your forerunners. Anybody who has been in business a year or more is doing something right. Find out what it is. In fact, find out all you can about their operation. Their mistakes are mistakes you can avoid once you know what they are. Don't think that you have to beat the competition on every score. Some upstarts want to undercut the competition by offering a lower price. Think long and hard before you do that. If somebody else has been in business longer then you have, they probably have a better idea of the cost and overhead than you have. A lower price might win your customers, but if it doesn't yield profit, you've made a big mistake.
Try to distinguish yourself from your competition in some way, large or small. Add a feature or service that sets your product apart. Then be prepared to answer the question "How is yours different?" with a rundown of your products unique features and benefits.
If you're sure your product is the best, just say so. Don't say that your competition product is inferior. Let your customers come to that conclusion when you've demonstrated that you try harder and do an all-around better job.
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