Many people working nine to five jobs have great ideas for their own small business. Pursuing your own business can be rewarding, bringing both financial gain and personal satisfaction. However, most new ventures fail within their first twelve months. So what is the difference between a small business success and a career flop?
Choosing The Right Business
The primary focus of your business should match your own skill set. For instance, a party planning business will require a highly organised person with excellent interpersonal skills. Running a retail shop takes someone with great customer service, an eye for purchasing, as well as strong management skills. It’s important to consider the day to day tasks your business will involve. Also, it’s important that you will enjoy them, as you’ll be putting in plenty of hours.
Of course, there will likely be a gap to bridge between the skills you do have and those you don’t. For instance, if you’re not sure about things like GST, it may be wise to take a bookkeeping course.
Many businesses fail because they are started for the wrong reasons. Being self-employed is hard: you’ll likely be working more hours and making far less money, at least for the first few years. You’ll need to have plenty of passion and drive.
Do Plenty of Homework
Before you start investing your time and money, it’s important to know that your business can work. If you know someone who has a similar business, ask them for their advice. Even if they are in a different industry, you can learn from other’s mistakes and take on board what they did right.
Plan for Success
Perhaps the most common reason for small business failures is bad planning. Each component of a new business should be well mapped out. Even if you are working alone from home, there are many aspects of running a business that need to be taken into consideration.
Before you do anything else, have a business plan in place. If you are looking at borrowing money, this is the first thing a bank will want to see. Target markets, operations, human resources and financial projections could all make up part of a business plan.
Another important part of your business plan is where your business is going to be located, and how people will find you. If your business depends on people coming into a shop, suite or factory, then location is everything. It’s well worth researching the right kind of spaces, their cost and availability.
Knowing your target market and how you will reach them is also important. There are a range of ways you can market your business, consider which ones will work for you.
Making Your Start
While not possible in every situation, many people choose to start building their business while still working in a full time job. The benefit of this is that when you make the plunge you will already have some clients and income to get you started. The downside is that your time is limited, and burning the candle at both ends can quickly wear you down.
There are many aspects of making your small business plans become a reality. No matter how great your ideas are, you’ll need the right skills, planning and marketing to see them come to fruition.
