Do Business Well

One of the first questions you should ask yourself is if you will be able to run and manage your new business with the resources you’ll have at hand. For example, if your budget projects that you won’t be able to hire help for the first three months, and you plan to work six full days a week by yourself to be available to serve customers, when will you find the time to do the bookkeeping, recordkeeping, marketing, and all of the other little but very necessary behind-the-scenes aspects of running the business? Will your spouse take care of these responsibilities? Or do you plan to get around to doing them when you have some spare time? Here’s a hint: Once you start a business, the concept of spare time will become a fuzzy but pleasant memory.

Put It In Writing

Some people feel that if they don’t write something down they want to remember later, it’s as good as gone. Successful entrepreneurs know that if they don’t develop a detailed plan in which they list all the myriad responsibilities of running a business, they might as well not start the business in the first place. You will be able to address the details of planning your business, “The Best-Laid Plans.” Here is where you will concentrate on getting as much as you can down in written form.

But before you even type out the title page for your business plan and start to consider where you want to invest your time and money, you’ll need to know if you’ll be able to handle the business with the warm bodies you’ve allotted to your business at start-up. Does it sound too good to be true that you’ll be able to play Superman or Superwoman seven days a week, without a break for yourself or your family? Are your plans just a bit ambitious for the early days of your business?

If so, it may be a good idea to start your business part-time at first, instead of the full-time schedule you had envisioned, or start your business at home instead of renting an outside office. As recently as 1995, entrepreneurs who ran their businesses from home offices used to disguise this fact. Some still do, but far more make it a point to flaunt it, since home entrepreneurship has since become the rule and not the exception.

Here’s something else for you to consider: what if your business takes off beyond your wildest dreams from the very first day? Though it may mean more revenue to work with, it still may mean no additional salary for you, and it may mean a lot more headaches if you expand quickly without figuring on additional help to get the work done. More importantly, does one of your ultimate goals include running a business with hundreds of employees, several branch offices, and with you spending your time managing people instead of doing what you went into business for in the first place?

Though it’s a nice thing to dream about, you must be realistic about your goals. But here’s one truth for every beginning entrepreneur: Once you get a taste of what it’s like to run your own business, your life will never be the same.

After Laying the Groundwork

You’ve started to lay the groundwork: The site is prepped and the cement mixers are ready to go. But wait! Where are the plans?

Many people believe that taking the time to develop a business plan will just slow them down. They’re wrong.

Planning a business is a vital step in starting a business. And it’s not that bad . . .

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