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Things You Should Know About Starting Your Own Business

By: Nick Messe

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Many people aspire to become successful and prosperous in a business of their own and there is no question that for many people it is a great feeling to become one's own boss. Though this is undoubtedly a valuable and worthwhile goal, it is not an easy one to achieve. Ask any successful business person and they will tell you it takes a lot of hard work and persistence to make it happen.

At the most basic level all it really takes to start into business for yourself is an idea. That idea can be as simple as "I want to be my own boss" or "I want to make a lot of money". It can be more substantive like "I want to create the world's best solar panel" or "I want to write software that will change the way business operates." Or it can be more down to earth like "I want to create beautiful wedding cakes" or "I want to sell marketing ideas to local businesses."

You cannot underestimate the importance of having a business idea. This will allow you to speak intelligently with friends, colleagues, potential partners or investors about your business. It will give you a basis for creating a business plan. Talking with others about your idea, and eventually testing it will help you determine if the idea is viable - whether there is a market for your idea and whether there are problems that make it impractical.

Once you are clear about your business idea, and once you have made up your mind to go for it, there are several different routes to get you to your goal. Three of them are the most popular. The first option is to start your own business from scratch. The second is to purchase an already exiting business. And the third is to buy into an already existing business either as a partner or as a franchise owner.

It is not likely that you are going to buy an already existing business - especially one that is worth something - unless you know a lot about the industry, and are reasonably adept at evaluating businesses. In other words, this is not the usual route taken by a person just getting into business for him or herself.

Starting your own business from scratch is probably the most difficult route to business success, but that is offset by the low cost involved in starting a business this way. If you have limited resources you can basically start from nothing, work in your basement, bedroom or garage until you know if the venture has any hope of succeeding, and then expand as resources allow.

The truth is that even if you have a very clear idea of what you want to do and how you intend to do it the chances are pretty good that your exciting new business will not last long. Your first few months or years will likely be unprofitable and like many other businesses before yours it will probably take an injection of new capital from time to time to expand the business or just keep it going until it starts making real money for you.

The statistics for new businesses are not real encouraging. It is usually estimated that about 80% of new businesses have either gone out of business or morphed into something else within 5 years of being established. This probably sounds gloomy and discouraging when you first hear it.

Of course this statistic just lumps all new businesses together - even the most poorly planned and ridiculously impractical are included. But even if you take this into consideration, the chances of your well planned and well organized new business being successful over the long haul cannot be more than about 50% at the very best.

On the other hand there is another equally important statistic about new businesses. Virtually every successful business was at one time a new business. That's 100% of them including all the ones you see up and down the street, advertising on television or being traded on the stock market. If Bill Gates had been overly concerned about failure he would not have started Microsoft.

Or if Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had not begun putting computers together in their parents' garage Apple would never have happened. Pretty much the same goes for Google, Facebook, Twitter, General Motors, Toyota, Sony, Disney and thousands of other household names that all started with an idea. So the bottom line is, if you have a good idea and want to take a stab at being your own boss, go ahead and give it a try.

Starting a franchise is really a kind of hybrid of the first two. You are starting your own brand new business, but the entire business plan and structure has been worked out for you in advance. Your purchase price and franchise fees include an established identity, a complete operations manual, a well-oiled marketing plan, and everything else you need to be up an running in the shortest possible time.

Because most franchises are modeled on successful businesses most of the guess work has been taken out of the exercise. Studies have repeatedly shown that the chance of being successful is much higher than with a business that you start from scratch.And this obviously is very appealing to some aspiring business people.

Of course buying and running a franchise does have its downside. The upfront cost is much more than if you were going it alone. The company procedures, pricing, product lines, supply chains and so on are often restricted to the point that you lose the sense of "being your own boss". All of that reduces your own latitude for creativity and ultimately your sense of "ownership". So if this was one of the reasons you went into business for yourself in the first place, then a franchise may not be right for you.

There is no question that being in business for yourself can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience. But unless you are very lucky, success will not come overnight. To make it happen you will have to work hard and apply yourself much more than if you were working for someone else. Even though the options are limitless and as many people say, the sky is the limit for a business person, never take success for granted.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Encorpus provides small business consulting and strategies for business startups, product launches, or business development. Encorpus customizes and personalizes every strategy, advisory session or business relationship to you and your company's special DNA.

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