Tips To Start Your Own Business

Thinking of starting your own business but is still undecided at this point? To take on such a challenge isn’t just a game that you can easily quit. There are things at stake and it takes a great deal of time and effort to bring any business, big or small, to a big success, “Starting your own business isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s stressful and pretty much demands your complete focus. On the plus side, it can also be a fulfilling experience professionally and personally,” wrote John Rampton for entrepreneur.com in the article 50 Tips to Starting Your Own Company.

Here are some tips for you as you make up your mind in taking this big step in your career as a businessman or entrepreneur:

Do A long Self-Inventory: The decision to stop being an employee for another company and be your own boss shouldn’t be based alone on your desire to have your flexible working hours or never be bossed around again—the reason should be something deeper than that. Rampton shared in his article the need for a self-inventory, “Not everyone has what it takes to start a company. That’s not to say that your idea is not brilliant, but are you ready for all the chores that come with it, like cold calling prospects and invoicing them until you're paid when you start getting clients? It just means that you may not have the personality traits to handle launching a company of your own. Before investing any time or resources, evaluate yourself and see if you have some the typical traits of an entrepreneur. Are you motivated, able to adapt and confident? Are you resilient?”.

Search for possible SME grant: If you are just planning a small business, and you are not sure you can cover the capital that the business needs, the government might just have the right program that can help assist you in your venture. SME and R&D grants are often offered to startup companies by the government because it believes that small and medium sized businesses are the key to a healthy exchange in the economy. Apply for one, and perhaps, you won’t even need to take much from your own pocket if the grant is generous enough to give you ample amount to finally begin your venture.

Determine where you are good at: Deciding on what product or service to offer in your business is pretty much a big deal. Some people think that their college degrees and what they majored in will go down to the drain when they decide to go into their own business—and a lot of former corporate employees think their work experiences before have never taught them anything. Wrong. You may have studied theories in school and may have been trained with a particular skill when you were still working—and you just fail to realize how to integrate those learnings to your current venture. “I was an English language major in college and worked as a Trainer for several years in an advertising company. When I turned 35, I wanted to stop being a corporate slave, and I promised myself I will use up all my savings to building my own company. I initially wanted to franchise a convenience store, but upon months of musing, I realized it was not my passion. So I decided to start my own Online English Teaching company because I already have contacts and possible clients, and I still very much want to apply my education and work experience to what I do. While I do not work anymore as the actual teacher, I now oversee everything as the CEO of my own business. And that is such a big relief knowing what I did in the past still linked to what I do at the present,” shared Tina Schwartz.

Do A SWOT Analysis: SWOT stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats. List down all the possible strengths of your business (e.g. being the first one to offer such a product in your area); weakness (e.g. may be the location of your start up business being too remote for people to reach); opportunities (e.g. may be the opportunity to be a supplier to different stores if you are into product manufacturing business); threats (e.g. may pertain to possible direct and indirect competitors). By doing the SWOT Analysis, you can weigh in solutions so that you can either resolve problems you can anticipate and further improve on the things that may bring you success in the future.