A reader from Portland, Oregon left a sobering comment at SNOBS a few days back. It was in response to our article 7 Steps to Starting a Home Based Business, which could easily be described as encouragement for those with entrepreneurial tendencies.
You’ll find many more articles like that from us, too, but this comment from Jim Smith at YCHANGE International definitely hit home with a few realistic facts. We emailed to ask if he would mind us not approving his comment, so we could give his sage advice more attention in this article.
Jim is the Sales, Marketing and Turnaround Executive for YCHANGE, a company he founded in 1993, which assists start-up and expanding small businesses with the planning, marketing knowledge and paperwork needed to get going.
Do yourself a favour and read Jim’s 10 Points to Ponder before Starting a Small Business; the article referenced in his SNOBS’ comment. There are two links in there skewed toward American readers but, otherwise, the messages are universal and really important. Below are the two that inspired this article:
You want to launch your own business because…
You’re Tired of Working 9-to-5
You think that going into business will give you more flexible hours. If you’re lucky, you’ll be working 14-16 hours per day and thinking about the business the rest of the time. In 12 to 18 months, when the business gets off the ground, perhaps you’ll be able to hire a manager and have your flexibility. But not right away.
You Want to Work For Yourself
You’re tired of bosses and want to do your own thing. Well, you’ll be doing your own thing except that your customers will be your boss. You won’t have just one boss, you’ll have many. This can be rewarding since multiple people will be giving you advice and counsel.
SO TRUE!
And here are a few more points to consider, purely from a SNOBS’ perspective:
Don’t Rely on Friends & Family for Free PR
This is not because they don’t love you, support your vision and truly hope for your success – they just have their own lives and careers. Even if they find (or make) time to help with word-of-mouth marketing, there’s a good chance they don’t grasp the message you’re trying to spread.
Think of someone you know and care about who runs their own business. No doubt, you’ve listened to them spray on about it (with lots of compassion and interest, of course). If they -extremely hypothetically speaking – offered to pay you $1000/hour to take care of business for them; for one month, beginning tomorrow… how long do you think it would take you to become a benefit, not a burden?
Minimal Start-up Costs Do Not Equal Swift Breakeven
Whenever I feel like a good laugh (or cry) I take a stroll through the “financial forecast” section of my 101-page business plan for SNOBS.
I remember my step-dad, who runs his own business, telling me it would take 1-2 years before I made a profit. I nodded my head, listening, but I was thinking, “He doesn’t understand how digital media works.”
I forecasted – because a website like mine costs next to nothing compared to standard business start-up costs – that I’d have it paid off and pulling a profit within 6 months.
NEWS FLASH: It takes a lot longer than 6-months to brand a service, get to know the audience/customers you’ve attracted with that branding and then educate potential clients about what’s going on so they’ll see a need to buy into what you’ve created.
When people ask me how SNOBS is going, my answer is, ‘Thank GOD I love what I’m doing.’ I’m not religious, but I pray for this business to work before it becomes stale to me. If you took away the excitement and enthusiasm I feel for it everyday, running SNOBS would be nothing short of arduous slave labour; that I inflicted upon myself!
I used to think it was such a cliché to hear people credit their business success to “passion and determination” but one day, when I’m hopefully describing my success, that’s precisely what I’ll tell Oprah… I mean, er, whoever it is asking the question.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I like to tell people that all products and business will go through three phases. There’s vision, patience, and execution.
if u ll follow this three steps u ll never regret to your self in your busniess.