Looking to start your own business? You’ve come up with what you believe is a killer idea and you just can’t wait to put it into action. But before you get too ahead of yourself, have you really thought your idea through, or have you just gotten slightly carried away with the excitement of owning your own company?
There’s a wide variety of reasons why the majority of newly born businesses fail within their first year, however I’ll tell you now that the number one reason is because there hasn’t been enough thought and research put into it. The below are 4 questions to ask yourself before starting a business.
Are You All About the Money?
You might have this pretty image in your head of this pile of money you have from owning an incredible business. If you do, let me just stop you there. Sure, successful businesses can make a lot of money and this is why a lot of people decide they want to start their own. However, behind the million and billion dollar businesses are founders and CEO’s that have a great passion for what they do and love to work their ass off because of it.
Most people can’t see the tremendous work being put in behind the scenes and all they see is the image of money. A business should be something that you love to do, and should be much more important to you than the money involved.
Those that start a business just because they want to become rich will never last and they’re persistence and excitement will slowly begin to fade. Others who are just simply passionate about what they do will find it so much easier as regardless of how much they’re earning, they are doing what they love.
Do You Have an Effective Plan?
Every new business needs a great, fully detailed and complex plan. A plan defines everything and I mean literally everything. It defines what your business does, how it will make money, your budgets, goals, competitors and such for both the short term and long term.
If you don’t put the effort into building a solid business plan, then you will struggle later when you need to look back on this info and you will definitely not be taken seriously by anyone you want to give you a loan.
If you want to know a bit more about business plans and how to begin to write your own, Entrepreneur.com has written an excellent guide on doing so, which covers every step.
What are Your Goals?
Goals essentially define what you’re looking to achieve, whether it be for this business in particular or your career goals in general. They’ll make it clear as to where you want to be in years to come and could be to do with profits, customers, any improvements you need to make and so on. Your business goals should be included in your solid business plan we just spoke about.
Have you actually taken the time to sit down, and write your career goals on a piece of paper? How will this business get you there, is it a stepping stone towards them or the big ticket? Take a moment to write down what you want from life and your career just to remind yourself. Now compare this to your business idea. If it’s still what you want and will take you in the right direction, then that’s good!
How Long Have You Wanted This?
Don’t let this one put you off, but I’ve included it as many people have sudden ideas without thinking them through, and wanted to start a business is a pretty popular one. I’d give it a little bit of time before you confirm to yourself that this is what you really want, and do a little research to improve your knowledge of the work that’s needed.
If being a business owner is something you’ve wanted for a long time then by all means go for it! You’ll never know how far you can go until you try. As long as you’ve thought it through properly.
However, if it’s only been an idea of yours for a short period of time, you might want to give yourself a little more time to think it through. It’s definitely not an easy process, which is why I mentioned above that it should be a passion, an obsession. It could be that it’s just a temporary phase of excitement and will fizz out in the weeks to come.
This article was originally published on Wealthy Gorilla
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