Are You Ready to Be Your Own Boss?
You’re tired of the grind of the corporate world. Feeling like a simple cog in the machine isn’t the life you wanted. You’re planning to start a business so that you can hand in your two weeks’ notice at the office and become your own boss. Here are some tips to take these monumental steps forward.
Think About Location
One of the hardest parts about small business ownership is picking a good location. The right location will be in a neighbourhood that will be interested in your products or services, and it will be easily accessible to your customer base.
The location will also be one of your biggest expenses. You will need to pay for rent, utilities, maintenance and other essentials to keep a storefront up and running.
If you’re living in an expensive city and you don’t think you have enough savings to get a desirable storefront, ask yourself if you can make your business work online. One of the benefits of running an ecommerce business is that you can eliminate overhead costs for the storefront, and reduce costs for things like inventory management, advertising and personnel.
Think About Funding
Funding is a giant hurdle for new business owners. If you don’t have a significant amount of savings stashed away, you will have a difficult time accessing enough funding to get your ideas off the ground. Banks often reject funding applications from small business owners, especially when they’re in high-risk fields like retail, food and alcohol.
If you don’t have access to an impressive amount of savings, you should turn to an alternative financial resource for support. It won’t have the same hard-line restrictions as a traditional bank. They offer small business loans for startups that need the funding as soon as possible — owners can get access to the funds within days. Not weeks. Not months. Days.
You can use this funding to get your brand-new idea off of the ground until your profits can help you become more financially independent.
Think About Your Market
One of the top reasons for business failure is that there was no market need for those products or services in the first place. Maybe the idea is too dated. Maybe the idea is too niche. Or maybe the idea is being done better by competitors that have more money and that are already beloved by consumers.
Essentially, you need to do your homework. Conduct market research so that you can make sure that the field your tapping into is open to your future products or services. If your business idea is already taken — or worse, completely unwanted — then you know that you have to change your strategy. Ignoring the needs of the market is a good way to set yourself up for disappointment.
After crossing these things off of your checklist, you need to think about one more thing: are you ready to be your own boss? If you’re excited, determined and confident in your ideas, then there’s nothing left to do but make your first move as a brand-new entrepreneur.
