Do you dream of starting your own business?
- Escape the corporate grind and become your own boss.
- Build a better lifestyle, do something you love, and semi-retire.
- Diversify your investment portfolio with an additional source of income.
Many people have this dream, but never do anything about it. Either they’re too scared, or they don’t know how to get started. How do you know if it business ownership is right for you?
It boils down to two things. First, do you have the resources to start a business? Second, are you willing to put in the work to learn what it takes to be successful?
Do You Have the Resources?
Starting a business takes time and money.
It takes time to design, start, and build your business to where it’s profitable and successful. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck and looking to get rich quick, business ownership probably isn’t for you.
You can start a business from scratch as a hobby, without investing much money, but it probably won’t go anywhere (I’ve made this mistake a few times). To quickly grow a business, you need to commit to it and invest in the business itself. You need to pay for things like design, marketing, employees or outsourcing work, and business systems.
You can speed up the time and your odds of success with a franchise. Here you get a proven business model (already tested and successful in other locations), training and support to get you started, and leverage existing business systems so you don’t have to do everything yourself. However, franchises also have an upfront investment that you need to put into the business to get it started. (Feel free to shoot me a comment if you want some examples of franchise costs of businesses that might interest you).
There is also risk to starting any business, and you shouldn’t start a business if you can’t afford the risk. That said, the payoff can make it worth it!
Are You Willing to Learn What It Takes?
At first glance, of course you’re going to say yes to this, but you need to think deeper.
Starting a business means making decisions without enough information. It means taking risks, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes quickly. It means working hard, but not so hard that you get burned out.
For some people like me, this learning can be really fun. You’re also growing as a person, and transforming from an employee into a CEO! But you need to have an open mind, be ready to make mistakes, and be ready to adapt to constant change.
Again, a way to speed this up is with a franchise. You don’t need either business or industry experience to run a franchise — they will teach you all that. But you do need to be willing to learn to follow their systems.
Starting a business is hard work at first. You have to build everything from scratch. But if you do it the right way, building it up over time so that it runs itself, it can give you more freedom than a job ever could. I know, because I’ve built up several businesses so that I barely have to work anymore.
Getting Started
Want to learn more? I’ve run multiple businesses (including two franchises), all part-time while developing my dream lifestyle as an Easy Entrepreneur. I’ve also worked with dozens of other business owners at all stages of the entrepreneurship process.
I’m happy to chat and share my experiences. Send me any questions and I’ll get back to you. If you’d like to have a 1-1 call or video chat, send me a few times that are good for you (I’m available most days, including evenings). And don’t worry, I’m not going to sell your information or spam you 🙂