Archive for December, 2011

How to Start a Small Business – How You Manage Your Own Thoughts Comes First

December 31st, 2011

Ideas, without action, never become bigger than the brain cells they occupy

The key to how to start a small business is less about knowing the mechanical sequence of business idea, business plan, business finance etc and more about the way in which you think and how you manage your thoughts.

The key has to do with your own

  • intention
  • will
  • persistence
  • perseverance
  • resilience

If you have a tendency to dwell on a negative thought or occurrence, this may very well prevent you from taking action to start your own business. You can learn how to manage your thoughts in a way that empowers you toward the accomplishment of your objectives. This ability is essential to start on the road to becoming your own boss.

How to start a small business – the mechanical part

When thinking about how to start a small business, the mechanical part is the easy part.
The mechanical steps are:

STEP 1 Business Ideas
STEP 2 Business Plan
STEP 3 Financing
STEP 4 Getting started
STEP 5 Opening the Doors (if it is an offline business)

It is easy to find advice about steps 2-5. Much has been written about them. There can be much to learn about getting business ideas, although it is much easier than you may think.

I have fully covered the subject of getting business ideas in a separate article entitled “How To Start A Home Business – Getting The Idea For your Business”

How to start a small business – your intention

The dilemma that many people face is:

should you carry on in your current job or should you leave it to start your own small business? The current job pays the mortgage and the other bills. But, you may be unhappy in the job. There may be stress. It may require long hours. There is always the risk of lay off. You must have a strong intention and desire to live life and earn your living on your own terms, to breakthrough and make the decision to start your own small business.

How to start a small business – your will to succeed

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt ~ William Shakespeare

It is human to experience doubt. We all have doubts running through our minds on all sorts of things. When you consider starting your own business, doubts will enter your mind. It is natural. You are entering an area that is unknown to you. Those who succeed in starting their own business will have a way of dealing with their doubts so that they do not dwell on them. Dwelling will lead to inaction. Inaction will lead to no business of your own.

The will to breakthrough on the doubts, and also to overcome other obstacles along the way, will come from your motivation to start your own small business. The level of strength of your will is comparable to the level of motivation you have to start your own business. To increase your will, you need to increase your self motivation.

How to start a small business – your persistence, perseverance and resilience

Your persistence, perseverance and resilience with also be down to your mindset – how you think and how you manage your thoughts. As with any endeavor, when going into business for yourself you will encounter difficult challenges and perhaps some disappointments. As you will likely be on your own, your mental approach to these things is important.

If you allow your attention to dwell on the negative, you will not have the ability to bounce back quickly. You must train yourself to do two things when you experience challenges

  1. learn from negative experiences quickly
  2. quickly re-frame those experiences in your mind in a way that empowers you to accomplish your objectives

I think that the most crucial and first element when considering how to start a small business is how you manage your own thinking process and your own thoughts.

I am going to close this article with a pertinent quote from Confucius.

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall”

As an executive coach and a life coach for the past 20 years, I have helped hundreds of people to make the transition from being employed to becoming their own boss.

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How to Start a Small Business in Five Steps

December 30th, 2011

Furthermore you could be a baby boomer coming up for retirement having lost your 401k or maybe you are already a retiree and wish to start a small business to boost your retirement fund. You could even be a stay at home mom who is on maternity leave and you are seeking alternatives to returning to work. Are you a work from home dad looking to start a small business independently? Are you a franchise owner who is drained by heavy overhead and other expenses? Would you like to know how to start a small business in five steps?

1: Business Ideas: have you considered what business you would like to start up? Many people have a desire to be a business owner or an entrepreneur but have no idea what business they wish to start. Perhaps you are seeking a small franchise business opportunity or you have your eye on an existing small business you are considering purchasing or investing in. Once you have brainstormed some business ideas and know what business you wish to start up, now it is time for the real work to begin.

2: Business Plan: once you have your business idea down on paper you need to begin building a business plan. This is essential because it is how you and others will evaluate your business potential. If you are considering financing, lenders or investors will want to see a definitive business plan before they will consider funding you. Even if you are financing the business yourself you will still need a written business plan to develop business strategies and financial projections. Essential to the business plan is the marketing strategy that will be implemented to advertise and promote your products and services. Setting goals in your business plan will enable you to analyse future business success and outlines the capital required to ensure progressive peak profitability.

3: Financing: now that you have your business plan you need to consider financing. Many small businesses have three key areas where capital can be raised in addition to or an alternative to a possible personal savings fund: family and or friends, investors, bank loans. Each of these options has various considerations key to the business. Family, friends and investors will want to have ownership and control over their portion of the business. Bank loans can burden the business with high interest rates through loan repayment and this can have a detrimental effect on your small business profits.

4: Getting Started: you now have the idea, the plan and the money to start your small business. In addition to this you will need the right mindset to drive your focus forward so that you can begin getting results. However another key element to starting your small business is essential to the mix. The legal structure of your small business is imperative to the legitimate small business owner. First you will need to decide if you are going to be a Sole Proprietor, be in a Partnership or operate as a Corporation. Financing options will be dependent on which legal structure you choose. Once this has been decided you can file with the state (US) to incorporate and obtain a federal identification number.

5: Open The Business Doors: now it is time to start making money. In order to make money you need to spend money. Where will your business be located? Will you run a home based office or do you need to rent a commercial space to provide your product and service to your customers? Will you need to hire employees to help you run your small business? Or would you need to outsource some of your marketing to specialists or experts? What about hiring an accountant or bookkeeper? Then of course you need to consider taxes. What taxes do you have to pay and collect?

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