Steve Urkel is an iconic character from the American sitcom, Family Matters.
He was most famous for the phrase, “Did I do that?”
That is a phrase I pray you never use when describing your business creation?
Keeping in mind the regretful tone of “Did I do that?”, let’s look into the many factors that influence your reason for starting a business.
Before you start a business…
Know your reasons for selecting it
Technical Variables such as:
- Market Size
- Profit Margin
- Ease of doing business
- Well Connected Partners
- Market Share
- Potential Growth
- Barriers to entry
Personal Variables such as:
- Personal inclination towards the product and / or service
- Passion for the product and / or service
- Skillset for the product and / or service
- Existing circumstances that can possibly push you towards starting something new
- Starting a fun working project with a family member or close friend
Starting is easy. It’s what after setting up that matters.
What do you consider a start? Entity incorporation, domain purchase, website creation?
That is what most people focus on at the start.
Don’t get me wrong, those are necessary, but they don’t make your business a business.
If you have a product or service that people want and are willing to part with their cash for, you’re in business.
How you decide to grow that business would be the challenging part.
Ask yourself about what it takes to grow your business to your desired level and if you have a realistic plan and support to get there.
Does your business plan fit into your life plan?
It’s easy to get carried away with starting.
Very often, shallow thinking lulls us into avoiding thinking about how starting and growing your own business factors into your lifestyle.
You can definitely start and stop the business whenever you want.
However as time goes by, there will be more resources (i.e. people, equipment, customers etc.) involved in the business.
That will affect and influence the way you manage it in relation to your life.
Making a life plan before you start helps you gain clarity on how the new business factors into what you desire for your life.
If you make your life plan a priority and have clear goals going into the business, it helps you make business decisions that work for you.
It helps you prevent decisions that might stem from peer pressure, your ego and customers.
You definitely want to avoid making decisions impulsively.
Do you know your working cadence?
Hustle culture has been glamourised in the media. Society celebrates the hardworking entrepreneur who gets up at 5am and gets into back to back meetings, while finishing the day with an intense spin class followed by a fancy dinner to end the day.
Everyone is unique. Only you know your own limits and preference.
You can attempt to mimic or emulate aspirational people to see what works for you. My advice would be to take what you like and leave what doesn’t suit.
Success doesn’t have a timeline. Very often, the target is self-imposed as a means to create internal pressure, to infuse drive towards the goal.
If you accelerate towards it without a care of your welfare and some semblance of balance, you might burn out.
In line with the life plan, your business only works if it works for you.
You determine the pace in which you’re comfortable with.
Alone or with a Team?
Are you comfortable going at it alone?
Do you prefer to work with someone that can offer skills that you don’t possess?
Are you good at working and collaborating with someone professionally?
How would you address disagreements and conflicts?
There is no prescription to this.
You decide what works best for you and what would be best for your business.
Featured Image Source: Wikipedia
Toying with the idea of starting a side business or a brand new business? You might find this Brutally Honest Side Hustle Worksheet useful. You can download it here.
If you prefer one-on-one coaching, I’ve transitioned from corporate jobs to startups to SMEs and lived to tell the tale. I’m here to listen and see how your entrepreneurship journey can be made more satisfying whilst still hitting the milestones you’ve set for yourself. Read more about how you can work with me here.
This post is part of a 3 post series about starting your own business. You can read them in the suggested sequence below. Thanks for reading.
Scripting Life 
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