Entrepreneurship sounds so sexy, but trust me when I say, it’s not all glitz, glamour, freedom and vacations. It requires unwavering diligence, patience, persistence, prayer and much more. But, if you’ve arrived at this article, I’m assuming either you want to start a business or you already have and you’re wondering if you made the right decision – of course, you did! Moving on, let’s get into it, what are the five questions you should ask yourself before starting a business?
1. Why?
You’re “why” is imperative. If you don’t know why you are doing something, when you hit some turbulence on your road to success, you may just give up entirely because the will was never there, only the desire for the outcome.
One more time for those in the back.
If you don’t know why you are doing something, when you hit some turbulence on your road to success, you may just give up entirely because the will was never there, only the desire for the outcome.
Don’t start a business because everyone else is doing it. Start a business because you want to. Iron out your “why,” live it, breathe it, believe it.
2. Am I built for this?
The truth is, you really won’t know the answer to this question until you know, but you do need to know that you are resilient, relentless and able to recovery quickly because running a business is not for the weak, timid or easily discouraged. If you’re not built for it, that’s okay. Don’t let this generation convince you that having a job is the loser’s route because it’s not. Know that, if you don’t have the wherewithal to put in 40 hours a week for your job, you won’t have the tenacity to put in 100 hours a week for your business – trust me. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone and that’s okay. Do your research. Study your idols and their habits. Can you be that disciplined? What are you willing to sacrifice? Will you give up?
3. What type of business will you start?
An e-commerce store? A coaching business? A personal trainer business? An online business? A brick and mortar business etc.?
Businesses are like music, they have genres.
Pick yours. Study it. YouTube it to death. Take some courses. Invest in yourself. You’re starting a business because you believe in you, it starts with you – then you add a million others!
4. How will you fund your business?
Yes, you can start a drop-shipping store on Shopify for about $50.00 and a heavy dose of Canva, but it’s going to take a lot more than that to scale your business. Most people don’t become entrepreneurs to make chump change.
It takes money to make money.
Even if you’re investing in courses or networking events or Facebook ads or a social media manager etc. it’s still an investment and all of that falls in the category of “business funding.” I’d advise creating an Excel spreadsheet or Word doc that outlines your spending for your business needs. For example, I divide my spreadsheet into four funding categories:
- Marketing
- Education
- Networking
- Profit
You can add more categories, keep none of them, keep them all, I don’t care but at least write it down, make it real.
5. Why?
Ask yourself why, once more, because before you get started you need to know your “why.” I can guarantee that without it, success is possible but, it’s meaningless as well. So, what’s your why?
Get busy, you got this!
If you found this article helpful, insightful or just plain old necessary please share and repost – it’s free and I’d gladly appreciate it. Thank you in advance.
THE IKON. 