Most of us were raised to become an employee. Sent to the best schools and with hard work and a bit of luck, you land your dream job. You stay there for some time but the reality of a 9 to 5 job becomes apparent. From the pressures of work, ever present office politics and your archetypal bad boss. A lot of us want to chart our own destiny, not being beholden to anyone except to yourself and your customers.
We want to make it big but we seem to lack the courage or even an idea on where to start. When you finally take that leap; plunge into the world of self-employment you encounter a lot of challenges that makes you wish you’d go back as a corporate slave.
In this blog, we will give you tips on how to plan your first business, read anecdotes from people who made it and also avoid the common mistakes of most startups.
We hope that this article will inspire to do more research and open the doors of your business in the near future.
Tip #1 Dream Big but stay grounded
This has been always a common theme or advice you’d hear from any successful businessman. Their corporation started out as a dream, an idea, a company that started in their parent’s garage. These are the success stories of the founders of Starbucks, Uber and Apple respectively. All of these mega tycoons of business have big dreams but have tethered themselves to reality by accepting the fact that in order for their big dreams to become reality.
A lot of blood sweat and tears will cost to achieve success and not be deluded by aspirations that success will just take flight.
Tip #2 Find your passion
Don’t get into something that you don’t have the passion or interest in. This will likely be one of those business where it will just slowly fizzle out due to you being sick and tired of it after a couple of years.
Tip #3 Study
Simple enough but a lot of startup failures attribute themselves to owners not recognizing their business landscape. The competition, their target market and logistics. These can be very time consuming and daunting while preparing for your launch but sweating these small stuff can save you a lot of pain in the future.
Tip #4 Embrace technology
There are a lot of technophobes that are satisfied with your typical mortar and brick business that relies on ledger books and bandy clocks. Nowadays, a company’s digital footprint is as important as that of their physical address. With social media; you can reach a global market and you have to be ready to adapt to this new platform. Immerse yourself in the basics on how to walk thru the information superhighway.
Tip #5 Make no Excuses
You are responsible for your life. You can`t keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction- Oprah Winfrey. Be prepared for a lot of setbacks or speed bumps in your road to success. When you find yourself in a pinch, pause and then pick yourself up and go forward. Dont be a person rationalizing all their failures and pointing fingers at other things/people rather that put the focus on yourself and your company.
As always please leave a comment or any suggestions of future topics you would like us to cover. You can also check out our other blog post/s here.
The Bailiwick Team