Simplify Your Business Success – For New Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners (Part 2 of 4)

Success is simple. Would you believe me if I told you so?

In order to succeed in your new adventure as an entrepreneur or small business owner, you need three things right: Right reason, right mentality, and right game plan.

Before we get to the game plan, you would need to figure out the right reason.

Why do want to do this? Why do you want to own your own business?

Let me tell you what will NOT happen by owning and running your own business:

1. You will NOT make a lot of money right off the bat.

2. You will NOT work fewer hours than you were as an employee.

3. You will NOT have less stress.

4. You will NOT lose the obligations to make everybody happy.

Now that we threw them out in the open, let’s look at 1 reason that will hold a huge percentage towards your success or failure.

PASSION

You have to love what you do. There’s no other way around it.

Why? Because there will be a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of long hours and a lot of pulling your hair out and happy dances. If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, you won’t make it. Not for long, anyway.

Don’t try to fool yourself and say you love something, then go into business doing it. Because it might work at the beginning, and after a few years, and after all those money, time and effort you invested, a big wave will come and it will hit right to the spot where you will say, “I’m done”. By that time, what you will lose, and what you had gain won’t be comparable.

How to determine if you really have passion for something or it’s just an impulsive interest?

*Talk to your loved ones. People who’d known you for a long time. Parents. Siblings. Childhood friends.

*Look through your school albums. Look at your toys collections. Read your diary.

A lot of us think that we love what we (currently) do cause we can handle it. “It’s alright” is not the same as “I’m loving it”. And most of the time, our real passions are something that we don’t know it right off the bat. With all kind of stresses that we face in today’s world, it’s really easy to misidentify what actually drives us from the inside.

A lot of people, including myself, will do what it takes to survive. Even if it means to make ourselves love what we do, not do what we love. And that’s okay. We all have to start somewhere. Be it for the money, the experiences, or the knowledge.

And therefore, opinions from people who’d known us for a long time, especially from the childhood times, more often than not, are the most important ones  Why? Because when you’re a kid, when you have no burdens or responsibilities in life, you loved what you loved.

So figure that out. Do a lot of soul searching. And here’s the truth. If you can, don’t think about it too hard. Because sometimes, the moment you need something and look for it, you can’t find it. But the times you’re not looking, it’s right there.

My point: Do what relaxes you. When something comes up, write it down. Or call your best friend/sibling/parents, and asked, “Have I always loved this?” and go from there.

As soon as you figure out what your passion is, turn it into a niche for your business.

That will be the first step for your business success. You still have some long miles to go, but we’ve simplified the most important thing. Your reason to succeed. You do something because you love it, and it will be your starting point to build something, your success for a long time.

Next step to simplify your business success, is to determine if you have what it takes to own a business, right mentality. It will be on my next article, Simplify Your Business Success – For New Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners (Part 3 of 4).

Success is simple. Would you believe me if I told you so?

A brief summary of my previous posts: In order to succeed in your new adventure as an entrepreneur or small business owner, you need three things right – Right reason, right mentality, and right game plan.

So you’ve figured out WHY you want this and that you DO have what it takes. You’d taken off with a great start. Now is time for the most important thing: A Game Plan. It’s actually a Business Plan we’re talking about here, but you already knew that, right?

First step of your game plan is to picture your goal(s).
What is it that you want the most? Is it a dream car? Dream vacation place? Whatever it is, print it out, and stick the picture where you can easily see it.  All around the house, in your car, wherever you spend most of your days.

I prefer to picture one thing at a time. Simply for a reason that if you achieve that one goal, the next one will follow. Mostly because the first goal usually works as a confident booster. Once you achieve it, you know you could achieve more.

Second step is to do a lot of research, research, and more research.
Now that you’re prepared yourself, it’s time to find out if you have viable business idea.

Are there any needs for your services/products? Look at what your competitors do, mirror it but adjust to your level and capabilities.

Research of your target market. Picture your ideal clients. Determine what gender, age, and class of income of people you will be selling to. Carefully design your marketing plan. Fish where the fish are, does that make sense?

This step is very important that until you’re sure you have a salable business idea, you should be very careful with throwing more resources into it. If you don’t think this type of business is going to work, don’t be afraid to stop now and re-think your niche.

However, once you’re sure about your business idea, the third step would be to make the plan.
Find out what they would cost you. How much money you’d need, and how much time you’d need to invest. You do NEED a business plan. Not necessarily those fancy ones. Just a simple business plan that you can get from some free templates out there. Microsoft Words have some nice ones. Otherwise try “docstoc.com”. Start small. Your business plan will evolve as you go.

You would also need to consult with at least 2 professionals: An attorney and a CPA. So set aside a budget for those 2 people. They will be well worth it, for the peace of mind and getting all the help you can get with deductibles.

Last but not least, once you’ve got a plan and a blueprint, stick with it.
Persistence is the key. You will meet challenges, but always know that if other people can do it, you can too. Be optimistic, but realistic with your expectation. Depends on type of your business, losses and setbacks are expected, especially at the beginning. Just try to hang in there and keep moving forward.

At any step of your business quest, these sources are helpful: SCORE and Chamber of Commerce. Just type them into Google and sometimes you might be able to find local ones near you.

If you do a lot of your research online, type in “entrepreneur” or “small business help”, or visit and join various internet forums to surround yourself with like-minded people and keep you on track in reaching your goals.