Opening your own business can be a scary idea, but before you talk yourself out of it, there are a few things you should know. First of all, you’re not alone. There are currently more than 500 million entrepreneurs in the world — 25 million in the US alone. But most importantly, 62 % of the billionaires in America are self-made. In other words, if you’re shooting for wealth, it’s easier to get there with your own business than by working for someone else.
What you may have already learned, however, is that starting your own business is not always easy. There’s a lot of planning, worrying, and development that goes into it before the doors are ever open. But the good news is that it doesn’t usually have to be as difficult as most people make it. if you follow some expert tips from the very start, you can have a much smoother opening than you probably imagined.
1. Find a Mentor
If you ask almost any business owner how to be a successful entrepreneur, they will likely tell you to start by finding a mentor. A good business mentor will be someone who is in a similar business to the one you hope to start and has experienced success with it. The trick is to find someone you won’t be in competition with so that they don’t mind sharing their information. This could include how they do their ordering, what their average costs are, and possibly their financial statements. If you’re lucky to find someone like this, they can walk you through the whole process and guide you closely until you’re ready to be on your own.
2. Treat your employees well.
Depending on your business model, you might not have employees for a while. But make a plan in the beginning for how your hiring and employment process will go. Most business owners start out realizing they need to treat their customers well, but what many fail to do is make their employees a top priority. There are a few reasons why this should be important for you. For one thing, you’ll spend less time training new people if you keep your turnover rate low. Also, employees who feel respected are often more loyal and more likely to treat your customers well.
Treating your employees well doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Most of them will understand if you have to start them out small. Consider implementing things such as workplace wellness programs, paid time off (PTO), or flexible scheduling.
3. Start Slowly
Some successful entrepreneurs subscribe to the theory that you should go all in and don’t look back, and there is a lot to be said for this way of thinking. Doing things this way gives you no other option but to succeed and this is the right motivation for a lot of people. However, not everyone does well with that kind of pressure. These people need to keep a little bit of security under them while they figure out how to make the business work.
If this is you, don’t beat yourself up. Start your business small and reinvest your profits back into it until you’re making enough to pay yourself a salary. Do the same with your time. Invest whatever time you have available until you make enough to quit your day job if that’s what you want to do.
4. Keep It Legal
Don’t make the mistake of starting your business without making sure the legal requirements have been met. Depending on the scale of your business, this could mean checking with a CPA and attorney to file all the proper paperwork. Or if it’s a small service business, you might just need to check with your county courthouse to see whether or not they require any specific licenses or permits. This is also another area a mentor can help with.
