10 things you must know before starting your own business

Having your own business and becoming your own boss is an exciting reverie every employee may dream of. But before you leave your job, which gives you a fixed monthly salary and a variety of nice monetary and non-monetary benefits, you should carefully consider the following things before you start your new business.

1. It’s harder than we thought. Thinking business is so exciting, but doing it is a different story. Along the way to your entrepreneurial journey awaits your worst nightmares (bankruptcy, shame, frustrations, isolation, despair and depressions). Sounds horrible? But don’t worry – the saying “no pain no gain” may not be absolute anyway. Just like body building, you should do warm-up first and make a perfect program to achieve your goal.  There’s no need to hurry, instead, you need to do things according to your strategic plan. It’s indeed hard and it takes a right process. But you should not lose patience, hard work and intelligence to avoid the pains of doing business and eventually become a successful businessman.

2. You cannot do it alone. No man is an island…it takes two or more to tangle…these sayings are true in the business world. Even superman needs the justice league to successfully save the world. To succeed in your entrepreneurship, you need to find the best partners and employees who will help you in reaching your business goals.

3. You must enjoy it. Passion gives energy, and energy gives momentum. One of the top reasons why businessmen fail is their lack of passion. So to make sure that you will not be running out of entrepreneurial flame, you should choose the kind of business which your heart and blood love the most.

4. Financial profit is not the only goal. Becoming a slave of money will give you tremendous drawbacks caused by greed, envy and other evils. Those drawbacks may include enemies, sleepless nights, criminal liabilities and guilt. Is money the root of all evil? Yes it is, if a person becomes a slave of that thing. So to depart from all evils, you should do business to honor your family, your friends, your country and your Creator. In doing business you should also monitor your non-monetary earnings like good relationship, integrity, freedom and clean conscience.

5. Assets equal liability plus equity. You should have enough resources including money to be putted in the business flow, whether it is from creditors or from yourself and your co-owners. You should also know how to read your financial condition and performance to be able to make the best financial decisions. If you know nothing about accounting you can hire an accountant to give you a clear picture of your financial activities. If you cannot afford hiring such, you should take an extra time and effort to learn and understand basic accounting.

6. Marketing is not just advertising. Marketing starts from the time you produce your products in high quality, to setting your price to properly target buyers, and to placing your product to be efficiently accessed by your consumers. Then here comes the effective advertisement and promotion of your product. But that doesn’t end there. You still need to show your constant customer care.

7. Management needs good leadership. A good manager builds strong pillars of a business while a good leader builds strong foundation or base on that business. So to keep your business organization constantly alive and kicking, you need to become a good leader – one who is relational, inspiring, understanding, a humble servant and one who can motivate people to achieve their common goal.

8. You must be friend with Mr. Technology. A business without innovation and cannot run along with the fast changing technology will be left in obsolescence. Computers, software and the Internet are just some of the new technologies that a businessman should go along with.

9. Obey the law….if you don’t want the government itself to cease your business, your freedom and your good name, you should honor the law. Penalties, business closure and even imprisonment are examples of the punishments that will be imposed to you if you ignore the laws of your land.

10. Watch your health. Generally, business owners are busier than employees. There is no Bundy clock to log you in and out every time you work for your business. You can’t even realize you’re working even on Sundays specially that your enthusiasm works. Consequently, you may find yourself with a drained brain and exhausted body. If you don’t want to have illnesses that will kill not only your body but also your business, then stay fit.

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