Fed up of working for someone else? Thinking about starting or purchasing a small business as your next career step? If you’ve always wanted to work for yourself and run your own company, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t go for it. However, there are some things you will need to take into consideration.
To establish a business, you don’t need to be a professional or have a degree. You could choose to start small or launch a new business entity as some form of side project while studying or working. However, regardless of the approach you take, there are a few things to think about.
1. Have you got the right personality to work for yourself?
Owning a small business is often a fulfilling experience. It can provide you with an opportunity to work in a field that you are passionate about or share a product or service that others want. However, it isn’t without its challenges, and setting up and maintaining a firm can be quite taxing, both literally and figuratively!
When you work for yourself, you are accountable for solving any issues that arise, dealing with customers (and customer complaints), ensuring all legal and financial obligations are fulfilled, hiring and managing personnel, managing marketing and advertising, maintaining accounts, and managing social media… among many, many more responsibilities.
Are you the right person to perform all those tasks?
To operate effectively as a small business owner, you will need to be self-motivated, good with people, focused, meticulous, creative, tenacious, and hard working.
Running a business is not a walk in the park. If you have any doubt as to whether you can rise to the challenge, you may need to give it a second thought.
2. Are you truly motivated to start your own business?
Make sure you have a good motive for going into business for yourself. Entrepreneurs, for example, seek to fill a market need with their product or service. Others may opt to go it alone because they have had enough of working hard to line other people’s pockets.
Regardless of your motive, as described above, to be successful, you’ll need to be strongly self-motivated.
Many people mistakenly believe that starting their own business will mean that they will be able to work less. This is almost never the case. Many business owners work long days and even weekends. Are you willing to do that?
As a business owner, you can also consider getting insurance like business insurance, professional indemnity insurance, or public liability insurance. These provide a layer of protection for your business.
3. Do you have the right previous professional experience
Before launching a small business, it helps if you have past experience in a business, even as an employee. If not, you’ll need to think about what it takes to manage a small firm.
You’ll need to know a lot about a lot of different things.
Computing, administration, development, and marketing are only a few examples. In a small firm, you may need to play the roles of “entrepreneur,” “technician,” “human resources,” and “accounts.” When the time comes, you’ll have to put on a different hat to rise to the challenge. Before starting your business make sure you register it properly so you won’t have any troubles with the law. For example, you can use Hong Kong company registration services to handle that.
4. Leadership and communication abilities
You’ll need a strong balance of talents as a small business owner. Business owners, in particular, must coordinate numerous functions inside their organization. These include human resources, marketing and advertising, sales, accountants in Melbourne, legal management; the list is endless.
Even if you opt to outsource some of these tasks to external agencies, you will still be required to coordinate them and ensure all boxes are ticked.
5. Monetary management
One of the most crucial aspects of owning a business is managing the funds. It’s easy to slip into debt or run out of cash before you realize it if you don’t keep track of all your financial information. It’s a good idea to brush up on your bookkeeping skills. You might also want to seek the assistance of a qualified accountant. Your existing financial status will play a big role in deciding whether or not you should start a business.
6. Work-life balance
Before you establish a small business, think about the impact it will have on your personal life. If you have a spouse, children, or both, you should think about how your time working on starting and running your own company will influence them. Have a conversation about your salaries with your partner.
You’ll both want to make sure that launching a business doesn’t put your household finances in jeopardy. Also, make sure you can plan your calendar around obligations like school drop-off and pick-up, childcare, and school vacations.
7. Long-term objectives
Any successful firm requires long-term planning. This involves establishing long-term life objectives. Think about if you’ll sell your business concept in a few years to acquire another one or retire. Also, would you be able to run the business if you wanted to relocate someplace else in the future?
