Starting a Small Business | The $64,000 Question

In starting a small business success is only as close as the next question. The key to starting a small business is to know what questions to ask yourself and those people around you. Starting a small business is no easy task. Starting a small business involves time, sweat and money with a heavy emphasis on the sweat and the time. Well, money is important too. But before we spend the time, the money or incur any sweat we have to ask ourselves and others questions. Starting a small business means we have to be knowledgeable about our new business. This is where the SWOT Analysis and Business Plan come into play.  There are a myriad of questions to ask. There is no golden bullet. There is no one $64,000 question that if we have the answer to will make our small business a huge success. So in starting a small business what types of questions should you ask?

Probably the most asked question I get is, “What do I need as the basics to start a small business?”

The prospects are scary, you are unsure of yourself and you don’t want to fail. Perhaps it is critically important that you succeed. Maybe you’ve left yourself no room to retreat. Relax, it’s all okay.

Do the following:

1. Get an idea of how good your competition is. If you are starting a physical business like a coffee shop or plumbing company, look at the yellow pages and check the better business bureau. Check to see if any of your competitors are on the bureau’s bad list.

If you are starting an online business, do a web search exactly as follows including the quotes: “intitle:”theme of your site” inanchor:”theme of your site” inurl:”theme of your site”. The number shown will show you the number of serious competitors you have on the world wide web.

2. Make sure you have enough capital to keep going for 6 months. The best way to do this is starting part time. This would be fine if you are working online, but not possible for a walk off the street business.

Talk to your bankers about your list of small business ideas. They can offer sound advice. If you are starting a web business, even your banker can’t really help you much because hardly anyone has an online enterprise so they have little information. On the other hand, with an online business, you have virtually no costs and, if you do an affiliate business, you have virtually no risks.

Either way, just make sure you are not following some Pied Piper with a get rich quick scheme. They are all over and they are very good at making you believe they have the secret to instant wealth.

Everything takes time and work.

Can you see now why a few simple inquiries will save you all kinds of grief? If you are not sure, seek information from an expert in your field. Most people are quite happy to help if approached correctly.

Since there is no one $64,000 question, starting a small business can be a daunting task. But do not be so afraid of starting that small business that you never even start to ask the questions. If you are not sure what questions to ask, where to turn to for help or just need a helping hand in starting a small business contact us.

Tagged with: Business Plan • compete • planning • Small Business • SWOT • SWOT analysis

Filed under: Small Business

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