I can feel you. You were just fired from your job and are fed-up of this rut. You want to be your own boss, start a business and attain freedom from this slavery. Nice! you have an idea in your mind, but don’t know how to execute it. You don’t know how you can convert this idea to a business.
It’s okay. Congratulations! You have taken the first step. You are one step closer to turn your dream into reality.
In this post, I’ll list down the 6 ways to start a business. Trust me, if you keep these 6 crucial things in mind, you’ll know every nerve of your business. Nothing will ever be hidden from you, especially when it comes to a business.
Ready? Let’s start:
(1) Identify Your Expertise
The company you worked for before might have either made a wrong decision, or this is a god-send opportunity for you to start something you always wanted to. You might have earned some expertise by working at a company. How about you use that knowledge and experience to set up a business?
This seems straightforward because it really is. A person starts a business after being fired from their job, or they consciously leave it to pursue their dream. Your first task is to Identify your expertise. What is the one thing you’re really good at? Spend some time. Conduct personal research and see whether there’s any demand. Without demand, no business idea would work. No matter how unique it is.
Also, can you establish the so-called economic moat around your new business? Warren Buffett coined the word economic moat. When a business has a solid economic moat, it’s hard for another company to compete. For example, Coca-Cola has a huge economic moat.
Finally, ask yourself if you’re mentally ready to start a business? Initially, you might have to go full solo. Treat it as if you’re out of a mission alone.
(2) Calculate Your Financial Value
Calculate Your Financial Value Now that you have accessed the business situation, it’s time you access yourself. This is a hard-hitting question, but what is your financial value? How valuable are your skills and experience?
You have hit a jackpot if you know something only a handful in the industry know about. The only thing left for you is to register a business and start. Don’t be disappointed if it’s not. You still have a chance to excel in business. This one question can help you answer many questions: How much would I pay if I hired myself?
Your mind may throw vague answers but don’t accept those. Keep asking this question unless you’re satisfied with the answer. There’s a reason why I’m asking you to be sure of your financial value. CEOs make millions in salary not because they have more cells in their brain than an average employee but because they have more financial value.
They make one or two critically important daily decisions to decide a company’s future. An average employee will think a hundred times before quitting. Unfortunately, this is a harsh truth of finance. Only the best make it to the top.
(3) Read Business Books
Pardon me if you don’t feel good after reading the above section. It’s better to swallow a bitter pill initially to stay safe from cold. The next step is to gather business knowledge. You might have worked for a business, but it’s totally different from starting and managing your own. Honestly, there’s no comparison between a job and a business. Both are a world apart.
How will you steer through the tough times? Especially when you supposedly have no guru to guide you? How will you know whether your business decisions have a promising future? Reading books is the answer. There’s one similarity between all successful people. They are voracious reader. They blaze through books like there’s no tomorrow. And this simple exercise helps them substantially.
Embrace the habit of reading. Read business books, and switch to other subjects when you’re done with most of them. Running a business is a journey, not a destination. I heard this from a billionaire investor who has now passed.
Here are some books you must read to build basics:
- The Psychology of Money (Finance)
- The Millionaire Fastlane
- The Intelligent Investor
- Common Stocks & Uncommon Profits
- Personal MBA
- Security Analysis
- Blue Ocean Strategy
- Rework
- The 80/20 Principle
- Mastery
- Thinking Fast & Slow
While some books are related to finance, some are also entirely focused on psychology. I can be sure of one thing! After reading these 11 books, you’ll better understand the situations around you than others. You’ll start looking at finance and the world around you differently.
This personal experience, combined with bookish knowledge, will yield great dividends in your journey.
(4) Learn Marketing
Marketing is one of the most important pillars of any business. Without that nobody will know about your business. Of course, there are companies that don’t need marketing, but those days are gone when companies solely depended on product quality and price. See what happened to HTC. HTC was the most reputed android mobile phone manufactures. But, they only focused on product quality and not marketing. Eventually, people forget HTC and the company was shutdown.
Why do you think Steve Jobs focused so much on marketing Apple products? Yes, Apple products are good, but Jobs went hard on not just innovation but also marketing. Steve Jobs is gone, but see where his company stands.
If you don’t know how to market your products, your business will eventually face issues. You’ll be working overtime to hit profit, but for some reason your business simply won’t grow. That’s marketing at play. Reading books on marketing will help you identify marketing loopholes in your business.
You’ll gain the necessary knowledge to detect issues and solve them before it becomes a problem for your company’s future. Marketing is one industry that won’t ever go down. Why? Because it’s hard for businesses to grow without marketing themselves and their products.
(5) START
Procrastination is dangerous. How many times have you thought, yes, this is the day I start my business, and just didn’t (or couldn’t) do it? Are you overthinking? Overthinking is a common issue amongst people who have very little firsthand business experience. They try to find the right opportunity to start something.
Listen to me carefully: Today is your perfect day. START your business NOW. Trust me, if you keep on waiting for the best time and opportunity to start your business, that day would never come. Nobody has asked you to be perfect from the very first day, neither you can be perfect. Do you know why? Because the day you think your business has attained perfection it’ll stop growing.
So, the best thing to do is just START and go with the flow. As you take action and try to grow you business, you’ll automatically know what’s best for your new-born business. Keep learning, keep experiment and keep making acceptable mistakes. That’s how you’ll learn.
(6) Avoid Debt
If there’s one suggestion I would like to give it you before you start your business, it would be this one. Avoid debt at all cost. Choose to take a loan ONLY when you have no other option left. Yes, people will try to convince you that taking a loan will help expand your business, but that’s not always true.
Honestly, debt has always been one of the primary factors of a company’s bankruptcy. They failed to achieve the projected profits and failed to pay the banks. This is the reason why either most people start a business while they have a regular job. They may not love their job but a regular it helps as a backup if the business fails.
Unfortunately, now that you’re fired from your job, you have two options left: (1) Freelance, (2) Take a loan. I would recommend you to freelance for some time, and ask help from people you think will help you.
Rework is one book you should read before starting your business. What makes this book different than other books is that it’s written by people who have run and still run successful businesses. It’s one of the very few no-bul*sh*t books I read. No chapter is more than two pages. Every chapter is gem and delivers straight on your face.
The book is often hard-hitting so be ready to see how ruthless a business person should be.
This is invaluable advice! Especially that there’s no perfect day to start, than today! I have procrastinated for long – but I now have the guts to starts. I also appreciate the list of important business books to read. Thank you so much