How to Start Your Own Business

In my last blog post, I gave you tips on how to choose or change your career. In this blog post, I am going to go in a different direction. Instead of giving tips on finding a career or changing a career, I am going to give you an idea to consider if your job-hunt isn't going well. Some people, have always wished that they could be their own boss because they do not like like working for someone else. If you are someone like this, you may want to consider looking into starting your own business.

When you have no idea what business you want to get int, there are four steps you should take. These four steps are:read, write, read, explore, get feedback.

WRITE
1.To begin with this step, you should reference back to chapter 7 which helps you understanding more fully who you are. You need to get an understanding of who you are and what you want to do.
2. Get out a piece of paper and write down some ideas. Use this page for any ideas that come to you as you complete the rest of the steps.
3. Write your resume, if you haven't already. Refer to chapter two if you need some help on writing your resume. When you are done writing it, read it over and see if anything gives you any ideas for a business of your own. It could even be something that you have done before for someone else.
4. If  nothing jumps out at you, try the following steps:

• make another list of five things you love to do
• make a third list of where the first two overlap
• read your list, and ask yourself if anyone would pay you to do those things

5. If you are set on being your own boss, but are unsure of what business to go into, try visiting www.onetonline.org. Click occupations , then click career clusters to see if any clusters appeal to you. If any appeal to you, write them down on that piece of paper.

READ
Hopefully from everything I suggested thus far you will have some ideas on what type of business you would be interested in starting up on your own. The next thing you will want to do is read up on what it takes to run your own business. Some websites that will help you understand what it takes to start you own business are:

• www.workingsolo.com/resources
• www.sba.gov
• asmallbusinessexpert.com

Take a look at these websites listed above and see what information will help you.

EXPLORE
Now, you most likely have some idea for starting your own business. However, as you probably already know, a lot of star-up companies don't make it. You do not want to become another one of those companies. To try to avoid this, interview others who have started a similar business. This will help you prevent making mistakes that they have made.

GET FEEDBACK
Now that you have information on what it takes to start a business on your own and have interviewed people who have already done the same thing, you need to think if you really want to do this. You need to find feedback. Ask people who are important in your life to see how they feel about what it is you want to do. You also need to see how much sacrifice a new business is going to take.

Starting a new business will take a lot of guts. If you are sure that you want to start up your own business, you need to keep three things in mind:

• There is always some risk when you try something new. You should not try to avoid risks, but make sure that the possible risks are manageable.
• Talk to others who have already done what you are thinking of doing. That will help you evaluate whether or not you still want to do it.
• Have a back-up plan. Before you start, you need to know what you are going to do if your original plan doesn't work.